Stories

Cindy Sherman's photograph is now the most expensive photo ever. And I did an homage to it.

Like Ms. Sherman, my creative process involves being alone, thinking, devising, mentally-sketching, tweaking, re-tweaking, re-thinking; sharing for feedback, and then re-tweaking some more. It’s emblematic of the contemporary, technology-enabled artist, in a way. Creative types have so many resources available: so many mediums to muck around in, so many visual sandboxes (like Adobe CSx–Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier); audio playgrounds (like Reaktor, Ableton, FL Studio) and platforms for interdisciplinary / cross-medium work (like Max/MSP, etc). … When…

Call for submissions to a Chicago electronic music compilation

subVariant is planning to release a free-to-download collection called Frequencity featuring quality songs from regional musicians. All electronic music genres are welcome. subVariant will also release an original t-shirt design in the theme of “Chicago Electronic Music” when the compilation is officially released. Ready to submit? Read more and do it now! The deadline for submissions is Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 8pm.

Futuristic LED watches at Fractalspin

Here are some cool new LED watches up at Fractalspin. My favorites are the really minimal-looking ones, like the Slim Round Stainless Gamma Ray Blue LED Watch, Square Gamma Ray Green LED Watch and Lightmare LED Watch – Black Stainless Steel

[6.4.2011] 4th Annual Experimental Garage Sale

On June 4th, 2011 is the 4th Annual Experimental Garage Sale! This craft fair focuses on circuit bending and DIY musical instruments at the Experimental Sound Studio space with 12 sellers who will have plenty circuit bent devices, un-bent toys, electronic parts, kits, experimental instruments, contact microphones, guitar pedals, art, and more. The sale will begin rain or shine at 12:00 PM and last until 6:00 PM. Here’s the Facebook Event page.

Synth Brittania

Here is a great television special about British synthpop & synthesizers in the late 70s and early 80s produced by BBC Four. Some of the talking heads are from members of Joy Division, Human League, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, OMD Gary Numan (who has Asberger’s by the way) and more. [via]

Some amazing dance videos

thanks, Glen Stefani! Genki Sudo / “World Order”

Bassline Bassline – TB-303 Documentary

Here’s a cool mini-documentary on the Roland TB-303, by Nate Harrison, the same guy who did the Amen Break documentary. via Michael O’Shea

A bunch of commercials that ran along the "Empire Man" (RIP) ones back in the day in Chicago

Elmer Lynn Hauldren, aka “The Empire Carpet Guy” passed away this week, but he definitely left his mark on the advertising industry industry and affected generations of young people who had local-broadcast televisions running in their houses in the 80s / 90s. The ultimately-catchy jingle made Mr. Hauldren a celeb mainly because of his earnest delivery and the understated nature of them. “Empire” commercials weren’t cranked up beyond cheap speaker-potential for impact, for one, and…

Avant_MUTEK Chicago April 21-23, 2011

Chicago gets a taste of the Montreal-based digital art and electronic music festival that showcases innovation in music and creativity on April 21-23 with Avant_Mutek: Chicago. Founded in 2000, Mutek is an international festival organization dedicated to the promotion of electronic music and the digital arts. Its main event is an annual five-day event in Montreal, Canada that takes place in late May and early June. Many of electronic music’s most established figures have performed, as well as…

Game Boy Music. Not the 8-Bit Kind. Just watch.

Organic Gameboy Music

Reformat the Planet: A Chiptune Documentary

Reformat the Planet is a feature-length documentary that focuses on some of the personalities behind the 8-Bit / chiptune scene in New York City, featuring some of our favorite Game Boy artists, notably Bit Shifter. Reformat the Planet (RTP) is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip music, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using obsolete video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game…

How to Start Making Electronic Music — A List of Resources

Here’s a nice article over at Memeshift with a lot of resources from all over the intertrons for getting started making electronic music. Even though it’s a bit old (2008), it focuses on basic principles and components, like oscillators, filters, synthesizer programming, and sampling. A nice resource for people just getting started. The author recommends Ableton Live as the sequencer of choice, because it allows for both live performance and more traditional sequencing and I…