James Whitney

James Whitney with his brother John altered analogue computer equipment to give John the opportunity to create Lapis in 1966. James drew dot patterns for this film, but the camera was controlled by computer, allowing the images to be overlaid in multiple forms. The algorithmic, kaleidoscope like patterns, in combination with the sitar music, are mesmerizing and trance-full.




"In the early 1960s digital computers became available to artists for the first time (although they cost from $100,000 to several millions, required air conditioning, and therefore located in separate computer rooms, uninhabitable ‘studios’; programs and data had to be prepared with the keypunch, punch cards then fed into the computer; systems were not interactive and could produce only still images). The output medium was usually a pen plotter, microfilm plotter (hybrid bwn vector CRT and a raster image device), line printer or an alphanumeric printout, which was then manually transferred into a visual medium." (source)

July 2010 Calendar

You can click HERE to the download the calendar.

Quote from the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, art by UEK Multimedia Artist.

The Listening Project

Bao Phi (guy in first picture), one of the 4 "listeners" of the film, describes himself as a Spoken-Word Artist. The question they asked was:

"What does the world think of America?"

To find out, we traveled to fourteen countries around the globe, listening to people from all walks of life as they shared their views. The result is a feature documentary called "The Listening Project." Learn more about the film, share your own views and see what others are saying right now.

Click LINK to full 1:13 hours video on YouTube























picture source

The Listening Project: the global documentary film that asks the world, "what do you think of America?"

With the 2008 elections fast approaching, every presidential candidate is promising to "restore America's image abroad." But what does the world actually think of America? This seemingly simple question led to a global quest for four Americans, captured in the feature documentary "The Listening Project." Beautifully shot in verité style, the film follows the four American “listeners” on their thought-provoking journey through 14 countries. They linger in some unforgettable places, including a bling-bling Shanghai hip-hop club, a bullet-pocked Afghan village, and an AIDS-ravaged South African township. The breadth of U.S. impact on ordinary people's lives is revealed through emotional encounters with diverse and fascinating characters around the world. The result is a poignant and inspiring appeal to the viewer – and American voter – to consider what it means "to be a citizen, not just of the United States, but of the planet."

Each of the four American listeners serve as a unique and compelling tour guide on the global journey. Bao Phi is a first generation Vietnamese-American poet and self-described "nerd" who has only left the U.S. to visit family in Vietnam. Carrie Lennox is a 7th grade history teacher who relishes the opportunity to bring the lessons she'll learn back to the classroom. Baby boomer Bob Roeglin is a probation officer who talks about traveling "without fear" as a young man and wonders how different he'll find traveling in a post-9/11 world. And Han Shan is a 30-something human rights activist in New York who feels anxious about how much he doesn't know about the world.

The Listening Project explores America's role and responsibility in the world through the voices of regular people from many walks of life. The film touches upon myriad subjects including war, empire, immigration, religion, the environment, and pop culture. Opinions and responses run the gamut from admiration to anger, and include a healthy dose of humor. Both entertaining and educational, The Listening Project has been known to spur debates and discussions lasting twice as long as the feature-length film.
The film's co-directors and the four American listeners are available to screen the film and facilitate anything from a simple post-screening Q&A discussion to an interactive workshop on themes relating to global citizenship, the global distribution of power, wealth and resources, student activism, conflict resolution, and other topics brought out in the movie. (source)

LINK to homepage

Black Rain

Black Rain is sourced from images collected by the twin satellite, solar mission, STEREO. Here we see the HI (Heliospheric Imager) visual data as it tracks interplanetary space for solar wind and CME's (coronal mass ejections) heading towards Earth. Data courtesy of courtesy of the Heliospheric Imager on the NASA STEREO mission.

Working with STEREO scientists, Semiconductor collected all the HI image data to date, revealing the journey of the satellites from their initial orientation, to their current tracing of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Solar wind, CME's, passing planets and comets orbiting the sun can be seen as background stars and the milky way pass by.

As in Semiconductors previous work 'Brilliant Noise' which looked into the sun, they work with raw scientific satellite data which has not yet been cleaned and processed for public consumption. By embracing the artefacts, calibration and phenomena of the capturing process we are reminded of the presence of the human observer who endeavors to extend our perceptions and knowledge through technological innovation. (Source: semiconductor)




More HERE

Watch the video below:

... and click HERE for more sjort video from Semiconductor off Vimeo