Saturday December 3rd, OBORO, 4001, rue Berri, local 301, Montréal

Last summer, Chris Carrière spent some time at OBORO working out an idea he had. The music, by Arvo Part, was originally written for a string quartet. This version is played using only tuned audio feedback. No external sound source is present. This technique is called ‘no-input’.

Good Day,

I arrived to Detroit late on Saturday night, in fact it was midnight.  I would have arrive 4 hours earlier but missed my train at 6:40 am that morning.

When I arrived at the station in Windsor I had just enough time to take a cab to the bus terminal where I caught the Tunnel Bus to Detroit (4.00$, but $10 for the short taxi ride).  Once there, I was met by Martin Dufranse and Gonzague the two DARE-DARE organizers and Jeff Deburyn from Detroit.  Jeff took us to the house where we are staying (2018 11th Street) but not before dropping in to a local bar for a beer and to meet other Imagination Station members.  After and quick libation and on the way to our house, he took us on a abbreviated tour of Corktown, the neighbourhood in which we are staying.  This is a very old neighbourhood, dating from the 1850′s.  Many of the homes and buildings are either gone, razed, or are left abandoned.  But there are many homes still occupied and within the neighbourhood there are urban farms, that is individuals who have assumed land and taken up farming vegetables and fruits and even raising chickens.  In fact, in one of the homes beside where we are staying there is a rooster that announces each morning. The urban farmers survive by selling their produce to local restaurants and at the markets.  As we saw this area in the dark, at night, quickly as Jeff drove us around after having imbibed and as he rolled his cigarettes and texted on his iphone (muti-tasking is not dead).

Yesterday, we drove 3 hrs (one way) to Grand Rapids to see the ArtPrize event (one of the largest art awards on the continent).  The entire downtown of Grand Rapids was engulfed by the event.  Many people milling about, outdoor stages with live (loud) music (as an aside, I think that the advent of outdoor stages with loud, heavy, music all the time coaxing people to move, dance and party in the middle of the day has become a bit much). It had a definite carnival atmosphere.  Again it was Jeff who drove and again he multi-tasked all the way there and back to Detroit again.

Today I will start to work on Lefty (the house I will be eventually installing the beeswax windows).  I have to take measurements to build wooden frames to hold the wax sheets.  It is pissing rain (the remnants of last night’s spectacular thunder and lightening show).  When I get images I will sent them on.

Talk soon,

D

http://www.dougscholes.ca
http://www.paesthetic.wordpress.com

Amanuensis
Août / August 2011
Montréal (Québec); San Francisco (California)
Edition of 119

LAUNCH / LANCEMENT
Pierre-François Ouellette Art Contemporain
Jeudi 18 août, 17h-19h, avec DJ cyan
Mémoire pour le future | Memory for the Future, 17 – 27 août

Adad Hannah | Alexandra McIntosh | Alissa Firth-Eagland | Amish Morrell | Andre Furlani | Ann Butler | Anne Bertrand | Anne-Marie Proulx | Ardath Whynacht | Barbara Clausen | Barbara Wisnoski | Catherine Bodmer | Chris Carrière | Claudine Hubert | Corina MacDonald | Daniel Olson | Darren Wershler | David Tomas | Denis Lessard | Denis Longchamps | Doug Scholes | Emily Falvey | Eva Fromm | François Lemieux | Felicity Tayler | Florencia Marchetti | Jacob Wren | jake moore | Jen Allen | Johanne Sloan | John Latour | John Murchie | Karen Spencer | Karilee Fuglem | Leisure Projects | Lowell Darling | Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf | Marisa Jahn | Mark Gaspar | Michael Blum | Michèle Theriault | Michelle Bush | Nathalie Angles | Nicole Burisch | Peter Dubé | Rebecca Duclos | Robin Simpson | Sarah Greig | Sarah Watson | Sarah Wookey | Simon Brown | Sturm Husqvarna | Taien Ng-Chan | Therese Mastroiacovo | Tom Sherman | Urs Lehni | Vincent Bonin | Vincent Trasov

In San Francisco, tsunami sirens pierce the seaside air every Tuesday at noon. In this city under constant threat of extinction, Rick and Megan Prelinger have accumulated a private collection of over 40,000 books, periodicals, ephemera and government documents. Many of these documents were once in public library collections, but have been discarded as cultural memory is digitized and migrates online. In the American democratic tradition of building community through private assets, the Prelingers have opened their Library to everyone compelled by curiosity. While some of its most avid users arrive via Silicon Valley, this Library is an ark of pulp and paper, something solid that might float when rivers of information lose their wellsprings of electricity.

The Centre de recherche urbaine de Montréal assigned an amanuensis the task of soliciting search requests from fifty-seven people in different cities. The amanuensis received these requests and browsed the Prelinger Library for appropriate material. The collection is arranged as a landscape, interpolating the history of communities and their relationship to the environment. Accordingly, the act of searching must follow the contours of this topology. Petite enveloppe urbaine No. 19 contains the answers to their questions.

