Machine Project is the wonderful gallery / multimedia educational center and maker of happenings in Los Angeles. They’re on a roll with Big Ideas this month, so I thought I’d pass them along — aside from participating, they may inspire similar stunts in your hometown. (Just make sure you hire professionals if they’re going to do something dangerous, like jump out of a window. And don’t stare into the sun.)

First up: Los Angeleans, you have a chance to film a Matrix-style effect with a stunt man jumping out a window:

I miss ANSI art. In the character-only days of the online world (pre-Web), these text-based graphics had a strangely pop-art quality, with hard edges, digital textures, and bold colors. This is not to be confused with ASCII art, mind you — ANSI art had lots of extra graphical features. Even by the early 1990s, landing on a modem-based BBS with ANSI art felt like leaving the grungy dullness of the country for the Los Vegas strip.

Which brings us to the relevance to this site. I’ve seen lots of cheesy ASCII art filters for video, implemented in environments like Processing, for one. But how about motion graphics with ANSI? Now that’s an interesting challenge. Or, for that matter, given infinite choices, how can you make your own creative constraints to do something essential and artistic? ANSI’s appeal might be purely nostalgic, but it suggests that more power over pixels has sometimes given us less freedom, not more. Something to ponder while you’re coding / editing / visualizing — there’s a chance to make up your own restrictions.

20 goto 10 in San Francisco will feature “ANSI”, curated by Acid Jazz from artists Somms & Lord Jazz.

20 goto 10 gallery page

Rhizome News: Escape Code to the Past

Jaymis and I are out in Meatspace being visualists, leaving little time to, you know, blog and such. Here’s how to find us:

If you’re in Australia, find a big rockstar with big hair (listen for screaming girls and boys), and Jaymis will surely be nearby.

If you’re in the Bay Area of California, find a convergence of technology gurus, crafters, and DIY counter-cultural geniuses, or small downtown venues cramped with people, and you’ll probably find me. Actually, after thinking I might get away with just doing sound and not image, I’ve managed to find lots of projection possibilities so I’m going to go nuts and do both.

There are some promising-looking visualist goodies here in San Francisco, so I hope to get some images up as soon as I can and will have a full report next week.