tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197595122011-07-07T20:19:00.719-05:00A discussion of new and emerging arts, particularly those that involve sound.Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.comBlogger1131100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-59080111117729035602010-04-27T22:50:00.002-05:002010-04-27T23:32:12.674-05:00

Hello again everyone!This semester has been a busy one, with hosting the 2010 SEAMUS National Conference, teaching, recovering, etc. I'm teaching a course in circuit bending/hacking this semester and it's gone quite well.We've explored all kinds of interesting circuits, based primarily on the work of Nic Collins. This has included a variety of microphones, from contact microphones to electret

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-41276874154455677542009-06-06T19:38:00.003-05:002009-06-06T19:59:13.405-05:00

Hi everyone:I've seriously neglected the blog for over a year. This isn't due to lack of interest - far from it. Rather, I've managed to busy myself with life and other writings, including regular columns for my local newspaper, a now defunct wine magazine...not to mention my job and life.Anyway, I recently traveled to Washington DC for a performance, and while there we went to a large IMAX

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-62697715586457520742008-08-19T11:41:00.001-05:002008-08-19T11:41:26.507-05:00

Hi, I'm showing off my blog!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-47819420437126077432008-03-12T10:22:00.002-05:002008-03-12T10:27:42.102-05:00

Via Neatorama, the Chicago Methods Reporter has posted an interesting article about the Micro-Fiber Militia - a group of urban knitters who have recently begun adding their knitted creations to Chicago's eyesores. The group notes the calm that comes from the act of knitting as a reason for their art, but they also enjoy the temporary aspect - if the weather is bad, their art is ruined. The

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-69400370138371371672008-02-04T20:29:00.000-06:002008-02-04T20:36:55.672-06:00

My TV crapped out the other night (R.I.P.). To help pass the time I watched "Half Baked" the other night...a DVD I ordered on a whim in my undergrad days (oh so long ago). Anyway, I couldn't help but click on a story about the percentage of popular songs that mention substance abuse.Researchers tracked the top 279 songs as measured by Billboard last year. How many mentioned substance abuse?1

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-61118787043880026362008-01-16T06:03:00.000-06:002008-01-16T06:08:49.215-06:00

Woke up this morning at 3am and have failed miserably attempting to get those last few minutes of sleep. Yes, it's true - even professors get stressed when the new semester starts.Anyway, I decided to go through some old papers that I've written. I stumbled across a trove of brief papers that I wrote for graduate seminar (appropriately numbered MUSC 666) on Rock and Roll. These gave me a

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-2829454526232171602007-10-18T19:58:00.000-05:002007-10-18T20:02:27.195-05:00

This semester I'm teaching a course in circuit bending called "DIY Audio." Part of my motivation to teach this course is that electronic musicians rely so much on software to create and manipulate sounds that we sometimes lose sight of our roots. Students in this class are learning about basic electronics, soldering as well as getting a chance to be creative and really sniff out as many

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-62078113137361087652007-10-01T07:18:00.000-05:002007-10-01T07:40:54.431-05:00

Beep Beep.50 years ago this week, the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite. Weighing 183 pounds and about the size of a basketball, the polished sphere was the first object placed into orbit by humans. It travelled at about 170,000 miles an hour - about 98 minutes an orbit. It transmitted that beep for 22 days (until the batteries wore out) and returned to earth 3 months after

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-32460067044373498572007-08-15T13:38:00.000-05:002007-08-15T13:52:54.042-05:00

On September 14th the Liverpool Philharmonic will present a concert in Second Life. Reports of this event focus on the novelty of it, and I'll admit that a full symphony concert is a probably a first for SL.How does a symphony put on a concert in a virtual world like SL? It's actually quite simple. Like most live SL musical events, the audio is simply streamed in (like an internet radio

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-24284630790286947102007-08-14T09:26:00.000-05:002007-08-14T09:29:30.757-05:00

Let Them Sing It For You is a website that takes whatever text you input and then "sings" it by taking words (or bits of words) from popular music. I found myself spending hours inputting all sorts of inane banter, even writing many blues stanzas and plugging it in. It's great fun to hear the results and you can even attempt to name the source of the original (I think that "love" comes from

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1670716358429393332007-08-14T09:19:00.000-05:002007-08-14T09:26:36.490-05:00

On the St. Cloud State University homepage a story is currently posted about some new courses that I'll be teaching in the Fall. This is part of the rollout of a new major called Music and New Media that some of us have been working on introducing for the last few years.My basic conception of the program is that it addresses a fundamental aspect of composition - that is, collaboration. The

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1261726345209894562007-08-09T14:26:00.000-05:002007-08-09T14:30:04.783-05:00

I came across this video today. At first glance it is a cute video that a Dad shot with his two ninja kids. Very cute! But I found myself cringing every time the dad beat up on the kids. Why is that? Simply - the synchronous sounds. They are clearly edited in later, but this is exactly what they do in cinema to make a punch sound more "real." That's right - as I mentioned in a post about

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-22806677277237029942007-07-14T18:46:00.000-05:002007-07-14T19:29:17.516-05:00

