Brian Eno, as one of the masters of generative music, naturally has some deep things to say about generative visuals. Since we’re always interested in the fusion of the two, that’s all the more interesting. Here he is, talking about his project 77 Million Paintings:

I love that Eno’s ideas are always clearly expressed and elemental. There’s tremendous opportunity to build on those ideas, I think.

More on Eno’s work on this project in a recent Apple profile; let me know if you’ve seen other good coverage.

Eno has a long history in art — digital, generative, and otherwise — and I know I enjoyed reading his writing from closer to “art school days.” (I gather art school is a different experience in the UK than here. Any Brits want to chime in on that?)

I look at the music side of what Eno’s doing over on CDM, though you can expect much more coverage when Spore hits. I think it’s probably our duty as composers and visualists to drop everything we’re doing and play Spore when that happens. It’s art, you know?

Brian Eno, Generative Composer, with Will Wright, on Create Digital Music

Cross-posting to Music and Motion? Absolutely! Eno is part of the inspiration for covering both!

A book surprised our friend Anton, Jitter wizard and visualist: can feedback (video and otherwise) be understood more deeply in relation to consciousness? -Ed.

Wandering through a Barnes & Noble book store on the way to the checkout the other day, the cover of a book grabbed my attention. The cover showed the intricate geometries, swirls and loops of what most CDM readers are familiar with as video feedback. Instantly curious, I flipped through the pages to find no other illustrations like it, other than a few very basic examples in a small color insert. Then I noticed who the author was: none other than Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gödel, Escher, Bach - An Eternal Golden Braid - a book exploring a myriad of topics, but ultimately a book about consciousness. That book had both vexed and tantalized me, with language, logic and math seemingly just beyond my understanding. (Don’t forget Achilles and the Tortoise. I’ll admit I never quite finished it. I highly recommend it.)

A companion piece to G.E.B., I am a Strange Loop is the latest work by Hofstadter. I knew I had to buy it. On the subway ride home, I was delighted to find a chapter dedicated to video feedback. I skipped ahead and wondered what insights might lay waiting. Of course, G.E.B. had a brief encounter with video feedback as a visual study, but no detailed accounts of the rich phenomenon.

Making movies is, economically, a matter of scale: time, manpower, money. In the early days of cinema, movies were compressed into tiny lengths, often without cuts. Now, “microfilms” are exploding again. You could look for deeper cultural meaning to short-form production, but for those of us with limited resources, shorter lengths can mean more elegant finished products and more practical production.

The big question, though: can these be any good? Bookshorts has produced a tight, witty adaptation of Douglas Coupland’s novel JPod that makes the miniaturization feel necessary. And it makes the movie feel independent from the book. Of course, I’m fairly certain your office and your coworkers aren’t as attractive to look at / polished / tidy as the ones in this semi-escapist production. (If I’m wrong, congrats!)

(Warning: a couple little spoilers in here if you haven’t read the book. Then again, maybe 4-minute films will prevent you from having to read books ever again.)

Aside from indie moviemakers, I think this format has real promise for visualists wanting to make miniature productions. (It gets my head turning, anyway, in a way “yet another music video” doesn’t necessarily.)

Interestingly, it’s coming to movie theaters, but micro-distribution of micro-films seems even more likely … maybe even on giveaway DVDs. (Speaking of which, notice the encoding problems? Interlacing issues? I have to spend some time uploading to blip.tv and see if I can sort these.)

http://www.bookshorts.com

Via Todd Jatras at Wired’s Listening Post:
I Want My Book-based Film Shorts

Electronics and physical computing is great fun to learn as you get tangible results from your progress. It’s simple and fun to grab a kit or a bunch of components and follow on with a blog or instructable. However, as you progress to designing your own projects and circuits (or to make following other people’s ideas easier) you’ll need some theory to explain what all the different components do and how to put them together successfully.

Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering and Electronics is an ebook primer available online or downloadable as an HTML help (.chm) file. The formatting is a little weak (inter-page navigation links would be appreciated), but the content is clear and concise (including an excellent analogy for Ohm’s law). The book is split into sections: DC, AC, Semiconductors, Digital, Reference, and Experiments.

I spent some thoroughly engaging hours on recent flights reading this, which I’m going to take to mean “FEEE contains interesting material presented well,” rather than “Jaymis is a big nerd.”

An incredible amount of stuff coming up here in NYC:

VJ Book: Paul Spinrad’s new The VJ Book is packed with interviews and how-to information and ships with a DVD full of VJ samples, mixable content, and demo software. (Paul and I got to work together on an upcoming issue of Make Magazine, which you’ll be hearing more about soon.)

VJ party Wednesday: It’s a book launch party edition of Eyewash, the live video series. I’ll be VJing with Korg hardware and Quartz Composer-generated visuals, along with the book’s DVD creator Melissa “Miixxy” Ulto (previously on CDM). Jay Smith from Livid Instruments will be demoing the new Tactic M2 wood-paneled VJ control surface (see previous story). I’ll be trying to steal it from him. Watch your drinks, Jay.

VJ: The Movie Video Out documents the history of VJing and live video art from the 1960s to today. It’s premiering in the East Village November 11, but if you clamour hard enough, it may come to your town, too.

Music Player Live: Les Paul is keynote speaker for this weekend full of of music stars, gear, and instruction. The crew from Keyboard, EQ, GuitarPlayer, BassPlayer, and Frets will all be there. Catch my live video and VJing for musicians seminar Sunday, if you can, but there’s plenty of other good stuff happening.

Game Boy Music Saturday: There’s a major lineup Saturday night of Game Boy and chiptune musicians at Manhattan’s The Tank (which is still looking for a permanent home). Performers: DAVID SUGAR (UK), RECEPTORS (US), HEY KID NICE ROBOT (US), M-.-n (BE), GLOMAG (US), BUBBLYFISH (US), OMAC (US), NULLSLEEP (US) and BIT SHIFTER (US).

Now, attention rest of the world: aside from Paul’s VJ book and the movie, we want to make sure you get to enjoy some of this, too. So, New Yorkers, aside from my own feeble attempts to photograph and document these events, if you’re going and want to help, please drop me a line. And certainly say hello; I’ll buy you a drink or steal you some video hardware.