May 10 Declaration
For frequent readers of this blog (Hello…ello…ello…), you may remember back on May 10th I posted this declaration. And for those who are still frequent readers, you may realize that this never happened.
So whats my excuses this time round? Loads as usual. Mainly I thought the blog design was kick ass. It was, I really liked it, but it was a pain to maintain and just to put a new post up was a chore which I was not interested in doing! So it’s back to a very simple and clean design: one colour, no fancy business. Content is king right? Right?
Lets see what I can do this time round
Posted in News on September 17th, 2008 by Robot Disco | | 0 Comments
Cameraless film experiments
This year, as part of my degree, I’ve been playing a lot with 16mm and Super8 film. I’ve developed a sort of habit you could say, especially on the side of cameraless film. This is working directly onto film, almost like a canvas. So far the results have been pretty interesting as you are forced by the nature of the medium and the way its being used (that is, without a camera) to experiment.
The following image (down below) is of a small amount of the work, made by painting and dying directly onto clear 16mm film. After projecting it, it received comments such as “lush”, “scary” and “organic”. Pretty much was I was going for.
As I mentioned, the medium seems to demand experimentation. This was some what hammered home to me by artist Louise Curham. She was an Artist in Residence at the University of Wollongong recently, and her practice essentially experimentation in film. Through watching her work, performance and listening to her talk about her practice, I discovered I needed to make mistakes with my work through experimentations. Not only experiment in the work, but also in its performance. I seem to be moving towards film as a performance medium rather than one of recording and documentation. I can very much see myself ‘”DJing” with film/projectors, different from a VJ and definitely more towards the DJ side of performance. What that actually means is yet to be tested…
I absorbed a lot from Louise and it has come out in interesting experiments in the film medium.
Posted in Art Marking, Experimentation, Work In Progress on May 16th, 2008 by Robot Disco | | 2 Comments
iD.EOLOGY - Because Best Things Are Free
A new stellar release from iDEOLOGY (possibly the best netlabel currently?). This time rounds its European Hop Hop at its finest.
From iDEOLOGY:
“If it doesn’t cost anything, it has no value.”, grandma used to say. While we turn our faces into the sun, inhale deeply and our mouths go wide with a placid smile, we have some second thoughts on this statement. Glaring sunshine, clean air and a nice smile, all this comes at zero cost and still, it’s not only vital, it’s what makes life worth living in the first place.
We at iD.EOLOGY have similar ideas about music. And while even established rock-acts seem to slowly change their minds likewise, with our release-no. iD.046 we doubly underline our familiar opinion that the best things actually are free in bold print. The first release in a loose compilation-series, featuring selected genre-specific musical gems by celebrated iD. allstars as well as exciting new discoveries, chills you and ourselves out with a pleasant treatment for both body and mind.
Since good things take time, it comes packed with some 45 minutes of finest hiphop. Just like it’s a common fashion in hiphop to massage your neck with a recombination of the most different sorts of stylistic elements, the beats of the “Edition Hiphop” will relax you with their oscillation inbetween minimalist reservation and funky exuberance, inbetween the digital creak and the analogue crackle, inbetween intricate jazz-rhythms and straightforward easy listening grooves better than a professional Shiatsu-therapy.
And just like it is also a common fashion in hiphop to make an explicit statement, the MCs featured on this compilation speak a pretty clear, if sometimes poetic and surreal language. Far off from highbrow pretentiousness and gutter-slang, the raps tell stories out of everyday life when it was in a particularly good, merciless or quirky mood.
So luckily, grandma wasn’t right about everything she used to say. But who knows, had she known this compilation, she might have been more able to appreciate the things that life just gives to you for free.
Posted in Netlabel Music on May 13th, 2008 by Robot Disco | | 1 Comments
Underworld’s Book of Jam 1.4
Rather than just being content with making music (You know, Born Slippy and the like), Underworld are at it again with a new Book of Jam - a stunning series of downloadable art/life books. Whenever I am stuck in a creative hole I always pull these books out for that kick of inspiration.
They are simply beautiful and wondrous!
Hit this for a preview. You have to sign up to download, but its worth it as there’s loads of other content
Posted in Inspiration, Pretty Things on May 12th, 2008 by Robot Disco | | 0 Comments
Half-time Double-team by The Deadly Deaths
Through one of my classes at university, I have been exploring stop motion animation - taking a photo of something, changing, photo, changing, photo and so on to simulate real movement (or not so real movement).
I found this video on Vimeo through my research. Pretty much along the same lines as I have been experimenting. As I get more work finished, I’ll put up a few videos.
Half-time Double-team by The Deadly Deaths from TheDeadlyDeaths on Vimeo.
Posted in Research on May 11th, 2008 by Robot Disco | | 0 Comments
Robots WILL eat your disco
It’s around this time of year I totally clean out esuki and start afresh. This new theme, Unstandard, took my fancy pretty quickly. I still have to redo the colours to the good old esuki pink (#FF0099 for those interested) and get to know the system a bit more.
So whats happening in the new esuki? Well, more consistent updating and structure. Expect frequent mixes, video (when I get my new camera), stills and more from my creative practices, findings and researching from around the web. As this new theme lends to more of a magazine style blog, expect it to be a bit more professional 
Posted in News on May 10th, 2008 by Robot Disco | | 2 Comments
