There are no recognisable letters in this image, but it appears to have a [tag]language[/tag] of some sort. The effect is intentional. Maybe you can see the shape of a head, as well, and a pupil a bit off-centre to the left? The horizontal red wavy line in the upper portion of the image continues through the head. It’s meant to represent measured energy. This [tag]digital image[/tag] is one of hundreds of stills that can be captured from [tag]interactive animations[/tag] that I created for the Contact VJ project. The project was completed a couple of years ago, but the images still resonate, and scream to be remixed.
[tags]remix[/tags]
Comments
15 responses to “scream to be remixed”
The bull stops here: it’s time to stop tinkering with the wordpress platform and get on with developing content for remix runran 4.
>:r
>:r —
tinkering is content
randy, your blog is looking great with lots of cool imagery and engaging writing — what is version 4? is that like year 4?
thanks for your note over at mo’po (tinkering as content) — wishing you a very merry season and all best in the new year — will be dropping in from time to time, of course
maybe you could add comments to your main posts?
tinkering really is content(!)
/t.
hey /t.
version 4 refers to the 4th version of a website representing runran
run the [creative] program randy
>:r
is there really a creative (computer) program “randy”?
i can see you writing something like that and then leaving it running — while we’re all busy yacking away with it, you’re down on the beach soaking up some rays and knocking back a few cold ones (maybe it isn’t really that warm out there in december 🙂
/t.
yo /t.
a randy computer program! would it have appendages? snuggle with my hard drive? open and close my disc drawers, over and over?
another jaunty tube
no rays. drizzle, tea and brandy
>:r
plenty
of sunshine here in southern alberta, as you know well, and mild
so what is ‘author’ access to your site about (seems obvious, but i don’t wish to make any assumptions) — and if it is as i assume (DOH!) it must be, then how does one work it?
tea ‘n rye
/t.
not sure myself what exactly you can do, but author means author, so i presume you can write and edit top level posts and comments, try logging in with the admin link with the password i sent … i presume you can wallpaper the joint
i remember mostly the wind in southern alberta, back when i spent a lot of time in the porcupine hills and the livingston range, photographing the oldman river, specifically homesteads being flooded by the dam, i have some very sad oral narratives recorded from that time
>:r
the language effect is quite pronounced, despite being illegible — this is an interest to me, as you know — you might be interested, randy, in some very recent postings at codepo.blogspot.com that deal with the ‘readability’ of absolutely unreadable texts — we might be looking at (close to) the same thing from different angles(?) — just a thought
/t.
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I think you’re right that we are “looking at (close to) the same thing from different angles”. We both seem to be exploring visual language, but you use primarily text and layer with CSS, whereas I use images. We both also seem to remix work (ideas, texts, images) from other people, collecting from the net and stirring into our cauldrons. I came across “A Poet’s Trek“, where you have actually used a couple of .gifs as part of the composition. Very effective. The above image of mine has some text layered in it. There are some interesting correlations and differences in how we explore the same vast territory of visual language.
 >:r
the dark text (or text-like objects, perhaps text ‘placeholders’) come immediately to the fore — also, there appears to be lighter alphanumerics that are embedded within the image, in the middle & background — the dark ‘text’, though, which is completely illegible, ‘reads’ (to me) more clearly than those somewhat more recognizable light characters (some of which are easily identified as alpha and numeric characters)
am thinking that reading, and to some extent, meaning, might come as much from layout, format, position (and in part, of course, our own expectation) as it does from actual content, or ‘message’ — your images here, randy, seem to touch on this idea, and to some extent, at least to me, to demonstrate them
the gif images used in “A Poet’s Trek” are heavily modified from originals that Jukka sent — they are abstractions of the originals — also, texts taken from the images are used to construct a dataset, which in turn is used to dynamically generate a text (object) in the final work — and i think this touches on your idea of remixing ideas, texts, images from the net — you’re right, too, that there is a lot of this kind of remixing in my work, as in yours
/t.
hi /t.
The still images in the Contact series were captured from animations that flow across the screen. For the above image, the dark foreground text-shapes change as if being typed onto the screen, while the lighter bits flow by from left to right in an organic-like haze of colour. Layout, the use of patterns, shapes and colours, is much of what our work is about. We have little need to explain, but we do demonstrate. Is that the true function of the language of art? Odd, really, in this information age, to offer so little overt information, eh? The web is a marvellous resource, but I mostly enjoy the ambiguous, the not explained, and the element of play.
For myself, I very much enjoy reading your source code. Reading source code is how I learned to work with digital language(s) for the web. I love how digital language is layered is beneath visual display. How changing a single variable can completely alter what viewers see and experience. And how fluid the results can sometimes be, like the pages of a mutable artist’s book.
I am reading Digital Aesthetics (1998) by Sean Cubitt, who quotes Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong: “To know a language in the context of its culture is a tribute to the people to whom it belongs, and that is good. What has, for us from the former colonies, twisted the natural relation to languages, both our own and those of other people, is that the languages of Europe – here English – were taught as if they were our own languages, as if Africa had no tongues except those brought there by imperialism …”
Cubitt draws the conclusion that: “The status of English as standard language of the net merely accelerates an historical process (of oppression) initiated long ago.” But he also acknowledges that as languages collide, they tend to breathe new life into each other. I can’t but help think about how literature has collided with machine language(s). As a media artist with a background in writing and visual art, these zones of collision are where I find my inspiration.
>:r
Number of Entries: 11
Entry Page Time: 28th December 2006 12:27:27
Browser: Multiple visits spread over more than one day
OS: Windows 98
Browser: MSIE 6.0
Location: Alberta, Lethbridge, Canada
Entry Page: https://www.remixworx.com/blog/blog.html
Exit Page: http://www.pbnmopo.blogspot.com
guess who came to the conference?
i told you the aliens were here
>:r
[…] unpacked his digital pen name in the comments under one of R3//1X//0RX’ earliest blog posts, scream to be remixed, December 2006. I will always be thankful that runran founded remixworx, an ongoing collaborative […]