Tag: Jarrod Barker
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Clement Greenberg’s The Avant-garde And Kitsch
Art is, or it should be, about more than simply making marks on a surface or manipulating materials into pleasing–or indeed displeasing–shapes…. perhaps the avant-garde or kitsch. A true artist benefits immeasurably by knowing about the history that has created the universe they traverse. Ever wonder what all that academic talk is that curators like…
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Why I’m Still Here Is Still Such An Amazing, Quirky Film
It’s been almost a decade and a half since Casey Affleck’s I’m Still Here perplexed us all. On reflection, it is a piece of modern motion picture history and a masterpiece. I say history because this just might be a first. Not even Borat with its pseudo-documentary style challenged moviegoers to discern whether what they…
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The Crappy But Amazing Toy Sampling Keyboard That Influenced Legions
SPOTLIGHT: The Casio SK series keyboards, carries great nostalgia for many of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s. My friend got one for his birthday, and after spending an entire day at his place sampling burps, coughs and farts, I knew I was destined to become an electronic musician. If this is your story…
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True Cases Of Phantom Transmissions And Hijacked Television Signals
The call letters KLEE-TV had not been broadcast since July 1950, more than 3 years before a viewer in London, England picked up their transmission on his television set. Adding to the mystery was the fact that while in operation KLEE-TV was based out of Houston, Texas- an entire continent and ocean away. Since this was an…
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Scott McCloud’s Worthy TED Talk On Science In Art: Variantology In Comics
Whether you are a fan of comic books or not, this is an entertaining TED talk and here is why: it expounds the process of thought and observational connectivity in science and in the arts. Uh- what does that mean? In simpler terms, this short TED lecture explains how a scientific mind operates in the arts. Narrator…
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Future Of Happiness Will Be Brain Stimulants
Happiness…..I popped the pink pill into my mouth and waited for the expected feelings of ecstasy. No, the pill wasn’t the drug XTC, but rather a legal and safe “hacking” alternative. Then I put on my trans-cranial stimulation device, known as “The Thync,” and waited to see what happened. Wow! After five minutes, it felt…
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Biometric Sensory Art Experiences Inspired By Four Cities
PURPLE are now working on a multi-city arts project in China and Hong Kong with The House Collective, a collection of uniquely intimate luxury hotels that includes Upper House in Hong Kong that was just listed as part of World’s 50 Best. ‘Encounters Across Cultures’ will be an immersive journey that travels across four dynamic cities: Hong Kong,…
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The Best Speakers Money Can Buy?
Genelec 8381A point source main monitor delivers unrivaled power and precision NATICK, MA, May 16, 2023 — As part of its 45th anniversary year, Genelec has unveiled the 8381A Smart Active Monitoring system, a flagship floor-standing Adaptive Point Source™ design that fuses exceptional precision and envelopment with unrivalled LF control, huge headroom and high-resolution imaging. Designed for high-end music recording,…
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AI Induced Shifting Subtexts- What Is And What Isn’t Art?
Let’s go back to 2016 and re-consider how the works highlighted below are more relevant today than ever when asking “What is and isn’t art?”. The recent surge in AI and chatbot produced ‘art’ has created new challenges in recognition, interpretation and validation. Or has it? [J.Barker Content Producer for The Silo] It became immediately…
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Streaming Royalties Are Bullshit A Musicians Case For Universal Income
Royalties Are Bullshit: A Musician’s Case For Basic Income….. “This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it.…
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2022 And NOT Another Year Closer To Private company Asteroid Mining
It’s been eight years since an historic landing took place between an European Space Agency drone and a comet.(which looked suspiciously a lot like an asteroid to us!) At that time a report from Deep Space Industries laid out their business plans up to 2020 and what they had committed to sounded more like science…
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Quirky Doc About One Man’s Quest For Supreme Tea
Invest a little over an hour watching this documentary about tea and you might find yourself contemplating a new connection between rural farming communities and the tea farmers of China. That’s because All in this Tea deals with all aspects of Chinese tea production, but takes a special interest in how a new demand for…
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Will Ontario’s Poison Caterpillar Return This Summer?
