Dalek interview / ustopia

I think there could be more talk around the News from the Sun show at the Phoenix. I was able to interview a Dalek and they are guardedly optimistic about the future ( depends if the Doctor has anything to do with it) . I am still reading about ustopia, seems to be a balance of views.​

​Nowadays it is not just aerials. Technology includes all sorts of mobile devices. Arts people have various opinions about the consequence for culture. Some recording engineers have doubts about the quality of the mp3. There could be links through Analog to Digital and also to animation. So far the demoscene is still under reported I think. I may try out ways to connect this on the Wild Show. 

Radio is one example where consumer electronics is reaching into the world of specialist equipment. DJ software is available for phones and tablets. Video also possible but the quality can vary. Conversation continues most Thursdays after the Wild Show so we can include a check on News from the Sun when it fits in. ​

Fiction in Phoenix basement for the next Phonicon

Depending on time around the music I will try to ask Chris and JD about some fiction for the next Phonicon, assuming there may be one. I thought it was a really interesting event that presented the whole of the Phoenix. The basement was included and there was a print workshop but on the sound side I think there could have been more. Maybe the second Phonic studio could have been open.

Around a scifi event it seems ok to play with time and space. Enough to continue round the year till the next similar occasion. I think there could be a story about a wizard upset at the poor promotion for their talk in the basement. Few people found it.​ They put a spell on the studio lock so nobody can use it till they are invited back with better publicity. When this happens it turns out that a Phonic listener has been locked in the studio for several weeks. They have survived and also made some dramatic recordings. Not sure what happens next. I will ask the storyteller when he returns.

Back to Sound / check with JD

Thinking a bit more about this Thursday. The StoryTeller is away so I will cover from 9 - 10. The I expect JD will arrive and about half past ten Chris will want to concentrate on music. Quite right too. Conversation can go on too long.

So maybe I will just mention the buildings and scans during the first hour and concentrate on sound when JD arrives. About three summers ago I tried to do a chat show during Beer at the Castle but it turns out that it takes a while to ask a question. On YouTube already are two interviews with Simon Egan and he answers a follow up question.​

The next phase of #thiscityscentre will be the sound for the installation. Also JD may think that sound is the topic for radio.​

Extending chat radio / quick images

Having looked at the previous post again I realise I am connecting around the radio show for other events. Not sure how the guests actually think about this so maybe by making it explicit they will indicate how things develop. Volkhardt Muller did return to talk about #thiscityscentre and I did let him know about my proposal to claim £30,000 and budget £5,000 for him as a subcontract. At the time I thought the most expensive item would be scanning the buildings. Meanwhile Fabian King has also returned to the Wild Show and informs us that it is still expensive to scan buildings but some equipment can be rented.

I still think that 2D collage of photos can be cheap and quick. We can link from the Wild Show Facebook page. Later video / TV may be possible but this would be on another level of budget.​

My enquiries suggest that it may be possible to repeat a tour for Stonehenge. The Olympics legacy should include some continuation of the bouncy installation. For one thing there was no restriction on photography. There are thousands of stills and video clips, many of them with  a Creative Commons copyright licence. I did enquire if the original is for sale or if there could be a limited edition. Apparently there is still only one and it may cost about £10,000 a day to set up. I know the Mayor of Exeter has not said no to the idea of Exeter as a long term home for Stonehenge. But the Lea Valley also has a case. I will be trying to find occasions over the summer when a budget might be available. Perhaps the continent should be included. The stone circles for summer meetings have been found throughout Europe.​

​One idea for a playful city is to clone buildings and move them around, possibly not to scale. Stonehenge is an interesting example as it suggests a temp city for the summer in a space that returns to being country. Somewhere like Sidmouth is a bit in between. Exeter is quite a small city, essentially a county town. 

But £10,00 for a day is quite a lot. It may be cheaper to do the scan again and print a 3D model. The scale could be fixed for video. I will mention something on the Wild Show and also update this blog with any news.​

T

Copy from Posterous - Playful Bristol

December 3, 2012 original date

Jeremy Deller links to playful Bristol, deadline looms

Over the weekend I edited an mp3 from the Wild Show last week into clips for YouTube.

found on "neorepliucants" though lots of Bladerunner also. Should get better search on NeoReplicants as more stuff  turns up.

This set also helps raise questions around copyright and social media. Video for Rougemont Global Broadcasting and other channels is usually limited to mostly music as clearance is more likely. Graphics from art venues is much more protected. The conversation on the Wild Show includes why we can select bits of sound for a show but normally cannot link to graphics of video on Facebook. Maybe this is changing, the blog form is intended to test this.

I have started to check out blogs relating to previous topics. I tried some collage on the bouncy Stonehenge, shifting it to Totnes and Sidmouth. Recent post about Jeremy Deller quotes his support for play in art, in particular the Bristol project for a playful city. Turns out there is a £30,000 budget but the deadline is this week. So my thinking so far is around moving bits of city to another one. I realise many other people already knew that it is possible to import a 3D object into a virtual world. But for me this is recent, as something I can do. Video is possible in Twinity but I am just doing 3D photos, sometimes with elements pasted in from an actaul photo.

http://www.watershed.co.uk/news/watershed-launches-30000-international-playable-city-award/

Exeter seems to be just big enough as a city to have the essentials to complement the web - minimum of a cafe and a tech shop. I have also recently visited Lancaster and Taunton. Both work pretty well. A model virtual version works best for a city that can be walked across as far as the central bit is concerned. Bristol is now on far too many sites as I remember it. There is the waterside area around where the docks used to be. There are shops near the motorway exits way to the north. I know there is a shopping area closer to the centre but have not been there recently.

A quick search on Google Maps tells me there is a Castle Park but I can't see much of a castle. Scan somewhere else and move it in, maybe as a projection or through some form of goggles. There are several ways to add something to a screen based on recognising a barcode or image. As explained above, stills and video can be produced through compositing.

In Exeter we could check out which aspects of a university campus could be moved back to the centre. The Phoenix and the area near the museum were once a base for Exeter University. The Arts School moved out beyond Barrack Road and then to Plymouth.   Recently the new Forum project happened to eliminate a bookshop from the university resources. It may turn out that this is very sensible if mobile devices replace the functions of a printed book. But it raises a question about other aspects of the site such as the library and the lecture spaces. Could video conferencing have a role? Bristol still has a university in the city so this is a useful comparison.

More later, still a couple of days.

I think most of the budget should be used for scans, both objects and buildings.

I wonder if Volkhardt Mueller would contribute? His work on Any High Street seemed to me to be more about Any City. When he was on the Wild Show I think he was genuinely interested in an app or some way of distributing images through a digital system. Not sure what the business model would be. The Bristol funding assumes creative commons but this might be combined with something else later.

Posted by Will Pollard