REPROMAN remix reuse recycle

SOPA & PIPA Information Tools

2012-01-15T11:25:00.001-08:00

Information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US. Focusing on the current debate, opposing argument, security and technical concerns. Featuring content from prominent commentators, online awareness campaigns and a range of Internet protest tools. Links to both Acts are included.

Ogilvy Hosts Music & Brands Event 'Lab Day LIVE'

2011-09-05T06:36:00.001-07:00

International advertising and marketing agency Ogilvy Group UK are staging a one-day event called Lab Day LIVE designed to engage both the advertising and music communities. On the 9th September Ogilvy's offices in London's Canary Wharf will play host to a music industry conference and live music festival.

It promises to be an informative and entertaining occasion focusing on the latest digital media opportunities mutually available to brands and the music business. The morning conference panels and talks will feature key figures from Last.fm. Spotify, PRS and other leading music organizations (List of speakers). During the afternoon live music performances from name and up-coming acts will take place across three stages (see below).

Entitled: Making music matter as much to brands as it does to consumers

The event is part of Ogilvy’s on-going drive to help clients and their brands navigate the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry in the digital age.

In this video clip Lab Day organizer Tara Austin talks about her role in making music a more central part of the creative process at Ogilvy. To see what other members of the team are saying take a look at the Video Wall.

The Rules of Engagement

Ogilvy are looking to the music industry for innovative ideas on how brands can use music to to build engagement with their audience. Earlier in the year, at MIDEM 2011, they made a stirring appeal for music publishers to "‘look beyond the cheque' and contribute more than just a piece of audio to an advertising campaign" emphasising Ogilvy's vision to "create added value: value for our brands and, ultimately, value for the artist whose music our campaigns promote".

I'll be attending the event and listening closely to what's being said about sonic branding and new ideas for using music to create a 'brand sound'. I'm also looking forward to learning more about the power of sound and music when applied to areas such as 'retail soundscapes' and how we can be informed by hard data.

As a long-time advocate of Open Media licensing tools, when and where appropriate, I'll be hoping to see more open and collaborative business frameworks designed to minimize the friction permeating traditional licensing models. Many Internet audio and video platforms have already successfully integrated Creative Commons licensing making it easy for people to share, remix and reuse media legally, notably SoundCloud and YouTube (list of corporate support).

Creative Commons has always been about promoting creativity and the power of openness to build communities based on shared ideas. Unfortunately the established licensing system, especially with regards to CC licenses in Europe, makes widespread media sharing difficult, thereby blocking the most valuable thing which is attention. Hopefully the wider debate around open and closed systems will eventually lead to innovation that fosters audience attention, participation, and better user experiences in the digital music space.

Event Info & Live Stream

Website

Full details and live streaming of acts from the 3 music stages on the day can be found at http://www.labdaylive.co.uk/

Twitter

You can follow updates using the hashtag #labdaylive plus there's further tweet analysis, tracking and visualization via my channel at The Archivist

Acts

Alexis Ffrench

http://www.alexisffrenchmusic.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/AlexisFfrench

Aloe Blacc

http://aloeblacc.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/aloeblacc

Boy Mandeville

http://twitter.com/#!/boymanband

http://www.youtube.com/user/boymandeville

Charlie Simpson

http://charliesimpsonmusic.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/charliesimo

Delays

http://www.thedelays.co.uk/

http://twitter.com/#!/delays

Digitonal

http://www.digitonal.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/digitonal

Kidda

http://kiddamusic.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/iamkidda

Kinura

http://www.kinura.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/kinura

Laki Mera

http://www.facebook.com/lakimeramusic

http://twitter.com/#!/LakiMeraMusic

Newton Faulkner

http://www.newtonfaulkner.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/newtonfaulkner

Pete and The Pirates

http://www.peteandthepirates.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/#!/PetePirates

Sophie Ellis-Bextor

http://www.sophieellisbextor.net/

http://twitter.com/#!/sophieeb

To Kill a King

http://www.tokillaking.co.uk/

http://twitter.com/#!/ToKillAKingUK

Tribes

http://tribesband.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/tribesband

Wolf Gang

http://www.wolf-gang.co.uk/

http://twitter.com/#!/wolfgang

Media

Some of the performers appearing on the day

Digitonal

The Beating of Her Heart by digitonal

About Ogilvy

Wikipedia

Ogilvy & Mather are an International advertising, marketing and public relations agency founded in 1948.

YouTube

Visit the Ogilvy Museum on YouTube to watch some of their classic ads, dating back to the 1950s. For more recent developments there's the Ogilvyvids Channel

Twitter

Ogilvy Group Comms @OgilvyLondon for news and observations from the comms team at Ogilvy Group UK.

