Durable Knowledge

Although the article says it was created in 2004, it would appear that this author died in the 1980s. At the end of each "timeline," he makes it sound like the 1980s are the present day; "In the early 1980s Sony developed the 3.5 inch floppy and with improvements this has became the floppy standard used to the present day." Well, in any case, here is my timeline of what the article discussed.

Sound
1820: Hans Oersted discovers relationship between electricity and magnets. Andre-Marie Ampere (note the name) discovers that wires exert magnetic force on each other.
1873: James Maxwell establishes theory on electromagnetism (still used). 
1878: Oberlin Smith writes about magnetic recording in Electrical World magazine. 
1894: Valdemar Poulsen discovered principles of magnetic recording.
1900: Prototype of Telegraphone built, it was first successful magnetic sound recorder. 
1905: American Telegraphone Company sells Poulsen's machines 
1927: Vacuum tubes and AC biasing improve the quality and practicality of magnetic recording. Carlson and Carpenter patent AC biasing. 
1928: Fritz Pfleumer patents tape-recording (magnetic powder on paper/ film).
1930s: AEG improves commercial development of tape recorder. Germany's Magnetophone premiered at Berlin Radio Fair, shocked audiences. 
1937: Clarence Hickman of Bell Labs found new material to lessen amount of material used in recording. 
1948: Ampex and Magnecord steal AEG model during WWII. Multi-channel and multi-track recording soon revolutionized tape-recording. 
1965: 8-track introduced.
1970: cassette deck introduced. 

Video

1950: After WWII, video signal recording was a new goal. Bing Crosby helped fund first multitrack tapes for large bandwidth. VERA by the BBC was inspired by their works. 

1956: Ampex's Quadruplex 2 Inch; tape moved at 15 in/sec, same as audio recording. Soon released VRX-1000, equivalent of $650,000 today, was first practical video tape recorder. Could only be played back 30 times. 

1958: RCA and NBC broadcast first prime-time color show from videotape. 

1960s: Sony and Philips develop VTRs.

1970: Sony releases videocassette recorder (VCR).

1980: Philips releases VHS format cassettes. 

Computes

1951: Magnetic tape for storage in UNIVAC.

1955: Magnetic hard disks in IBM 350.

1967: IBM 370 used semi-conductor.

1971: magnetic disk enclosed in envelope (floppy disk).

1980s: Sony's 3.5 inch floppy released.

Flash Gordon

This is one of my favorite websites of all time: Wimp.com. It's not much of a looker, but these guys put up 5 awesome videos that they find on the world wide web every day. I have found a bunch of sweet flash mobs through their site. Unfortunately, I can't put their videos on Blogger but I can link you to their site pretty easily.

1) http://www.wimp.com/russianmob/
2) http://www.wimp.com/onset/
3) http://www.wimp.com/symphonyflashmob/

Guerrilla Warfare

I don't know if it is that I am not sympathetic enough or just that too many people are over-sensitive, but whenever stuff like this comes up, the discussion always goes to shit. I have and always will value women's contributions to the world, including art, as equally as I do men's. I'm disappointed that the world needs to have groups like this to bring up "issues" like this. I don't believe that a bunch of girls in guerrilla masks attending art shows are going to convince women to become artists. You need to appeal to the masses, and these guerrillas are appealing to the crazy. I would love for them to be successful; all artwork is inspiring and innovative, regardless of who it came from. Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, these girls are doubtfully making an impact on people who would be willing to pursue futures in fine arts. You have to play the game. It's as simple as that. Maybe men just happened to play the game better in the past, but it sure is looking like women are catching on. My message to anyone who wants to pursue art: work hard, put in the time, and be yourself. As Neal DeGrasse Tyson said: "if everyone had the luxury of expressing the unique combination of talents in this world, our society would be transformed overnight." Be yourself, and you will succeed. I don't know your definition of success, that is up to you, but whatever that may be, I urge you to get there.

       

NY Times Does Art and Tech

Check out this NY Times Article on art and technology, it's pretty interesting stuff. 

Xerox Yourself

My inspiration behind this project was my drum. The cajon, pictured below, is my substitute drum during college because for obvious reasons, I can't have my drum set in my dorm. I used photocopies of my hands and feet where I actually use them on the drum. Because the drum has snares and a hole in the back, different areas on the drum head make various noises. The photocopied hands were supposed to exaggerate the areas I hit on the cajon. I attempted to photocopy my ass, both covered and bare, but they didn't turn out. If I were ballsy enough, I would've xeroxed my nuts, but I felt like that was a project for another time.