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.

The Advent of the Eco-Friendly Vehicle and California's Automotive Industry

Which technologies from previous decades influenced its creation? How could it influence new technologies we have not heard of in the future?

The technologies leading up to the modern California-standard vehicle have primarily been experiments involving different kinds of batteries. These include Lithium Ion (year), Nickel Metal Hydride (year), and Lead Acid (year). In addition to these, alternative forms of energy have been developed, such as biodiesel (a replacement fuel for diesel vehicles utilizing vegetable oils or animal fats, chemically reacted with an alcohol), hydrogen, compressed natural gas (CNG, a compressed hydrocarbon mixture mainly consisting of methane), and more. Different vehicle designs since 2004 include various versions of the Battery Electric Vehicle ([B]EV), i.e. Neighborhood EV (NEV), City EV (CEV), Full Function EV (FFEV), Plug-in EV (PEV), Hybrid EV (HEV), and Plug-in Hybrid [Electric] Vehicle (PHEV), as well as many forms of the Low Emission Vehicle (LEV), i.e. Transitioning LEV (TLEV), Ultra LEV (ULEV), and Super ULEV (SULEV), which meet California's LEV1 and LEV2 standards.

Ethanol is an alcohol made primarily from corn and can be used in a Flex Fuel Vehicle (FFV), which is capable of operating on gasoline, E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), or a mixture of both. Previous decades used what is called an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), which inspired the Hydrogen ICE Vehicle (an ICE that runs specifically on Hydrogen fuel) and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle (HFCV or FCEV– the most recent design for California's vehicles, incorporating automated driving features). Besides the Nissan Leaf, Tesla has specialized in the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV). These are not limited to cars, as zero emission motorcycles (ZEM) and zero emission buses (ZEB or ZBUS) can also be found in California. Other advances include the Partial ZEV (PZEV), Advanced Technology PZEV (AT PZEV), and Enhanced AT-PZEV, which meets AT-PZEV requirements and also makes use of an off-board ZEV fuel such as hydrogen or electricity. Probably the most understandable of the modern technologies is regenerative braking– "the partial recovery of the energy normally dissipated into friction breaking that is returned as electrical current to an energy storage device" (Regenerative Braking).

California's LEV 1 exhaust emission standards were defined in 1994, measuring for Ultra Low- and Low-Emission Vehicles, and apply to cars made between 1994 and 2003 (with some later exceptions). The LEV 2 exhaust emission standards were defined in 1998, measuring for the same vehicles, but apply to cars made between 2004 and 2010 (with some earlier exceptions). California requires that a Global Warming Score (GW) be displayed on every car made since January 1, 2009. GW is a decimal (range of 1-10) score that ranks a vehicle's CO₂-equivalent value; higher values are cleaner. This is not to be confused with Smog Score (SS), which ranks pollutant levels of Non-Methane Organic Gases and Nitrous Oxides, but measures with the same scale as GW. Since these technologies, a miles per gallon equivalent, "MPG(e)," has been applied to primarily electric vehicles. This measurement is based on Fuel Efficiency/Economy, which refers to the average distance traveled per unit of fuel consumed. California has also formed a measure to meet its own standards, called "California Miles Per Equivalent Gallon" (of fuel) or CMPEG.

These technologies can potentially lead to vehicles with automated driving features, self-sustained engines, and truly all unknown technology since the current majority fuels on Earth destroy the atmosphere and alter the environment, risking the end of most innovation. 

The trickiest part I found was the lighting. Because one side (the wrong side) was already shady, I found that flipping the figure horizontally almost completed the effect. The last trick was doing the same to the shadow layer.

I had often considered collecting a handful of shells that washed up on a beach and organizing them by shape color, and then putting them into a picture. Thankfully, I didn't even have to go to the beach since there were plenty of shells in a drawer under a glass-top table. I organized them by shape and color, then I deduced that there were primarily white shells, a black background, and a few red, orange, and brown shells. I had initially wanted to make the shape of a ghost (ghost out of shells), but I had to accommodate the red shells, so I chose to add a tongue. When I searched images ("ghost with tongue") for inspiration, I came across [King] Boo, the ghost from the Mario® games. I didn't want to do something so strictly geometry-based (circles, triangles, etc.), so I then sought images of a skull with a tongue. I came across an image of a person with makeup resembling that of Gene Simmons, and decided to make that the subject of the grid project. It was surprisingly hard to find a picture of Gene Simmons' face with makeup in closeup, but I found a painting of it. If I had a better angle and a more calm, gentle hand (it is, but not enough for this), I could have done better. I figured the smallest unit would be something like the smaller sand dollars, thus meeting the 30x30 rule. I used an app on my phone to view a comparison of the two, lining up the eyes and tongue.

I wanted to do something for everyone's favorite dragon, again. I figured that the polygon base of the game would ease the ability to pen the contours of the silhouettes. Although true, it was still difficult.

I wanted to keep the look started in each image. The most fantastic sights I know of are at Mount Rainier National Park and The Gates of Hell, Turkmenistan. Ice and fire, cold and desolate, dry and moist.

