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 – Noton
Ryoji Ikeda’s new release with Noton brings together material recorded over two distinct decades (from 1989 -1999 and from 2012 – 2022). This decision was most likely not just a question of archiving or classification. Using a range of frequencies and micro resonances, imbued with glitches and granular slices, ultratronics offers glimpses of industrial, abstract “beeps and bleeps” masterfully interweaved with minimal orchestration. Fractured and extreme rhythmic flashes abound, together with moments of nostalgic space lyricism, which contribute to an all-round use of Ikeda’s skills. Ultratronics brings into play number of fascinating and varied elements. The impression is that of a compelling yet oblique narration running through the the seventeen recordings, a secret path through the Japanese composer’s discography. Ikeda appears, for the first time, to be interested in giving a more accessible version of his research. Ultratronics is almost groovy at times or if you lean towards electro-techno, nonetheless maintaining its futuristic element, composing music for a time to come. All retain Ikeda’s stylistic approach, dark and chaotic, full of complex and indecipherable fascinations. This time there are numerous vocal parts, samples of radio broadcasts, synthesized voices and strange phonemes, which together give life to a truly unique album. Ultratonics is not only significant for its sound design but also for the imaginative visuals, which aim to transport listener “into a world made up mainly of data that often go unnoticed”.
Ryoji Ikeda – Ultratronics
