Cuttlefish Blog http://www.cuttlefish.org/feeds/rss/blog The Cuttlefish Blog is updated weekly by Sean Clark. You can also view the blog as a picture list. You can send any feedback to Sean at seanclark@gmail.com. See Sean's Home Page for more information about his past activities. en-GB Cuttlefish Digital Arts Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:54:06 GMT http://www.cuttlefish.org/ communityPortals v1.1 by Cuttlefish Multimedia Ltd seanc@cuttlefish.com (Administrator) 30 Cuttlefish Digital ArtsThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:12:57 GMT Blog | Back From Derbyshire I popped up to Derbyshire this weekend with my friend Geoff. The weather was perfect - even up on the moors. We managed to visit a couple of stone circles while we were there. Firstly, Arbor Low, the 'stonehenge of the north' and then over to Nine Ladies on Stanton Moor.

Arbor Low was as magnificant as ever and I'm pleased to say that Nine Ladies was looking good too. At times I've found Nine Ladies looking quite shabby, with rubbish scattered nearby and signs of fires having been lit in the circle itself. After 4,000 years I think it deserves a bit more respect than that!

See some pics [link http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157619783595576/]here[/link].

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/lXUY35u-Xjc/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-111217 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-111217 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:50:18 GMT Event | Stench IV @ The Phoenix Stench IV took place at The Phoenix on Friday - the last of our events to take place there before the 'old' Phoenix closes and the new one opens under the name of 'Phoenix Square' in the Cultural Quarter.

A (intentionally) slightly less packed programme than last time started with turntablist James Kelly and myself (as Cuttlefish) on projections (pictured). This was followed by an eye and ear stomping performance by Mick Greirson and then a fantastic audiovisual performance by Modulate. Upstairs Burntprogress payed music contributed by local musicians and downstairs we ran ArtScanner.

We had a moderate sized crowd - especially given that the student term has finished and it was pouring with rain! The next planned show will be in the autumn, although we are looking to run a "Stenchival" in the summer. Stay tuned for more information...

See more pictures, and (soon) video at [link]http://stench.org.uk/events/2009/06/05/stench_iv[/link]

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/jMhBhP8zFII/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-111040 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-111040 Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:51:08 GMT Schumacher College | Week 2 For my second week at Schumacher College the focus of our studies shifted to Gaia Theory and ecological systems in general. Frijof presented materials from his "Hidden Connections" and "Web of Life" books and Stephan Harding presented work from his book "Animate Earth". After one session Stephan took us up to Dartmoor for a "Gaia walk" (pictured) where we looked at the systems he had been describing in the morning. This was a great experience. Other highlights from the week included a tour of the forest garden next to the college and presentations from other course participants

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/FxWyfzPfXVA/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110986 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110986 Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:32:07 GMT Schumacher College | Day 6/7 After a week of studying the science of Leonardo with Frijof Capra at Schumacher was time for a couple of days off. I used it as an opportunity to review my notes from the previous week and do some video recording around the college.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/7a8jw1kcSCw/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110985 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110985 Fri, 22 May 2009 18:59:43 GMT Schumacher College | Day 3/4/5 Where do I start? It's been a really packed few days. Various sessions with Frijof Capra discussing the science of Leonardo. A 'gaia' walk with Stephan Harding around the Dartington estate. Plus cooking, gardening, cleaning and eating. Schumacher College really is a amazing andfulfillingplace to be. I've also been doing a good amount of thinking about my artwork and future direction. I'll summarise this after the course.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/ymudcC06TaU/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110455 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110455 Tue, 19 May 2009 23:09:36 GMT Schumacher College | Day 2 Another full day at [link http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk]Schumacher College[/link]. Starting with a session with Fritjof Capra, then a very interesting open discussion with Stephan Harding, Brian Goodwin and Fritjof (pictured). In the afternoon we had a "fireside chat" with Satish Kumar. My workgroup was on scullery duty today - general tidying up after meals and mopping. In the evening there were presentations from course members on their work, including myself talking about the development of my interactive artworks. What a full day.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/Oj45RL9yRM8/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110346 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110346 Mon, 18 May 2009 22:12:42 GMT Schumacher College | Day 1 I arrived at Schumacher College in Totnes, Devon today to participate in a two week course being taught by Fritjof Capra entitled "Living Networks: From Leonardo to Lovelock & Beyond". It's my first time at the college. We started will the guided tour, the library, meeting rooms, kitchen and eating areas and then a brief getting to know you session. Then followed dinner and the first introductory session with Fritjof. The college is a very relaxing place, and I still can't quite believe that I have two whole weeks here!