Some appeared to make impressive poster-like material, so I tried to induce that effect with different filters.

Other images were so picturesque, they only looked good through filters that simulated paintings.

A few had such layering in the image, it only seemed appropriate to soften the detail and toy with the contrast contrast.

There was a hidden rainbow in this image, and I brought it out. For the portrait, I chose a diffused glow, hiding the detail of my face while simultaneously preserving contours.

For the animation project, I began with one of my favorite books, hoping to put together a story that mirrored that of the book it was in, namely My Side of the Mountain. I planned out the points in the book at which I would want to do certain drawings. My default method for execution is to begin with extravagant detail, and gradually become sketchy, and this case was no exception. I found myself defeated with only one weekend remaining. I had excited myself with the idea of going limitless with my creativity: cutting, ripping, adding external elements, etc.

I soon felt some remorse for the little book. It was a huge undertaking that I had tackled, and I felt a little guilty with my plans to destroy it in the animation process. I then considered how I would rather do that to a book I hated, such as Fahrenheit 451, and then I got the grand idea of how I am really skilled at drawing fire, and I could even burn the book at the end! How ironic that would have been, if only I didn't hate that book so much that I had already done this to any copies I previously owned (which is zero to be exact). There was no time to order one, so I had to resort to a different book. I found this one that has a match on the front, and with renewed confidence, I let my tired sketchy hand perform my unbeatable flame-drawing skills. I still did some destructive animation tactics, and planned to burn the back cover, except for lack of matches, lighters, or flint & steel, much less a place to do that.

I laid a blanket over a toilet in a bathroom, since it is an immovable object with a right angle and a blanket can easily be draped over it. This made a perfect layout. Next, I lit it with an on-camera mounted light, chose a prime lens that would capture the entire book from a decent distance, and laid the book on its side, flipping each page down carefully so as not to shake the book. I still had to adjust focus a number of times, but I minimized camera shake by using a cable-connected trigger to trip the camera shutter. This expedited the process significantly. The exporting process was a nightmare, because the shots were out of sequence, and I couldn't get the export to a good quality upload for YouTube and the frames kept stuttering in the raw file.
The destruction and nonlinear page progression complement the creative process; it highlights how unique the creative process is for the individual and cannot be repeated.

Gradient Mesh Peach

I loved the way this looked somewhat tropical with the combination of patterns, but simultaneously limited the color palette to 2 tones each for blue, yellow, and green alike, with a few hints of red.

I kept multiplying the layers of a spiral I had drawn, and I wanted it to stand out, so the complementary blue and orange mixture allowed the green- and yellow-tinted 'OP squiggle' to stand out and not blend in too much. I applied many gradients to both the fills and strokes of layers, trying to manage how many colors I used. When I was almost finished, I threw in another spiral with a lightning bolt design (here it appears as a black arrow with a beige outline) to fill the empty void behind the personal details.

 The ultraviolet 'OP squiggle' looked rather bland against a plain white background, so I threw in some curves with a brush stroke look and rearranged the order of layers until I had something that was both readable and artistically expressive without demanding too vast of a color palette.

 A.K.A. Hazel Prim, this is a girlier take on the design, incorporating my experimental alias as the cardholder. For this daredevil skier and ballerina, I wanted to create something that evoked both power and flourish. The font for the company name speaks strong but the style of opacity permits perk. Using Google™ Maps, I spent a short period of time locating a building under construction at an ideal place in Washington, the hometown of this thrill-seeking character. I thought the 'OP squiggle' should be more vibrant, so I looked for images that showed ultraviolet light, and what I figured out was that it is captured like neon or lightsabers (white beams with radiant magenta emanation). Illustrator® was not cooperating with the colors I was choosing, and I learned this was because the color settings were CMYK rather than RGB. When I fixed this, I applied the change to the other documents and restored some of their intended glory, but I couldn't help wondering how many colors I had lost that I had custom-picked. I didn't want the background to be ordinary, so I tweaked two of the corners and split it in two, picking a different but similar pattern for the other shape, and tweaking the pen curves of the shape to align with the french curves of the pattern. The most difficult part was making the company name and personal details stand out from the background, so I decreased the background's opacity and tightened the outer glows around each object, multi-layering the company name and nudging the patterns applied.

 This squiggle took the longest time of all the variants. I wish I could have shifted the background pattern, but I wasn't sure what that would do to my artboards, and I was running low on time. I thought that 'powerful pink' or 'powerful purple' would make a good color palette, ultimately resolving to pink and gold. When I tested black as my secondary color, it made me think of the fifties poodle dresses and hair salons and dance studios and the like, which does not represent the company I designed. I wanted to say powerful without perky, which is why I also put a sharp bend on the 'P' in the squiggle. This way, it has a right-side-up and an up-side-down, so one way of looking at the card is more pleasing than the other.

When the pattern of the background stood out too much and made the words harder to read, I decreased its opacity, as well as that of the 'OP squiggle.' This design included the widest variety in fonts (4 total). I kept two fonts from a previous design because I felt that since I had put so much care into aligning the role terms, it wouldn't hurt to place it twice. The email is a combination of the two things that describe the character of my pseudonym: for some reason, whenever I write the word 'idea,' I have a habit of capitalizing the 'i,' and I do this often because I have them often; a creator of ideas... an ide-ator? The website is not owned (yet) and it stands for the company name.

