Thoughts are like fishes

Memories were meant to fade

This morning I was musing on Facebook's Memories function. I really despise it every day when it suggests I have memories to view and share.

My sister calls it "Facebook's memory replacement service". I don't know why it bothers me but I concur with the sentiment in the film Strange Days (1995), where Mace says "Memories were meant to fade." It feels backward-looking to want to emphasise memories. I think it's a function of Facebook pandering to people's narcissism but maybe it's an extension of their data-mining?

The scene above from Strange Days above also features the "Right here, right now" used by Fatboy Slim to great effect, see below.

Modifyre

When I first attended Burning Seed there were a few hundred people. Then when I last attended Burning Seed there were a few thousand people. So it was fun to attend the Queensland regional burn event, Modifyre, earlier this month with only a few hundred. Above are some highlights.

Feather and Leaf at Roxy Gallery in Kyogle

On the way to the opening of Feather and Leaf, an exhibition led by Rebecca Tapscott which also features work by friends, I reflected on her exhibition in Wagga Wagga nearly a decade earlier.

Tapscott’s paintings share bold use of colour and landscape, often as backdrops for wry observations. In the artist statement on the wall in Kyogle she commented on the blend of colour and light, offset with an insight.

For example, at the 2007 exhibition at Charles Sturt University’s HR Gallop Gallery in Wagga there was a painting of a Bali scene in which a topless tourist shared the frame with a topless Hindi goddess. It captured a clash of cultures in a view still poignant from the bombings of 2005.

In the Kyogle exhibition this year there’s a painting of a large mob of crows flying above a landscape that reminds me of Wagga. In the artist’s statement Tapscott linkd this murder scene to the tally of women killed this year as a result of domestic violence.

Birds featured in the work of Tapscott’s friends and co-exhibitors Sonja Karl, Christina Reid, Jill Runciman and Erin Nolte. Painting dominated but other media were used, such as print. The greatest variety of mediums was demonstrated by Tapscott, who worked with ceramics in mugs and broaches, as well as a beaut metal cockatoo.

In her opening address, Ruth Tsitimbinis spoke of the local arts throughout the hills and valleys of the region. The diversity and variety in the birdlife in the exhibition formed a vibrant menagerie. The range of representations was highly stimulating.

Nice day in the Nightcap National Park

Hooked on a feline

Screenshot

Petrichor

This July the Wagga Wagga City Council building will premiere a collaboration that reflects on the role the surrounding region has played in inspiring creative work.

Poet Derek Motion spent much of his life to date living and studying in Wagga Wagga and the landscape has influenced many works in his published collection Lollyology.

Motion, a former director of Booranga Writers Centre, was winner of the 2009 Overland Judith Wright Prize and his work has appeared in journals, including Cordite, Meanjin, Otloliths and Overland.

“In many ways I am a product of Wagga Wagga and so is much of the poetry in Lollyology,” said Motion. “This project was an opportunity to link passages with the landscapes that inspired them and visually show the creative work within an environmental context.”

Working with filmmaker Jason Richardson, a video was produced for Wagga Wagga City Council that reflects on the region and its influence in Motion’s written work. “The idea was to link the landscape, particularly writing on the landscape, with the idea that it writes itself on the individuals who reside within it,” said Richardson.

Richardson is a graduate of Charles Sturt University’s Television Production course and lived in and around Wagga Wagga for about a decade. During that time Richardson became increasingly interested in the role of landscapes as an influence in creative work.

“It was rewarding to explore our shared experiences of the Riverina region, through the environment as well as educational institutions,” agrees Motion. “Thank you Wagga Wagga for the inspiration and thank you also to Wagga Wagga City Council for the opportunity to reflect, both within ourselves and now on a site at the heart of the region.”

Blue Mountains from air

One thing I love about flying to Sydney is looking down on the Blue Mountains and thinking they look like a crumpled old blanket.

Shame on a nigga

Squarepusher on 22 May 2015

Squarepusher was technically brilliant. The visuals and sound were amazing, particularly the real-time projection mapping onto his reflective garb -- which looked a bit like an Olympic fencing outfit with hood and visor.

The glitch was over the top but, when he took to the stage with his bass guitar for the encore, his solo playing on the instrument also reflected this aesthetic as he tapped and slapped madly. It was then that his jazz influence became more obvious and it kinda made sense of the barrage from earlier in the set, when the speed of notes and rhythms were more akin to thrash metal.

He doesn't work with many melodies but does add some nice splashes of chords among the maelstrom of bitcrushing, feedback and sped-up beats. Variety came from nods to genres, like a 303 or rave-y synth and one dubby sorta tune.

Dunno why this was at the Opera House though. Sure they have a great PA but the place seems to be one continuous staircase with no dance floor. Again it seemed like a jazz aesthetic, where the audience were meant to stroke their chin and clap politely.

Oscar sings Luigi's Mansion

Kids watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Last night my son had a belated birthday party of sorts. He'd been asking for a "pizza party" for a while and we'd settled on eating then watching Scott Pilgrim with a few friends.

I'd been hesitating on screening the film since we last watched it. The representation of open homosexual relationships didn't seem appropriate for me to share with other people's kids. That was my issue with the film, anyway.

I really like Scott Pilgrim a lot and remember excitedly thinking I can't wait to share this with my then video game-obsessed toddler. I've seen it a lot since then and appreciate the way it evenhandedly represents relationships while being bright and loud and funny.

The kids persisted in asking for Scott Pilgrim and I concluded that it shouldn't be an issue for other people's kids to see homosexual relationships in a movie. One kid loudly questioned the gay character and everyone told him to get over it, which was great to see. By the end of the film there'd been more talk about veganism than homosexuality though, so maybe diet is more of a taboo these days?

Sexist sketches

Facebook's newsfeed offers many treats for the eyes and brain, the latest being a series of sketches on sexism at the Mentlegen page.

I showed these to my daughter and returned to hear her mother exclaiming pride. It was nice to also see her then redrafting and improving on her representation.

Someone's at the door

Still lifes for bonus lives

My daughter has been sick and stayed home for a few days rest. Last night she was delirious, kept asking when the school bus was coming.

Yesterday she started drawing a picture of a Gamecube controller for her brother. She knows he likes Gamecube games and wants him to like her art.

It made me look at the controller and imagine the perspective and the spaces within the shape and how I'd draw it. So I did.

Is AI a sensitive subject on Facebook?

Hadn't seen this message before and it made me wonder if it was Facebook's AI being self-conscious?

Raptures with raptors

Above is a song I wrote last year. It was a bassline I developed after trying to figure out a synth line for a pop song.

When I recorded it for a Naviar Haiku project, I added the Replicant 'four bar repeat' preset and it became a different composition.

Then I remixed the result for another haiku project, leading to a dancier track with synth parts.

More recently I thought it would be interesting to try playing it live in a single-take recording. When the Disquiet Junto set a suitable project, I had a go and was disappointed with the result.

So I tried again with a jammier sorta approach, using the Jam Man pedal -- which simplified the riff.

It's interesting to see the evolution of this riff because I haven't used the original composition yet. I should go back and see what other directions it can go.