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/g8AfJVfDKP8/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110321 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110321 Fri, 15 May 2009 11:17:18 GMT RADIO | Say hello to M0JPP Many years ago I took and passed the "Radio Amateur Exam". This enabled me to apply for a radio amateur license and (more importantly for me at the time) gave me a good excuse to learn about electronics, radio and useful things you can do with a soldering iron! Recently, I've been getting interested in radio and TV transmission again - albeit from a different perspective. My current idea is to create audio "structures" by sampling sounds and pictures from across the radio spectrum. It's early days yet, but I think there is a decent idea for an artwork here. Anyway, I decided to re-apply for a broadcast license and have received the call sign "M0JPP". i don't know if I will be using it to transmit that much, but it might come in handy in the future.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/PLq1gpxVqbQ/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110146 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110146 Fri, 15 May 2009 11:31:38 GMT Event | Stench IV @ The Phoenix The next Stench event will be happening at The Phoenix in Leicester on the 5th June 2009. It's going to be a great night with audiovisual performances from Modulate and Mick Grierson and others. See the [link http://stench.org.uk/events/2009/06/05/stench_iv]event page[/link] on the Stench site for more details. Also, keep an eye out for "Stenchival" this summer. More details to follow.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/vt84DIaoQIY/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-110151 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-110151 Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:14:56 GMT Event | Ears and Eyes Event on Friday This Friday 1st May we will be presenting the final show for the residency I have been doing at the Music Technology Innovation department at DMU. "Ears and Eyes" will take place at the PACE building on campus from 7pm.

As part of the show I will be doing a new visual set with circuit bending maestro ASMO. This will be based around my spinning lights visuals and a new visual instrument I have been working on in Max/MSP/Jitter.

The event is free and all are welcome!

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/4W1cctpy1-c/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-109277 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-109277 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:35:03 GMT Shambala Festival 2009 I've just heard that I will be doing my laser/lights installation at the Shambala festival this year with Modulate. Shambala is a great, small, creative festival that takes place in Northamptonshire. It's very family friendly and I always enjoy doing stuff there. See [link]http://www.shambalafestival.org[/link] for more information.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/cFgEo6kaEM8/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-109268 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-109268 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:05:12 GMT Work in Progress | Laser Installation I had an opportunity to do my first piece of truly interactive laser work at the recent Stench event. Working with music from James Kelly, I mixed a live laser sequence based around six-sided patterns. I used the [link http://www.showtacle.com/Fiesta.php]Fiesta![/link] laser control software with MIDI control coming from my external controller (in the studio I have it working with Max/MSP control, but I need to do a bit more work before using it live). During the event Bathysphere's Stu Smith took a number of pictures and included the laser show in his video of the event. Visit the [link http://stench.org.uk/events/2009/03/27/stench_at_the_phoenix]event's Stench page[/link] to have a look.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/xbhajHy05Xs/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-108843 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-108843 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:27:23 GMT Work in Progress | Spinning Lights I've been a fan of persistence of vision toys for quite a long time. Indeed, I produced an [link http://www.cuttlefish.com/static/pov/]exhibition about them back in 2002[/link].

Recently started to get in to them again and have been scouring eBay for the the newer LED-based toys. These typically use the POV effect by spinning the LEDs to create interesting displays.

I plan to use the toys in my live work by creating live video loops of them that I will synchronise with music. The first outing of this new set will hopefully be with Stu Smith's ASMO in early May.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/8MZp5gAvhJI/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-108842 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-108842 Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT Event | Stench III @ The Phoenix The latest Stench event took place at the Phoenix in Leicester last night. A good size crowd saw a variety of performances from Leicester-based artists and musician plus a film showing form 7" Cinema. For pictures and video clips from the event visit the [link http://stench.org.uk/]Stench web site[/link].

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/GOcaIiEz9GY/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-108840 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-108840 Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:08:19 GMT Event | Solder Soldiers @ The Great Central Gallery, Leicester I went to see the "Solder Soldiers" event at the new Great Central Gallery in Leicester last night. The event was organised by Bathysphere and featured performances by kREEPA, ASMO and Wrongbot with DJ Myoptik. I did lights. If you haven't come across cirtcuit bending before then it's basically music made using modified electronic toys and home-build circuitry. The challenge (at least to me) is to turn the chaotic sounds produced by the cirtcuits in to something resembling a composition :-) Last night was a good showcase of the art. At times seemingly random, but with enough rhythms and beats to hold my attention.