CBS Sunday Morning featured a story about the new Transformers movie, which I just watched in my local theatre.Before I talk about the story, maybe I'll briefly talk about the experience. Many professionals have complained that the level of compression on movies and music has been, well, bothersome. In popular music, the result of compression is that the dynamic range of music is squished, so

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-80609026662643727692007-05-13T11:15:00.000-05:002007-05-13T11:22:57.027-05:00

Norwegian video artist (and YouTube star) Lasse Gjertsen has been working for 5 months on a collaboration with Italian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima. The first video features the composition "Terra Aria" and the second, "Concerto Rotondo."The music is fairly straight ahead, influenced by popular music. However, Gjertsen picked up on some of the salient musical features and highlighted

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-81600080319583929852007-04-16T13:11:00.000-05:002007-04-16T13:23:34.944-05:00

Becoming...Everything Else is a new blog written by composer Michael Boyd. Mike began the piece in 2004 during a composition seminar that we were both taking at the time. He had begun working in a highly improvisational style that requires/allows performers to take an active role in the compositional realization of the finished performance. Becoming...Everything Else is an attempt by Mike to

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-91705589928513075082007-04-01T11:36:00.000-05:002007-04-01T12:07:58.409-05:00

Some of you know that I've managed to squeeze in a little Second Life time, looking for interesting things. As I mentioned earlier - SL is, at its core, an economical game. The cost of purchasing a suitable area for experimentation is prohibitive and nearly everything costs Lindens, which can be expensive. There are some jobs available, but for the most part these center around a very healthy

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1172152732984948892007-02-22T07:50:00.000-06:002007-02-22T07:58:52.996-06:00

Fluxus-artists of the world, now is the time for action! To-days art has lost it's usefulness and must be rejected in favor of a new order. Consider the following:-Length is no measure of Art.-The piano has outlived its usefulness.-nobody writes manifestos anymore except for nut-jobs like the unibomber.-If not alienating the audience means writing Rimsky-Korsakov inspired film scores and doing

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1170950350737944132007-02-08T09:55:00.000-06:002007-02-08T09:59:10.750-06:00

Procedure:-Collect one line of text from as many people as possible, each written in proper manifesto-tone.-Do not allow contributors to see any other contribution.-Without regard for organization or flow, construct a manifesto from the results. If necessary, apply random process to lines of text as to remove your aesthetic taste from the end result.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1170855063414337892007-02-07T07:20:00.000-06:002007-02-07T07:31:03.430-06:00

Last week two good friends visited me here in Minnesota for a week of performing, chatting and catching up. As part of this, I learned that they are working on a Fluxus inspired work, and, by their example, I am featuring a week of Fluxus here on Sonic Event! For the next week I will post a new Fluxus work, written that day. Please comment, especially if you realize any of them. I'll feature

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1170546398109181052007-02-03T17:36:00.000-06:002007-02-03T17:46:38.136-06:00

Second Life, a virtual world produced by Linden Labs, has been written about in most major press outlets. I've spent a bit of time there over the last month, exploring and trying to get to know the place. My interest is mainly in the artistic and educational opportunites there. For the most part it is a social networking environment with a strong economic focus - most things cost money, and a

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1169584415487418962007-01-23T14:26:00.000-06:002007-01-23T14:33:35.513-06:00

I stumbled across this stunning work of art: Charybdis, by British artist William Pye. Apparently the water level rises and falls over a regular period and the steps allow the visitor to see the vortex from above as well. As the excellent video below mentions, the choice of clear acrylic causes this to seem like self-contained block of writhing water.via Neatorama

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1169569727680367412007-01-23T10:25:00.000-06:002007-01-23T10:28:47.693-06:00

Next week I'll be a featured guest on the St Cloud State University tech department's weekly podcast, Small Bytes. Topics to be discussed include a little background on my artistic background and how I came to incorporate technology in research and teaching, future uses of technology in art and on campus and other issues relating to technology and music. Fellow faculty member Glen Tuomaala will

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1169517218589576582007-01-22T19:51:00.000-06:002007-01-22T19:54:07.893-06:00

an audio-visual performance during which the heartbeats of 12 classical musicians & the artist duo Terminalbeach control a computer composition & visualization environment. the musical score is generated in real time by the heartbeats of the musicians. they read & play this score from a computer screen placed in front of them.the musicians are equipped with ECG (electrocardiogram) sensors. a

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1169262686243354472007-01-19T21:09:00.000-06:002007-01-19T21:11:26.260-06:00

A few months ago I came across a great video of a similar waterfall that was used at an art gallery. This is slightly less aesthetically pleasing but still captivating. This video includes a bit of the technical background of how the system works. While I might not like the commercialism, it is still awesome!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1166125362153121372006-12-14T12:59:00.000-06:002006-12-14T13:43:45.966-06:00

December is a time for tradition - and don't we know that most of them are terrible! From fruit cake to sickly sweet cookies, we all have war stories to tell about the holidays.For me, one of the truely terrible traditions of the season are the painful tunes that we are blasted with day and night. You may remember Burl Ives and Dean Martin fondly, but are these guys going to perform at the Met?

