Myspace
Since I have begun to use this blog to talk about myself and how this website acts as a publication and gallery for my work for my assessment for 'Starting Out' I think that I should make a link to my new Myspace profile and talk a little about it.
The address is as follows:
www.myspace.com/jamesfinnsounds
Now, I am using this profile to showcase my music, similar to this blog. Although Myspace is a completely different kind of website, it is more of a social networking site whereas this blog is a lot more personal. Blogs are possible on myspace and so is the chance to upload your own music and photos for all to see. So myspace works as a network for publications and galleries as well as various other things such as forums for discussion.
According to Alexa Internet , MySpace is currently the world's fifth most popular website. It is also the third most popular in the US. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/myspace.com
It has also had its share of legal issues such as in May 2006, Long Island, New York when teenagers Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli were charged with illegal computer access and attempted extortion of MySpace, after both had allegedly hacked into the site to steal the personal information of MySpace users before threatening to share the secrets of how they broke into the website unless MySpace paid them $150,000. Both teens were arrested by undercover Los Angeles police detectives posing as MySpace employees. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/myspace_hack_charges/
Now I feel that too much personal information is required for myspace and the above case shows that there are risks in this. Theres also an issue with having "friends" and "top friends" where you are publicly associating yourself with certain people. I just feel as if too much information is displayed and available about persons on myspace. You never know who is looking at information about you and what they're learning.
With this blog I feel much more safe and comfortable. I know that only a handful of people will probally be reading this publication and as a result of that I do not feel as if I should be afraid of what I say or post on here. I also feel as if any information about myself is much more private and that there is much less required for membership to the site where this blog is based (ameba.jp).
Having said that though, I have still set up this myspace page as a way to showcase my own music as it is far more assessable to many more people than this blog will be, and since myspace has over 106 million accounts already (http://go.theregister.com/feed/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/08/myspace_threatens_record_labels/) it seems like a far better place to get my material heard. Despite saying this, I have no intentions to stop posting music on this website, and I feel far more comfortable working with this site as a gallery and publication than I do with myspace.
The address is as follows:
www.myspace.com/jamesfinnsounds
Now, I am using this profile to showcase my music, similar to this blog. Although Myspace is a completely different kind of website, it is more of a social networking site whereas this blog is a lot more personal. Blogs are possible on myspace and so is the chance to upload your own music and photos for all to see. So myspace works as a network for publications and galleries as well as various other things such as forums for discussion.
According to Alexa Internet , MySpace is currently the world's fifth most popular website. It is also the third most popular in the US. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/myspace.com
It has also had its share of legal issues such as in May 2006, Long Island, New York when teenagers Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli were charged with illegal computer access and attempted extortion of MySpace, after both had allegedly hacked into the site to steal the personal information of MySpace users before threatening to share the secrets of how they broke into the website unless MySpace paid them $150,000. Both teens were arrested by undercover Los Angeles police detectives posing as MySpace employees. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/myspace_hack_charges/
Now I feel that too much personal information is required for myspace and the above case shows that there are risks in this. Theres also an issue with having "friends" and "top friends" where you are publicly associating yourself with certain people. I just feel as if too much information is displayed and available about persons on myspace. You never know who is looking at information about you and what they're learning.
With this blog I feel much more safe and comfortable. I know that only a handful of people will probally be reading this publication and as a result of that I do not feel as if I should be afraid of what I say or post on here. I also feel as if any information about myself is much more private and that there is much less required for membership to the site where this blog is based (ameba.jp).
Having said that though, I have still set up this myspace page as a way to showcase my own music as it is far more assessable to many more people than this blog will be, and since myspace has over 106 million accounts already (http://go.theregister.com/feed/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/08/myspace_threatens_record_labels/) it seems like a far better place to get my material heard. Despite saying this, I have no intentions to stop posting music on this website, and I feel far more comfortable working with this site as a gallery and publication than I do with myspace.
Recordings 2007
Previous posts of work that I had produced for my univeristy course have proven that this website/blog has been acting as an archive or gallery of my work already for some time.
Today I would like to continue this idea of using this website as a "gallery" by posting a few of my recordings.
I have decided to use this "gallery" to show four recordings of electro-acoustic, musical compositions which were concieved this time last year.
What is interesting for me, when I listen back on these tracks, is that even though at times I really like these pieces (and it is a rarity for me to like or appreciate art that I have created myself), I realise that I have progressed, changed and developed as an artist and sound engineer a great deal within the space of just one year. Hopefully I will be able to use this space in the near future as a "gallery" where I can post newer recordings along with these to demonstrate this progression.
These four tracks were recorded Febuary/March time of 2007, each were recorded using Ableton Live and various VSTs and VSTi's. A single microphone was used to record acoustic guitar, but electric guitar was patched directly into an audio interface which was connected to my computer. Synthesized parts were played using VSTi's which I interfaced with using a midi keyboard. "Anamnesis" and "Palpitation Lapse" were pieces composed on acoustic guitar which was then digitally treated. Bits of synthesis was then added to these tracks, but the desired outcome was for sounds to not be distinguisable as acoustic guitar or synthesis, so that they blended together and created an aesthetic that was seperate from its original sonic components. "Farewell to Lamentations" was a piece was entirely made up of synthesis, composed to create a mood of melancholy. "Perpetual Remorse" is composed of layers of electric guitar and some synthesis.
