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 – Gruenrekorder
The SoundLapse project, promoted by the Universidad Austral de Chile, was born with the aim of connecting the characteristics of local fauna with the global issues related to the environment, culture, and sustainability. In this context, through the use of high-fidelity audio technologies, the initiative invites the public to reflect on how environmental changes and urbanization are altering the soundscapes around us. The album brings together 16 tracks created by composers and sound artists from Valdivia and London, each free to interpret those places according to their own creative approach. The sessions took place both in the Valdivian wetlands and at the London Wetland Centre, and the recordings were shared among all participants without restrictions of ownership or style. The result is a collection of works that offers multiple perspectives on the sounds of wetlands: from the most delicate natural details to the most expansive and complex soundscapes, inviting listeners to consider the richness and fragility of these ecosystems. The curation by Adam Stanović and Felipe Otondo brings together the variety of approaches, while Diego Benalcazar’s mastering highlights the clarity and depth of every detail. Photographs and graphics complete the picture, offering a firsthand look at the environments explored. Overall, this work for Gruenrekorder offers a coherent and engaging listening experience, transforming a simple focus on natural sounds into a broader reflection on the relationship between humanity and the environment and the shared responsibility to protect such fragile and precious ecosystems. What makes the composers’ approach particularly stimulating, as well as the authentic allure of wetlands, lies precisely in the richness of their sound. Birdsong, rustling vegetation, animal noises, and the movement of water and wind create a layered soundscape, rich in ever-changing detail and texture. This natural density offers the artists extremely versatile material, capable of multiple interpretations while remaining rooted in the same ecosystems, transforming listening into an attentive and mindful experience. The album moves the listener between different sonic perspectives, demonstrating how the same ecosystem can be interpreted in new and engaging ways. The creative freedom of the participants gives rise to a lively listening experience, in which minute details and broader soundscapes coexist without overlapping. The result is a polyphonic portrait of wetlands, capable of eliciting attention and respect for the complexity of such environments. In this sense, the selection of tracks goes beyond conventional field recordings, offering a layered and poetic sonic experience.
Various artists – Sound of the Wetlands