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1165769820393114132006-12-10T10:47:00.000-06:002006-12-10T10:57:00.423-06:00

Via Collision Detection, a summary of a paper regarding marketing and interactivity. The study used two versions of sample websites marketing the same digital camera. The researchers introduced false information in both and the group that used the interactive site tended to be influenced by the false information. The implication for marketing is that they might need to start testing for both

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1165587199635182272006-12-08T08:08:00.000-06:002006-12-08T08:13:19.650-06:00

Rebekah Moore and Mimi Vidaver recently curated an exhibition at the Mathers Museum in Bloomington Indiana titled "Lost and Found: Art Through Recycled Objects." Local radio station WIUX interviewed the two of them, and I've placed the interview below.The exhibit includes a wide variety of items, from sacred American Indian rattles made from turtles to hand made sock puppets. There are many

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1165359729821206412006-12-05T16:57:00.000-06:002006-12-05T17:02:09.840-06:00

I occasionally perform with a Balinese-style Gamelan Gong Kebyar from Washington DC - Gamelan Mitra Kusuma, which loosely translates to the Flowering Friendship Orchestra. I've uploaded a short clip from a recent performance in Chicago of the song Kebyar Terompong, with feature dancer and musician Pak Ngurah Kertayuda. It was a great concert and I hope to get a grant to study Gamelan in Bali

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1164143185480358612006-11-21T14:59:00.000-06:002006-11-21T15:06:25.493-06:00

Via Neatorama comes this excellent artwork by Karolina Sobecka. Using a simple sensor on the wheels of cars driven by the San Jose Tiger Posse, Sobecka creates a dynamic projection that runs faster as the car speeds up and slows and stops with the car. The video is really interesting, and I particularly like when the image is projected onto the trees. Of note is that pedestrians seem unaware

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1163254030669006582006-11-11T07:51:00.000-06:002006-11-11T08:07:10.683-06:00

Via MSNBC comes the story of the new Windows Vista startup sound, created by King Crimson's Robert Fripp. It took 18 months of tweaking to develop these 4 seconds of sound. Spending so long on such a project isn't actually that surprising, given that millions of computer users will hear these sounds for years to come every time they start up their computers. Brian Eno created the Windows 95

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1162996399131094222006-11-08T08:32:00.000-06:002006-11-08T08:34:10.086-06:00

This needs no introduction! (ps - nice job on the ring tones)

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1162680788784769562006-11-04T16:52:00.000-06:002006-11-11T08:07:57.846-06:00

A quick clip that I made during a talk on Music Technology at St Cloud State University.powered by ODEO

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1162313794393337142006-10-31T10:52:00.000-06:002006-10-31T10:56:34.406-06:00

I've added the second installment of the "Godotcast" to my Podcast (can be found in the sidebar to the right). In this installment I describe the process behind the final cues for each act and a brief discussion of the collaborative process. I utilized Shepard's Tones for these cues to represent the endless waiting that the characters undergo in the play. Those of you that know know how much I

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1161978691978137042006-10-27T14:48:00.000-05:002006-10-27T14:51:31.990-05:00

A little congrats to Sonic Event! We've logged our 2000th visitor. This is also the 80th posting, all in about 10 months. Thanks to all of you for reading, and keep your eyes on us in the future!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1161571025502074642006-10-22T21:30:00.000-05:002006-10-22T21:37:05.516-05:00

I've been neglecting Sonic Event for nearly a month now, but for good reason. I've been working feverishly on composing music for a production of "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. This production, directed by Kate Sinnett, opened on the campus of St Cloud State University in Minnesota and featured women cast in the lead roles as well as comprising nearly all of the crew.I've decided to

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1160527022633243742006-10-10T19:34:00.000-05:002006-10-10T19:41:51.633-05:00

For this week's class we converted a song from a CD, edited it in ProTools, and then uploaded it into Odeo. The result is below. Enjoy!!!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1160017254644221812006-10-04T21:54:00.000-05:002006-10-04T22:00:54.660-05:00

It is cliche to say that electronic music is heard all the time on TV now. But I wanted to briefly mention 'Lost', the hit series on ABC. The soundtrack/music in the show is typical, run of the mill scary movie fare with screeching strings and coordinated "hits" to emphasize cliffhanger moments. These typically happen right at a commercial break (like George Costanza's old 'leave on a high

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1159244545199561212006-09-25T23:14:00.000-05:002006-09-25T23:27:48.013-05:00

So I suppose it is time that Sonic Event join the 20th Century and begin podcasting! (joke intended BTW). A few notes before I get to the good stuff. A word of advice for aspiring podcasters: think of something worthwhile to say! It took me a long time to feel like I had something even slightly meaningful to say, and then when I listened to the result I must admit that I was underwhelmed with

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1158285868098352502006-09-14T20:33:00.000-05:002006-09-14T21:04:28.300-05:00

I'm a diehard PC user. A quick rundown of my various rigs over the years:-Vic 20, which I twice fixed on my own by ripping out the guts and puzzling out what what broken (a fuse and a loose wire).-TRS 80-Tandy 1000-IBM PC 8086, no hard drive. There used to be one of these on display at the Smithsonian, but it was a better machine than mine!-Gateway (can't remember the speed), 10 gig hard drive.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1158155426614046912006-09-13T08:44:00.000-05:002006-09-13T08:53:08.183-05:00

