State of the Arts Category Archive: Technology

Guthrie to show three more National Theatre broadcasts this season

Posted at 12:31 PM on September 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Technology, Theater

The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis announced today it will show three more NT Live broadcasts from the National Theatre in London. The decision follows the success of the the NT performance of Phedre with Helen Mirren in midsummer.

The three shows are Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well" (right) on Oct 24th and 25th at 1pm, "Nation" by Terry Pratchett (Feb 5th and 6th at 7,30,) and a new Allen Bennett play "The Habit of Art" on May 1st and 2nd.

Some theaters will take the NT feed live, but due to timing considerations, and other shows already booked in the theater, the Guthrie shows will be tape delayed.

The Guthrie's Lee Henderson says while there were a few technical glitches on "Phedre" the production was very well received. He says the Metropolitan Opera has already prepared audiences for the idea through its productions sent to theaters around the world. He says patrons know the quality of the National Theatre and then curiosity brings them in.

He also points out that it's expensive to fly to London to see a show, and this arrangement offers a unique opportunity.

"To see four shows at the National Theater in London is just not possible for the average theater-goer in Minneapolis," he says.

The Guthrie is betting the broadcast option will work well as an affordable substitute. If local audiences like it, the Guthrie may make future NT Live broadcasts a regular feature.

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What's on your bookshelf?

Posted at 11:02 AM on September 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Technology

A friend of mine recently convinced me to check out Shelfari, the website for book lovers. Shelfari was inspired by the simple pleasure of perusing your friends' bookshelves. The website allows you to do this virtually, so you're not limited to what they own. You can see what they've read, what they're currently reading, and what's on their "to read" list.

The site is also incredibly useful to people who want to chart their progress on their own reading lists, or who are interested in seeing just how well-read they are. Readers can post reviews about a book, or partake in an online discussion.

There are a couple of downsides to the site: there are many different listings for the same title - one for each edition. This can make navigating what you have and haven't read tedious (I know I've already clicked on Wuthering Heights three times!). The site also requires a pretty steep initial time investment, as you try to remember just how many of those classics you read in high school and college.

Have you tried Shelfari out? If so, what do you think? Any tricks or features I should know about?

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The "Immersive" experience - getting the shakes at the movies

Posted at 4:22 PM on September 10, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Technology

The other night when I went to see "9." I spent a few minutes talking with a couple of fine gentlemen from Canada about getting the shakes in a movie house.

The Canadians were Philippe Roy ands Guy Marcoux, who both work with D-Box, a company which makes chairs designed to make movie watching, and video-game playing, what Philippe calls an immersive experience.

I was at the Theaters at the Mall of America, one of only seven multiplexes nationwide to feature D-Box seats.

Basically what happens is when something shakes, rumbles, or even explodes on the screen you feel it through your D-Box. Philippe says after the introduction of Surround Sound in theaters, making your seat part of the action was the next step.

The idea is to link a mechanical system in the chair to what is happening on screen. Guy says this is done through a code created by a motion designer.

"A what?" I asked.

"It's like a sound designer, except it's for motion," he said with a smile. They described how the motion designer watches a move frame by frame to create the code which is fed into the chairs as the film rolls. It's only been done with a few titles: "The Fast and the Furious," "Terminator Salvation" "Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince," and "The Final Destination." Now "9" becomes the first animated film to get the D-Box treatment.

Being of that age, I brought up how I had seen "Earthquake" back in 1974. I was convinced that this had been a similar mechanical system all those years ago.

Philippe looked mildly pained as he explained that system depended on banks of sub woofer speakers mounted at the front of a theater, pumping out low frequency sounds. I remember even now how the sensation was quite frightening. Every time a shock hit in the film, your knees started shaking.

The D-Box is much more sophisticated. Watching "9" it was quite remarkable how small movements on screen caused your chair to react. They were actually much more effective than the moments when the action on-screen became very violent. Good sense and insurance companies mean a seat can only whip around so much when while the characters were being thrown across the landscape. So the immersive experience didn't match the visual and the magic dimmed a little.

You'll pay a premium to sit in a D-Box. At the MOA Theater they are $16.50 as opposed to the $9.50 for the plain old stationary seats. However you can buy a D-Box seat for home use, either with your DVD or game system. There are even ways of converting certain existing seats to the immersive experience.

Actually, you can try it out for free. There's a demo chair outside the theater at the MOA.

I must admit I was intrigued by the D-Box, but I think I'd want to carefully select the next movie I see with it, to maximize the effect.

Has anyone else tried them? Let us know your reactions.

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Imagine a world

Posted at 3:28 PM on August 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Technology

World Builder from BranitVFX on Vimeo.

Special effects producer Bruce Branit created this short film, which is now getting its own legs. "WorldBuilder" is a sweet little story that revolves around the notion of what we might be able to create in a virtual world.

