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Culturejamming
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Edited
by Chris Zahn
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London-based GREYWORLD URBAN INSTALLATIONS creates technologies that translate touch and movement into generative sound environments. Greyworld's objective is to enhance public spaces and to change people's perceptions of their environments. THE LAYER is installed in the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and visitors create their own personal classical sound track. Each contact with the Layer creates a new, personal sound like a huge piano. The Visitor becomes part of the creative process, becoming the author of his own sound environment. Playground visitors to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park come upon a partially secluded area that appears to be the remains of a playing field. Sounds of a past sporting activity gently emerge from the space itself. The sounds of the players, the sounds of their encouragements and success are woven in to a gentle ambiance created by the movement of the visitors to the area. When sat on the benches, a gentle ambiance of the crowd watching the sport scene is audible. Their cheers, encouragements, and perhaps the hubbub of gentle conversation are blended together through movement in this area. http://www.greyworld.org/main.htm Experience the art of sound at SONIC BOOM - a new exhibition at London's Haywood Gallery in the South Bank of London. Curated by David Toop, Sonic Boom is the largest group exhibition of sound art ever. Some of the installations (running thru June 18th) include: Scanner's footage of fluttering butterflies w/a soundtrack made from the amplified beating of butterfly wings and the insistent banging of a hammer. Project Dark explores the potentialities of the turntable by creating and releasing records from materials such as biscuit, tree trunk sections, human hair, glasspaper and etched glass. Christian Marclay's video of an electric guitar dragged along behind a pick-up truck. The guitar is tied to a rope and plugged into an amp which is set behind the truck and driven over different terrains on Texas back roads and dirt paths.
The BOOSTAROO AUDIO AMPLIFIER is a small, pocketsize audio amplifier-no larger than a candybar- that boosts headphone volume by up to 40%. Great gadget to give that Walkman extra oomph! when mowing the lawn or flying in a plane. It's priced at $19.95 http://www.boostaroo.com There are portable CD players and portable MP3 players, but finally someone has put the two together in a nice affordable unit. The Hong-Kong vendor Pine Group will have the world's first portable CD and MP3 player in shops this summer. The product will let users play CDs made by downloading music from the Internet via a CD writer, as well as being able to play normal music CDs. With a retail price of around $200 the D'Music SM-200C is the size of a Discman, but able to play CDs holding 10 hours of music. Are you missing phone calls while you're online? If so, say goodbye to those busy signals and missed calls with Pagoo, a new service that takes voice messages and instantly plays them for you on your computer-all while you're still on the Internet. Messages, comments, and voice emails can be played back on-line as Wave files, Real Audio, or through the Pagoo Player which contains decompression software so that voice messages can be sent at high speed to the Player, decompressed and played in real time. The notification capabilities of the Player also allow users to be alerted of new voice, email or text messages. It's only $3.95/month and easy to download. The founders of Pagoo are French descent and when they said "I need something to let me page you" the "page you" blended together with their French accents and "Pagoo" was born. http://www.pagoo.com/ Virgin chairman Richard Branson has announced plans to ship the world's first integrated MP3 music player and mobile phone. The new phone, the SGH M100, will allow users to listen to MP3 music files, which can be piped in from user's PCs, in full stereo. When a call arrives, or the user wants to make a call, the music facility is automatically muted, to allow voice communications. At the end of the call, the music is automatically restarted. "We have plans to let people buy music and have it downloaded straight to their phone in our stores. And in the future it will be possible to buy and download music over the air, using the mobile network itself," he said. Virgin says its customers will be able to download up to an album's worth of their favorite music from the Internet or from a CD onto their Samsung MP3 phone via their computer. The phone comes with 32 megabytes (MB) of memory and specially designed music manager software allowing customers to digitally store and file their private CD collection or Web-sourced MP3 music, then download it onto their MP3 phone. Virgin says it takes approximately 30 seconds to transfer a 3-minute track from PC to the phone. THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SNOW BUSINESS The world's largest igloo-THE ICE HOTEL-is just that-a hotel made totally of ice and snow. Every October the hotel is built from scratch in the village of Jukkasjarvi, 200km north of the Arctic Circle in Lapland. The structure takes about one month to complete and requires 2000 tons of snow and 1000 tons of ice in building material. The temperature inside the igloo remains a constant 27- 45 degrees Fahrenheit. This enormous structure is ready around December 1st every year and remains open until after Easter. The building permit for the world's largest igloo runs out in June and will have melted by that time. Hotel guests sleep on a bed of hard ice covered with reindeer skins and a warm down sleeping bag. A variety of activities are offered in connection with the stay, such as a two day snowmobile safari and a dog sledding adventure. You can also enjoy helicopter rides, kick sledding and skiing. Survival training for both individuals and corporate groups are also available.