This semester I'm teaching a course that involves New Media and Music - specifically the use of music on the web. This isn't limited to ideas like how to put a sound online, but will include issues of copyright, aesthetics and theory. For our first project we created blogs and will maintain them throughout the semester (and hopefully beyond, right folks?) I haven't decided yet if I will create

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1158155064032599762006-09-13T08:40:00.000-05:002006-09-13T08:44:24.046-05:00

via Neatorama comes the story of a British graffitti artist who works with soap and water. That's right - his graffitti is created by washing away the dirt on buildings. This raises an interesting legal issue (is it a crime to clean a building artistically?) but for me what is striking is the reversal of traditional graffitti.In my mind most good artists are able to see negative space well.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1157648152534473972006-09-07T11:47:00.000-05:002006-09-07T11:55:52.546-05:00

It is cliche now to remind people that music is happening around us all the time, that we are constantly surrounded by sound and music.But one of the most important innovations in this regard has been the personal computer. Our computers interact with us in at least 3 of our senses - Sight, Touch and Sound. And I'll bet that you've never wondered about all of those bleeps and clicks that come

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1156534248779067142006-08-25T13:42:00.000-05:002006-08-25T14:30:48.866-05:00

Artist Rosemary Williams is podcasting her adventures at the Mall of America.She devised a plan to create a sculpture from shopping bags obtained from every store in the MOA. Rosemary quickly discovered that the stores were unwilling to part with a shopping bag without a purchase, so she engaged in a bit of performance art....she would buy an item from every store in the mall and then return the

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1155900735694424602006-08-18T06:26:00.000-05:002006-08-18T06:32:15.706-05:00

Another example of either poor reporting or poor research techniques....Researchers, led by Miguel Munoz-Laboy of Columbia University, have concluded that listening to certain types of music leads to increased risk of contracting AIDS. At least, that is what the headline says. Here are some quotes from the article:"They said images of scantily-clad women in submissive roles in hip hop music

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1155774083809236482006-08-16T18:59:00.000-05:002006-08-16T19:21:23.870-05:00

This is a little convoluted, but there is a movement afoot to create so-called "brightnets". A darknet is a file-sharing network that stores no personal information and is therefore anonymous. A brightnet removes any need for secrecy, as you'll see in a moment.Data is stored in a number of blocks, which individually act as a sort of white noise, in that an individual block contains no

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1154787991956710112006-08-05T09:19:00.000-05:002006-08-05T09:27:02.153-05:00

This entry has two facets. First, the art itself.Yahoo picked up a story about a work developed by John Collomosse, Maria Shugrina and Margrit Betke that responds to facial cues. "The painting changes from a dark, somber image to a brightly-coloured one as the viewer's expression alters from a scowl to a smile." Here is an example from the exhibition:Like many of the other works featured on

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1154632443552502912006-08-03T14:07:00.000-05:002006-08-03T14:14:03.576-05:00

One interesting outgrowth of online gaming has been the speed with which fun games are released that deal with a topical subject. For example, take President Bush's infamous guerilla backrub of German Chancellor Andrea Merkel:Well, here is a game in which you, as Bush, must give backrubs to various world leaders in order to maintain "good feelings", so to speak....http://www.addictinggames.com/

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1152367705841516432006-07-08T08:51:00.000-05:002006-07-21T14:08:36.546-05:00

It's been WAY too long since I've posted - sorry! But when I saw this tidbit on MSNBC.com, I just had to come here and share my outrage.Princeton Theorist Dmitri Tymoczko has devised what MSNBC is calling a "Theory of Everything" for music. Yes, it's that bad right from the start. Working with non-Euclidian geometry, he's developed an analytical methodology that shows that Chopin's Prelude in

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1150668738301858642006-06-18T17:05:00.000-05:002006-06-18T17:12:41.396-05:00

British artist David Hensel "chuckled" when he visited the installation of his work "One Day Closer to Paradise" in the Royal Academy in London.Why? Well, the curators liked the base (plinth) more than the head on top and so separated the two and then put the base on display! Apparently the head may be reinstated, but an amusing story nonetheless.via Rodcorp and The Guardian.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1150334954327487042006-06-14T19:55:00.000-05:002006-06-14T20:29:30.323-05:00

While on the mandatory monthly shopping trip (i.e. sit in a chair while your sweetie tries on shoes and makeup), I walked by Hollister and Co.. There was an interesting smell near the store, and as I walked by I noted that a sales associate was spraying perfume into the air.This was an interesting ploy to get potential shoppers to come into the store, and it got me thinking about the

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1150161716216509382006-06-12T20:04:00.000-05:002006-06-12T20:21:56.226-05:00

"There is a great living writer - I know him personally - Sandor Veres. One of the greatest poets, like your. . . but I don't know any great living English poets."The man many considered the greatest living composer, Gyorgy Ligeti, died at age 83. I remember my first exposure to his music - like most, it was through Stanley Kubric's films (2001, The Shining, etc). In many ways, I've continued

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1150067658920674192006-06-11T18:07:00.000-05:002006-06-11T18:14:19.206-05:00