I noticed right away that the animation was themed on the topic of naval sailors coming to shore and falling in love with native women and putting children in them, so I hoped it would be a less demeaning of the navy. Alas, as opera tends to end in tragedy, so does Aria and Madame Butterfly. It was disappointing how the phases of the story seemed to drag out every fabric of their being, slowly and boringly (not effectively or painfully, as it should have been). I understand that the story in Aria is modeled after Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, but I feel like there could have been a less animate and more inanimate way to depict it that would have come across more effectively and emotionally taxing, like if the characters were actually butterflies with a human life cycle, and the butterfly was a flower or something. Regardless, I found it incredibly political, as some liken the Navy to Samurai or even Vikings (who were known for rape). In reality, many sailors that followed the path of the first half of the animation (literally to the halfway point in its duration) didn't know that they had children, and when they found out, they went back and took the women with them as a wife (not many individual men went out and had children with women across the globe, as is depicted in Aria) without delay. The message of Aria depicts the sailor as a prideful, lustful, despicable playboy by the end. I would not recommend anybody watch it, honestly.

Creativity According to Raul Cuero

"Creativity has to do with how you perceive nature in relation with your existence."

— Raul Cuero

Raul Cuero's fearless approach to creativity recognizes failure and loss as opportunities to improve and learn. Although this lines up with my approach (as well as the Meet the Robinsons approach) insofar as commitment to an idea notwithstanding the possibility of failure, I do still have my fears of whether an idea will work out well or poorly. I agree that creativity is not a planned occurrence, as it cannot be programmed, but only for most circumstances. As an instrumentalist I have witnessed firsthand the spontaneity of creativity in synchronized play (watch any video of musicians at an Irish pub and you'll notice), and as a dancer I know to have a plan ready at the spurt of the moment when mistakes emerge during a performance. While screenwriting, I find that ideas come to me prematurely, and while I may not be able to expand them at the time, I write what I can about a fragment of an idea that will help me connect story segments at a later point. Additionally in story writing, a practice of many writers is to insert ideas from a figurative pile of story puzzle pieces that one has accumulated over time as a tactic for bypassing writer's block. All in all, I find that creativity is most useful in troubleshooting, be it technological issues or life's roadblocks; creative solutions to problems are essential for survival and everyday activity. If the worst thing that could happen is to experience failure, I see no downsides to trying ideas. Besides, in many cases of failure, loss might not even occur; in these cases, it's a matter of try and try again.

You may still be at the same level, but don't discount the experience points you gained from trying!

Operating Out of Bounds:

a comment on Huyghe's "un-bound-ing—un-box" methodology

Can you see the reindeer?

"When the doors are moving, there is no more threshold; there is no more inside and outside." —Pierre Huyghe

What I interpreted this to mean is my perspective; I am not dictating Huyghe's definition. I think he would agree that artistic philosophy is like an art in itself. The way I understand it, thinking outside of the box is phase 1; once this is done, one may work outside the box. For the open-minded artist, however, this is not enough; next, one must work against the very concept of the box's threshold.
In my opinion, that is the point when motives become questionable, because Huyghe's epistemology sets work as the means for entering a world (a means to an end), and sets the act of creating said world as the aforementioned work (an end in and of itself). Thus, his work becomes his walk into the world he creates. In simpler, non-artisan terms, the very act of making a project completes the experience, and an experience such as this cannot be done unless making the project.
Essentially, he is the only one who will experience his project since making the experience is the project, so nobody else can experience it the way he made it. The experience he gets from his projects is obtained only in doing his work, which is the act of constructing the project itself, though that would mean his experience is the project. Summed up, the world he creates is the world in which he works, and his work is the act of creating worlds in which he can work.
It takes real artisanship to justify this belief, but that is my opinion.

"I asked a composer to take the shape of this island and transform the shape into a musical score for a symphonic orchestra." —Pierre Huyghe

In this epistemology, one can believe that their work will achieve the effect which they aimed to, and nobody will question it or argue because there is no sense in questioning nonsense wherein no reason can be found. The artists achieve their goal, not by observing the effects of their work on the world, but by experiencing the very world they create. Unfortunately this way, few find such art very enjoyable, but most can at least find it interesting, though perhaps not in the way the artist intended.
Art is a very interpretive end, and media is the means to that end. How one interprets it is not for the artist to decide, but they may observe, and how one makes it is not for the interpreter to decide, but they may likewise observe. In Huyghe's case, both roles belong to the artist; he makes a world himself with an interpretation, leaving the otherwise interpreters no privilege of interpretive choice but their one duty which is solely to observe that world and do so only with acceptance for the artist's interpretation. It seems to me that what he delivers is a first-hand statement of the experience, so audience experiences it only second-hand.
Predestined meanings are seldom derived from observation alone. An interpretation is a decision by an individual, not the decision of the individual. If it does not yield so, it had not been so, but if it does, so it was.