New Website

I have finally got around to getting my own hosting sorted and now have a new website   >> here. <<

I won’t be putting up any new content on this blog and so for new stuff, go there.

Lovely.

Transend / Transmit – Leeds first discussion meeting

I went down to the Holy Trinity Church, Leeds last night to see what was happening at the first Transend / Transmit meeting: a discussion about setting up the project.

Introduced by Louise Marchal and Jo Tyler, Transend / Transmit are two interlinked art schemes / projects that explore the idea of broadcasting and the relaying of information.

Transend/Transmit aim to link Leeds’ Holy Trinity Church to Sunderland’s Holy Trinity Church, both designed by the same architect, William Etty of York in the 18th century.

Streams of data transfer – physical mail, FM transmissions, digital streaming, telephone feedback loops and DIY electronics were all mentioned as potential disciplines that could be explored.

Other topics included:

The nature of radio content, and it’s evolution through the introduction of the digital radio platform.
How does podcasting affect the idea of ‘broadcasting’ in a traditional sense: if you listen to a ‘breakfast show’ in the evening; is it still a breakfast show?
Using DIY technology to transmit information – homebrew electronics?
Possible collaboration with local broadcasters / organisations
Using FaceBook as a promotional / info network
Running a series of ‘workshops’, or ‘media labs’ to encourage participation from other artists / creators

All in all, a very interesting discussion that shows the beginnings of a potentially very interesting long term project for both Leeds and Sunderland.

Thanks to Bruce Davies + the Arts@Trinity group for hosting the evening, I look forward to more of these! If you are interested in taking part in these upcoming projects get in touch.

Samenhang – Map gallery, Leeds

Last night I attended the private view launch party of Samenhang – an international exhibition of contemporary art from artists that are alumni of the EEA – the European Exchange Academy – that has been running since 2003.

Once I found the gallery [it is a tad out of the way, tucked away on the outskirts of Leeds city centre] I entered into a crazy atmosphere of inflatable sculptures hanging from the ceiling and numerous video screens showing a host of different visual pieces.

Of particular interest to me was Marguerite Leudet’s sonic art piece, ‘Speakers‘ consisting of batteries + small piezo speakers. I liked the simplicity of the physical elements that contrasted with a mysteriously undulating rhythm of the sound produced.

Another notable piece was two photographs by Stefan Ruitenbeek – it took me a little while to adjust to these and stomach them, well worth seeing!

The evening proved to be a great success and kick started a very interesting exhibition. Samenhang will be running until Friday the 13th – I advise that you check it out before then. See http://www.novgorod.co.uk/ for more information.

MAP Gallery: Hope House, 65 Mabgate, Leeds LS9 7DR.

Spotify – my experience after a week

EDIT – I have blurred the screen grabs in this post as it’s prohibited to post ’screen dumps’ by the Beta Agreement. You’ll have to give the service a go if you want to be able to see the features properly…

According to their website, “Spotify is a new way to enjoy music.“

Spotify is currently in public beta stage [since Oct 08], works on Mac OSX [10.4.0 on], Windows XP/Vista, Linux under Wine and currently has three levels of service:

- Free: if you have an invite from another user [with audio + visual adverts]

- 0.99p / day: if you have already been invited to use Spotify and would like an advert-free service

- £9.99 / month: If you want to use the service without an invitation and without adverts

Using Spotify

I was invited to use Spotify by The Hodge and was a little unsure what to expect – was this internet radio? Not quite. Would it replace iTunes as a music player? Not sure. I guess the closest comparison I can make to Spotify is Last.fm and similar streaming websites. One of the first things I noticed about Spotify was it’s speed – it is almost as good as just using a normal mp3 player such as iTunes or Winamp if you are on a cable / DSL connection. Spotify’s FAQ section recommends at least 256kbps speed.

Spotify seems fairly robust – I have seen the audio stream drop out a couple of times during use but not enough to annoy me / want me to stop using the program. I have been listening to it whilst working at my desk and it is a great way of finding out about new music / listening to fresh content without having to download the files / update your mp3 collection.

Adverts, you say?

I was intrigued at Spotify’s business model at first and impressed that they have managed to gain support from major record labels such as EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG amongst others. Spotify’s site describes the service as “an unparalleled user experience and a compelling legal alternative to piracy.” I was apprehensive about how intrusive the adverts would be and was pleasantly surprised – it’s nowhere near as bad as commercial radio stations in the UK.

I made a log of the adverts I heard during the course of a full day and found that for roughly every 30 mins of listening Spotify played one advert of approx. 30 seconds in length. As you may expect, you can’t skip through these adverts as you can the music [you can stop them but have to play in full before listening to more music]. These adverts are for all sorts of things from direct.gov talking about tax returns to travel agents and film promo trailers.

These adverts are a very small price to pay for what is essentially a very good service – if you have a decent net conneciton it really can be comparable to using iTunes. I’m not sure that I would pay for the ad-free services yet as they don’t quite annoy me enough to do so.