This can only be described as a sort of oxymoronic honor - Joe Chambers, a Nashville based singer and songwriter, has recently opened the Musician's Hall of Fame and Museum, where "legendary" backing musicians are honored.But it won't honor folks like Pete Drake (steel guitar on "Lay Lady Lay"), drummer Chad Smith, or bassist Floyd "Lightnin'" Chance. Producers like Owen Bradley (Patsy Cline)

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1149780647965242042006-06-08T10:22:00.000-05:002006-06-08T10:30:47.966-05:00

The Guardian has an interesting story about what is considered the oldest cave paintings ever found - a painting of appears to be a face, 27,000 years old.What do you think of when you see that pic? The face pops out at you quickly - a horizontal line connected to a vertical line and then a separate, thinner horizontal line below. That's an eye, nose and mouth, right? To me, that is classic

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1149779955854318312006-06-08T09:56:00.000-05:002006-06-08T10:19:17.716-05:00

German Chancellor Andrea Merkel today begins broadcasting a weekly video-podcast (can this be considered a vlog?). Ultimately, this won't be much different than our own Presidential Radio Address. But it is a validation and interesting use of new and emerging media. I suppose I should mention that the Presidential Radio Address is also available via podcast and RSS.Are there other governmental

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1149642174297336302006-06-06T19:47:00.000-05:002006-06-06T20:05:09.466-05:00

Ooo - the EVIL day. Here are a bunch more links. I know that it's lazy, but I've been visiting folks in Washington DC (some links below are in reference to the trip).Here we go:Patent Goo - A description of self-replicating medicine and the consequences of this. Pretty scary stuff if you take it a step further.Faidley's - The best crabcake in Maryland. I don't like crabcakes, but someone

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1149260492900249792006-06-02T09:41:00.000-05:002006-06-02T10:32:40.626-05:00

I have only been blogging about items that I find both interesting and have something at least somewhat meaningful to say about. But I find all sorts of interesting things flitting about the Internet, and so I'm going to begin occasionally sharing these links with you. These are items for which I might find myself at a loss for words, or might not fit directly within the theme of Sonic

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1149121291437206752006-05-31T19:02:00.000-05:002006-05-31T19:42:26.276-05:00

This is a subject that not many of you probably expect to see on this blog, but those of you that know me know that I have a deep interest in Rock and Roll and Pop Culture.On American Idol last week, host Ryan Seacrest claimed that the 63.4 million votes in the contest were "more than any president in this country has ever received." This little factoid was spread over the Internet faster than a

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1148953239562402842006-05-29T20:14:00.000-05:002006-05-29T20:43:54.496-05:00

Artist Scott Blake creates art from collages of bar codes.While the site is a bit overly commercial (I suppose fitting well with the commercialism associated with bar codes), I like the portraits. A portrait of Madonna is constructed from bar codes from CDs. A portrait of Arnold Schwartzenegger is constructed from bar codes from movies. There a bunch of others, Andy Warhol included of

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1148916284804981132006-05-29T10:15:00.000-05:002006-05-29T10:25:20.800-05:00

This has got to be seen to be believed! The Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced two ads that are pro-carbon dioxide. That in itself isn't particularly odd. What *is* odd is that these ads may as well be spoofs from Saturday Night Live. Seriously.via Z+.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1148780956635404022006-05-27T20:20:00.000-05:002006-05-27T20:54:04.806-05:00

Waves is an installation that has recently debuted at both Wade 2006, installation in public space, Toronto, Canada, upcoming in July 2006 and Kunst Computer Werke at ZKM and HfG Karlsruhe, Germany, upcoming in May 2006. As the audience interacts with wading pools, circuits placed inside bouys interpret the motion of the waves and translate that into sound.Designed by Shannon McMullen and Fabian

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1148745949129111522006-05-27T10:59:00.000-05:002006-05-31T19:25:23.146-05:00

Via Neatorama, a link to Fred Eerdekens, a Belgian artist who combines sculpture and light to create text.In the example below, you'll see two artifical trees that, when light is projected through at the correct angle, create shadows that spell "mhmmmhm." Eerdekens also makes Calder-like scupltures that utilize the same effect. Some of these even spell different words depending on the angle of

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1148744010888052882006-05-27T10:31:00.000-05:002006-05-27T10:33:30.890-05:00

I'm trying some new things out, and I'm hoping to add a lot more functionality to the site as the summer goes on. Please tell me what you think!!!!New things today include a very simple logo and the RSS feed. I'll also be adding and updating links throughout the day. Thanks to my internet friends who have been linking to me recently! Welcome new visitors!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1148575805400125942006-05-25T11:39:00.000-05:002006-05-25T11:53:09.323-05:00

The Tate, a British gallery that shows art since 1500, has introduced a new feature that allows online visitors to create small themed collections of images of their favorite works.Clearing copyright on some of these must have been difficult, but the ability to make these collections, to even print flyers with your text describing them is only a positive thing, at least in my mind. Just imagine

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1147800660035152892006-05-16T12:18:00.000-05:002006-05-16T12:31:00.050-05:00

