File browser for Windows

Hello

This is a post specifically for WES, JAY, Nathan and Nic: Our in class windows users.
please go and grab and install pdMTL a set of abstractions provided by the Montreal pure data group
http://wiki.dataflow.ws/PdMtlAbstractions/Installation

and then follow these directions
http://wiki.dataflow.ws/PdMtlAbstractions/XP

these abstractions apart from ALOT of awesome patches to experiment with provides a patch called

file.browser_.help.pd which will provide you wih a filebrowser similar to playlist

let me know if you get it working. I will award

+2 points for ANYONE who get the pdMTL abstractions working on their machine.

Reading for thursday

Here is our reading for thursday as listed in the syllabus

http://www.vjtheory.net/web_texts/text_moran02.htm

Extending Pd even more

here is a link to an external library "Gridflow" that works on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. Please try to install it on your system. I will briefly explain what it does on Thursday. It is an experimental library of objects that enables some unique projection opportunities.
http://gridflow.ca/

make sure you grab the proper one for your Operating system.

Pat

Technological Evolution

It's crazy to think how much music has evolved since the beginning of time. I wonder what the thought process was when those scientists began to create all these different sounds like Dr. Thaddeus Cahil and his Dynamophone. The ability to manipulate sound must've been quite empowering when he first invented his device. It's funny how we started with tape and tape recorders, and people were like, "We can make music out of this!" Now, basically every song on the radio uses some kind of electronic sounds... except for country music.

 It's interesting how people write music nowadays. As it said in the article we read, many composers today like to live in a socially concerned and courageously heuristic environment. In other words, composers don't just write music they think sounds good but to respond to a problem in today's society. Whether it be rap songs, country songs, gospel-- they all relate to issues that are prevalent in society. Now with technology, it makes it that much easier, and there many who take advantage of this technological music genre. Take dubstep for example-- basically all digitalized. Here's a good example on the left:

Another example would be anyone who uses auto-tune. This combination of technology and music make it possible for virtually anyone to become a modern musician. Just look how happy Lil' Wayne is:

The boundaries for music are continually expanding and the digital era we live in seems to be having a nice impact on where this is all going.

Technology and the Composer

Technology is as it's being applied today in music and other forms of art has created a new niche in media and musical development. As an example, the newest album from the Black Eyed peas was all mixed using the iPad. This creates a way to make music all from your room at home, without hiring professional studio work etc. In section II Brun talks about technology and that it is the "science and the art of applying knowledge to the desire of problem solving," which one can conclude that this day in age, that technology serves as a messenger to delivering different forms of musical compositions to homes across the world. As said before, The Black Eyed Peas and other artists use technology either to distort their voices or to create beats that mesh with their vocals. The majority of music videos are made using technology and effects of the current day. The emergence of the user ,as it refers to the article, has grown to be an industry standard to mix musical rhythms and compositions with the technology of today's age. If not, we would still have the boring old music videos and mono sound we had in the old days.

A Relevant Historical Read

I entitled my blog "A Relevant Historical Read" because of one line in the piece the states, " The time has come for the technologist to see that composers are not merely music makers, or art makers, who think that there products have to measure up to an established standard of culture and who are eager to call them merchandise and sell them". This article was written in the 70's and the concept still applies today. It is a very important thought for any artist and emerging technology, especially in this day and age where technology is king. We as VJ's, DJ's, artist and so forth, can all be linked together through technology and embrace Brun's idea of the broaden composers title.

I think its incredible how even though this article was written over 40 years ago, reads like it was written yesterday. Possibly because technology has not stop advancing since the time it was written. Regardless of the brief mention of vacuum tubes and transistors, the article focuses on not the tech or composer but them being beneficial to one another. And even I on occasion have lost track of this idea.

I had no idea was a Teleharmonium was so I did a little research and found that its basically a giant electronic keyboard.


The Teleharmonium weighed 7 tons and the instrument was noted for its ability to reproduce the sounds of common orchestral woodwind instruments such as the flute, bassoon, clarinet, and also the cello.

Idealsitic Thought Experiment

Herbert Brun's paper, "Technology and the Composer", presented at the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 1970, reads as a manifesto for a new system of communication and societal evolution. Herbert Brun defines Technology as "being the science and art of applying knowledge to the desire for problem solving(Section II, paragraph 4)". He defines "composer" as a creator of all forms of the arts, and expounds upon this idea to imbue both the composer and technologist as the creators of new systems of thought, which he refers to often as a language throughout the paper.

Herbert Brun admonishes the current state of our society, claiming that "industrialists" and "politicians" control the means of our technical and cultural phylogeny, using a polluted system of thought and communication to reproduce itself.

In Section III, Brun basically goes on to propose that centers, run by composers and technologists in as many locations around the world as possible, be set up to invent a new system, or systems, that together with the aid of artificial intelligence, would augment humanity's ability to create an ideal society.

I am not surprised that with the ending of his presentation on an abstract thought experiment, without the accompaniment of some more concrete steps with which to create these centers of thought, that the UNESCO assembly basically declared the proposal as incomprehensible. Herbert Brun's statements about the broken down systems of thought that most of society perpetuates itself through is very tell-tale and the idea of harnessing technology to help us better organize and create a more truthful, real and practical (Section III, paragraph 18) society is an interesting idea.