The Music

Don’t expect to find every single artist you’ve ever heard of on Spotify. Searching for more obscure artists will sometimes return zero results. However – I am very impressed with the amount of content that is up there [and still growing]. I have found electronica and dance music producers that I wouldn’t consider ‘mainstream’ on there, as well as a whole host of new artists and music that I haven’t heard of before.

I guess that is the killer feature of Spotify for me – it’s like when Napster first came around and suddenly I had access to all sorts of music that I might not have otherwise experienced. Only with Spotify it’s legal and less hassle – it’s not like trying to fish for high quality downloads in amongst all the rubbish people tend to have in their shared folders.

Radio, search or browse

I began using Spotify by searching for specific artists which worked fine and led to finding other music in a similar vein / style to the stuff I was searching for. I then tried out the ‘radio’ stations – you can choose from a number of ‘genres’ to include in the random radio playlist and just let it play. I found the results to be good – despite a few rogue genres slipping through the net – [Got some country coming through the 'techno' genre...]. You can also define a time frame in decades from which to search.

Spotify allows you to click through links to find new music – the artist / title / album all lead to more information. In this way it is possible to find similar music styles, compilation albums that artists appear on, cover art, album reviews and so on.

You can also share the music you are listening to with other Spotify users – simply right click the track you are listening to and you can either send them a link to that particular track, or create a playlist for sharing later. This is all very easy and intuitive within the pleasant interface. There is a ‘Buy From’ option that is greyed out  in the above screenshot – apparently the option is available on some tracks and will become more widespread as Spotify arrange deals with more retailers.

Conclusion

I spoke to Zia George from Spotify today and asked her a few questions about the service. According to her, “it’s about access rather than ownership” – and that appeals to me. Why do we feel the need to acquire as much data as possible when many of us have access to a high speed data connection that can feed our needs on demand? In a similar fashion to the concept of cloud computing, Spotify is evidence of a shift in data trends where we use more steamlined terminals to access data from a remote source.

I have found Spotify very easy to use and definitely something I will continue to use every day:

Good points:

- The software integrates with my MacBook’s Play/Pause/Next+Prev Track buttons – this is a big thing for me + usability.

- The service is relatively bug-free and easy to use.

- I have found out about new artists that I might not have otherwise come across.

- I have been able to listen to music I haven’t heard in ages / used to own + have since lost.

Bad points:

- It would be nice if I could make the player smaller, akin to the iTunes player.

- There are [very occasional] dropouts in the audio – sometimes particular tracks get stuck / can’t play properly but I must emphasise that this is only for the minority of tracks I have come across during my use of Spotify and isn’t a massive down point for me – just something that comes with streaming audio services.

-

Spotify have made a really great service that will no doubt improve over time as uptake increases. I expect to see it appearing on more people’s computers this year – mainstream media is starting to pick up on it with reviews in the Guardian and the Independent. Spotify has certainly been spread around Twitter: check out the screenshot above to see it ranking in between iPhone + Gaza as a search term! Distribution is limited at the moment and I think that can only be a good thing whilst they iron out any issues with the service and work on developments.

Word is that a mobile service is on the cards.. although I reckon you’d have to have a fairly hefty data allowance + good signal strength for it to be worth it. For now, my iPod is fine when I’m on the move, and Spotify suits my desk work.

I do wonder how many people will subscribe to the £9.99 per month ‘Premium’ service though – it seems a little steep to me for now. Then again, I guess it depends on how annoying or frequent the adverts on the free service become.

Rhubarbing around in West Yorkshire

Yesterday I went to Oldroyd’s Rhubarb farm in Carlton, West Yorkshire with Chris and Jay to record the noise of it growing. That’s right – rhubarb makes a noise when force grown in warm, dark sheds due to the speed at which it is ‘forced’ to grow. I first heard about this here on the BBC news website a while ago, and we had been in contact with Oldroyd’s since the start of last year about going to record the rhubarb in their nursery sheds.  This forced rhubarb is apparently a lot sweeter than outdoor rhubarb, and Oldroyd’s were keen to show us around their farm [although we forgot to ask if we could sample any of their crop].

We took along some condenser mics to capture the ambience of the sheds, as well as contact mics to record the creaking and the popping of the rhubarb stems. We got a lot of decent sounds that now need editing in preparation for some rhubarb inspired composition. I also need to clean the mud off my laptop and microphone stands!

Thanks to Janet and Neil for their understanding and letting us into their sheds with our microphones.

Wiimote IR spraycans are now ‘FriiSpray’

Following development over the christmas / new year’s / festive break, I am pleased to say that we now have a title for the install – ‘FriiSpray’.

This is because we want the project to be open source, or ‘frii’, and tell others how we went about it so that they may recreate / build on what we have done. there’s a new site dedicated to the FriiSpray project:

http://friispray.co.uk

that will be filled with info in the coming few days.

We also have confirmed booking for the install at Raise the Roof event in Leeds, on Friday March 6th at the West Indian Centre. Exciting stuff! Now to build more IR spray cans…

Do I need mobile broadband?