OGILVY @OGILVY their global staff blog aggregator.

Posted via email from David Holmes

'Upular' - Movie Mashup Track by Pogo

2009-12-25T15:54:00.001-08:00

'Upular' - a new mashup track from Australian electronic music artist Pogo, composed using chords, bass notes and vocal samples from the Disney Pixar film 'Up'. More Pogo video tracks via http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron

Following the Sony copyright problems associated with his earlier track 'Bangarang' (see previous post), I notice Pogo has included Disney Pixar credits at the end of the video. Considering the Blogger platform now supports direct integration with Amazon Associates, mashups like this can be a powerful promotional tool for all content creators (see below).

Merry Christmas!

Posted via web from David Holmes

Pogo Starts a Blog

2009-09-01T09:16:00.001-07:00

Australian electronic music artist Pogo has started a blog at http://pogotracks.blogspot.com/ currently featuring an FAQ and a list of interviews. His unique sound comes from the sampling, sequencing and reimagining of popular childhood movies. Tracks are constructed using sounds lifted from movie scenes (sometimes entirely), drums, bass and percussion.

Melodies are formed using cut-up dialogues in a non-lexical vocal style; "There are no definitive lyrics to my tracks because I have never intended to form sentences with the samples I use." The music is then synced to video cuts from the original movie to create a new mini-trailer.

Pogo has a growing fan-base on YouTube where fresh uploads and the viral potential of video widgets quickly attract thousands of visitors. Creations such as Expialidocious have now reached far in excess of half a million views. You can browse the growing collection of mashups at http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron

Below is the recent video for his track 'Bangarang' composed of sounds from the classic Spielberg film 'Hook'

Update 13th Sept '09

'Bangarang' removed from YouTube - Pogo Blog visit the link for full explanation.

Today, Sony Pictures Entertainment claimed that 'Bangarang' is an infringement of copyright, and the video has been removed from YouTube. I suppose this had to happen eventually given the kind of world we live in. (September 10th 2009).

Unfortunately this is a common experience for remixers of controlled media, such are the constraints of heavily restricted copyrights. However you can still play and download the full track here (while it lasts!)

Related

A sonic guide to the history of cut-up music: DJ Food - Raiding the 20th Century - Words & Music Expansion

Posted via web from David Holmes

Apologies EP by Mosaik

2009-08-12T21:55:00.001-07:00

Mosaik is the electronic music project of Stockholm based musician Jakob Svanholm. The Apologies EP features 7 instrumental tracks that combine melodic bass and synth sequences with delicate percussive rhythms. The sonic spaces are subtle and calming, with centered tonal themes, repeating motifs and ambient textures that conjure the emotions and imagination.

Originally released on Kahvi Collective in 2007: http://www.kahvi.org/139.php

MP3 and Flac versions now available under Creative Commons license at: http://mosaik.bandcamp.com

You can listen to some of Jakob's recent works in progress at: http://soundcloud.com/mosaik

See his website for discography and social connections: http://www.mosaik.se/

Posted via web from David Holmes

Tynt Tracer - Track Content Reuse and Generate Traffic

2009-07-26T16:30:00.001-07:00

Tracer is a free online tool that tracks where your website content is reused and inserts an attribution link back to the original published source. It also provides analytics to help you understand and measure user engagement. You simply add a line of java script to your blog or website and whenever someone pastes your work to another webpage, Tracer automatically generates a return link including Creative Commons license details if applicable (full instructions are given).

The following paragraph has been copied and pasted, showing the automatic attribution link at the bottom of the quote,

What does Tracer do?

Download Information Sheet

Tracer tracks when users copy content from your web site and automatically adds a link back to the original page when your content is pasted. So, why do you need Tracer?

Tracer is a brand new way to:

Generate more visits and page views.

Get credit when content is copied from your site.

Measure and understand user engagement.

Improve your search engine ranking.

Read more:http://tracer.tynt.com/features-and-benefits-of-tracer#ixzz0MPL1rqSN Under Creative Commons License:Attribution No Derivatives

Tracer is easy to implement and offers a convenient way to track user interaction and generate site traffic. Supports Blogger/Blogspot, Ning, Register.com, Typepad, WebsiteWorks.com, WordPress.

