Gene Pool - Digital Culture

Acclaimed artist, instrument builder and kinetic sculptor, Max Eastley performs live with SARU’s Paul Whitty.

Delving deep into textural improvisation, with electronic processes warping and shifting an array of stones, aquarium bubbles and ceramic objects. Max Eastley’s distinctive bowed monochord becomes a plaintive voice in a pixellated flux of sound.

Paul Whitty talks about the history of the Audiograft festival and motivations of it's artist-organisers and introduces Gordon Monahan performing his "Sauerkraut Synthesiser" piece

Fruits and vegetables become voltage input controllers for a software-based audio synthesizer. Six fruits and vegetables are placed on a table. A live video camera displays the real-time manipulation of the fruits and vegetables on a video projection screen. A second video projection shows the actual voltage changes in real time as the fruit and vegetable network is manipulated.

Marianthi Papalexandri performs "Solo for motors and resonant body (2012)" live at AudioGraft 2014 at the OVADA artist studio/exhibition space with an invented instrument of tubes and resonating wires.

The Sonic Arts Research Unit, based within Oxford Brookes University is home to experimental music composers and sonic artists who develop and share the academic framework of their practice . This includes hosting notable artists as Research Fellows and producing the annual international AudioGraft festival.

Paul Whitty, Research Lead and main figure at SARU talks about the history of the Audiograft festival and motivations of it's artist-organisers.

The life of the field recording artist explored in conversation with Jez Riley French.

Independence and integrity of artistic practice are strong themes with the globetrotting Yorkshire-man whose DIY JrF contact microphones have become something of an industry standard tool among sound artists.

We discuss community, microphones and recording equipment including geophones, hydrophones and contact microphones as well as vibrating staircases and the "Stairway to Heaven" of the field recording world.

This podcast features some original recordings made during a weekend workshop led by Jez as well as audio from his own archive material.

Former PC Pro editor, journalist, video producer and Head of Web Media at Ravensbourne, Dr James Morris discusses the collaboration between CISCO, RSC and Ravensbourne to deliver an online education experience. Dr Morris illustrates how this project points toward a trend to much more interactive media and education. I, Cinna (The Poet) is a classic example of “transmedia”, bringing together theatre, filmmaking, TV production, website design, social media and user-generated content into one cultural artefact. The trend is increasingly in this direction, and this huge project is only a first step towards media which routinely crosses boundaries, providing greater engagement both in education and in the wider landscape of digital culture.

Is everyone who they say they are on the internet ? Cross-platform dance project, Dare You Watch employed viral and transmedia techniques to engage an audience with a live streamed performance. What impact could this cause in an area where ticketed seating is the traditional model of staging? John Darvell, Artistic Director and Choreographer of Nocturn Dance speaks at the Beyond The Stage conference, outlining his experiment with online narrative, responsive performance and stage direction with PostIt notes!

Held as part of part of SHPLive, the Arts Council England funded live stream programme based at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, Berkshire, the Beyond The Stage conference highlighted creative approaches to developing new work for live streaming to an online audience.

Pushing the boundaries of interactivity and online engagement. Talk from Artistic Director of Pilot Theatre and Shift Happens conference, Marcus Romer at the "Beyond The Stage" event in December 2012. Held as part of part of SHPLive, the ACE funded live stream programme based at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell. Berkshire, the conference highlighted creative approaches to developing new work for live streaming to an online audience.

More Info: www.digitalmediacentre.org.uk | www.shplive.tv

Like grammar, spelling, adding and subtraction are the basic building blocks for general education, should we be equipping school leavers with the fundamentals of computer programming so they can better understand the workings of the digital world around them? We examine and idea whose time has come with Rewired State director, Emma Mulqueeny and Software Developer, Jim Anning.

The major wave of UK software developers came out of the first home PC generation, with the accessible BBC micro, Sinclair Spectrum or Apple II computers of the mid-1980's. Accompanied by a manual that gave you permission to tinker and learn how to programme, these machines rewarded learning by running software that you had made yourself. Thirty years on and the larger industry has attempted to lock us out of tinkering with our electronic devices and computers, leaving a void in learning and distancing us from being able to control or influence computer technology.

More Info: http://www.digitalmediacentre.org.uk

Big data, love and revolution ! Patrick Hussey is Digital Overlord and Campaign Manager of the Arts & Business organisation and man with a lot to say about the future.

Beyond just culture sector developments and commercial trends, we talk about how Digital is changing the very way society works in the biggest shake up since the Industrial Revolution - only with stats!

More:

http://www.digitalmediacentre.org.uk

Aeolian instruments, a dismantled tape player installation, performances and conversation from the AudioGraft 2012 Festival, featuring Max Eastley, Stephen Cornford, Shirley Pegna, Cremaster, Felicity Ford & Stavroula Kounadea

More:

http://www.digitalmediacentre.org.uk