9/13/2016
Posts
June 24ths
December 24ths 6/24/2021 An interesting way that you could use artificial intelligence in music, specifically with meter and rhythm, is to take, for example, groups of 2 and 3—which is how polyrhythms and mixed meter and odd meter pieces are shaped, and have some randomization of that. It would continuously run in the background and then you’d listen to it and capture interesting snapshots or “stills”. This goes back to my idea of putting these things on a mixing board in a separate channel, with a “meter” channel that is constantly running and then you’d just pull up the fader and see what’s there. If there’s nothing there then you just don’t use it. It’s similar to turning on the radio at random or opening a book at random. [6/24/2025: A “feature request” for AI music. AI music is still a listener’s tool rather than for real songwriting. Recently I tried using the Strategies as a prompt and mostly didn’t work, but as a listener I like the results for what they were]. ...
9/14/2024
Caustic wave patterns at Belmont Harbor, reminding me of the surrealist work of Yves Tanguy
30000 Years
A remix of diary entries from my 11/10 diary 1998-current transformed into a lyric using a text randomizer. This isn't AI, but it's like AI in the sense that you are using an algorithm. But instead of using a pre-made one you make one of your own, which is ultimately more fun and interesting. You can use the constraints but you can change them as well. This is essentially a cut-up technique. Using the natural rhythms in the words, "get the thing" created the main motif. The main chorus riff is 30000 Year s, with this rhythmic motif: Get the thing Everything Rapidly Love the thing Started abandoning Hoping it was the thing
9/8/2016
ACRONYMS , 9x27 inches, acrylic on cardboard, hardware, mounted on panel. (Plain black trim, but is suited for a larger cradled frame) An acronym is a way to "cut and tile" language into an easy-to-remember shortcut. Acronyms are either empowering, as a semiotic of a utopian ideal (such as AI) or intimidating and somewhat dystopian. As of now, AI is the current "signage" for the future.
9/25/2017
Anthropocene (2017), 18x24 inches, acrylic, custom stencil, hardware, on double panel. Another piece in my text art series (“Hash Art”, as a riff on “Flash Art”), using the MD5 Hash: 26A62357DD22BB74226DB1DF2D71AB68 as the digital “fingerprint” for the following quote by Paul MacCready, also referred to as the “The MacCready Explosion”. The Hash is a semaphore or icon for a possible beginning point of the Anthropocene based on the quote: “Over billions of years on a unique sphere, chance has painted a thin covering of life—complex, improbable, wonderful and fragile. Suddenly, we humans—a recently arrived species, no longer subject to the checks and balances inherent in nature—have grown in population, technology and intelligence to a position of terrible power.”
9/22/2020
Official start of the Blue Book right at the Autumnal Equinox at 8:28 AM. It’s an artist book where each page is some shade of blue, with its content relating to blue in some literal, self-referential, or figurative way. Most of the entries will draw from Dynaxiom, and also connects in series with Continuation and the set of human universals—primarily “Classification of Color”.
9/21/2009
On Van Buren at Wells, there’s this seedy tavern (Cal’s), and in one of the windows they made this strange “shrine” with a broken guitar and a Sinatra record. Went to performance of Turkish military ensemble at Millennium Park. I don’t know why but I have an affinity for Turkish folk song and Taqsim—almost a form of jazz riffing, but at the same time ritualistic and devotional.
9/20/2017
Orange Peel , 19 x 25 inches, acrylic on paper with iridescent copper patina. (Third in the ‘Leaf’ series (Goldleaf, Silverleaf). Copper patina makes the work bright and pastel in sunlight and darker and dramatic in low-light.)
9/17/2021
Music heard in a dream. I played it for a friend, and he said “That’s Spirit of the Radio ”. So it is—at least the chord changes. September 17, 2021 Dream by meta4s
9/17/2017
Rules : ‘Hash Art’ based on MD5 hashes as a form of new text art. It’s the “fingerprint” for the original Three Laws by Isaac Asimov.
9/17/2011
My favorite Border’s closed. I loved the coffee shop there with entire ceiling a skylight.
9/14/2014
Sevenths , 36” x 2.5” x .75” Acrylic on plywood As a part of the Intervals series, a wall sculpture of abstract representations of the intervals of major and minor sevenths.
9/12/2010
Corner of Lake and Forest Avenue, proposed future location of a hotel. Where I used to shop for groceries now a concrete slab.
9/11/2001
Took some pix with camera, but settings wrong, pix overexposed, but I will try to use them in some way. Watched news coverage all day to almost “pornographic” levels. Images so horrifying and so shocking—that two huge skyscrapers are totally gone, and the sense that something like this has finally happened. (It’s the “Titanic” of the 21st century that I thought about). I kept hearing “act of war”, “US will retaliate”, and I shuddered at the thought of a world war starting. Perhaps this is our way of sharing the world’s pain. Other thoughts: The boundaries of the oceans—how we feel protected by them; The day that changed everyone’s thinking; Connects with people on so many levels—the “where were you when Kennedy got shot” phenomenon How will this affect art?
9/4/2016
Green Channel (Study), 11 x 14 x 1 inches, acrylic, hardware and stencil on canvas board mounted on panel. (Cadmium red over sap green)
September 7ths
9/7/1999 Bought CD organizers to control the growing heaps. I'm giving myself the ultimatum to not buy any more music until I sort through what I already have and to devise a system whereby the collection can grow, instead of collapsing from its weight of unimportance. On the new Flaming Lips: sounds like old Genesis, Yes–right down to the Rutherford fuzz bass. [9/7/2025: This is right at the time Napster emerged. I think people were getting sick of CDs in the sense that their exorbitant price was forcing people away from music because the industry had become greedy and corrupt]. 9/7/2016 Dream: Eno floated off in a balloon in a storm, said I’d meet Fripp there as well. The quartet version in an ultra--classical style, but will be contextualized on the album: First Map of the Sky (September 7) by meta4s The "seed" entry: ...
Photographs For Music
Northwest Indiana Factories from Navy Pier - 11/3/2012 When I was working on the Music For Photographs album, I curated a collection of iconic photos and then wrote original music for them. Photographs For Music is the reverse of that--where I’m pairing my original music with my photos taken on certain days (for example 11/3/2012), which also puts them in the Songday series. I’m also embedding a short video within them that relate to them directly or peripherally, and connected with a QR code. This is an interesting way to re-contextualize preexisting content. *** Urban Biota . Music finished on 3/28/2014 from Music For Places II as a "score" for a photograph by Gregory Crewdson . Instillation . Uses a Meatyard photo of his wife and child at the piano wearing the usual masks. I used the Instillation track which was an alt-mix of Imitation Man (Dome City)--just the piano track. I think it works nicely. This one was hard to do because the still has to be “instilled” for ...
September 2nds
9/2/2001 Calder Flamingo slow-shutter in evening: 9/2/2012 [A day of quotes] The works are experiments or studies, but of course they are artworks to be viewed in their own right. Experimentation is important, but in the end it is always artistic experimentation; there is no hypothesis or scientific method. The works continue to be experimental even in their “finished” state. I try to maintain this tension, to create works that ask questions rather than give answers.--Olafur Eliasson When all the doors are closed sometimes you're better off making your own building.--Zoe Keating There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way.--Christopher Morley Delegate everything except genius.--Dan Sullivan One day my father took me aside and left me there." You are a parent to your passion; if you've put it aside and left it there, you should know that it's waiting, wondering what happened to you.--Jackie Vernon Music is a frame for silence. [Or music is ...
6/29/2024
Reflections on the inside of windows, transparent to the outside are always interesting. This was taken through the window of a bus.
