MoMA Director Glenn D Lowry at Melbourne’s ACMI on ABC Arts Online
On Friday 25 June MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney to present the inaugural Ann Lewis AO Contemporary Visual Arts International Address. He used his time to speak on ‘The Museum of Modern Art and the Future: thoughts about art museums in the 21st century’.
iPhone as Musical Instrument from UMNewsService on Youtube.
For the last year Georg Essl from the University of Michigan has been working on an interactive programming environment for mobile devices. An alpha version of urMus, currently used by the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO) and Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble, has recently been released for download. I was lucky enough to be invited to the second urMus workshop ever, held by Essl on the 21 June 2010 at the University of Wollongong.
Basically urMus is a tool for the creation of sonic and visual instruments directly on mobile devices (currently the iPhone and iPad, with wider non-Apple compatibility coming in the future). It gives you multiple entrance points from which to build these instruments. You can use Essl’s default urMus interface to work in a high level Pd-like way linking boxes together to create and process sound and vision, or you can delve deeper, using urMus lua code to build your own processes and interfaces. Where it differs from apps like RjDj is that it lets you create your own instruments and interfaces directly on the mobile device itself.
Vivid Live is an interesting concept. Each year it gives an internationally acclaimed artist the opportunity to curate a large scale festival through the Sydney Opera House. Last year Brian Eno curated the inaugural festival. I was lucky enough to see Eno’s keynote address, his projections onto the Sydney Opera House and his 77 million Paintings installation as well as performances by electronic/rock acts Pivot (now PVT) and Ladytron.
This year the projections onto the Sydney Opera House are back, created by Laurie Anderson. Anderson and Lou Reed are the Vivid Live curators for 2010 and have scheduled a very interesting and diverse line-up including Tuvan throat singers Chirgilchin, stylistically differing Japanese rock bands Boris and Melt Banana and The Blind Boys of Alabama.
Public Bunnies flyer design by Mickie Quick
I went to see Public Bunnies; (Op. 3 in C# Minor) at PACT last Friday. It explores the rules and rituals we impose on ourselves by creating an elaborate society in which old underwear is treated with the highest of importance and status. The concept is quite strange but it works, and it works well.
Ólafur Arnalds – Ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.
I just came across this clip on the Create Digital Motion website. It is one of the most beautiful music videos I have ever seen.
The way the music and vision are linked through movement, colour and texture is mesmerising. The strings enter with a restrained, graceful flourish of colour, pulling back to the solo piano’s minimal swaying harmony, all with an overarching beautiful melancholy. Esteban Diácono’s vision is literally woven through Ólafur Arnalds’ music, creating a multimedia work that reaches the listener/viewer on a deeply emotional level.
Simplicity is beauty.