Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 205 – Radio Activity

Artscape at Wychwood Barns Where NAISA’s home is

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For the last eleven years New Adventures in Sound Art has conducted what has been known as a Radio Without Boundaries art symposium.   This year the name was advertised as the Trans X Transmission Art Symposium.  This symposium was part of the Deep Wireless festival of radio and transmission art that was held throughout May this year.   I have for the last several years wanted to attend and this year I was able to.  I wasn’t sure what to expect – but I found that it increased my interest and appetite for sound experimentation.

From the program here is the abstract from Darren Copeland’s opening remarks:

“Rooted in the earliest experiments with radio, Transmission Art has continued to flourish with experiments with wireless communications technology over the past 100 years. The 21^st Century is not excluded from this experimentation as artists have ventured into exploring a variety of mobile based platforms and more lesser known forms of transmission such as VLF (very low frequency transmitters). The terrain of transmission art is dynamic and fluid, always open to redefinition.   With NAISA being a sound art organization, we ask the question: What new sound art experiences are possible in the transmission and mobile media platforms?“

Darren Copeland is the founding Artistic Director of New Adventures in Sound Art and a Canadian sound artist.

For today’s show I recorded one of the last sessions of the weekend, this one led by Victoria Fenner.  It was  broadcast live during the symposium, but this is my version of it from my Zoom H2 and binaural mics tightly secured in my ears;  complete with rustling, coughs,  laughter, and one or two minor factual errors – and by that I mean to let you know up front that It wasn’t Hector that screamed twice during his performance,  it was  James just in case that’s not clear.   So here is  what ended up being the spur of the moment panel discussion led by Victoria, with the ad-hoc studio shared with Ninja, Galen, Jim, Tom and Hethre.  Also mentioned:  Twitter, Soundcloud, iTunes, FM, Community Radio, Citizen Journalism – Other Links:

http://www.naisa.ca/deepwireless/

http://free103point9.org/about

http://nplusonemag.com/

http://islandsofresistance.ca/

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205HotFRM (60Mb)

Victoria Fenner at Work

Copyright : http://www.flickr.com/photos/photopia/with/6796758098/ Some rights reserved by HiMY SYeD / photopia

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Podcamp is more than a way for podcast hobbyists to get together once a year and talk about how we are podfading. Although, we did that too. It was also about social media, networking, how to use social media and other internet community tools to make a difference be it artistically or politically. That’s what podcamp is for me. All the different ways people are using the internet and social media to make a point, or make money. I must admit, the monetizing bit somewhat escapes me. Maybe because I am not making any money doing it.

To set the stage, for this show, it’s Saturday, podcamp toronto at Ryerson University, late February. We’re at the end of a full day of half hour sessions. A group of us are sitting off to the side after the last session, just chatting about the caveman diet, running, meditation and one woman’s father’s book called Dancing in the Mirror, self described inspirations of peace and joy. Oh yes did I mention the caveman diet?

People in the podcast community in attendance:  Bill Deys,  Scarborough Dude, Bob Goyetche, Valerie,  Diets mentioned:  The Paleo, Caveman, Hunter Gatherer.   Podcasts mentioned: Dancing in the Mirror  Surround Sound Sites Mentioned: Holophonics

http://www.crossfitmodig.com/

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Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 202 – It’s So Fruity on My Tongue

Sabba’s Hookah (Photo by Ninja)

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The Hookah is a single or multi-stemmed device for smoking tobacco. The smoke is passed through a water basin before inhalation. And the smoke is inhaled through a long hose, a slender flexible tube that allows the smoke to be drawn for a distance, cooling down before inhalation. In the Arab world, it is used as part of the culture and tradition. Social smoking is done at parties and at cafes. Last week Special K and I visited Sabba and Burt and we were treated to the relaxing ritual of hookah smoking. Sabba bought her hookah on a trip to Egypt years ago and decided to share the experience with us. Shisha is the tobacco smoked in a hookah. It is a very moist and sticky tobacco that has been soaked in honey or molasses. There are a variety of shisha flavors including apple, plum, coconut, mango, mint, and strawberry. I’m not sure what kind we had, but it was definitely a fruit flavoured shisha. It was a pinkish red colour that Burt mistook for mashed cranberry when he first saw it. According to tobaccofreeu.org, it doesn’t matter what you smoke in a hookah, it is just as dangerous as cigarette smoke. Hookahs generate smoke in different ways: cigarette smoke is generated by burning tobacco, while hookah smoke is produced by heating tobacco in a bowl using charcoal. The end product is the same—smoke, containing carcinogens. Oh well. It doesn’t matter, we had great fun.   Listen to the soundscape of the wonderful time Special K and I had smoking a hookah for the first time.