Imagine yourself the city planner, architect, decorator and gardener for your own virtual neighborhood. What would you build?

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Urbanscreen creates art out of ordinary buildings

Posted at 10:35 AM on August 7, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Architecture, Dance, Film, Public Art, Technology

JUMP | media facade | urban screening from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

I just discovered the work of Urbanscreen, a group of German video installation artists, and I'm hooked. As you'll see in the piece above, Urbanscreen manages to combine movement, architecture, film and public art into something wholly engaging and fantastic.

Below is a piece titled "How would it be, if a house was dreaming?" which projects an incredibly convincing 3D video onto the building, creating what appears to be a living, breathing structure. The sounds of the bricks sliding in and out of place really just puts it over the top. Enjoy!

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

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Why blog about art?

Posted at 1:44 PM on August 6, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Culture, Technology

(Please forgive this act of self-indulgence. Oh wait, this is a blog...)

Blogging about art has made me a member of a rarified group of people, perhaps even more rare than the group "arts reporters." But our numbers are growing, as both traditional media outlets and freelancers find value in talking about art on a more casual, daily basis.

So when I saw that PBS' blog Art Beat had posted a new blurb (that's a technical term) titled "The Art of Blogging About Art," I was immediately sucked into the great naval-gazing void. Would I find myself reflected in their descriptions? Would I agree with my art-blogging compatriots?

Yes.

And no.

Chris Amico talks with three arts bloggers: Lisa Fung (arts editor and contributor to LA Times' Culture Monster), Don Share (contributor to "Harriet," the Poetry Foundation's group blog) and Lee Rosenbaum (arts writer for the Wall Street Journal, aka CultureGrrl).

Here are some of the ideas they raised, with which I heartily agree:

Blogging about the arts allows me and my colleagues at MPR to share news and ideas with you in ways completely different from our traditional radio format. That gives us flexibility to tell a story more creatively, with slideshows and video, if we like. It also allows me to speak in a more personal voice, and engage in a conversation that I don't get to have as a reporter on our air.

Talking about art in a more personal voice in turn makes the conversation more accessible to the general public. No snooty noses in the air here - all opinions are welcome. And the more voices that pitch in, the better the conversation.

Finally, writing a blog - and having a place where people can post their comments - helps me to do my job better as an arts reporter. I hear more now from people who wouldn't have taken the time to hunt down my e-mail address and send me a personal note. Those comments sometimes lead to (valued) corrections, and sometimes lead to new posts and even in-depth stories.

So yea for art blogs. But there is one idea brought forth by the bloggers with which I must disagree, at least in terms of my own writing.

Lee Rosenbaum says in the Art Beat article that she blogs "because I felt I had a lot to say and no place to put it... I can only write so many articles for the Journal but I have ideas everyday that I feel like sharing."

Reporter/blogger Chris Amico goes on to quote Scott Rosenberg, the author of "Say Everything," as saying that most people blog out of "a desire to express themselves, to think out loud, to exult in the possibilities of writing in public..."

In my case, not so much. I may have lots of ideas or thoughts throughout the course of a day, but there are very few I feel are worth typing out. For me, writing is often a very deliberate process, and when I post something here I want to make sure that it's worth my time - and yours. I'm much more excited in hearing what you have to say in response to a post than I am in the idea of simply "writing in public."

So with that, I'll shamelessly plug some of the ways in which YOU can have a say in this blog. As with any blog, you can comment on what you find here. You can also share your favorite work of Minnesota art for our series "We Art Minnesota." And you are always welcome to sign up to be an Art Hound, to help keep me and your fellow Minnesotans in the know about cool cultural events.

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I'm no artist, but I play one on my computer

Posted at 10:41 AM on August 4, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Technology

Imagine my delight when I stumbled across a new game on Yahoo called "Artist Colony." Great! An opportunity for us not-so-creative folk to live the artistic life, if only vicariously. I downloaded a trial version of the game, and gave it a whirl.

I should have known better. The game, based on the SIMS model of gaming, is all about managing a community. In this case, it's a run down artist colony that a couple of guys are trying to rehabilitate and repopulate (preferably with cute female artists). In the first hour of play there was very little art-making, but a lot of cleaning up debris and learning how to keep your artists rested and happy.

While the game was not nearly as satisfying as I had hoped, it was in some strange way educational about the world of the artist.

First off, an artist's creativity is significantly enhanced or upset by the quality of his or her love life (I'll buy that one).

Also, the price a person is willing to pay for a painting appears to be completely random. If you wait long enough there's sure to be a dealer who will offer far more than the painting is worth (again, depending on the economy, I'll buy that one, too).

A lot more time is spent working on non-artistic activities in order to sustain the making of art. I know of many artists who will attest to the truth of that.

