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February 27, 2006
Buddha Machine
A small plastic buddha sits inside a small plastic case surrounded by electronics - speakers, switches, leds, digital circuits, batteries. Turn the machine on and it plays a meditation loop. Reset it and it plays another loop. A miniature sound installation.
The Buddha Machine is built by fm3, a musical duo consisting of Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian. It was inspired by the chanting devices often sold at Chinese temples, a digital equivalent of the more traditional prayer wheels and wind chimes.
Dispite mass production efforts, or perhaps because of them, each machine plays at a slightly different pitch and slightly different. It's a pocket sized sound performance installation machine.
Interview with Chistiaan Virant by Marc Weidenbaum, Buddha in the Machine, Disquiet (ambient /electronica) at http://www.disquiet.com/fm3buddha.html
The tracks are available for download from http://www.fm3.com.cn/in the form: http://www.fm3.com.cn/9/1.mp3, etc.
Track Listing
1 Ma
2 Zheng
3 Sheng
4 B1
5 Yang
6 Xiao
7 Zhong
8 B2
9 Wu
Via Google alert on iPod: "Forget about iPod and grab an iGod," Jeremy Watson, Scotland on Sunday
Sunday, 26 February 2006, a
Posted by sjc at 7:34 AM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2006
What is this cephalopod thinking ?
Recently the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Marshall Plan, the huge recovery programme which the US created to help rebuild Europe after the Second World War. Among the odder recipients of funds were octopus researchers at the famed Naples zoological Station. The US Air Force thought that studying octopus might help their engineers design better computers. But the octopus proved far too complex for them.
Fifty years later the cephalopod's brain remains a mystery. Cephalopods are not much like us in their body plans or their lives. Many are underwater predators and are powered by high-speed jet- propulsion systems. Those that live socially communicate with each other using patterns of body colour which change so rapidly that they make our own facial expressions look sluggish.
Garry Hamilton, http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/cephpod.html
Posted by sjc at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2006
Domo-kun ate my iPod ...
In this latest incarnation, Domo-kun, a NHK-TV character who lives underground with a rabbit, has been transformed into a "do it yourself" iPod cover kit. The original crafter.org instructions (Furry Monster Ipod Case (Domokun) Tutorial, January 27, 2006) by "cookiedough" caught the attention of Phillip Torrone at MakeZine.Com (Protect your iPod from kittens, February 18, 2006).
"DOMO is a strange creature born from an egg. One day he fell into Usajii's house,the old rabbit likes TV. After that he began to love watching TV. He is gentle and strong. When he is in a bad mood,he breaks wind. "
Like the iPod, Domo-kun is a mass marketing success. 90% of Japanese school children recognize the character, and domo-kun charms adorn keitai straps, sits on office desks holding photographs and business cards, and joins the family in the living room as they watch television. Domo-kun even has a Wikipedia entry.
NHK's official DomoMode.com introduces the characters, etc. Drew's Domo-kun fansite has screen savers, a 100 MB video, etc.
Posted by sjc at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2006
Baby feeds on dog's milk
Reuters today carried this story Baby feeds on dog's milk describing how a Tanzanian mother discovered her six month-old son suckling dog's milk.
The story in-itself would be amazing, but a web glitch at Reuters sent me to google to see if I could find a site that had promulgated it. Instead, I found a second such story, from 2004, taking place on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya - Man's best friend (Ron Reagan) describing a 7 pound 4 ounce girl who had been abandoned in the woods and adopted by a mixed breed dog.
The story of the founding of Rome by the twins Romulus and Remus is generally chalked up as pure mythology, not rising to be a legend. News reports like these suggest that the stories are more real than imagined.
LongURL : http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-02-09T135637Z_01_L09202810_RTRUKOC_0_US-TANZANIA-BABY.xml&archived=False
Posted by sjc at 6:27 PM | Comments (0)