Booking and Information: Since its ABC premiere in 1997, Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" is hands down the best talk show on television. Where else can aging punk rockers get national television coverage? Whether its Jello Biafra ranting about maximum wage or Johnny Lydon spouting about abortion-it's all engaging talk. For more info: http://abc.go.com/pi/ns/pi_guests.html And have you heard Lydon's live weekly free-for-all internet radio show? The former Sex P.I.stoL. hosts a lively four-hour talk show every Saturday at 4pm EST located at http://www.eyada.com/rotten_index.html You can even email the limey bastard: johnnyrotten@eyada.com After 220 episodes and 5 years of ongoing broadcast on the radio B92, on the frequency 92.5 Fm, The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle is off the air. One of the most admired live radio shows in Belgrade, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle constantly confronted its modern concept and beliefs with the beasts of isolation, nationalism, violence, inflation, primitive folk music and general hopelessness. "Although the fate of the Swindle and radio B92, and us, people who, by some bizarre mode, were "chosen" to live in Serbia, are still unclear, the team which has been behind the show, above all for their mental health, decided to revive the Swindle on the Internet, while awaiting to be back on the air. If our site helps you feel better, or to have at least some fun, we've done our job." http://members.xoom.com/prevara/ The 120 YEARS OF ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS site charts the development of Electronic instruments from 1870 to 1990, like The Side Man--the first commercial electronic drum machine, designed and built by Wurlitzer in 1959. And funky keys like the Mellotron, Moog, Clavivox and Ondioline(recently revived by Stereolab). http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/ INVENTION OF THE MONTH: Transdermal Nutrient Delivery System Scientists at the Defense Department's Combat Feeding Program have begun conceptual research on the TNDS patch. Similar to the nicotine patches that smokers use to help them quit, the patch would be attached to the skin, where it would transfer nutrients into the soldier's system. "The patch would be used to keep the warfighter at optimum performance for a day or two, until he or she has access to a real meal and the time to eat it," said an account of the cutting-edge research in a publication of the Soldier Systems Center. "It is never meant to replace a turkey dinner with all the fixings." Among the methods under consideration are a tiny microchip processor that would first determine a soldier's metabolic needs and then transfer the needed nutrients to the skin by a microelectrical mechanical system, the publication said. Nutrients also could travel by skin pores opened by electrical impulses, or directly into capillaries by a process called microdialysis. Also possible would be the infusion of "neutraceuticals" - chemicals that would trick a soldier's brain into thinking his stomach is full or that his muscles aren't really tired. http://www.thedailycamera.com/science/science/20apatc.html Probably the most civilized moment of execution is the last meal. It's encouraging to know that the law allows you to pig out before they fry your innards. THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE runs a bizarre prisoners last meals website. What do you think the guy convicted of poisoning his son's Halloween candy with cyanide requested for his last meal? Let's see: T-bone steak, french fries, whole kernel corn, sweet peas, lettuce and tomato salad with egg and french dressing, iced tea, sweetener, saltines, Boston cream pie, and rolls. Not a bad way to go out. Some prisoners play the sympathy card and opt for God's forgiveness or ask for justice. And some have health concerns and order a diet-soda. What for? Did you know Ruben Cantu was refused bubble gum? Why? My favorite last meal was Charles Tuttle's. He went out with four fried eggs sunny side up, four sausage patties, one chicken fried steak patty, one bowl of white country gravy, five pieces of white toast, five tacos with meat and cheese only, four Dr. Peppers with ice one the side & five mint sticks. Belch! Zap! http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/finalmeals.htm What do convicts do on Death Row? According to Au Revoir Les Inmates, they are not wiling away the years composing their last words. Few of us are lucky enough to have the opportunity to immortalize our final utterances, but when these inmates were asked if they had any last words before being executed, they didn't exactly produce catchphrase material. http://w3.one.net/~tdaniels/cooking.html Cell Door Magazine is an internet magazine written by prisoners for a free audience. Open the cell door and meet the men and women behind bars. Topics include but are not limited to prison issues. I like Blake Pirtle's sports column. This month he argues that cards should be considered a sport and aired on ESPN. http://www.celldoor.com/ BEST IDEA SINCE CHAIN-GANGS Students at East Connecticut State University who infringe campus rules are being forced to attend a classical concert or opera by way of punishment and absolution under the Willimantic Alternate Restitution Program (WARP). The lightest sentence is watching a production of Tosca. This is presumably inflicted on first offenders who were late with essays or caught drinking in the dorms. The real hard cases, plagiarists and pot-smokers, will perhaps have to be exposed to a full Ring before federal inspectors can tell with empirical certainty whether the experiment has worked. Inflicting art by force is tantamount to brainwashing. And as for the WARP idea that music makes better citizens, history teaches otherwise. Hitler was a devout Wagnerian, Mussolini was an avid violinist, and the best pianist ever to occupy the White House was Harry S. Truman, who dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What good did music do in them?
