Bob Moog died for (y)our synths

Considering the grouping I used for this module, choose 5 different music “movements” from the ones listed above and add one group/musician/performer to that category, especially related to the usage of technology. Why did you choose this artist? Why do you consider their work fits with technology and electronic music in their context? Post their works and your comments on your blogs.

Bob Moog made an everlasting impact on the generation and production of electronic music, especially for the involvement of synthesizers. Almost all Moog synths were large boxes that dissect a particular aspects of a sound to a separate output. A number of exceptions were those based on the Minimoog, which was an analog synth that encapsulated all the bare necessities for creating new sounds from the base of an oscillating wave, featuring built-in speakers and a built-on keyboard. The Moog company made few non-keyboard instruments, and mostly after Moog passed away. These include the Moog Etherwave Standard/Plus/Pro Theremins (a much more basic and less kinesthetic Minimoog in the form of a theremin) and Theremini (a more advanced theremin with an analog digital interface and MIDI capability), as well as the line of Moog Taurus bass pedals (an array of pedals attached to a box of knobs in the form of grand organ foot pedals). Moog inventor Paul Vo designed a $3500 Model E1 guitar (Collector's Edition costs 3k more) with consistent appearance. That's literally all; Moog never even manufactured microphones. The Minimoog's layout can still be found in less chaste forms on DAWs and sound amplifiers.

This technology, combined with low- to mid-fidelity drum machines, was instrumental in the creation of "Bitcrush" and "Bitpop," two of my recent favorite retro electronic sub-genres. I am still rather taken with Progressive House and EDM. Although many of the artists whose music I enjoy hearing and playing have toured at Tomorrowland, in Belgium, I am not so enveloped in the genres that I would follow their tours. What I have noticed primarily among these artists is that they are mostly from the Northern European countries, and seldom have a large selection of 'smash hits.'

Video Art

When I saw the sample videos, I got the idea that any remotely unique approach to subject matter and camera technique could pass as art. This led me to use the Panasonic action camera I had gotten some time ago, which has a fisheye lens and a small scope-like head attached to a small camera body. Pondering how I might most uniquely handle this camera, I decided to use it within the capacity that it could perform, but beyond the intent of its designer(s). Using it like a snake, I dragged it around my yard, allowing it to 'slither' about and weave through the bushes. In reverse, this did have the essence of snake-like motion, but not quite the way I had anticipated.
Thanks to the input of my professor and a fellow student, I figured out how I could exploit the natural RGB split generated by the camera when its lighting was set for outdoors while filming indoors. I used this same effect to achieve a sort of 3-D look in both parts of the piece.
I have been waiting all semester to make an original audio piece, but I did not get much time for it since I had a documentary I was making at the same time, and both assignments are due in the same week.

Performance Piece

This video is 30 minutes and 45 seconds. Warning: Haptic feedback and shaky visuals. May cause nausea. View at your own risk!

Animation Mk II

As noted in a past post for a semesterly simultaneous class, I wanted to make a higher resolution compilation of my images. I started with importing slightly lower resolution versions of the pictures I took for the animation. What I didn't know was that the 'Animation' menu on Photoshop got removed a few years ago, and I can no longer alter the default duration of still images imported into the timeline. My solution was to compile clips of the animation one section at a time. This way, I am able to get more of the animation covered without going through 200+ pages all at once and resizing, cropping, and rotating each image, in addition to adjusting each clip's individual duration. This was a huge time saver, without sacrificing too much quality.

Drowsy Daze: a headful of hands

The idea here is to have hands going every which way, grasping a warped face, and even warping themselves to do so. I liked the patterns made by the cutouts, but I wish it came out less choppy. I didn't do much squeezing or stretching, only resizing, slicing and placing about.

Taking a second look at it, I can see how the subject's right cheek is darker than the left, but the skin tone otherwise seems to be consistent across the rest of the face. Finding a face at the right angle is much harder than I imagined, even when your only search criteria is 'man face straight forward.' I only now realize how seldom I have run across a quality image of a person facing straight ahead (with their head visible). The most challenging part of the blending process was actually when I decided to use the Burn tool as I had in previous projects. Apparently, it can reduce transparency and also bleach, which is not what it had done in the past for me. When I switched around between the Eraser, Burn, and Rubber Stamp tools, I began causing problems for myself in the area of transparency; some of the top layer was semitransparent but read as 100% opaque, so my Rubber Stamp would often remove opacity on areas where I was trying to reduce transparency. I didn't quit until it fit.

MorphX

The final product was smaller than I had anticipated. What is most interesting to me about the picture I found on the Internet was that it not only had my hair color, but it was parted in the same spot, and the subject's head is tilted at the EXACT same angle as mine, AND our shirts match almost perfectly (clearly, they are different sizes)! If only our facial expressions matched. At least the lighting was also similar between the two images.