I attended the opening of the Visual Music exhibit at the Hirshhorn last summer. While it was much more visual than music, some of the videos were interesting. I've been looking around since then on the web (and in libraries) for examples of these - especially John Whitney's work.Now, thanks to Jim Bumgardner, there is at least a small example of Whitney's ideas from his book Digital Harmony.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1147647875502359152006-05-14T17:52:00.000-05:002006-05-14T18:04:35.520-05:00

All sports fans know about the power of crowds, particularly when a good chant gets going. At the University of Maryland, they actually banned the Pep Band from playing Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Pt. II" because some enterprising students added "We're gonna beat the Hell outta you" and "You Suck!" to the usual "Hey!" What can I say....my Alma Mater might not be MIT or Harvard, but we sure do

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1147646111017687222006-05-14T17:15:00.000-05:002006-05-14T17:35:11.046-05:00

The Hirshorn in Washington DC is featuring an exhibition and installation by Scottish artist Jim Lambie.The installation has transformed the lobby of the Hirshorn into a wildly colored space by using multi-colored vinyl tape. The artist is interested in making the edges disappear while exploring the geometric shape of the interior architecture. Anyone from DC who has seen this, please report!!!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1147270424780192352006-05-10T09:00:00.000-05:002006-05-10T09:13:44.790-05:00

I keep saying it, but there are some really great artist websites out there. Thankfully there are great blogs like Information Aesthetics to help me find them all. Infoaesthetics linked to Peter Dykhuis's Data Paintings, which appeal to me like Jasper John's encaustic works do - just plain tactile to me for some reason. But for me the Data Paintings aren't as interesting as Dykhuis's Pressure

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1147177453430954172006-05-09T07:19:00.000-05:002006-05-09T07:24:35.666-05:00

Via Information Aesthetics comes word of the Podium Wall.The Wall, to be located at 7 World Trade Center in NYC, recognizes pedestrians as they walk next to the building, projecting a blue light on the wall. The light is a vertical beam 7 stories tall which the artists claim can be seen from Freedom Park. It works by camera recognition, and the picture that I've linked to above is a web version

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1147129050440263562006-05-08T17:56:00.000-05:002006-05-08T17:57:30.460-05:00

Someday soon this picture won't make any sense. But I couldn't resist. An honest to goodness picture of a 7.5 pound bass caught in a private lake in Texas. What a happy day!

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146943029826433882006-05-06T14:07:00.000-05:002006-05-06T14:17:10.240-05:00

British artist Rod McLaren has a blog in which he has collections of his work as well as interesting commentary and links. I was drawn to his blog by the work Fully articulated: dotting the largest circular disc possible in an hour, in which the artist attempts to make, well....you can figure it out from the title. There are other interesting examples to be found there, including concentric

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146848833901346272006-05-05T12:00:00.000-05:002006-05-05T12:07:23.770-05:00

A sobering statistic:"Last year, human beings produced more transistors (and at lower cost) than they did grains of rice." - IBM CEO Sam Palmisano.According to the Z+ Blog, there were 10 Quintillion (10 to the 18th power) of them produced in 2003 - more than 100 times the number of ants on the planet (although I think that there are about 2 quintillion ants in St Cloud alone).Transistors are the

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146760685612003272006-05-04T11:27:00.000-05:002006-05-04T11:38:05.623-05:00

Peter Cho has developed a stunningly elegant visual representation of a phonetic writing system, called Takeluma.The computer analyzes text read into it in real time and outputs the result. Cho has a number of different methods of display, from projections on walls to a 100 foot long conversion of a text on a roll of paper. Check out the Installation website for some neat pictures (and there is

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146657699283750562006-05-03T06:55:00.000-05:002006-05-03T07:02:24.156-05:00

Artist Eddie Breen takes old paintings and adds his owns twist to them. He calls this process "breening"These are whimsical and somewhat psychedelic, and often political. He gets his canvases from eBay, then returns them to eBay in their breened state. In some ways this reminds of Rauschenberg, who took a pencil drawing of deKoonig's and then erased it, wlthough there are implications in

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146543627952448032006-05-01T23:18:00.000-05:002006-05-01T23:20:27.963-05:00

A milestone! I've reached a thousand hits since I launched at Xmastime 2005. While not a major waypoint on the internet, I appreciate my peeps that have been checking out the place. I have some recent visitors since I've increased my visibility a bit - WELCOME! Please comment!I hope to make some changes over the coming months, including adding sound and perhaps video. Keeping checking back,

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146369779803679402006-04-29T22:50:00.000-05:002006-04-29T23:03:10.006-05:00

One aspect of technology that is far too often overlooked by the masses is its ability to do something other than its original intention. This figures strongly into electronic music, as the very construction of some technologies (like MIDI) are such that they can be easily subverted into new and exciting uses.As one of the better examples of this I've seen recently, Danielle Aubert posted

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1146188406894228022006-04-27T20:21:00.000-05:002006-04-27T20:40:39.533-05:00

A few interesting items culled from the web.Do I really need to preface this story with a note about how rife the internet is with errors? Probably not. But I'm still surprised to see that nearly 900 websites include the following quotation:"Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1145320824858949882006-04-17T19:27:00.000-05:002006-04-17T19:40:24.876-05:00

