Sampling Culture

Exploring inspiring and innovative projects in the realm of art, music, culture & technology. A blog by Amanda. Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");   var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-8780637-3']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); TAG CLOUD

[samplingculture]

Rob Ford Videos by Comedians Get Top Views

Steve Porter's music video mashup with Ford speaking to media and apologizing for using crack.

TomoNews creates dramatized animations based on current news stories, and they've been following the Rob Ford story too.  

CNN does a segment to summarize the comedic coverage of Toronto's internationally infamous Mayor. 

Ford makes an appearance on The Colbert Report: 

On November 7, John Stewart at The Daily Show continued to cover the Rob Ford case...

And we can be sure that the case will continue to be covered by news media and comedians alike in the coming weeks. Stay Tuned!

[samplingculture]

Day Job Documentary Highlights Stories from the Start-up Industry

For anyone who is interested in learning more about the particular challenges faced and rewards gained by entrepreneurs in the Canadian start-up industry, this looks like an interesting new film.

"Day Job Doc is a film that follows the gruelling process of three start-up companies in Toronto’s Extreme Startups Accelerator. The film explores the real life stories of these entrepreneurs as they build their idea into a startup company – each facing their own set of unique challenges over the intense 12-week program.

In the heart of Toronto where many start-ups are born, Jeremy Potvin, (CEO of Shifthub), Jayesh Parmar (CEO of Picatic), and Nima Garidideh (CTO of Venio)." - http://dayjobdoc.com

[samplingculture]

Join in for the #SMWTV After-Party

RSVP

Audio-visual performance by http://christianskjodt.ca/ Photo exhibition by http://michaelpietrocarlo.com/ DJ set by http://www.mixcloud.com/Paramour + Networking, cash bar, hashtag cupcakes!

VENUE INFO:  http://normanfelix.com/ EVENT PRODUCTION:  Sampling Culture: Cross-platform content creation and communication with a focus on broadcast and entertainment:  www.facebook.com/samplingculture Molten Visual: Live visuals company specializing in music visualization and branding, with a client list such as Molson, Bacardi, Yahoo!, Sum 41, Ashley Casselle, Lil’ Jon, and Saeed Younan. www.facebook.com/MoltenVisual

[samplingculture]

My Upcoming Panel at Social Media Week, Toronto

THE FUTURE OF TV & FILM PROMOTION

Traditional models for film and TV are changing. TV networks and independent producers are experimenting with new avenues to create compelling content for the second screen, leverage their fan base and generate revenue.

This panel discussion will explore a range of approaches to multi-platform production (film, TV, web-TV) and promotion (engaging audiences and measuring the impact of social media). We’ll talk about new challenges and opportunities facing the industry, with Q&A via twitter (#SMWTV) and the audience. Networking event to follow.

MODERATOR: Jamey Ordolis: www.empirella.com

PANELISTS: Marie Nicola: www.facebook.com/NatandMarie Amanda Connon-Unda: http://flavors.me/samplingculture Daniel Malen: www.facebook.com/thetvaddict  Chrissy Newton: www.facebook.com/VocabCommunications Tyrone Warner: https://twitter.com/tyronewarner

VENUE: Norman Felix Gallery | @normanfelixart: 627 Queen Street West

JOIN US FOR THE #SMWTV AFTER-PARTY: 8 – 10 PM at the same venue

[samplingculture]

The Future of Film & TV Promotion (#SMWTV)

As part of Social Media Week, I've organized an independent panel discussion & after-party that takes place on Sept. 26th in Toronto. RSVP here. Follow the discussion in person, or join in here, when we go live!

Tweets about "#SMWTV"

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[samplingculture]

Music Recommendations: Moderat's "II" & Guy Gerber at Piknic Electronique

"Moderat, the Berlin based electronic supergroup formed by Apparat & Modeselektor, happily announce their highly anticipated 2nd studio album „II“ to be released on August 2nd worldwide via Monkeytown Records." - Monkeytown Records

And... Guy Gerber has some great track selections in his fantastic set from Piknic Electronique in Montreal last month.

