I’ve changed web hosts and upgraded all the Alias Frequencies sites to the latest version of WordPress, so performance should be better from now on. Turns out the old host was being repeatedly hacked.
Oh, and this site is now at http://shannon-oneill.net. That may change as there’s another domain I’d like, but I’m waiting to hear back from the lovely owners. In any case, old links should redirect to the current address. If you subscribe to the feed, be sure to do so via FeedBurner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ShannonONeill that way you shouldn’t be affected by any future changes. Unfortunately lots of comments got lost in the move. I have no idea why, but rest assured that I didn’t delete them!
Things are OK over here. Running the first year course at Uni has been a fun challenge, but we’re in the groove now. I’ve been going a bit crazy with the PhD and some writing projects (why do I do it to myself?) but I can see a bit of time opening up soon which I’ll use for making some new creative work and getting another batch of releases up on Alias Frequencies.
With this new site I feel inspired to blog a bit more. We’ll see! =)
Investigating Cross - Disciplinary Practice in the Areas of Music, Sound and Design.
Featuring : Kees Tazeelar (Netherlands) / Ernest Edmonds (UK) / Yasunao Tone (Japan)
+ Many More
Three Days of Keynotes, Panels and Workshops from 10am to 6pm at UTS.
Two nights of performances from 8pm at the ABC Studios, Harris St featuring Donna Hewitt, Julian Knowles, Philip Samartzis, Kees Tazelaar, Peter Blamey, Robin Fox, Darrin Verhagen and Yasunao Tone, all in glorious eight channel surround sound.
And… Robin Fox in Residence in the new UTS Interaction Studio
All free and open to the public!
For more information, the full program and contact details to book your place at the performances check out:
Dear Friends,
This year’s Golden Eye Awards hosts the first Sydney Sound Sports
event. A bit like Theatre Sports but
a lot noisier. Come along and join the audience on Wednesday October
17 at the Great Hall, level 5,
Building 1 (The Tower) at UTS.
Time: 5:30 sharp!!
Hope to see you there
Digital democracy has become an increasingly popular topic among
academics, political commentators, and policy makers: there is much
talk about the potential of the Internet and other digital media
enhancing democracy. There has also been plenty of action, with
governments, civic organizations, universities and activists,
investigating this potential and supporting digital democracy
initiatives. All this commentary, research, policy making, and project
work draws on a diversity of understandings of digital democracy.
However, there is a lack of resources that clearly outline and examine
this diversity. This paper undertakes an ideal-typical reading and
critical evaluation of five digital democracy discourses and their
variations, with the aim of bringing attention to the range of
possibilities for democracy supported by digital media, and the
advantages and disadvantages of these different possibilities.
Lincoln is a post-doctoral research fellow in the School of Journalism
and Communication at The University of Queensland. He is co-editor of
the journal New Zealand Sociology and of the collection Radical
Democracy and the Internet (Palgrave, June 2007). Lincoln’s current
research involves a critical investigation of the practices and
meanings surrounding Internet use, with particular focus on the
extension of democratic cultures. He can be contacted at:
l.dahlberg@uq.edu.au
Hosted by: Research Initiative on International Activism:
www.international.activism.hss.uts.edu.au
James Goodman, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007.
Phone: (612) 9514 2714 Fax: (612) 9514 2332
Email: james.goodman@uts.edu.au
Web: www.international.activism.uts.edu.au
We were looking at some YouTube vids in my first year Media Arts class today. Afterwards, one of the students sent me a link to her music videos, and I was blown away! Emma Russack has a dark, hypnotic folk style, along the lines of Marissa Nadler, Gillian Welch and Smog. Here’s her cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Planet Caravan’:
Go to Emma’s YouTube and MySpace pages for more great music.
Thanks to Christian for introducing me to YouTube Poop. It reminds me of the kinds of collages I’ve made when starting to play with a technology: cassette pause button edits in the 80s, samplers in the early 90s, hard disk editing and granular synthesis in the late 90s. Basically having fun, trying things out, and exploring rhythm, texture and mood in a more or less musical way, but with little regard for convention. Taking whatever happened to be on TV or radio and sculpting it into something resonant.
Here’s a little video I made in 2003, shortly after getting my hands on Sonic Foundry Vegas (now Sony Vegas). It uses a bunch of videos I’d collected from the web (mostly from Stileproject) but isn’t all that different from the video collages I made back in 1993 when I first got access to a SVHS edit suite.
It’s called Four Words by Time Being and appears on the Section Media compilation VIVA [section] which is being rereleased by Alias Frequencies [preview].
I’m currently writing a book chapter on how the now-ubiquitous ‘mash-up’ (in web, video, music, etc) came from the same musical underground that gave us ‘culture jamming’ ie the Evolution Control Committee, Negativland, John Oswald. I’m also looking at relationships between collage, granular synthesis and cultural granularity.
It will probably become part of my dissertation, and may be the kick start that I need, as I’m at that awkward stage of having to redefine the paramaters of my research. For example, I’m probably not going to go ahead with the wiki site that I’d planned, as the Web2.0 landscape is developing too rapidly and I don’t want to make something that will be redundant. It may be more useful to concentrate on analyzing and ‘mashing up’ existing (and emerging) sites, as well as being involved in the development of such sites, as I am with the ABC’s ‘Pool’ project. We’ll see…
Electrofringe/TINA was great this year. My highlights included the new!shop performance/installation, the Corporate Techno and sedition panels, and performances by Lloyd Barrett, DJ Scotch Egg and Robin Fox, but there was lots of other excellent stuff. My panels and gigs also went pretty well, and the nights were full of drinking and fun - all in all a wonderful festival experience. I’ve put some photos up on Flickr.
Now I have to keep my head down to prepare for my end of year PhD presentation next week, as well as finishing off some other work that’s overdue. See you on the other side!
Actor Network Theory - special workshop
The Institute for Sustainable Futures will hold a special roundtable/workshop on Actor Network Theory (ANT)
on Wednesday 19th July
from 11am till 1pm
at Level 11, Building 10, Jones Street
[University of Technology, Sydney - City Campus]
The aim of the workshop is to share the accumulated wisdom of various ISF PhD students, a guest from Electrical Engineering, Robert Jarman and adjunct Prof. Paul Bryce, who have used ANT, and to enable others to take the first steps in seeing what ANT might offer their research approach.
ANT offers a way of observing and analysing a process of change and, in combination with action research, ANT can identify and guide interventions to effect change. (Bryce & Yasukawa 2004).
Come along if you wish to learn more.
If you would like more information or to RSVP, please email Juliet Willetts (Juliet.Willetts@uts.edu.au) by COB Tuesday 18th.
Although I’m crazy busy at the moment, preparing to travel etc., I’m going to attend this. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how ANT, as well as D&G’s ‘assemblage’ can be used for theorizing appropriation. Reading Slack & Wise’s Culture & Technology a while ago confirmed that these should be fruitful areas to explore.
Also I’ve been commissioned by the ABC to make a five minute piece on the theme of ‘figure in a soundscape’ as part of a new radiophonic initiative. My piece is provisionally called ‘Figure/Network’ - it will engage with some of these theoretical concerns through sound, using granular synthesis, and generative, patch-based processes. It’s due in a couple of weeks (the day before I leave!) so this workshop is timely.