I was also very impressed with the venue. [link http://www.thegreatcentral.org/]The Great Central[/link] is a new gallery and studio being set up by Eric Rosoman and Stephen Lynch. Small and independent, this sort of activity is the perfect counterpoint to the large top-down arts developments taking place in Leicester at the moment.

My pictures from the event can be found on [link http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157615206241005/]my Flickr page[/link].

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/3L84gVn12Ys/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-107846 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-107846 Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:19:37 GMT Event | Janek Schaefer @ St Nicholas, Leicester A great show tonight. Janek Schaefer and James Kelly played tonight at St Nicholas in Leicester. See [link http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157614890426394/]pictures[/link] and [link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzd45KKL-q8]video[/link] from the show.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/hMLxnzvHG6E/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-107461 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-107461 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT Archive | Pictures and Videos I love finding old hard drives, you never know what you are going to find! On an old 12Gb USB drive I found a few gems. There were a whole bundle of pictures from a [link http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157614693628692/]Shamen show at The Forum in 1995[/link] plus some pictures from a [link http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157614682248700/]Zion Train show in the early 2000s[/link]. I also found some good video material. There were some [link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ_G4lf9S6k]Zion Train videos from Glastonbury 2000[/link], a [link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9DypkscNKI]Love Grocer video[/link] from 2003 and some video footage from the [link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7H7lBF4KGs]Fragments of Identity[/link] installation in 2003.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/7Rj4wcN7sZI/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-107254 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-107254 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:47:32 GMT Event | Stelarc Presentation I went to see artist [link http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/]Stelarc[/link] give a presentation at Loughborough University. I've been aware of his work for many years but this was the first time I've actually heard him talk about it. I was very impressed. I had previously associated his work with extreme "techno fetishism", but I can see there is a lot more depth to his work than this. There's also a lot more humour than I expected!

See some pictures from the presentation [link http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157614343639255/]here[/link]. I'm the one with only two ears.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/eIkIpnoLEbY/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-107260 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-107260 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:19:13 GMT Event | Living Networks: From Leonardo to Lovelock & Beyond I've just booked to go on a two week course being co-taught by physicist and writer [link www.fritjofcapra.net]Fritjof Capra[/link]. I've been a follower of Capra's work since I read "The Tao of Physics" whilst a graduate researcher. His later books introduced me to systems theory, which has been a constant inspiration in my art work and was the focus of my MA research. The course is titled "Living Networks: From Leonardo to Lovelock & Beyond" and is being run at the [link www.schumachercollege.org.uk]Schumacher College[/link] in May. I can't wait!

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/ldWoFlRlt5c/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-106882 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-106882 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:14:55 GMT Tech | GPS Development on the Nokia N810 Despite calling myself an "Artist and Technologist", most of my blogging is actually about my arts work. So to make a change I'm going to talk tech for a bit.

I got hold of a Nokia N810 at the weekend. This is a wifi-enabled Internet tablet that runs a version of Linux and contains a GPS receiver. It struck me as a perfect platform for developing location-based services on (such as SoundMappr). I'm already doing iPhone development and, despite being a fantastic platform, all software has to be released through the iTunes store. This makes it somewhat cumbersome when developing software for release to an Open Source community.

What's more, I'm ultimately more interested in developing *web-based* GPS aware applications (not dedicated software programs) and the N810 comes with a decent Mozilla browser, as well as having the potential to host a full web development environment.

So, after unpacking the machine I went about setting up my development environment. First, I found a version of the Apache 2 web server that could be installed on it, then the PHP5 programming language, then the sqlite database system and finally a few editing tools to allow me to write programs. It works great! A complete web-application development system that fits in my pocket.

Next was to get to grips with reading data from the GPS receiver. GPS on Linux was new to me, but I found that the standard way of doing it was to install a GPSd, or "GPS daemon", that communicates with the GPS hardware and passes location data to the applications that need it. This was easy enough to do, I installed the "Navit" system on the N810 which automatically starts the GPSd when you run it. I've since found that other, better, GPSd software is available, but I'll stick with what I know works for now.

Finally was the task of getting the PHP programming language reading data from the GPSd. A search of the internet found a script entitled, appropriately enough, "php-gpsd" which did exactly that. A little bt of fiddling later and I was able to write a web page that ran on the N810 and displayed the current location of the device via the GPS reading.

It all works seamlessly and everything was available as free downloads. My next job is to write a version of my SoundMap player running in a web environment on the N810. I'll naturally be releasing the software as Open Source when I've finished it...

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cuttlefishblog/~3/t2aKhQsfjgY/blog.html http://www.cuttlefish.org/#element-106539 Sean Clarkhttp://www.cuttlefish.org/blog.html#item9098-106539 Sean Clarknonadult