[samplingculture]

Beardyman presents a new music machine on TED

Beardyman, “ruler of beats and destroyer of dance floors,” has developed a real-time music-production system that places live looping at the center of a new musical paradigm.

For a sample of Beardyman's music, check out his music video with some special guests. 

[samplingculture]

3D Holograms Almost Came to Life!

Will their life-sized visions ever become a reality? And what are the implications of this new technology? Meghan Neal imagines a world in which instead of a skype call, you can have a hologram of your friend inside your living room!

[samplingculture]

Unveiling Spatial Operating System at NXNEi in Toronto

[This is my article for Create Digital Motion.]

It is the latest project that this VP of innovation at the San Francisco based company has developed in partnership with furniture giant, Haworth. Together they formed Bluescape, to launch their new multi-user touchscreen platform designed for collaboration without borders, aiming to accelerate innovation and drive results. With a big price tag for all of the components in their system, they're hoping their first customer will be a motion picture company that can afford the cutting-edge luxury product.

During Steve’s talk at the NXNEi conference, he discussed the many challenges and rewards of working on the project: how to design for a more corporate user and how to create an entirely new operating system for true collaboration - Not an easy undertaking.

Bluescape from Bluescape on Vimeo.

Even though Obscura Digital has created complex architectural mappings on the exterior of buildings, for example the sacred Islamic geometry on the outside of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, a 360-degree mapping on the interior of the Guggenheim, and a touchscreen artifact viewer at the Hard Rock Café, this project was entirely different and posed new challenges for the Obscura team.

In order to design functionally, Steve said they needed to think about  “not just transposing something from a desktop to a wall. Like a cell phone versus a smartphone, we need it to actually work differently.”

“We built a framework of key elements… A large-format with infinite workspace - not like a white board that you have to erase and reuse again,” said Steve. “It had to enable real-time collaboration; be visible immediately remotely; include natural handwriting, for either drawing or writing; It had to be open and extensible and not monolithic, but a platform with an ecosystem of developers who can work on apps suitable for the technology, so we get a critical mass of adoption. And finally, it needed a broad appeal, so that it wasn’t too technical, and it didn’t require specialized knowledge to use it.”

“As we worked, roles and issues emerged. We had to be sure that the system was fault intolerant. The apps couldn’t crash… We knew the system needed to have resilience.”

Their system is running at 60 frames per second, with a resolution of 15,360 x 3240, and uses a single node configuration so that there’s one computer that outputs to 24 displays connected to make the large touchscreen.

“The reason the screens are so expensive is that they’re handmade. They’re actually Samsung monitors with an camera array behind them, and a small computer inside.”

They even figured out how to configure synchronized rendering, with help from an Apple guy, and a graphics guru.

Once they got the technology working, Steve explained “We wanted to design the system to support and enhance collaborative behaviours around the capture of expression and synthesis of thoughts. We had to think a lot about the behaviours people exhibit when they collaborate, in order to design our ecosystem.”

“When people collaborate they are capturing and gathering (referencing imagery and concept art), sharing, facilitating (framing challenges, moderating conversation, clustering notes and synthesizing content),” explained Steve.

The team went with a black wall and the idea of post-it notes, with some guardrails for color choices: 5 colors of notes, with a secondary color pack of 10.

Skeuomorphism (the attribution of physical characteristics to non-physical things) came into play in their design work, and they ended up making their icons very recognizable, how Apple did. They wanted to design clean and friendly, elegant, modern, friendly and simple. They included a row of application icons that can be dragged into the workspace, and a base menu that pops up on the screen when you press down for 2 seconds. Steve explained the writing software is responsive to velocity and that you can have pigmentation variation. Another cool feature is the ability to embed a website on the wall for collaborators to see, and it will store the information permanently. It is a real shared environment, where you can run any application and up to 6 HD videos, and screen shares from personal computers. It will eventually have native PDF support and will be able to run any office document.

