Michael F. Chan's Visions of the Amen

This is an interesting sculpture... It is activated by sound (the singer in the video is Ashleigh Semkiw). Each string is activated by a different note and is has spin velocity based upon volume. It was done using Processing.

Pretty cool, but I wish the video was better at showing the strings transitioning from one shape to another.

Somewhat related: my Study for a Vocoder

[via Make]

Randomness, Chance, & Art

Below is my the Google Book's view of my chapter ("Randomness, Chance, & Art") in The Handbook of Research on Computational Art & Creative Informatics. The chapter can also be viewed on Google's Book site.

I'm pretty proud of the essay and would love more people to have a chance to read it. The Google view of the chapter is missing a few pages. Please email me if you'd like a summary of the missing pages.






Go to Google for Larger View

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Addendum:
Incidentally, let me say this about IGI Global for any academic considering contributing a chapter to one of their books. It's pretty much a one way street. No complementary copies, no pay (of course), and very little consideration. 
When the book was published I received an email from them saying to let them know if I'd like a printable pdf of my chapter (they did provide a non-printable, non-editable, non-savable pdf of the book). Why they don't just assume every author would like that and simply go ahead and send one, I don't know. 
Anyway, I've emailed them quite a few times ever since saying, "Why yes, I'm coming up for tenure and it would be wonderful to be able to print out a copy of the chapter to include in my tenure review packet." I've never received a response.
Frankly, if I had it to do over I would have simply skipped being in a book and would have made my chapter freely available online.

Electronic Literature: What Is It?

N. Katherine Hayles (my favorite literary/technology critic & a contributor to Camera / Chimera) wrote this essay for The Electronic Literature Organization.

Here's the essay's abstract:

This essay surveys the development and current state of electronic literature, from the popularity of hypertext fiction in the 1980's to the present, focusing primarily on hypertext fiction, network fiction, interactive fiction, locative narratives, installation pieces, "codework," generative art and the Flash poem. It also discusses the central critical issues raised by electronic literature, pointing out that there is significant overlap with the print tradition. At the same time, the essay argues that the practices, texts, procedures, and processual nature of electronic literature require new critical models and new ways of playing and interpreting the works. A final section discusses the Preservation, Archiving and Dissemination (PAD) initiative of the Electronic Literature Organization, including the Electronic Literature Collection Volume I and the two white papers that are companion pieces to this essay, "Acid Free Bits" and "Born Again Bits." Intended audiences include scholars, administrators, librarians, and funding administrators, respectively, who are new to electronic literature and for whom it is hoped this essay will serve as a useful introduction. Because this essay is the first systematic attempt to survey and summarize the fast-changing field of electronic literature, artists, designers, writers, critics, and other stakeholders may find it useful as an overview, with emphasis on recent creative and critical works.

Read the entire essay 

Find the oldest object in SL

The oldest object presented in the research blog at present is: 'Coffee Table, Glass & Steel', created by Alberto Linden on Tuesday, October 8, 2002 at 11:56:19 pm. It was found by Pitollus Swindlehurst on November 16, 2009 on the island 'The Hospital'.

I've never dived very deeply into Second Life, probably because it reminds me of my work on The Sims Online--a project which proved very frustrating.

That being said, The Last Days of Second Life has an interesting competition going on:

The literary research project "The Last Days of Second Life" will reward the finder of the oldest existing object in Second Life with 25,000 Linden Dollars. The project is based on the extremely audacious assertion of the researcher Pitollus Swindlehurst, who boasted that he had already found the oldest object: "Coffee Table, Glass & Steel", created by Alberto Linden on Tuesday, October 8, 2002 at 11:56:19 pm. Late in the wee hours of the morning of a party, the research leader Muji Zapedzki [aka Susanne Berkenheger] characterized this assertion as "ridiculous". At present, she is betting all her belongings to disprove this claim.

...

The deadline is January 31, 2010 (CET), that is: January 31, 2010, 3 pm (PST). The winner will be announced on the blog www.the-last-days-of-second-life.de. He or she will be able to blow the prize money from the middle of February onward.