I have recently been looking at mobile broadband packages available in the UK – USB sticks with a 3g connection and a heavy data restriction – starting at 3gig/month. Most of these contracts require you to sign up for 12, 18 or even 24 months to get a decent deal.There are a number of sites to ‘help’ you compare deals available and choose [/spend your cash] – I mainly looked at http://www.broadband-expert.co.uk/ and http://mobile.broadbandgenie.co.uk/ – I found them all to be much the same really

One question I have here is, just how different will available services be in 2 years’ time? I am certainly hesitant to sign up for a 24 month contract. Starting at about £15/month, this is also not a particularly cheap ‘punt’.

Another question I have asked myself is, how much will I really use mobile broadband? I mean, I have wifi at home, at work, at most of my friends’ houses, and I can usually find free wifi of sorts in town, even if it involves buying a coffee. When I’m not in any of these places, I’m usually walking/skating/riding somewhere – I don’t need to be online 60/60/24/7/52/365 – not at the moment anyway.

The only time I really notice a hankering for the internet regularly is when I travel by train. The train station is rubbish for free wifi, the establishments that supposedly offer the service can’t help when it doesn’t work, and options with The Cloud or T Mobile are wayy too expensive for me! I have been on a train from Leeds – London that had free wifi onboard which, despite being a little sketchy in places (as to be expected) was a godsend – I was amazed when I found it.

One possible solution I’ve come up with is using my n95 as a bluetooth modem with my Macbook. I have searched and searched for a decent data plan with my current carrier Orange UK and it doesn’t really look like a viable replacement for mobile broadband, as the speeds are dismal (~0.3 mbps when I tested) and the cost of data is high. However, if I don’t need to use the service much, it should be fine for emergencies. Apparently, I can ring Orange CS and arrange for a capped fee of £1 for 30mb of data in a day. That should cover emergency emails / web browsing for train times/maps/vital info searching, which is really all I need mobile interwebs for now.

So, to conclude, I couldn’t really justify the luxury of mobile broadband yet. I’m going to see how my n95 setup serves me, and wait for prices to come down / my income to go up / UK wide free wifi to be installed!

My mobile contract is also due for renewal soon, finding one with unlimited data could well be the way forward.

s

IR spray can

the first prototype can

Just finished putting together the first prototype IR spraycan for our tracking project using Johnny Chung Lee’s Wiimote Whiteboard software and a custom flash program. Virtual grafitti install to allow artists to create digital pieces – more info to come soon..

Next up are the pens!

Busy Friday

Had a hectic morning but things are starting to slot together for the business. It’s satisfying seeing the hard work starting to produce results. Despite getting soaked by the rain on the way into work, I’ve been cheerful all day!

Just found out that our sonic art installation, Junction is now running for an extra week – with guided sound walks happening tomorrow (Saturday). Great! Met another artist today – Julie Kaye (http://www.cannedcreative.com/) who has some very exciting ideas about some potential upcoming work.

Had a bit of a play on the office Wii at lunchtime – good for a bit of a break from the keyboard, and to have some banter based bonding with other members of the co-working community. Took part in a 4-way bowling game – came 2nd, not too bad

I am really enjoying the atmosphere in the Old Broadcasting House now: it seems to be filling up most days – sometimes a pain if you can’t find a desk, but a really buzzing environment with lots of ideas being shared / work being done. It’s nice to be able to come here as a seperate environment form home – although I do enjoy working from home too.

Got my new Moo.com cards throught today too – only sent off the designs on Wednesday! Very impressed with the service, although they seem to have messed up my design a little bit. Time for a complaint email / discount request!

Carriageworks again tonight, looking forward to it.

Work, etc.

So i started my new job today. Working as stage tech / ‘casual’ technician at the Carriageworks theatre, Leeds. The Leeds International Film Festival is on, and tonight I was helping op some of the video gear, and the sound + lighting in the main venue.

The people there seem friendly and I am really anjoying getting back into theatre tech. Once the pantomimes come about next month, then I’ll have some fun rigging lights and sorting out sets, props etc!

In other news, Outpost seems to be going ok, meeting some clients on Friday, and seen a call for work with a tight deadline on. It’s interesting setting up your own business, and trying to juggle it with other sources of income whilst you’re trying to get everything up to speed, and, hopefully be able to survive solely from the income of the business. We’ll see how the next year goes!

It’s all good fun – one thing that did strike me today though is, just how long I spend sorting emails out! Yes, email makes our world easier, things can be sent quicker, and we are more connected with each other. But where does this advanced connectivity start to affect our productivity? I think it’s definitely something to be careful of. Also, email is one thing – now we have twitter, with people updating from their phones, their netbooks, sometimes giving minute by minute accounts. I even have a routine now – of thinking, ‘ooh, should tweet about this’, etc. – after only a few weeks.

I’m not complaining about this technology / ways of interacting with the web and each other – quite the opposite. I am however very interested in seeing how it changes the way we interact, and ultimately lead our lives.