For the future of the system, they’re developing a way for people to use their proprietary language in the environment and creating an app store, but that will require lots more work.

There is a 6 month sales cycle, and not at a trivial cost. “You want to train people too,” explained Steve. “They have to understand that this is not for PowerPoint presentations. It’s more advanced than that, and it’s a complicated education process.”

[samplingculture]

Photos from Montreal & New York!

[samplingculture]

Emika Chats About her New Album DVA, The Music Industry & Mutek Festival (INTERVIEW)

Emika’s Saturday night show at Mutek Festival in Montreal was marked by her dramatic dark stage presence and the captivated crowd who swayed to her beats and voice. Emika performed some of the songs from her forthcoming DVA album, which comes out on Ninja Tune on June 10, 2013. In conversation with Emika prior to her first ever performance at Mutek festival, Emika shared some of the impetus behind her current album and what she thinks of the state of the music industry today.

“I feel like I’ve always been musical. Everything was important till now,” explains Emika, as she starts her story about a love affair with music and the path to producing her newest album. It all started at around the age of 12, when she was growing up in England and realized that she wanted to combine the world of classical music with the world of record production. She says she was listening to hip-hop and experimenting with beats using her 4-track cassette recorder, as well as studying classical piano. Then in university she studied sound design.

After university and a terrible stint in a UK hospital, Emika says “I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I went to Berlin… The music got into my bones and liberated me in many ways… I’ve been there five and a half years and I’ve never had a moment where I thought ‘maybe this is the wrong place for me,’” she says.

On DVA, Emika points out that all of her songs are direct expressions of her experiences. “My songs are stories… but with this album I was more outwardly focused too. All the travel that I’ve done, speaking with journalists, fans and promoters… I can’t help but connect with them, so it’s an album that’s inspired and created by the stories of so many other people. It’s a social record and there’s a social consciousness in it, in terms of politics, sexuality and feminism.”

Emika evidently does not shy away from identity politics. “I’m really excited to revolutionize the position of female producers within the music business,” she said. “I feel there’s so much room for growth and new music. When we get to that point where there are more female performers compared to male, we’re going to have so many different kinds of music that we can’t even anticipate yet. I don’t know when that’s going to happen, but I’m really excited in the way that women express themselves differently from men, and I’m looking forward to the day when the pop music industry falls apart and men are not going to be imposing their ideas of sex onto young girls. There are so many pop records that are written by men and young girls are signing them… they are told what to do and they do it. It is wrong on so many levels and it puts women behind in the industry.”

Emika cites Mutek’s unbalanced ratio of male to female performers as something that’s not particularly a downfall of the festival, but as an endemic condition in the music industry. “That’s my reality everywhere I go and perform. I just choose to speak about it and create some awareness. I think that’s enough.”

  “Women fundamentally understand creativity more than men, in a more primal and philosophical way. Women create children… so we don’t even need to think about creativity – We are creators and that’s something that has been stolen from us. What we have to offer is richer in terms of musical expression and creativity, but men are in a more powerful position than women, and women are oppressed. I’ve experienced it... I want it to change it in my lifetime.” “Interestingly I have more male friends in the music industry and they really encourage me and want to see more women involved.”

On the whole, Emika says that she’s saddened by electronic music right now because of the excessive recycling of ideas and the lack of musical experimentation. “I was hoping that with the commercialization of dubstep that new sounds would emerge, but they didn’t.” “There’s a massive recession right now and feel like that’s affecting people and people are just trying to survive…. Music has become a job for so many people and the art is decreasing. It’s all about hills and valleys and there will be a huge rise soon.”

Emika heralds Mutek as a festival on the upswing of the pendulum. “The crowd here are insanely enthusiastic and Mutek is an amazing festival to be a part of on so many levels. Everyone is here because of the music, and has invested their time, experience and money to attend… Maybe I’ll have conversations with people and we’ll spark some new ideas. There are so many people here talking about music, so I think it’s amazing that Mutek can do that.” – All good things, indeed, and with Mutek doing so well, they’ve expanded into Mexico and Barcelona, and the conversations about music, the live performances and the dancing continue to inspire musicians and music fans alike.