(Sources: Wikipedia and tobaccofreeu.org)

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or download: Hotfrm 202 (44mb)

Announcement

Just like Auntie Vera Charles, Mevio.com is no longer allowing me to use their site for podcasting hosting.  My account has been suspended.  I knew this day would come and that’s why several months ago I purchased space on the wordpress site and started to post the show directly here.   It’s the second time in six years that I have lost my podcasting host.  It also messes with my iTunes feed, that now stops at episode 201.   So until I find a new host and recreate my iTunes entry, I’ll continue to post here.

 

20 Questions

Where is your cell phone?  knapsack
Last thing you lost?  keys
Your job?  shepherd
Your hair?  brown
flowers? pansy
Your mother? passed on
Your father? blind
Your favourite thing? technology
Your dream last night? p.o.w.
Your favourite drink? eggnog
Your dream/goal? millions
What room are you in? livingroom
Which room needs to be cleaned? all
Your hobby? podcasting
Your fear? monsters
Where do you want to be in 6 years? new york
Where were you last night?  Whoosch’s
Something that you aren’t? patient
Muffins? yes
Chips? yes
Wish list item? new carpet
Last thing you did? email
What are you wearing? loungewear
TV? yes
Your pets? dead
Friends? 1
Your life? big
Your mood? even
Missing someone? yes
Drinking? no
Smoking? no
Your car? toyota
Something you’re not wearing? rings
Your favourite store? Canada Computers
Your favourite colour? green
When is the last time you cried? not sure
Where do you go to over and over? dojo
favourite snack? bbq chips
cooking or dining out? dining
My favourite place to eat? steakhouse
Favourite place I’d like to be at right now? couch
favourite book of the Bible? Ruth
favourite music? 70s
favourite Disney character? Pluto
Children? No
favourite scent? Love
favourite season? Autumn

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matter 201 – A Snow Globe Musical Mashup

An Anne Keenan Higgins Stocking Hook – (Photo by Ninja)

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• HotFRM 201 (8mb)

Today I give you a Ninja original Snow Globe Christmas Mashup with ambient household white noise including the refrigerator.

Reindeer in Tutu with Santa (Photo by Ninja)

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• HotFRM 201   (8mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 200 – A Trip to the Museum of Gender Archaeology

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• HotFRM 200 (28mb)

Every year, Toronto participates in an all night festival of art known as Nuit Blanche, so named because it colloquilally means “all-nighter” in French,  but literally means “white night”. It’s a sunset to sunrise event on the first Saturday of October. There is so much to see all over the city, and it is by design impossible to see everything. The most popular events seem to be the ones that use lots of light shows and sound. For example, many exhibits feature projections against walls and buildings. One exhibit that was a hit was the tennis point played over and over all night long called The Tie-break. It was a re-enactment of the legendary fourth set tie-break from the 1980 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles Finals between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. That would have been something to watch. But we limited ourselves to one area of only a few of many possible events that night.

First we dropped by the Museum of Gender Archaeology that eventually led us into the GendRPhone booths. I’ll admit, apart from the gender changer, commonly used for electronic connections, and the display of so-called ancient bathroom signs for male and female, most of the meaning of the items in the small collection were lost on me. And Ninja is all about exploring the nuances of gender. I get that it was meant to represent a future bygone world of gender dualilty and it was a great start, but it simply wasn’t enough for me. I love shock factor in art (I just revelled in the outrage caused by the kissing of the pope and the imam), and I wasn’t shocked, merely amused. If that is what the artist was after, then it that sense, it did succeed. The installation invites us however to re-imagine our gender. On the gendRphone, you can select the sex and gender of a potential lover and hear their words of love. In the words of Marshall McLuhan, “When you are on the phone, you have no body”.  Just a disembodied voice. I love that concept. It’s full of possibility. Not sure that the installation piqued my imagination though. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood.