However, there was one aspect of the game that I fear only perpetuates poor stereotyping. Every once in a while, a psychedelic looking "magic flower" will appear somewhere in the colony. In order to inspire your artist to create a new work, you must place them next to the magic flower (a lotus? a poppy?) until their inspiration levels are fully charged. Sigh...

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Digital art that moves you

Posted at 9:08 AM on August 4, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Technology

Computer engineer and artist Golan Levin wants to see more art made with software. He's not talking about graphic design, but actual works of art that engage and react to human movement. Golan bemoans the lack of applications for iphones that involve real creativity, and demonstrates some of the many interactive pieces he's created using the latest technology.

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How to shoot a car (The Egg Timer part 2)

Posted at 5:49 PM on July 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Technology

If you have ever wondered how film makers get those great shots of people driving their cars, take a look at the picture below.

(Click on image for larger version)

It's from Emily Haddad's production blog for "The Egg Timer." Whatever else is going on, Stacia Rice seems to be having fun in the driver's seat.

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Davis Guggenheim and the feathered fish

Posted at 4:50 PM on July 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Music, Technology

Film maker Davis Guggenheim says someone in his team told him just before his film "An Inconvenient Truth" went before an audience for the first time that his movie was "a feathered fish."

"What's that?" Guggenheim asked.

"It doesn't swim and it doesn't fly," came the terse response.

"And this is someone who's supposed to like the film," Guggenheim says. Then a studio executive told them no-one would pay to see the film.

Of course it then went to the Sundance Film Festival, became a box office smash, and won the best documentary Oscar.

"And then going with (Al Gore) to get the Nobel Peace Prize, that was pretty cool," he laughs.

Looking back though, he says they made the film in a vacuum, and that was ultimately a good thing. They were convinced that they had an important message to spread, and they were shielded from common wisdom which might have scuppered them.

Guggenheim was in the Twin Cities to talk about his new documentary "It Might Get Loud." It is is built around the meeting of three rock guitar legends: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, U2's The Edge, and Jack White of the White Stripes.

He says he didn't want to make a traditional rock film, and he has succeeded. He interviewed all three of his subjects separately on their home turf and then put them together on a giant soundset in Hollywood (he say's it's where they filmed "The Perfect Storm") and made them talk to one another.

While nominally about the art and science of the electric guitar, the film delves into what it means to be an artist, and how each of these three musicians developed their own approach to what they do.

And then they jam together. It's a fascinating piece of film as three icons from very different parts of the rock world watch and learn from one other.

The film opens in the Twin Cities in late August. We'll have a piece closer to that time but in the meantime here is the trailer.

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Listening to the sounds we can't hear

Posted at 10:32 AM on July 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sculpture, Technology

If you have ever wondered about the sounds of an insect eating a leaf, or even the mist condensing on a window, you are not alone.

These are the kind of sounds which sonic artist Diane Willow hopes to collect with a new microphone she will use for her work "Listening to the Silent Landscape of the Everyday."

Willow, who teaches at the University of Minnesota will gather sounds with a highly sensitive contact microphone which allows her to listen in the tiny sounds all around us which are beyond the sensitivity of normal human hearing.

Willow, who came to the U from MIT, has used other recordings in sculptures and other works. She will develop interactive pieces from the new recordings.

You can see at video of "Serenade," a piece she did in Beijing here

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Web Site Story: The Musical

Posted at 10:25 AM on July 2, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Technology, Theater

Collegehumor.com takes on Facebook, Twitter, Pandora and more in this modern take on "West Side Story." Enjoy!

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Art for Bread

Posted at 8:57 AM on June 28, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Funding, Technology

Here's a site that encourages you to be creative for a good cause. The canvas? A slice of bread. You can draw on it, and even download images onto it. Every piece of "bread art" results in a $1 donation to Feeding America, formerly known as America's Second Harvest.

There's also a gallery of other people's work, and as you wander from image to image you are fed little tidbits of information about hunger in the United States. The Bread Art Project was created by the Grain Foods Foundation to raise awareness about the prevalence of hunger here at home.

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Does the punishment fit the file-sharing crime?

Posted at 9:33 PM on June 18, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music, Technology

A jury ruled today that Brainerd resident Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. The price tag? $80,000 per song, or $1.92 million. If you agree the average song lasts approximately three and a half minutes, that amounts to approximately $380 per second of downloaded music.

Thomas-Rasset says it's unlikely the plaintiffs (Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, EMI Group PLC and Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment) will ever see the money, since she's the mother of four kids and has little means.

So what does the decision mean for people who share music files on the web, and for the recording industry? Will it inspire these major corporations to pursue more lawsuits? Will it scare people off of file-sharing?

Some advocates of file-sharing say it doesn't hurt the music industry, and in fact many musicians make their songs available for free on the internet. So who will win out in the long run? Who are you supporting?

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