[samplingculture]

My interview with Jamie Lidell for news.beatport.com

Jamie Lidell comes full circle at MUTEK in Montreal

It has been nine years since Jamie Lidell last played Montreal’s MUTEK Festival. And it’s funny how things have changed and in some ways stayed the same. As the festival has evolved, so too have many of the returning musicians on the bill (with both Matthew Herbert and Jamie Lidell as extraordinary examples), and yet they retain their musical influences from years—and in some cases, decades—past. 

“There is Brandt Brauer Frick’s work, there’s my recent work—admittedly more like Price’s funk than pure electronic—and then there is MUTEK Festival connecting the dots,” an energetic Lidell told us prior to his Thursday night show at Metropolis. “It’s a super-cool homecoming.”

Lidell’s performance involved his signature vocals and a keyboard player. It was followed by a percussive set of drums and programming by Brandt Brauer Frick, which Lidell joined them for a few tracks to beat-box along. Lidell says he revels in the unexpected moments on stage and the turn of events that often happen when performing live, and he says he likes to be authentic on stage, revealing much of what he’s doing for the audience. On previous tours, he had cameras recording on stage, projecting his setup to the audience.

“I once opened for Four Tet, and a transformer exploded,” he recalls, of a particularly dramatic moment from years past. “Everything died on stage, just 20 minutes into my set, and I had no option but to only sing. I sang pure acapella and I did beat-boxing for 20 minutes and I held it down. Then people started singing along with me. That’s the thing—people are really cool. A lot of artists think people are stupid, but you can’t underestimate your audience. I try to remember that if anything goes wrong that the crowd will be on my side. I like being on stage, recovering, and bouncing back. The audience gets even more into it. You fall off the wave, you emerge, and catch a bigger wave. Or you drown,” he says.

Over the years, Lidell says he has become more grounded. He’s been in the music industry for a while, and his move from New York City to Nashville has impacted his outlook. “The pace of life is completely different, and everyone is patient and so friendly,” he says. “It’s strange to have lived in a big metropolis and being used to a cold abrupt style.” But now, as a homeowner with his wife, Lidell admits, “We do miss New York and going out and having infinite food options, but Nashville is our base—and we still get to travel a lot. I’m lucky my wife travels with me sometimes.”

Lidell is at a place where he can even give back and help younger musicians. “I was touring with a good friend of mine who is only 21 and when he did his first show with me, he was shy and awkward. But by the end of 20 dates, he was more aware of himself, and I thought, ‘Shit, give him another 50 shows and he’ll be on fire.’ As an artist you have to get over yourself and your fear. When you get knocked down you have to get back up… and enjoy the process. If you have a tenacious spirit, you’ll be alright. You can’t be a drama queen… And you need to be really hungry for it.” He closes our conversation with some proper advice for us all: “Stay hungry.”

Originally posted at: http://news.beatport.com/blog/2013/06/03/jamie-lidell-comes-full-circle-at-mutek-in-montreal/

[samplingculture]

Jamie Lidell performs during Mutek Festival

Here's just a sneak peek of Jamie Lidell performing at Mutek on Thursday May 30....  I'll have more photos and an interview soon, for Beatport news!

[samplingculture]

Ninja Cube - An interactive visual installation alongside Bonobo Live

Check out the results of this brilliant collaboration. I sure hope something like this will come to Toronto!

[samplingculture]

All About Me

Hello. I'm Amanda, a blogger at Sampling Culture. 

 Facebook  Twitter  pinterest  Soundcloud  Tumblr 

 LinkedIn 

Here are some cool facts about me:

Has a Masters in Journalism and has been blogging since the 1990's!

3 years of pro experience in digital production & marketing

Loves the creative process, media production, social media and innovation in design and technology

Experienced with current social media platforms; digital marketing strategies; web analytics, defining goals and tracking KPIs.