Tous les mardis à San Francisco, des sirènes rappellent aux habitants la possibilité imminente d’un tsunami. C’est à l’ombre de cet anéantissement éventuel que Rick et Megan Prelinger ont amassé les 40 000 livres, périodiques, documents gouvernementaux et autres publications éphémères qui deviendront, en 1983, la Prelinger Library. Bon nombre de ces documents, abandonnés dans le sillage de la numérisation omniprésente, proviennent des collections de bibliothèques publiques, et fidèle à la tradition américaine du mécénat communautaire, la Prelinger Library est justement ouverte à tous. Bien que la plupart des habitués y accèdent de façon virtuelle, l’archive demeure une véritable arche de Noé faite en papier, prête à retrouver l’océan si jamais les sirènes sonnent pour de vrai.

Le centre de recherche urbaine de Montréal a engagé les services d’un amanuensis (copiste) qui a sollicité des requêtes de recherche auprès de cinquante-sept individus d’un peu partout dans le monde. Le copiste a sillonné l’archive afin de répondre à ces requêtes — archive qui prend la forme d’un paysage, intercalant l’histoire des communautés et leurs contextes respectifs. Le parcours du chercheur suit donc les contours de cette topologie. La Petite enveloppe urbaine no. 19 en présente les retombées.

Traduction : Simon Brown

Thank you / Remerciements:

With thanks to Edward Maloney, Pierre-François Ouellette, Rick Prelinger, Megan Shaw Prelinger, Kevin Kelly, the Canada Council for the Arts and all of you whose questions led the way through the dusty books in San Francisco.

CRUM offers doctoral seminar on the epistemology of science. Students respond favourably to epistemic things. Lesson plan developed in collaboration with Byzantine iconographer, Adrian Gorea.

Recommended reading

Rheinberger, Hans Jörg. On Historicizing Epistemology : An Essay. Tran. David Fernbach. Stanford :
Stanford University, 2010.

Rheinberger, Hans Jörg. Towards a History of Epistemic Things: Protein Synthesis in the Test Tube. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997

Photo courtesy of Florencia Marchetti, thanks to Chris Salter for the framework.

Parlez aux machines
Interactivité: Outils et Approches

Workshop MaxMSP/Jitter

Talking to Machines
Interactivity: Tools and aproaches

en collaboration with Philippe Hughes

Horaire / Schedule :
samedi / Saturday  5 march & dimanche / Sunday  6 march et
samedi / Saturday 12 march &  dimanche l/ Sunday 3 march, 2011
Heures / Times :
12h00 – 16h00 chaque jours / each day  total = 16 hrs.
Localisation :
CRUM House 83 rue, Ste-Marguerite, St-Henri, H4C 2W5

Inscription / Registration:
Avant mercredi le 2 mars 2011
Before Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Please submit your registration request to
S.v.p. remettre vos demandes d’inscription à
Philippe Hughes:
philippehughes@hotmail.com
Téléphone @ 514 274 1390.

# participants : 8 personnes

Cost / Coûts – 125$/person

This workshop will cover the fundamentals of object-oriented programming languages of MaxMSP/Jitter.  It has been specifically designed for artists and musicians wanting to learn how to use computers for interactive projects or physical computing to build their own instruments. Each workshop session will provide an opportunity for participants to get hands-on practice through succinct interactive projects.

Cet atelier couvrira des notions de base du langage objet visuel MaxMSP/Jitter.  Il est spécialement conçu pour les artistes qui veulent apprendre à produire des projets interactifs à l’aide d’un ordinateur. Il s’adresse également aux musiciens qui souhaitent fabriquer leurs propres instruments avec le « physical computing ». Les participants auront la chance de mettre en pratique leurs nouvelles connaissances en réalisant des minis projets interactifs dans le cadre de chacune des séances de la formation.

(English to follow)

Programme
Max
* Vaincre la peur qu’ont les artistes des ordinateurs en analysant les mythes et réalités de MaxMSP;
* Apprendre les fonctions de base du langage Max en étudiant, déconstruisant et reconvertissant des échantillons de programme (patch);
* Découvrir la magie de construire des séquenceurs pour manipuler le son, la vidéo et les microcontrôleurs (ex. Arduino);
* Les protocols de communication.  Apprendre MIDI/OSC/le son en transit en passant par Skype.
MSP
* Effectuer une analyse de base de l’amplitude sonore;
* Construire un ”échantillonneur” sonore versatile pour une utilisation en temps réel.
Jitter
* Construire un ”échantillonneur/mixeur “ visuel;
* Réaliser une analyse vidéo à l’aide des librairies cv.jit de Jean-Marc Pelletier;
* Aussi nous survolerons brièvement le Arduino. Démystifiant la nature et les applications d’un microcontrôleur;
* Comprendre la nature et le fonctionnement des capteurs (senseurs).

