cityofsound

Manual

Manual is a collection of writing by web-writers ... collated in a lovely PDF designed by Dean Textism Allen, to be printed out and read offline at your leisure.

lowercasesound, SuperCollider (sw)

Nice Wired article on the lowercasesound scene. I've been a member of a lowercasesound mailing list for a couple of years now (mainly quietly lurking, which doesn't seem that inappropriate in this case). It's led me to discover some fabulous new music, and some fabulous older music too, principally John Cage and Morton Feldman.
[via Interconnected]

Concerning some less-lowercase-but-still-experimental sounds, you're often talking SuperCollider, not Lidell and Vogel but a Mac-based audio program (as heard on Autechre records, or most things Mego). And it became a free, open source project yesterday. It's available for download at http://www.audiosynth.com/.
[via DroneOn]

Various events, shows

Various shows and events, essentially unrelated (or are they?). All via ResAlert

BANKSY
May 30, 6:00PM Central London, UK
Graffiti artist Banksy, whose illustrious spray paint can has struck the Tate Gallery steps as well as the penguin enclosure at the London Zoo, will unveil new work tonight somewhere in Central London. Send an e-mail to invite@bansky.co.uk to receive directions, and see the site below for more info on this subversive artist.
http://www.banksy.co.uk/

DESIGNERS REPUBLIC
June 5 - June 30 La Capella de l'Antic Hospital de Santa Creu c/Hospital 56, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Sonar 2002 and the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona present a major retrospective of work by the cutting edge Designers Republic. Spanning 16 years, this show is being billed as "the most extensive exhibition of tDR's greatest hits and exclusive rarities never before shown in the same space." For further information, please contact abby@thedesignersrepublic.com.
http://www.sonar.es

JAMES TURRELL: INTO THE LIGHT
June 2 through April 30, 2003, Opening June 1, The Mattress Factory, 500 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA
New works by light artist James Turrell will be on display in this major exhibition. The Mattress Factory will celebrate its 25th Anniversary and the opening of the new exhibition on June 1, from dusk to dawn. The unique 25-hour celebration event will include a vast array of musical entertainment, performances and food. Info: 412-231-3169.
http://www.mattress.org/

WARSAW WAFU FUN: KAIJU BIG BATTEL + ENON
June 7, 9:00PM, Warsaw, 261 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Kaiju Big Battel has outgrown its Massachusetts stomping-ground and is now ready to invade Brooklyn. Join 800 Kaiju fans along with 20+ monsters, alien beasts and heroes as Kaiju Big Battel and musical guests Enon star in Warsaw Wafu Fun. This Friday's highly anticipated event -- complete with 15 blocks of crushable cityscape, Kaiju Jumbotrons and one reinforced Kaiju Danger Cage -- will be Kaiju Big Battel's first ever full-scale performance in New York City. Tickets are available at ticketweb.com as well as Ear Wax Records and The Village Underground. Info: 718-387-5252
http://www.kaiju.com/

Loosely joined small pieces mapped onto firmly joined larger pieces of Manhattan

This is great. NYCBloggers.com maps New York-based weblogs and bloggers onto their real-world, physical space locales. You can even view weblogs by subway station. I love these collisions between the "distancelessness of the Web" as David Weinberger has it, and the very real local communities-of-interest which exist within cities.

I'm reading Weinberger's Small Pieces Loosely Joined (like every other bugger) which is also great, so far. He notes, early on:

"We're getting to know many more people in many more associations than the physics of the real world permits, and these molecules, no longer bound to the solid earth, have gained both the randomness and the freedom of the airborne."

Which is absolutely true. I possibly even 'know' a few of those NYC bloggers. And yet, as has been evidenced by a few hundred years of communications technologies inter-relating with cities, these small pieces also tend to reinforce local communities in cities too. Sites like NYCBloggers seem to effortlessly coexist in both virtual and physical space(s) - someone decides to knock up a site listing NYC bloggers, in the meantime casually illustrating the infinitely flexible tensile strength between these small pieces - beautiful.
[via Matt Jones]

Radio stream > mp3 > iPod > Music for Commuting

"My new favourite internet radio station: cliqhop idm at SomaFM. Now, if only someone would create a streaming-MP3 to radio broadcast gateway, and a device to let me tune in. I've a feeling I'm going to have to write something to capture the stream during the night and upload to my iPod first thing when I wake up for that morning commute."

Matt 'Interconnected' Webb articulates another example of a new music experience, in this case just out of reach (but not for long I suspect). Ideas like this occur at a rate of knots - it's a thunderously exciting time to be working with music and the Internet.

SimCity 4 on the horizon

Oh dear. All my well-laid plans for a fabulous and successful life surely lie in ruins if I ever get my hands on this. The hours I've spent on previous versions will surely pale in comparison if this is as good as it's supposed to be . Promised improvements include truly local cause-and-effect, extra-city context, smarter buildings etc. etc. Bugger.
[via Haddock]

Film Philosophy

Tired of just watching the film? Then why not try this marvellous Film-Philosophy site. Slightly head-crushing, but some good stuff if you're in the mood.
[via Matt Fretwell - thanks!]

Brulé not burnt

"Rewind to two summers ago and I'm lying out on my heli-pad in Stockholm's archipelago (sadly I own the pad but no chopper) on a perfect Baltic Saturday in August. Beside me is Wallpaper's entertaining editor Melina Keays. As she hates the sun, she's sporting large Chlo� sunglasses and an electric-green kaftan. I believe I'm wearing vintage Prada trunks in chocolate brown and Piz Buin SPF4 oil. We're halfway through a lovely French ros�, some new Swedish musical discovery is escaping from the house and we're contemplating a late afternoon kayak around the island ... We cranked out issue five from a pair of Macs in a windowless room and immediately celebrated our good fortune poolside at the Four Seasons in Bali."

Tyler Brulé reflects on his still-fabulous life, in The Guardian. Classic. Hilarious. And yet, Brulé was still somehow responsible for one of the only contemporary, mainstream productions (in any medium) to repeatedly engage with 'the city', and the idea of urban living as a positive endeavour; something to aspire to, rather than be afraid of (the latter theme is still prevalent in English culture, at least). The fact that its other aspirational targets were somewhat limited and sometimes facile is neither here nor there. You read into it what you wanted. What you read in it next ... who knows ...

Urbis Opening 1 July

The Urbis museum I helped curate/research last year is gearing up for opening, as is the press coverage. I'm still yet to actually see the finished version of the exhibit I worked on (a multimedia 'kiosk'-based exhibit on "Imagining The City"), and I'll tell the full story here sooner or later, but early reports are that it's been realised pretty darn well. The building itself is certainly striking, as this opening paragraph from The Observer makes clear.

"It's like a giant iceberg rising out of the city centre, shiny glass all glistening against the clear blue sky. Inside, a glass elevator takes you on a one-minute 'sky glide' to a point 35 metres above the city. The cityscape sprawls beyond and below. Welcome to Urbis, Manchester's shiny £30m new museum dedicated to the urban environment. When it opens, on 1 July, you will be able to experience life in cities around the world, from the hum of helicopters above the traffic gridlock in Sao Paulo to the nocturnal activities of Parisian graffiti artist, Andre. But hold on a minute - Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris - Manchester?"

From The Observer magazine

Smart Cellphones and Cities

Matt Jones points to a Salon article, briefly discussing the relationship between i-Mode take-up and urban form. Whilst the Salon article is a bit basic, there are no doubt interesting correlations between urban form, microniches of time and lifestyle, and the efficacy of portable digital media products.