Works with Wordpress, CMS, Photoshop and can manage web programmers

A collaborator, independent thinker, diligent problem-solver

Companies I work/worked with include:

Kensington Communications Inc. (Cross-Platform Production)

Museum Secrets (TV Series)

Shameless Idealists (TV Series)

Raw Opium (Feature Documentary)

Q on CBC (Radio Show)

CBC Arts Online (Online Magazine)

Spinner / AOL (Online Magazine)

Beatport (Online Magazine)

Klublife (Magazine)

The MuseBox (Agency)

SkyWorks Charitable Foundation (Community Centred Film)

[samplingculture]

Seth Troxler has funny shorts, a new track and an Electric Island appearance in Toronto

Caught swatting non-existant bats and wearing his girlfriend's shorts, Seth Troxler proved himself to be a very comical man with 1970's swagger, when DJ MAG caught him for an impromptu interview at the Winter Music Conference in Miami in 2010. So, just what we can expect from him today at Electric Island, on Center Island in Toronto? It's an open question - but one thing is for sure -- the music should be good.

Seth's music is dark and unequivocally trippy, with rolling bass-lines and tricked out lyrics that have hallucinogenic undertones. 

Here's his newest track with Deetron that came out 6 days ago on his Soundcloud page: 

And another good one: 

Along with Seth Troxler performing at Toronto's inaugural Electric Island summer festival, are Nitin, My Favorite Robot and Nathan Barato.

Electric Island is organized by a group of people from several of the leading event companies in Toronto: Platform, Embrace and Footwork. 

I caught up with Jeremy Kesten of Platform to hear more about the festival. "It was inspired by the Piknic Electronik in Montreal... We wanted to work with the city to do a positive outdoors event during the day... and The City and Parks and Recreation have been great on working with us." "It's good for everyone. The City will make money from our event permits and equipment rentals, and the vendors on the Island will also make more money than usual with all of our event attendees." 

Organizers are hoping for 2000 people today, with sunny skies, and only a slight chance of rain later in the evening. The Electric Island starts at 2 PM and goes until 10 PM. There will be a BBQ on site and a full-service bar at the licensed event. 

When asked about the sound, Jeremy said "We have a Sennheiser K-Array sound system. It produces huge bass, but the speakers are flat and very thin. It produces massive sound and it's like a space age technology. It's all portable – and although it's pretty heavy and needs to be dollied around, you have a full concert sound system that fits into a few boxes!"

It's possible that residents on Wards Island could complain of noise but the organizers of Electric Island have been as careful as possible to position the sound so that it's barricaded by buildings. They're excited to be doing the event and have everyone cooperating to make it a success.

Electric Island events will take place on the 4 holiday weekends this summer and they'd like to keep their event as an affordable option for electronic music fans who want to attend a relatively low-key event with amazing music and friends.

Find out more on their website: http://www.electricisland.to

[samplingculture]

Exploring the art of veejaying, a new trend in the live concert experience

Last Updated: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 | 5:10 PM ET  By Amanda Connon-Unda, CBC News

U2 is often touted as the biggest band in the world. Whether or not that's true, they definitely think big when conceiving their concert set-up.

The group's latest jaunt around the world, the 360° tour, features live video feeds with close-up shots of the band on a massive, cylinder-shaped screen. The screen, which can expand in height from seven to 22 metres, is composed of hundreds of hexagonal panels and thousands of LED lights. While Bono sings, colourful 3-D graphics twist and turn on the screen, morphing seamlessly in time with the music — warm red shades with golden glowing lines are followed by shades of aqua with textures and movements evocative of an underwater world. Coupled with the band's music, these visuals ensure that the U2 concert experience is totally engrossing.

The man behind these sumptuous visuals is graphic artist Michael Paul Young, who designed them in collaboration with U2's creative director, Catherine Owens. The 360° tour is just the latest demonstration of a new trend in music performance: the use of video content created on the fly. Instead of "pre-rendering" visuals — that is, fashioning them beforethe show — most bands with big tour budgets are hiring a "VJ," or video jockey, to produce improvised visuals to accompany the music.