Yehudi Wyner. One of the most conservative (but yet widely regarded) prizes in music composition lived up to its reputation, giving this year's award to Yehudi Wyner for "Chiavi in Mano", a piano concerto premiered in 2004. From the program notes:" As in many of my compositions, simple, familiar musical ideas are the starting point. A shape, a melodic fragment, a rhythm, a chord, a texture, or

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1145162559937956752006-04-15T23:32:00.000-05:002006-04-15T23:42:39.950-05:00

The Mystical Arts of Tibet, from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India (relocated in 1959), is a group of Tibetan Monks that travel the US, constructing elaborate sand mandalas, only to sweep them up, all in the name of World Peace. I was fortunate to see this group in 2000 in Washington DC, and again this week in Minnesota. While I find the mandala captivating and an amazing display of

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1145110114818000742006-04-15T09:04:00.000-05:002006-04-15T09:08:34.836-05:00

Haiku have rules that govern their construction, at least in terms of their syllabic content. Why not change the rules a bit?GottaBook, a librarian and poet from LA, has devised a form that mirrors the Fibonacci Series! In this form, the number of syllables for each line goes as follows: 1 1 2 3 5 8.Here is an example:OneSmall,Precise,Poetic,Spiraling mixture:Math plus poetry yields the

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1143996690063624982006-04-02T11:41:00.000-05:002006-04-02T11:51:30.086-05:00

A good benefit of living in Central Minnesota is actually that there isn't as MUCH live music as there was in Washington DC, so when bigger name acts come through, I'm usually free enough to see them. I got a free ticket to see jazz pianist Kenny Barron and his quartet perform.Musically, they favored a "less is more" approach, which I absolutely appreciated. I'm not a very big fan of Jazz, but

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1143827062829247402006-03-31T11:26:00.000-06:002006-03-31T11:44:22.910-06:00

Like most campuses, we have a small art gallery that shows a wide variety of work, ranging from installation to rock concert posters. I try to make it to as many shows as possible, and I'm usually not disappointed. The recent show, however, is quite good!Titled Asia Ward - Interactive Sculptures, the exhibit features a collection of hand made stuffed animals, each with internal parts that move

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1142975382766242492006-03-21T14:53:00.000-06:002006-03-21T15:10:56.926-06:00

Ralph Ammer and Stefan Sagmeister have produced an interesting installation, recently premiered at the Austrian Cultural Forum in NYC called "Being Not Truthful."A custom software program runs the installation, which features a camera and projector. When someone walks within the camera's vision, the spiderweb "sticks" to them and is torn. It quickly regenerates and waits for the next victim.

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1142308866162061652006-03-13T21:48:00.000-06:002006-03-13T22:01:06.176-06:00

Tonight marks the first of three days celebrating Godfrey Reggio's Quatsi Trilogy, as part of the Voicings 2006 festival, put on by faculty member Mark Eden. Tonight's movie was Koyaanisqatsi (Life Out of Balance).It has been a little while since I've seen this film (I must admit to owning all three on DVD). I eagerly anticipated seeing it on the "big screen", and I wasn't terribly dissapointed

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1141574231584952532006-03-05T09:48:00.000-06:002006-03-05T09:57:11.603-06:00

No, I'm not referring to the title of Cameo's pop song, but rather an installation by New York artist Ben Rubin, permanently located in the new Minneapolis Public Library. As you can see it, it is comprised of two elevators. The outside wall of these elevators contain thousands of LED's that will project titles of books randomly chosen from the library's database. It could show recent

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1141077604417148572006-02-27T15:35:00.000-06:002006-02-27T16:00:06.366-06:00

Greetings from the land of the overwhelmed! After a weekend spent at a Rock conference (see IASPM below), I was asked to review the SPARK Festival of New Music and Art at the University of Minnesota this past weekend. It began on Tuesday evening and lasted through Sunday afternoon, with a nearly full schedule.The featured artists were Alvin Lucier and Scanner (Robin Rimbaud). Both gave keynote

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1140559481134226552006-02-21T15:48:00.000-06:002006-02-21T16:04:41.146-06:00

As you all know, I just got back from a conference presentation at the Internation Association for the Study of Popular Music - US Branch meeting at MTSU in Murfreesboro, TN.My paper was on Mash-up's, and it generally went well. Many of the other papers were given by scholars in Media Studies, or English, or various other (non-Music) fields. In fact, there seemed to be a general lack of

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1140543641776048462006-02-21T11:38:00.000-06:002006-02-21T11:42:00.673-06:00

Okay - someday I'll get this right.The map shows the location of The Hague in relation to Amsterdam. Utrecht isn't on the map, but I am assured that not only does it exist, but Lilly does NOT currently live there. (is that a triple negative?)