Via Creative Commons Weblog

Posted via web from David Holmes

The Wind Whistles - Animals Are People Too

2009-06-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

The second full-length album from the Canadian folk duo, released under a Creative Commons-License. Album artwork by Norbert Reissig. Available in MP3, OGG and CD formats from http://aaahh-records.net/the-wind-whistles/

Inspiring Videos for the Classroom

2009-06-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

A useful collection of Inspiring Youtube videos to use in the classroom. Recommended by teachers from all over the world, the presentation features lots of engaging ideas to stimulate discussion, learning and self-improvement. Here's the full screen Google Docs page.

Public Domain Donor Sticker

2009-03-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

Public Domain Donor via kwout

"Why let all of your ideas die with you? Current Copyright law prevents anyone from building upon your creativity for 70 years after your death. Live on in collaboration with others. Make an intellectual property donation. By donating your IP into the public domain you will "promote the progress of science and useful arts" (U.S. Constitution). Ensure that your creativity will live on after you are gone, make a donation today."

Copyright Extension in Sound Recordings Explained

2009-01-17T03:38:00.000-08:00

Further info at The Sound Copyright Blog

TARDIS - British Record Industry Loses Fight to Extend Copyright

Open Courseware Collections for Musicians and Writers

2008-11-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

The MatchACollege.com blog has two useful lists of open learning classes, courses, and lessons for music and writing:

For more Open Education resources and productivity tools see my lens Bright Ideas Brilliant Minds

RiP: A remix manifesto

2008-10-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

RiP: A copyright manifesto website

Promiscuous Songs: Free Song Lyrics by Jonathan Lethem

2007-03-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

Promiscuous Songs - American writer Jonathan Lethem, best known for his novels, short stories, and essays, freely gives his collection of song lyrics and lyrical fragments to songwriters, musicians, and bands for use in new creations. Selected sound files of completed songs are available for listening via the site with attribution to the writers and performers.

This is part of the The Promiscuous Materials Project where Jonathan also offers stories for filmmakers or dramatists to adapt, priced at a dollar apiece. The works are available non-exclusively, so other people can use the same material, for short films (30 mins) or one-act plays (45 mins) only. For the stories some rights are restricted and the materials may not be republished in text form on websites or books etc.

Big Brother State - Animated Short by David Scharf

2007-03-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

Released under a CC NonCommercial Sampling Plus 1.0 license

You can find high quality resolutions and formats at bigbrotherstate.com

Open Water Project

2007-02-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from openwaterproject.org

The OpenWater project was a group project for an Instructional Technology
class at Utah State University.
About 75% of the material used in OpenWater is remixed or used from other
sources licensed under public domain or creative commons. The remaining 25% is
original footage that was shot by the OpenWater team.

The soundtrack is supplied by Magnatune artists and the video is licensed under Creative Commons.

Alternative Freedom Documentary and Soundtrack

2006-12-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

Alternative Freedom is a documentary about the invisible war on culture, featuring insights and ideas from Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman, Danger Mouse, Bunnie, Jason Shultz, Doseone.

Here's the trailer:

You can buy the ALTERNATIVE FREEDOM DVD/SOUNDTRACK COMBO (2 DISCS) for $12 knowing that $1 of your purchase goes to EFF, a donor-funded nonprofit organization that depends on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights.

The Alternative Freedom soundtrack features over 52 minutes of full length songs from:

diabetic elf
foureveryoung
high karate
ithacamoon
loch lomond
ritchie young

TagCrowd Visualizations of John Lennon's "Imagine" and Political Media Slant

2006-12-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

TagCrowd is a web-application that allows you to enter any text and generate a tag cloud to visualize word frequency. These visualizations can be revelatory due to spontaneous perceptions triggered by displayed patterns in the tag cloud, such as word proximity and weight. Interesting and meaningful connections between keywords emerge including meme-like phrases, concepts and new sentence fragments.

Below we see the contrast in vocabulary between the lyrics of the John Lennon song "Imagine" and politically loaded phrases as used by Democrats and Republicans. See How to speak Republican or Democratic for background information and lists of phrases as compiled in a recent paper by Gentzkow and Shapiro from the 2005 Congressional Record: What Drive's Media Slant?

John Lennon was shot and killed this day December 8, 1980 by Mark Chapman.

John Lennonspeak

created at TagCrowd.com

Democratspeak

created at TagCrowd.com

Republicanspeak

created at TagCrowd.com

Here's a hybrid cloud made from combining the two original political lists to create a Slantscape mashup. In all cases the clouds have been restricted to display a maximum of fifty keywords and the last cloud shows a frequency count for each word.

DemoRepspeak

created at TagCrowd.com

As a tool for working with language the creative possibilities are fascinating. TagCrowd can be applied to a multitude of artistic and interperative situations including blogging, songwriting, sloganeering, poetry, hyper linking etc, and the range of input material is obviously limitless from recipes to religion. More language tools and toys can be found on the REPROMAN sidebar.