Important safety tip: if you see a caterpillar that has hypodermic-like needles poking out from its body DON’T TOUCH. That might seem like common sense but Summer 2014 had Ontarians reporting to emergency rooms and to family doctors with symptoms ranging from swelling and rashes to vomiting and intense pain. All this from a seemingly harmless…
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Spooky Missing Persons Stories
David Paulides is an ex-cop on a mission. After years of investigating missing persons and studying thousands of missing persons reports he has discovered strange coincidences and similarities that he has documented clearly and factually in several of his books including Missing 411 which was the focus of lecture at the University of Toronto a…
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Synth Britannia Shows The Future Was In Fact Delivered
Come on, you have to admit. It’s a lot of fun to stumble around YouTube with that old pre-internet habit of television channel surfing surprising you with random discoveries. When I do, I particularly enjoy reading comments left by others who have somehow found their way to whatever it is I happen to be watching. This…
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Why Artists Require Space Not Only To Work But To Imagine
Eiko Otake performing at Bartram’s Garden on the Schuylkill River. “The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso Art is an imperative. Without it we can never truly examine our own circumstances or those of the people with whom we inhabit our small planet. Left unviewed,…
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Electronic Opera Uses Physical Spaces To Connect Narrative With Sound
Back in 2005, composer Lewis Spratlan and I began work on an opera inspired by Louis Kahn. Kahn, who excelled in music and once considered becoming a composer, was especially cognizant of how sound works in a physical space. “Space has tonality,” he often said. Kallick, a professor of music at Amherst College, made recordings…
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Digital Habits Is Innovation Platform Founded In Milan Italy
Digital Habits is an extension of the international design studio Habits. Founded in Milan in 2012, it specializes in connected objects. For example, a few years ago during the 2017 edition of the Superdesign Show by Superstudio, Digital Habits examined in depth the relationship between the user, the context and controls of electronic products.Since then,…
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ELEKTRO MOSKVA- Intriguing Documentary About Soviet Music Synthesizers
I spent most of yesterday afternoon watching and taking notes from the 86 minute documentary ELEKTRO MOSKVA. This film is so rich and interesting that I found myself sitting in reflection every time I jotted down another intriguing story element…..and believe me there were lots. The film’s official website describes itself like this: “ELEKTRO MOSKVA…
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PUSH TURN MOVE Book Focuses On Interface Design In Electronic Music
A must have book for electronic musicians and fans of synthesizers and electronic instruments.
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Photo Glitch Art Book Is Mysterious And Beautiful
“The growing flow of digital culture depends on the hidden protocols of its underlying systems. To explore how interfacing shapes spectatorship online, this pioneering study pinpoints experiences of flow through the friction of photo-based glitch art by Phillip Stearns, Rosa Menkman, and Evan Meaney. Homing in on the viewer, these three cross-disciplinary case studies present…
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Leave Your Art Behind For Others To Carry Forward
Random acts of kindness come in all shapes and sizes, something as simple as a smile to a stranger, or paying for the guy behind you in the cue at the coffee shop drive-thru counts. The idea is to leave someone, whether you know them or not, with a brightened day and a reminder that…
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Fun Pop Elements In Ballasox Footwear
If we’re living in an oxymoronic age (and it seems indeed that we are), then Ballasox footwear by corso como makes a lot of sense. Women’s fashion has never been off limits for innovation, experimentation and whimsy but today’s designs are also driven by comfort and economy. That’s a lot of parameters to hit and…
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Roadside Memorials Of Loss Are On The Rise
Indeed, the prevalence of roadside memorials has increased significantly over the past several decades and there is little doubt that each of us has encountered them at some point. Roadside memorials are essentially visual manifestations of profound suffering and loss. They mark the site where a motor vehicle accident has occurred and the death that…
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Streaming Companies Spotify And Labels Sony Making The Money Not Artists
Potter Box Definition: Is it ethical for media streaming companies, such as Spotify, to take advantage of IP loopholes, which are known to negatively impact artist revenues? Values: >Balance & Fairness >Legal Values Loyalties: a. Duty to service b. Duty to subscribers c. Duty to shareholders d. Duty to Intellectual Property e. Duty to Art…
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Artwork That Reminds Us History Is Absolute
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” -George Orwell The facts of the past cannot be objectively altered regardless of belief or opinion. They can, however, be tainted by those wishing to assume power. It is critical that we understand the past as it…
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Toronto Inventor Tackles Awkward Toilet Paper Holders
Toilet paper … it’s one of life’s necessities. Then why is the roll so difficult to replace? The problem lies in the awkward spring tube holder that always leaves you fumbling. No one wants to deal with it. We all know of that one person that always fails to change out the toilet paper roll.…
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Natural World Immediacy A Rare Concept
Immediacy? “Nothing important comes into being overnight; even grapes or figs need time to ripen. If you say that you want a fig now, I will tell you to be patient. First, you must allow the tree to flower, then put forth fruit; then you have to wait until the fruit is ripe. So if…