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1140142212826431252006-02-16T20:01:00.000-06:002006-02-16T20:10:12.856-06:00

Well, I've been neglecting you, my blogosphere fan club (zero members, but we think there might be some luck getting the NSA to wiretap Sonic Event soon!).I'd like to think that I had a good reason - writing a paper for a conference. The problem is that I procrastinated and had to stay up all night to write the paper before last week's "preview" to the campus and so I've been a bad boy. But now

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1139452098769435482006-02-08T19:56:00.000-06:002006-02-08T20:28:18.823-06:00

I'm in the midst of suffering through writers block as I desperately try to finish a paper before presenting it in two days (!)But I can't neglect Sonic Event for too long!I've read with much interest the growing online response to our President's recent budget proposals. In particular, I couldn't help but notice that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting budget is slated to be cut quite a bit

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1139175451840373492006-02-05T15:29:00.000-06:002006-02-05T15:37:31.863-06:00

Sorry - I'm not sure that my main point about my post below is clear (this isn't response to your comment Mike, which is interesting for sure!).I feel that eighth blackbird came around in the right place at the right time. Good support, both academically and financially, from Universities combined with a fortuitous management contract allowed this group to consider staying together, which has

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1139116185607711402006-02-04T22:33:00.000-06:002006-02-04T23:10:12.466-06:00

Let's get political.Tonight I went to a performance by eighth blackbird, a New Music group based in Chicago. They presented a very interesting program of all very new pieces, some composed for their 10th anniversary, celebrated this year. The most interesting piece was perhaps the oldest, Les Moutons de Panurge, by Frederic Rzewski (click to see the score). Without going into gory detail, I

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1138904474113300562006-02-02T12:09:00.000-06:002006-02-02T12:22:35.533-06:00

This just in:The 12 Best Buildings of 2005These are actually arranged by category, including Best Hospital, Best Residence, Best Expansion, Best Art Gallery, etc.Below is a pic of the Shaw Center for the Arts, which is the best Multi-Purpose Arts Building. It is located in Baton Rouge, LA.What really caught my eye with this building was the way that it goes above and over the neighboring

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1138565614286808512006-01-29T14:03:00.000-06:002006-01-29T14:13:34.306-06:00

One interesting thing about blogging is that it gives the blogger a chance to create a post that might not necessarily have a terribly exciting point to make - or to try out less wellformed ideas.Of course, one might argue that this blog doesn't have a point.All joking aside, I've had a lot of fun reading design blogs recently. These don't provide as much food for discussion for me as music and

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1138283091110134122006-01-26T07:33:00.000-06:002006-01-26T07:46:20.316-06:00

Via we-make-money-not-art comes word of an truly interesting artistic interface.This is an installation titled [stop]kontakt, designed primarily for children.A number of objects are wired together and labeled with a + or -. In order to make these objects physically work, the participants must join together the + and - by forming links between them (thus completing the electrical curcuit and

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1138238683765252922006-01-25T19:17:00.000-06:002006-01-26T07:32:01.613-06:00

Via Information Aesthetics comes word of an interesting architectural installation called the Habitat Hotel.Designed by James Clar, the Hotel will feature a LED-latticle that displays color and brightness depending on the amount of sunlight each node receives. The result changes throughout the week, month, and seasons. The lattice is light enough and small enough to be see through, and, most

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1138120729317555992006-01-24T10:20:00.000-06:002006-01-24T10:38:49.376-06:00

Again, a variation on the theme of interface. Meet the Six String Sonics, from Japan.The interface here begins life in a fairly interesting manner - the guitar is broken in to 6 separate one string instruments. The concept of breaking apart a traditional instrument in order to create something new isn't terribly new (on a larger scale, ensembles can be seen as attempts to put disparate elements

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1138051715818435822006-01-23T15:20:00.000-06:002006-01-23T15:28:35.876-06:00

A brief history of the physical location of the studio here at the University.First it was located in/near the former TV studio control room, which offered a fairly typically sized studio space. It was moved a number of years ago from this dungeon to a bigger room, with many workstations. The goal in this case was to better integrate technology and teaching. What was discovered was that, in

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1137812319674190942006-01-20T20:53:00.000-06:002006-01-20T20:58:39.686-06:00

It's days like today that remind me why I do what I do...Started by teaching a class on the History of Rock, then heard a guest lecture by a visiting Czech scholar, Jan Vicar, who introduced me to some interesting mid-century music by Czech composers (Bohuslav Martinu was perhaps the most interesting of the bunch). After lunch with Jan, grabbed a quick drink at our local watering hole before a

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1137731558299605172006-01-19T22:28:00.000-06:002006-01-19T22:32:38.310-06:00

One of my favorite pieces for voice is Pauline Oliveros Sound Patterns from the 60's. In it, Oliveros uses the chorus to recreate classic ElectroAcoustic analog techniques, like ring modulation, noise generators, filtering, etc. It is a really neat piece, only available on vinyl (hint hint record labels).At any rate, there is now a pop culture version of these same vocal techniques, appearing

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19759512.post-1137596231140379182006-01-18T08:54:00.000-06:002006-01-18T09:46:07.906-06:00

Well, I'm sorry to say that it seems that I'll be presenting as much trash here as I will be presenting interesting items....The latest is the Barong Analog.This instrument has a delibarate trash aesthetic and seeks to take electronic music from synth boxes to a more performative level.When will these people learn? It is really all about seeing someone on stage making bad music?

Kristian Twomblyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12058643709058705447noreply@blogger.com8