TagCrowd created by Daniel Steinbock

The generated code and its rendered image are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 License.

Via Sean Kearney's /patternHunter [/ph] - thanks for mentioning Apophenia, the word really grabbed my attention and on further exploration proved to be very fruitful. In particular to this List of Cognitive Biases and my list of social applications at Web Buzz Explorer.

Language Visualization Resources

ThePowerOfWords - A text analysis of political discourse during times of crisis.

US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud - Shows the popularity, frequency, and trends in the usages of words within speeches, official documents, declarations, and letters written by the Presidents of the US between 1776 - 2006 AD.

Timothy Leary - how to operate your brain

2006-11-24T12:14:00.001-08:00

Timothy Leary massages his message on reprogramming the brain into your brain in this 29 minute video produced by Chris Graves.

Via Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing

Lasse Gjertsen's Hyperactive Video Editing Style

2006-11-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

Lasse Gjertsen uses video editing techniques akin to music sampling to create new digital media compositions. In the video below called Amateur he creates a cut-up illusion of himself jamming on drums and piano. In another video he makes an appearance as a human beatbox.

Lasse also creates animations and a good introduction to his creative influences can be found in Jeg går en Tur - A self portrait that you can watch below: In animation, EVERYTHING is possible!

Check out Lasse's music page for some fine electronic tunes.

Via Kottke.org

Amateur - Lasse Gjertsen

Jeg går en Tur - A self portrait by Lasse Gjertsen

Instructional Music Video Mashup

2006-11-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

Kel McKeown: Instructional Video

A mashup masterclass and classic example of creative cut-up techniques. Part of the fun is learning how it's done.

Digital Luthiers Develop The Reactable

2006-11-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

reactable: improvisation demo

Team designer Marcos Alonso explains:

The reactable, is a multi-user electronic music instrument with a tabletop
tangible user interface. Several simultaneous performers share complete
control over the instrument by moving physical objects on a luminous table
surface. By moving and relating these objects, representing components of a
classic modular synthesizer, users can create complex and dynamic sonic
topologies, with generators, filters and modulators, in a kind of tangible
modular synthesizer or graspable flow-controlled programming language.

This instrument is being developed by a team of digital luthiers (Sergi
Jordà, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Günter Geiger and Marcos Alonso), at the Music
Technology Group within the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain.

More information is available via the Reactable Website which also has a good overview of related tangible musical interfaces. See also Wikipedia reacTable

Here's an organic interface that takes a more fluid approach...

Toriton Plus: Water Surface as Music Controller II

WGBH Lab: Video Sandbox

2006-11-11T19:56:00.000-08:00

The WGBH Lab is an online destination and initiative designed to help independent media makers. Selected video clips from the WGBH Media Library are being cleared for copyright and made available for people to cut, loop and mashup via the Lab Sandbox.

All clips are made available in QuickTime’s native .mov format under Creative Commons license Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 .

New Perceptions of Self in the Age of Social Media

2006-11-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

These four time-lapse videos show human evolutionary processes and cosmetic transformations over varying periods of time. These type of clips became significantly popular via YouTube and other new media outlets during the latter part of 2006.

I have posted the clips here in order of appearance on YouTube, over the 3 months of August, September and October (dates may be innacurate). Each successive video was compiled over a longer period of time apart from the final clip which was shot relatively quickly and digitally manipulated later.

For the first two videos shown below, the viewing figures quickly reached into the millions each and the level of interest was high across many important forms of media dissemination including blogs, social networks and mass media news outlets.

The clips continue to capture the imaginations of millions and it seems fitting to profile the trend in a single post. There's obviously a powerful fascination with the aging process and the technique of projecting these visions of accumulative degenerative processes over time. The fourth clip, possibly influenced by the success of the earlier videos, shows the power of cosmetic / technological practices to promote an image of desirability, albeit dependent on particular cultural perspectives and identification. Click through to the YouTube sources to get further details and comments.

Me: Girl takes pic of herself every day for three years

Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years

Living My Life Faster - 8 years of JK's Daily Photo Project

Dove - Evolution

More about this type of photography at Wikipedia Time-lapse

Bent Circuit Training

2006-10-29T02:20:00.000-08:00

Circuit Bending

Students learn the art of Furby reprogramming in a circuit bending workshop with Ben Goldstone. Below, an adept demonstrates the fruits of circuit bending knowledge as applied to a Kawasaki toy guitar.

cicuit bent "Double Neck" kawasaki toy guitar

Kawasaki motorcycle company licensed DSI Toys to use their name on a line of musical products. Unfortunately it's difficult to find online info about these particular electronic toys. If your interested in circuit bending and modifications to electronic sound toys here are some links worth exploring:

Metalriffs.com Guitar Toy Museum - a small picture gallery of electronic guitar toys.
Miniorgan.com - a private collection of rare small music keyboards and vintage musical electronic toys.
WarrantyVoid - the electronic sound toy and keyboard modification site.
Wikipedia Circuit bending - provides info and links to other websites.

