Wondering, quickly, late, off-the-cuff:

can one use AJAX to get PD functionality in a dynamic web environment?

Fooling around with the My Yahoo!. It recognizes that I already have favorite movie theatres saved with my yahoo account and displays them with upcoming show times.

I like the easy changability of the Google Personailized homepage better. Easy to add content, easy to edit layout and individual feeds. But neither of them can be as customizable as I would really like. For instance: I can't even change the name of the feed (module in Yahoo's case, content in google's).

Microsoft has jumped into the game. I might like this one the best, as it has the AJAX click and drag thing going on a la Google plus a quick style changer in the top left corner. But still doesn't have Yahoo's ability to say how many posts you want and whether you want the headlines AND the article summary.

Still, none of these allows for any editing (the title, for instance, would be grand) or choosing maybe JUST the summary and not the headline (helpful for audioscobbler feeds, which look diferent in the different portals).

I also really like going to individual websites. Not sure what to do with RSS at this point...

E Y E B E A M : R&D Fellowship

Please answer all of the following questions as informatively and concisely as you can. Responses will be truncated to meet the maximum length for each question.

###What is the most interesting technology project you have worked on in the past? why? (1000 characters max)

Cancer Immunity XML for PubMedCentral?

###What is your Dream Project to work on in the future? (1000 characters max)

###Why do you want to dedicate a year of work to public domain research and development? (1000 characters max)

###What style of collaborations do you prefer? (1000 characters max)

###Briefly note some of your favorite projects that you have seen done by others in recent years. (2000 characters max)

American Memory, GMAPs API: Housing, pedometer, &c., Public Library of Science, Natalie Jeremejinko, Mootcher plugin for PureData and FreeSound project.

http://www.freedomtoaster.org/ "South Africa's Mark Shuttleworth Foundation has a solution to getting open source out to places with low broadband : the "freedom toaster". The idea is simple : a bring-and-burn software kiosk."

Linux Music Applications on a CD (knoppix?)

###Briefly describe your approach to doing technical work and experimentation. (1000 characters max)

###What is your professional and educational background (if there is anything missing from your resume)? (2000 characters max)

Research and development of a system for creating affordable multi-channel audio installations and environments for small museums, galleries, collectives or others on a budget.

Project Description

With the rise of free software — Linux, PureData, Freesound project, Mootcher — and free or cheap hardware — unused PCs that can run Linux, the plummeting prices of hard drive space, deals to be found on CraigsList, eBay, eDealInfo, Skimper, the MacMini — the means of assembling a system that can process multi-channel audio are now in the hands of a wider public. The bits and parts, tips and tricks, are available, scattered across the internet, blogosphere, message boards, forums, email lists, &c. a reliable, easy to follow method of putting all the pieces together is lacking. In this project, I propose to develop a step-by-step method so that organizations or individuals on a budget can create and use multi-channel audio systems.

To accomplish this the project is borken down into four phases:

1. Learn the basics of using PureData on Linux and the basics of multi-channel audio processing in PureData (4 weeks).

2. Research the best channels and methods of acquiring cheap and/or free hardware and software — PCs, monitors, soundcards, amplifiers, speakers, controllers, &c. (3 weeks).

3. Write a “how to” white paper for (a) acquiring components, (b) setting up the system and (c) the basics of generating and processing multi-channel audio – to be released with a Creative Commons license (4 weeks).

4. Use the methods from the white paper to build a system and create a multi-channel audio environment (5 weeks).

###Final Output
My project will take the final form of (a) a white paper – released with a Creative Commons license – and lecture/workshop on the method for acquiring, setting up and using an affordable, multi-channel audio environment; and (b) a working, multi-channel audio environment using this method for creation.

Facilities

As this project is about learning and teaching to build audio systems on a budget, most of the equipment will be coming from outside sources. However, it would be helpful to have one or two PCs with soundcards running Linux; access to amplifier and speakers; and internet access. I would need basic technical support for Linux and the existing audio equipment. Using the space at EYEBEAM to realize this project will be a major plus: uninterrupted time and space to experiment with amplified audio.

Work Sample

The attached mp3, “A Voice Stutter, Skin Shudder, Heart Flutter,” is a two channel representation of a sound piece I would like to present in more channels. Currently, there is play between the left and right channels, tonal cluster call and response, a sense of forward movement. I would like to explore three-dimensional, sonic space with the elements of this piece: movement through and around the listener. Working with a limited budget, my ability to produce multi-channel audio has been limited to experiments with two cassette tapes — 2 x 2 channels (left and right) = 4 channels. But something committed to tape cannot be affected by real-time events or be easily edited, queued or adapted into other multimedia applications. By exploring and experimenting with accessible methods of enabling sound to move and occupy three dimensional space — specifically with a PureData-driven work station — I hope to, in the process, enable other individuals and organizations with a practical approach to creating multi-channel audio.

Public Lecture

I feel that a public workshop or event would be a perfect forum to introduce a system for building and creating affordable multi-channel audio environments.

with a final goal of a whitepaper and possibilities of lecture/workshops on creating cheap/affordable multi-channel audio installations.

+ Linux
+ MacMini
+ Pd
+ FreeSound
+ Mootcher
+ eDealinfo
+ Skimper
+ craigslist
+ junk lying around (Monitors, cables, &c.)

####Not Waving but Drowning
#####Stevie Smith

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

NAD C320BEE finally set up in the living room. Still need a phono preamp but CDs and iPod running smoothly through. Sound is suprising more natural as is the claim with NAD. All i need now are some speakers to gently allow these musicians/artists to take up residence in house and make their magic.

Reading Harper's this week, an interesting story about a young artist who eventually turns out to be A.Hitler. The protaganist gives him the chance to get in to art school as her dying powers allow. This changes the course of world events... much for the better.

Before that:

• Ellen Lupton's Thinking With Typography.
• Mark Helprin's short stories.
• Design (originally Psychology) of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman.
• Call Of The Wild by Jack London (with more of his stories lined up).
• Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

It is official, friends, there is no end; We’ll drop you off around the bend and pick you up right there again.

1. Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy
2. ‘The Black Monk’ by Anton Checkhov
3. ‘First Love’ by Turgenev
4. The Queen of Spades by Pushkin
5. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn

What sounds right? Where can i fit in, but with plenty of room to grow and change? Who will accept my multiple aptitudes and varied, constantly changing interests? Are they constantly changing?

I like sound and music. THis is a given. Rhythms and drones and melodies and juxtapostions; sweet silence.

I like to work with computers. And I am reasonably good at it. I can learn software and concepts rather quickly. I have a working knowlede of PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator, Quark, HTML, PHP and CSS. I can make my way around XML and C, video and sound editing programs and basic spreadsheets.

I like color in its subtelties and contrasts. I recognize the aesthetics of shapes and textures. Things can be pleasing.

I believe in sustainability and efficiency. Can the world be made better by design?

I could learn a HELL of a lot more about the history of design -- what works/worked and what doesn't/didn't. Color Theory. Shape Theory?

Out of this I get a good feeling about the design of public space. Making things/objects that can help people, that can make lives/life better. I am not as turned on by media. It is a cluttered landscape. THE CLUTTERED MEDIASCAPE. But findign the pleasing space an doffereing it to people. What IS pleasing? What is pleasing music?

More to come