http://www.invention.com/inventions Wanna but a one-acre lot on the moon? No, really! It's not a joke. Currently the moon and all the planets and their moons are owned by an individual in California by the name of Dennis M Hope. In 1980, Mr. Hope filed a declaration of ownership with the USA, U.S.S.R. and the United Nations General Assembly. How is this possible? In 1967 an Outer Space Treaty was signed by all the nations of the world and it basically said that no nation or government could claim title to the solar system...it did not however say that no individual or corporation could claim title to it so Mr. Hope did and he is now the legal owner of all the Celestial property known to us. It's only $10 and you get a deed, constitution, property map and mineral rights. It's all been legally obtained by the Moon Land Registry from the Lunar Embassy in Rio Vista California. They're currently offering property on the Lighted Lunar surface of Earth's Moon, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter's moon IO. http://www.moonlandregistry.com/ ThreeJane3 Productions is a one-woman effort to combat entropy by creating playthings/artwork out of discarded dolls, broken toys, old electronic equipment, and other gomi. The results typically fall into one of four categories: CyberBabies, BorgBies, HellDolls, or miscellaneous Destroyed Dolls. The hit-and-miss nature of thrift-store and flea market shopping guarantees that each toy is unique, but all are--of course--made with the same loving care. (Not to mention the same gleeful joy that results from drilling holes into synthetic flesh....) http://www.angelfire.com/ga2/ThreeJane3/ THE FURBY AUTOPSY is the brainchild of someone who purchased a defective Furby and decided to take it apart to see what made it croak. There's a detailed "autopsy" flagged with a crime scene chalk outline of "the body", tips on skinning the furry rodent and top-secret info on hacking its computer chip innards.
More anti-Furby sites are located at:
WEB SAMPLERS: A Monthly Round-Up of Web-Oddities Oh wow..You can Kill Britney, Hanson, N-Sync, Jesse Camp etc!!! http://www.newgrounds.com/assassin/ also.....watch this video!!! http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/tupac/index.html ---Submitted by Johnny Beach
http://elvispelvis.com/fullerup.htm
Dumb Musician Jokes http://www.afternight.com/jokes/ ---Submitted by Flaco http://www.Belch.Com boasts the largest collection of digitally recorded belches on the Net with over 350 downloadable burps and belches. They're actually legally copywritten too! ---Submitted by Davis If you're the type who likes interesting reading you should check out:
http://www.best.com/~ejad/java/fractals/intro.shtml
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~swickape/fmusic.html
http://www2.wildfire.com/ag-bin/Fractal ---Submitted by Mitesh Did you know that your nose can get an erection? It's called a "Honeymooner's Nose" and Eskimo's have been rubbing them to orgasm for hundreds of years. Don't worry, it's perfectly legal. Nasal Sex is a great compliment to French kissing. Follow your nose to: http://www.kiva.net/~matparro/NasalSex/ ---Submitted by The Nose Candyman Two Commandments for the Molecular Age
1.Thou shalt not alter the consciousness of thy fellow men.
Articulated by Dr. Timothy Leary, Ph.D.
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