These tracks can be downloaded below.
Palpitation Lapse.mp3
Farewell To Lamentations.mp3
Perpetual Remorse.mp3
Anamnesis.mp3
(To download right-click and select "save target as")
Today I would like to continue this idea of using this website as a "gallery" by posting a few of my recordings.
I have decided to use this "gallery" to show four recordings of electro-acoustic, musical compositions which were concieved this time last year.
What is interesting for me, when I listen back on these tracks, is that even though at times I really like these pieces (and it is a rarity for me to like or appreciate art that I have created myself), I realise that I have progressed, changed and developed as an artist and sound engineer a great deal within the space of just one year. Hopefully I will be able to use this space in the near future as a "gallery" where I can post newer recordings along with these to demonstrate this progression.
These four tracks were recorded Febuary/March time of 2007, each were recorded using Ableton Live and various VSTs and VSTi's. A single microphone was used to record acoustic guitar, but electric guitar was patched directly into an audio interface which was connected to my computer. Synthesized parts were played using VSTi's which I interfaced with using a midi keyboard. "Anamnesis" and "Palpitation Lapse" were pieces composed on acoustic guitar which was then digitally treated. Bits of synthesis was then added to these tracks, but the desired outcome was for sounds to not be distinguisable as acoustic guitar or synthesis, so that they blended together and created an aesthetic that was seperate from its original sonic components. "Farewell to Lamentations" was a piece was entirely made up of synthesis, composed to create a mood of melancholy. "Perpetual Remorse" is composed of layers of electric guitar and some synthesis.
These tracks can be downloaded below.
Palpitation Lapse.mp3
Farewell To Lamentations.mp3
Perpetual Remorse.mp3
Anamnesis.mp3
(To download right-click and select "save target as")
"Starting Out" - Blogging and Archiving
I have been set an assignment for the "Starting Out" module on my BA Sonic Arts course at Middlesex University to create a blog that acts as an archive of self-commented information on five different things. These five are an artist, an institution, a medium, a publication and a gallery.
I have been thinking about what I could write about and archive information on that would combine all five. So, one thing, place, person or whatever to write about that would act as all five. To be completely honest, I feel as if the reason I have been trying to do this is because I already have so much other work and projects to be getting on with, I wanted to find a way to make the research for this assignment easier. On top of the essays, the research portfolio, the Wii-controlled music and sound responsive graphics project I'm working on (which will be explained and demonstrated in future blogs) and the other various things I have going on at the moment, I wanted to try and decrease the amount of research I would have to do for this module.
I have been wanting to make this blog post on this topic for some weeks now but have not got round to it as I have been indecisive about what I should be blogging about. Well, today I came up with a decision. Since setting up this website I have been wanting to make more use of it, and now the oppurtunity has come to do so. I set this blog/site up to record information about myself, keep a record of academic work I have done for the BA Sonic Arts course as well as any other art-related projects I have been working on, so that I can make myself known publicly through the medium of the internet as an artist, while keeping an archive of what I am doing in this practice. Well, thats it. I am an artist. I set this blog up to write about and archive myself and my art, and the assignment is to do the same about any artist of my choice, so I am choosing to write about myself. What about the other four? Well, this blog is a publication about me. It is also supposed to act as a gallery of my own works. It is also a medium through which I can archive my work and make myself known. But is it an institution? Well that is something for me to discuss in a future blog.
Now I have a reason, you can expect much more blogging on this site from me over the next couple of months.
I have been thinking about what I could write about and archive information on that would combine all five. So, one thing, place, person or whatever to write about that would act as all five. To be completely honest, I feel as if the reason I have been trying to do this is because I already have so much other work and projects to be getting on with, I wanted to find a way to make the research for this assignment easier. On top of the essays, the research portfolio, the Wii-controlled music and sound responsive graphics project I'm working on (which will be explained and demonstrated in future blogs) and the other various things I have going on at the moment, I wanted to try and decrease the amount of research I would have to do for this module.
I have been wanting to make this blog post on this topic for some weeks now but have not got round to it as I have been indecisive about what I should be blogging about. Well, today I came up with a decision. Since setting up this website I have been wanting to make more use of it, and now the oppurtunity has come to do so. I set this blog/site up to record information about myself, keep a record of academic work I have done for the BA Sonic Arts course as well as any other art-related projects I have been working on, so that I can make myself known publicly through the medium of the internet as an artist, while keeping an archive of what I am doing in this practice. Well, thats it. I am an artist. I set this blog up to write about and archive myself and my art, and the assignment is to do the same about any artist of my choice, so I am choosing to write about myself. What about the other four? Well, this blog is a publication about me. It is also supposed to act as a gallery of my own works. It is also a medium through which I can archive my work and make myself known. But is it an institution? Well that is something for me to discuss in a future blog.
Now I have a reason, you can expect much more blogging on this site from me over the next couple of months.