My favourite installation was the sound and poetry presented by a local group called New Adventures in Sound Art.  Go figure. I loved the beat and words that went with it. You’ll hear some of that. The last two installations we went to were light and sound shows. The first was called Night Light Travels and the second was another installation by the NAISA (New Adventures in Sound Art), called Sonic Spaces (The Kinetics of Sound). Both used feedback mechanisms and other triggers to change sound and in some cases light in real time. A Markov chain is a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another, between a finite or countable number of possible states. The next state depends only on the current state and not on the sequence of events that preceded it. This kind of “memorylessness” is called the Markov property. Markov chains have many applications as statistical models of real-world processes and Shawn Pinchbeck uses them to evolve the sound in Sonic Spaces. He also used Vocoder (Voice encoder) technology and theory to change what we hear in the installation.

Have a listen and see if any of this art is your cup of tea.

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• HotFRM 200 (28mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 199 – I Want My I Want My MT…Therapeutic Seal

This past summer,  Special K, Dragon, Fly and I went to Ottawa’s Canadian Museum of Civilization.  The highlight of the visit was the exhibit called Japan: Tradition.  Innovation.  The exhibit showcased Japan’s achievements in design.   I wanted to take home everything I saw, including a robotic seal intended for elder care.

Links:  Japan: Tradition and Innovation at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Therapeutic Seal, Museum of Civilization

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• HotFRM 199 (25MB)

Proust Questionairre

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Living in Japan with a freelance, work from home job.

2. What is your greatest fear?

A ninja is afraid of nothing.

3. What do you consider your greatest acheivement?

Building my home.

4. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Impatience

5. Which living person do you most admire?

Tina Fey

6. What is your greatest extravagance?

My computer and other electronic equipment.

7. What is your current state of mind?

Apprehension and anticipation.

8. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Who’s fat ass is that?

9. What is the quality you like most in a woman?

Perceptiveness.

10. What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My wife.

11. Who are your favourite writers?

Proust, Tolkien, Herman Melville, Jeannette Winterson, Anne-Marie MacDonald, Douglas Hofstadter, Yukio Mishima, T.S.Elliot

12. When and where were you the happiest?

Right now.

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Who you calling a fat ass?

14. Where would you like to live?

Japan.

15.  What is your most marked characteristic?

My passion and enthusiasm. Oh wait. Is that two?

16. Who are your heroes in real life?

The Wachowski Brothers, The Coen Brothers, Tina Fey, Marg Delahunty, Special K.

17. How would you like to die?

Reading a book peacefully either in bed or gazing out the window at the autumn leaves.

18. What is your motto?

If what you’re doing is not going to matter in 100 years, don’t worry about it.

 

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 198 – Filling Up and Spilling Over

mmm…doesn’t that look refreshing?

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Are you a lesbian? Have you ever been a lesbian? Well Holly Near was. Singer, songwriter and activist, she was a lesbian-feminist in the heady, crazy days of early gay and women’s liberation. In the 70s she sang with the prolific and talented ladies of Olivia Records; with the likes of Cris Williamson , Meg Christian, and Teresa Trull.  Olivia Records eventually stopped producing lesbian-feminist music and morphed into a cruise line and travel company. Oh and Holly Near herself morphed into a heterosexual.

Today’s show is about the Olivia Travel company. During a recent trip to Ottawa, we had the pleasure of dinner with some friends of our travel companions who live there. Talk turned to what it was like to holiday in a resort exclusively for women. Also mentioned, in case you don’t know her, is the comic Karen Williams who has worked as a comedy writer, host of In the Life, and featured in the documentary We’re Funny That Way. Marga Gomez, as part of the resort entertainment, was also on the trip. Other Musicians Mentioned: Carole Pope, Kevin Staples.  Other Artists Mentioned: General Idea, A.A.Bronson.  Lezebrities Mentioned: Rosie O’Donnell

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• HotFRM 198 (24 mb)

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 197 – Watermageddon

This is How Much Water We Have to Use for 7 Billion People

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• Hotfrm 197 (35mb)

On Canada Day this year, July 1st, Special K and I went to Royal Ontario Museum, the ROM to view three separate exhibits. The first is on water, what it is, what it means to us, what it means to everything on the planet and how little of it there actually is. The second was an exhibit of Edward Burtynsky’s photography. A well known local and international photographer, the exhibit showcased some of his more stunning and beautiful pieces. I try to describe his photography as I move through the display. See what you think. The last exhibit is a display of Bollywood showcards and I try to get you interested in the delights and promise of the most popular cinema art form in the world.  Important Links:

The Big Picture Science Podcast

http://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=en&n=300688DC-1

How Much Usable Water? Really?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth

http://www.allaboutwater.org/water-facts.html

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• HotFRM 197 (35 mb)