FAMILYFAMILYTREE BLOG PROJECT 2008-2010
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This blog existed from October 2008 until December 2009. While it lasted, it was a place for friends to share, create, and have fun. FamilyFamilyTree has since moved on to other things. Now, this site exists as a tomb.
Photo taken using Mr. Lee's observation camera, a small remote-controlled device attached to Mr. Lee's collar. Mr. Lee is the world's most famous cat photographer. See more at http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/cc_index_en.htm
The concept art for a battery operated TV camera mounted on Mr. Lee, soon to come.
For some reason (something about electronics and the human head), Zach's post about Armin Fuchs reminded me of Daito Manabe. I know very little about him except for that his website and biography are in Japanese.
electric stimulus to face -test3
So what I'm assuming is that he sends an electrical charge (which is programmed to correspond to music that his friend composes) to particular muscles in his face which in turn convulse in response to the prod. He has a good amount of them on his youtube channel, along with movement and sensor based instruments and some pretty interesting choreographed light dances.
Thanks to the last post for reminding me about music. In 2005 I did a two week music Praktikum in Wuerzburg, Germany. Although this internship consisted mostly of observing my music teacher, fetching items he needed and listening to lots and lots of music, a highlight of this particular trip was turning pages for a German composer by the name of Armin Fuchs. He is a pianist and composer and great friend/consortium compatriot of my music teacher Roland Seiler. This video is a short report of an experiment Armin did back in 2000. In a perfect fusion of music and science, Armin attached all sorts of data collecting paraphanalia to his nerves and brain, then proceeded to perform Erik Satie's "Vexations" six times in a row, non-stop, totaling just under twenty eight hours of continuous performance. The video is in German but still interesting to watch. Armin professes his excitement to take part in a project which had not yet been attempted, and describes his experience in the later hours of the project where he lived in a world between consciousness and unconsciousness. He could no longer feel his fingertips, they worked independently of his brain, and the strange nearness to insanity he experienced as material began to dissolve before him as he received impulses in a completely new way.
SO! He was presenting a concert one night in 2005, at the Wuerzburg University for Music where he teaches, showcasing selected works of his composition ranging from the mid 1980's to more contemporary work. Roland told me I should be his page-turner for a 9+ minute tune which required someone to turn pages for him. So I did that. This video is from that concert, but I couldn't find a video of the particular song which required my page-turning prowess. Yes I was scared I would screw it up. Thankfully it turned out alright.
Conlon Nancarrow. Very contemporary composer who started writing pieces so complicated, no performer could play them. So naturally he went to Mexico and bought many player pianos, modified them and composed songs solely for the purpose of these multiple pianos to play them together. Check it out.
