-
Musical Amateurism and Technological Change
Two articles that problematize the cultural values attached to the modernist producer/consumer dichotomy, especially with regard to musical amateurism. From Antoine Hennion (whose work is all too rarely available in English), Music industry and music lovers, beyond Benjamin: The return of the amateur: […] the amateur could easily be reinstated at the centre of the…
-
Build it, and they will come
In quite a perceptive post about the relationship between network literacy, accessible production tools, and the mass amateurization of blogging, Adrian Miles looks forward to the mass amateurization of Vogging. Adrian basically reckons that mass vogging depends on an as-yet non-existent mass literacy which will follow the mass introduction of powerful, usable tools, and not…
-
iTunes ad
Eek! Teenagers who were sued by the RIAA for downloading music appear in a TV advertisement for an iTunes/Pepsi cross-promotion – launched during the Superbowl.
-
Fibreculture Journal Launched
Fibreculture Journal is a peer reviewed journal that explores the issues and ideas of concern and interest to both the Fibreculture network and wider social formations. The journal encourages critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning information and communication technologies and their policy frameworks, network cultures and their informational logic, new media…
-
GarageBand: Creativity out of the Box
At Game Girl Advance, Sandford parodies the ilife suite by “announcing” the release of “attic author” (thanks to matt jones for the link): […]Apple is proud to announce an add-on package to our popular iLife ’04 suite of applications — including the easiest to use music playback and purchasing software available, iTunes, and the new,…
-
Photojunkie Forum
Photojunkie Forum: a discussion board about photography
-
I’ve only just found out that Helmut Newton has died at 83.
-
Blogging, Punk, and Militant DIY
I’m frantically busy planning a course and finishing off some outstanding articles, all without my sexy home PC which has some fried hardware and is in the shop, so I haven’t had much time online lately. Nevertheless: From Empty Bottle, a vigorous, and highly Romantic post-punk blogging manifesto well worth reading. You’ll have to go…
-
Peripatetic Sound
Walking Through Sound, by David Toop, is all about the potential of the wirelessly sonified urban experience: Electricity liberated humans from darkness but fixed them in space; audio and visual recordings liberated humans from transience but fixed their experiences into frozen memories. Wireless technologies have proved just how willing people are to be disconnected from…
-
Done, Done, and Done
Well, I submitted my Masters thesis yesterday. I completed two years to the day after I commenced – how Virgoan of me. Now we wait for the examiners’ reports to come in, but we try not to think about that. And might I say, cheap champagne never tasted so good! Sadly, this is the end…