Depuis plus de quinze ans, Philippe Hughes est un professeur/musicien/compositeur ainsi qu’un artiste en interactivité. Il a donné un atelier sur le langage MaxMSP/Jitter à la Galerie Oboro et a développé des systèmes interactifs ainsi que composé de la musique pour plusieurs projets tels que Wonderland présenté au PechaKucha et Music Box II présenté à la galerie Centrale. En tant que conférencier, il a présenté son travail dans le cadre de divers festivals tels que Elektra:Lab. Il a effectué de nombreuses collaborations musicales internationales avec des artistes tels que le musicien de Chicago Jordan Stefanelli aka Midinerd et a œuvré, à plusieurs occasions, en tant que compositeur et technicien MaxMSP/Jitter et Arduino auprès d’artistes dont Brigitte Henry, Mouna Andraos, Martine H. Crispo, Chantale Laplante, Samuel St-Aubin, Rickie Lea Owens, Yako et Caroline Lavoie.

**********************************

Program
Max
* Taking the “artist’s fear of computer programming” away by demystifying what MaxMSP is and isn’t;
*  Learning the basic functionalities of the Max language through example patches that we will reverse engineering together;
* Learning about the magic of building sequencers to control sound, videos, and hardware.
* Communication protocols Learning about MIDI/OSC/IP streaming sound with Skype.
MSP
* Triggering things with basic sound (amplitude) analysis;
* Building a versatile sound sampler and learning methods for using it in real-time.
Jitter
* Building a visual sampler/scrubber;
* Doing a video analysis (computer vision) using the cv.jit. (Libraries by Jean-Marc Pelletier.)
* Also a brief overview of Arduino. Demystifying what a microcontroller is and what it can and can’t do
* Understanding what sensors are and how they work.

Philippe Hughes has been a teacher/musician/composer and interactive artist for over 15 years. He has given workshops on MaxMSP/Jitter at Oboro and has developed interactive systems and composed music for works such as Wonderland presented at PechaKucha, and Music Box II at La Centrale gallery (Montréal). As an invited speaker, he presented his work and methods at Elektra:Lab and the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) festivals and collaborated with international sound artist Jordan Stefanelli, aka Midinerd, from Chicago. Artists Brigitte Henry, Mouna Andraos, Martine H. Crispo, Chantale Laplante, Samuel St-Aubin, Rickie Lea Owens, Yako, and Caroline Lavoie, among others, have hired Hughes as a MaxMSP Arduino technician and music composer.

The Res Artis 12th annual General Meeting, Montréal October 6-10.

On the subject of mobility, “lightness,” and Writing and Research Residencies, the CRUM remains resolutely local.

Panelists are (from left to right), Marc Drouin (Centre des auteurs dramatique, off camera), Sylvie Gilbert (Artexte), Johan Lundh (independent curator), Felicity Tayler (CRUM), Kitty Scott (Banff Centre) and the moderator, Peter Dubé. Dubé’s recent novella, Subtle Bodies, bears the lightness of sensuous language.

Overlord of Entropy and Master of Maintenance in attendance.

From: Sharon Switzer
Date: August 5, 2010 2:46:25 PM EDT (CA)
To: crum1@sympatico.ca
Subject: Congratulations on your submission to TUFF!
Reply-To: Sharon Switzer

Dear Crum,

I am very pleased to inform you that your film ‘Crumbruler’ was selected to be part of the Toronto Urban Film Festival, running from September 10-19, 2010. It was chosen by Min Sook Lee for the ‘Urban Ideas and Politics‘ program, and will screen as part of a 10-film program (one film every ten minutes) on September 13th.

80 films were selected this year, out of a total of 355 submissions from 25 countries. Each film submitted was reviewed by one of our seven guest jurors / programmers. TUFF is seen by an audience of over 1.3 million daily commuters on the subway platforms of Toronto’s transit system. Your film will cycle throughout the day with the other chosen films in your category.  Again this year, TUFF is pleased to announce that Film Zones will air TUFF content non-stop during the entire 10 days of the festival, on screens in select downtown stations.

As well, the films will be available on our website for viewing. Voting takes place from September 7th through the end festival, so don’t forget to get your friends to vote! Audience votes determine the schedule for the final Saturday of the festival, and the Drake Audience Choice Award.

Also, we invite you to join us at our Press Conference on Wednesday Sept 1st at 10:30am, as well as at the TUFF Closing Party and Awards Ceremony on Sunday September 19th, from 6-10 pm. Both are being held at The Drake Hotel in Toronto.

Award winning writer-director Deepa Mehta, our guest judge for 2010, will be selecting the top 3 films of the festival as well as the Naish Award for Emerging Filmmakers, and the WIFT-T Award for most ambitious film by a female director. Each guest juror will choose the best in their category, and assist in the selection of films for our other awards. The full list of awards and prizes can be found on our website.

Congratulations,

Sharon Switzer, Festival Director

_______________________________

Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF)
The Film Festival for Commuters
September 10-19, 2010
Closing Party / Awards Ceremony – Drake Hotel – Sept. 19, 6-10pm
www.torontourbanfilmfestival.com