Critical digital culture and media arts · Since 1993
The Neural Archive is a repository of publications collected by us during the years. Browse our collection here.
Sometimes the online world reveals unsuspected parallel dimensions. This is an unknown restyle of Neural independently (and secretly as we never knew about it) made by NY-based Motion and Graphic Designer, Clarke Blackham. Very nicely made, perhaps only a bit glossier for the magazine’s line, it testifies once more how even your most familiar outcomes can have another life somewhere else.
The value of craft after software sounds rampant sometimes, expressing the freedom of escaping repetitive taps and clicks to accomplish some assumed tasks. Mixing media, electricity, electronics, mechanics and inert objects Graham Dunning has realised a structured track/performance/open script in his “Mechanical Techno: Ghost in the Machine Music.” More than a proof of concept a machine music declination.
Isn’t ASCII Art a perfect form of “graffiti” in 2010s? The 8-bit aesthetics is among the strongest visual references connecting the analogue recent past with the omni-digital present, so why not adopt it to finally have some public art embedded in the present? In Varberg, Sweden, 2016, the GOTO80 crew (feat: Karin Andersson) did it, choosing (not by accident) the Mo Soul Amiga-font.
YesNo by Timo Kahlen feels like “traditional” net art, a well crafted stuck webpage for the user’s aural and clickable enjoyment.
The relationship between Andy Warhol and personal computers (becoming quite popular during his last years) has been only partially investigated beyond his Amiga works. In November 2015, Sotheby’s sold his “Apple (from Ads)” (acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas) for 910.000 USD, and in catalogue’s notes Warhol tells about his meeting with Steve Jobs insisting to give him one and showing him how to draw (even if still in black and white): “we went into Sean [John Lennon’s son]’s bedroom–and there was a kid there setting up the Apple computer that Sean had gotten as a present, the Macintosh model. I said that once some man had been calling me a lot wanting to give me one, but that I’d never called him back or something, and then the kid looked up and said, ‘Yeah, that was me. I’m Steve Jobs.’ And he looked so young, like a college guy. And he told me that he would still send me one now. And then he gave me a lesson on drawing with it. It only comes in black and white now, but they’ll make it soon in color…I felt so old and out of it with this young whiz guy right there who helped invent it.”
Harsh Noise Wally, is a sophisticated mashup mixing strips of Wally, the lazy and cynic colleague of Dilbert with some epic noise music extreme attitudes. Well conceived and assembled.
Minority Report comes closer… Three huge screens at Birmingham New Street railway station are scanning passers-by and play advertisements accordingly. http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-street-station-advertising-screens-9920400
GoPro ancestors in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly sport and movie persons like F1 driver Jackie Stewart, Bob Sinclair and Steve McQueen.
CD – Crónica
According to Sengai (1750-1837), a Japanese Buddhist monk famous for his controversial works and lessons, the way of the zen calligrapher showed that painting and the calligraphic arts are ruled by laws, but “the highest law of laws” actually turned out to be that there is no law at all. When we consider this principle, when we talk about the truths and the teachings referred to as universal law, we are reminded of the thoughts of William Seward Burroughs, Aleister Crowley and some relativist philosophers. Joe Smolders too refers to Zen philosophy. He highlights that ten years ago he quit developing work from preconceived compositions, planned into the smallest details. Since then, he has been using ways of work more undefined and fuzzy. He pays special attention to the process of work rapprochement, both artistic and spiritual. While taking these steps, he cultivates states of deep concentration, and then he makes the work with a few quick touches. Many painters of the pop and action painting seasons shared the same approach, as for example Jackson Pollock or Mario Schifano. An extreme care in the preliminary phase and the fast speed of action are fundamental elements of how Smolder works. He uses these elements when he plays with the modular synths and the field recordings. Obviously he makes the same with his Zen paintings too (one of these is present in the release artwork). Every session has its patches. As the calligrapher prepares his paper, his brush and the ink, which need to be calibrated before the actions, so does the musician with many parameters played in the album. Then Smolder lets it all flow, keeping the original sounds simple and limiting the overdubs and the editing procedures, according to the main free form concept of “here and now”. However, the sequences of Nowhere seem to be quite abstract, dilated and point-like, filled with hum and static discharges, cosmic hyperbole and crackle, feedback and distortions. This may be considered an unusual release by the standards of Crónica, but the Portuguese label chose well in being seduced by this stylized passion. The work has strong goals and is strong in its performing too, thanks to the unimpeachable work procedures.
Jos Smolders – Nowhere | Exercises In Modular Synthesis And Field Recording