VJing for concerts has come a long way. It started in the art world with experiments like Andy Warhol's 1966 travelling road show Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which featured performances by the Velvet Underground, and gradually moved into the realm of stadium concerts. The term "VJ" first arose in the house music scene in New York in the 1970s, when dancers wanted visuals to complement the music and create a totally immersive experience.

"[VJing] was an open system, and it was accepted as an experimental thing," says Greg Hermanovic, a long-time software designer and visualist.

Johnny DeKam, who has his own live-visuals company in Los Angeles, remembers VJing at electronic music festivals in the 1990s. "It took some years for that to really start in the pop world," he says.

In the '90s, avant-garde electronic artists like Coldcut, Hexstatic and Emergency Broadcast Network began experimenting with improvised visuals, a practice that was picked up by more mainstream bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails. On their current Lights in the Sky tour, Nine Inch Nails employ live 3-D rendering tools and an interactive touch screen device that frontman Trent Reznor can use to trigger visual and audio effects.

The idea behind VJing is that the images are live and constantly evolving. As a result, each show is a unique experience.

"I have to constantly react, and I am improvising with the live band. I have to push pads, to trigger effects," says CPU, the VJ moniker of Bryant Davis Place, who has toured with the Black Eyed Peas. CPU alters the colours on a touch screen, creates patterns and remixes the live video feed of the show, as well as the Black Eyed Peas' logo. He can "scrub" the video — which is like scratching a record — and manipulate the visuals in many ways.

"I keep the energy level going on stage during and in between songs," he says.

"What makes a good visualist is someone who has a mastery over their technology but also an inherent talent or a formal background in creating visual images," explains DeKam. "The art [of VJing] is in the kind of relationships you create."

Modern VJing came into its own in the 1990s, with the emergence of more affordable laptop computers that were capable of faster processing.

"That was the big switch in VJ culture and what has given rise to its growing popularity in the last 10 to 15 years," says Surya Buchwald, founder of Los Angeles Video Artists (LAVA), a group that started in 2003 to promote improvisational video art. Buchwald's group holds workshops and attracts people with interests in music, animation, art and software development. At a LAVA meeting this past May, a VJ demonstrated something called Touch Designer software. The program was created by Derivative, an animation software company in Toronto.

"We wanted to make performing visuals as rich for the performer as possible," says Hermanovic, Derivative's founder. "So, the video mixer that we made, called Mixxa, is visual. You can see many stages of the mixing process in front of you while you're performing. Many VJs are enslaved to keyboards and a mouse while they are performing, so we designed this mixer that can be operated with your fingers on a touch screen, and the buttons are nice and big."

As the price of concert tickets continues to rise, people expect to get more for their money, DeKam says. "When they are paying from $50 to $100 for an arena show, they expect good video and good sound. They expect it to be a great show. I would, too — it's a lot of money."

DeKam created his own VJ software company, called Vidvox, in 1998. Since then, bands such as the Beastie Boys, Stereolab, Ladytron and the Grateful Dead have used his products in concert.

Live visuals at concerts are becoming increasingly sophisticated. "Before, we just cared about getting 30 frames per second up on the screen — we just wanted to get smooth visuals, and sometimes, they were of a low quality. But now, the quality is going up," said Hermanovic. "As the software tools get better for integrating visuals and music, it will make performances a lot more rich."

And as the technology evolves, DeKam envisions another kind of working relationship. "I don't see a need to differentiate what a VJ does from what a guitarist does or what a keyboardist does. VJs have an instrument, and they perform [on] it. What needs to happen is integrating that person into the band the same way they would integrate a bassist. It's the same kind of interaction that any band member would have."

Amanda Connon-Unda is a writer based in Toronto.

Published at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/artdesign/story/2009/10/13/f-rise-of-the-veejay-concerts.html