If you're looking for online virtual sound toys and interactive music guides see the Museum of Sound Toys.

Recycled Culture: David Ellis and the Art of Double Bass

2006-10-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

This work by artist David Ellis combines the body of a double bass with modern day audio hardware and electronics.

SKDubs gold (double bass boombox fiddle)

36 x 50 1/2 x 17"

Medium-modified double bass fiddle, spraypaint, casters, oak, plywood, metal, iPod, two tube pre-amps, B and C mids and tweeters, Electro-voice woofers, JVC tweeters, Crown XLS 602 Poweramp, and Behringer equalizer - 2005.

Via Hulger.org where you can find lots more interesting and arty contemporary designs.

The Double Bass

Along with classical music, the double bass has found its place in genres such as the blues, bluegrass, jazz, rock and roll, rockabilly, psychobilly, drum and bass. It has been used widely in pop and rock music on recordings by artists like Kate Bush, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and Frank Zappa. A well known example being the Lou Reed song "Walk on the Wild Side" where session musician Herbie Flowers created the distinctive sounding bass hook, by using a mix of old and new sounds. He recorded one part on acoustic upright and then overdubbed a crossing part a major tenth above on electric fretless bass. The song was later recycled by other artists including A Tribe Called Quest who used a sample of it in "Can I Kick it?" - You can just about hear it on the intro of the video remix below. For more examples of recordings using double bass, see this thread from the TalkBass forums discussing Examples of Upright in Pop Music.

Perceptions

David Ellis's work evokes some interesting perceptions through the marriage of old and new world technologies.

At first site the juxtaposition creates a slight element of cognitive dissonance, a clash between the older acoustic culture and the contemporary electronic culture. However, the sense of discomfort is lessened by the idea the two cultures are not completely contradictory. The fundamental function of sound reproduction, for the purpose of music and entertainment, remains intact. In fact the instrument has merely been rewired, the strings replaced by electric wires.

Originally the source of sound was generated by a human drive mechanism. The machinery of bow and fingers controlled the perceived pitch, loudness and tone production. These have been replaced by electronic counterparts. The output of the iPod is the sound source, the amplifier and equalizer control the loudness and tone respectively.

The acoustically resonating wooden body becomes the architecture for the electro-magnetic speakers and electronics which are embedded in the belly. The electronics span a progression of successive developments where each stage builds on the past, from mechanical, to electronic valve, transistor and finally digital micro-chip.

There's much to contemplate in this piece that embraces change and cultural heritage: the new functionality, shape, symmetry, the handle ontop, the missing head/neck, the fact that it's no longer 'upright'.

Detritus.net is a web site devoted to recycled culture. Budding detrivores wishing to make new creative works out of old ones will find it a good source of inspiration.

Resources
Wikipedia: Conceptual art

Negativland - Gimme the Mermaid

2006-09-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

From nakedrabbit

This piece was commissioned by the experimental sound collage group Negativland for the video compilation, "Our Favorite Things," soon to be released. The track had been cut by Negativland several years before, an audio document of their problems with copyright/trademark issues concerning their "U2" album. Many years and a painful settlement later, they had successfully transformed their experience into even more art, and a little activism besides. This little piece, made on Disney equipment after hours when no one was looking, remains quite popular. San Francisco experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin has been kind enough to include it in "culture jamming" programs he has organized throughout the US and Europe. Several times has it been used in conferences and on panels about copyright for the legal profession. And it's fun, to boot. The statute of limitations has apparently run out on this piece, and it is now considered perfectly legal. What a relief!

Negativland is a small collective of artists and activists that create music and videos using extensive sampling and collage techniques. Further documentation can be found at Wikipedia Negativland.

Update: WFMU's Beware of the Blog has a series of MP3s with Negativland's Mark Hosler giving a presentation at NYC's New School - Negativeland: Illegal Art

Let Me Tell You What It's All About

2006-09-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

Provided By: Realtablist

"I made a little composition here using ableton live, 3 midi controllers and the Rodec scratchbox. The EFX inserts of the Rodec scratch mixer enables me to use ableton as an efx unit, drum machine and loop station."