Ten Online Documentaries on the Digital Revolution

The Internet is now the driving force behind change and innovation in the world.

1. Download: The True Story of the Internet
2. The Age of Big Data
3. Resonance: Beings of Frequency
5. Life In A Day
6. Networked Society: On The Brink
7. Us Now: Social Media and Mass Collaboration
8. WikiRebels: The WikiLeaks Story
9. The Virtual Revolution: The Cost of Free
10. How Hackers Changed the World


290 more documentaries in a similar perspective to arts life and politics here.

Lectures on Milton

Milton's political tract Areopagitica is discussed at length. The author's complicated take on state censorship and licensing, both practiced by the English government with respect to printed materials at the time, is examined. His eclectic use of pagan mythology, Christian scripture, and the metaphors of eating and digestion in defense of his position are probed. Lastly, Milton's insistence that moral truths must be examined and tested in order for goodness to be known is explored as an early manifestation of the rhetoric that will be used to depict the Fall in Paradise Lost.

This lecture is number eight in a series of twenty four on John Milton by John Rogers, Professor of English at Yale University. It comes to us via Academic Earth, a fine source of academic materials on the web. All of them free.

For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.
- Milton, John

Murdoch on "A Golden Age of Freedom"

If you are interested, as I am, on what one of the largest media publishers in the world is thinking about in regards to the present global situation you may like to listen to the Boyer Lectures on ABC Australian radio National tomorrow. The introduction goes like this:

The 2008 lecture series, A Golden Age of Freedom is presented by Mr Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News Corporation.

On a wall in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal office in Manhattan hangs a Russel Drysdale painting. It has travelled with him around the world. The Stockman and his Family depicts a pioneering Australia, steely and resilient in the face of solitude and hardship. Values which he feels have taken us to where we are today - one of the most prosperous and peaceful nations on Earth. But will these values see us through the times ahead?

Rupert Murdoch beholds a period of great transformation that will bring prosperity to billions around the world. This golden age of freedom will unleash a new global middle class. Markets, media and technology will all play their part.

But to reap the rewards we must make some drastic changes. A ballooning welfare state, failing state schools and full reconciliation among all Australians head his list.

Some predictable stuff, but of interest nonetheless. From tomorrow the lecture will be online for downloading and streaming from here.

Her Noise - The Making Of

Her Noise - The Making Of
Authors: Electra with Emma Hedditch
Duration: 60 minutes, 2007

http://www.ubu.com/film/her_noise/her_noise.pdf

Her Noise was an exhibition which took place at South London Gallery in 2005 with satellite events at Tate Modern and Goethe-Institut, London. Her Noise gathered international artists who use sound to investigate social relations, inspire action or uncover hidden soundscapes. The exhibition included newly commissioned works by Kim Gordon & Jutta Koether, Hayley Newman, Kaffe Matthews, Christina Kubisch, Emma Hedditch and Marina Rosenfeld. A parallel ambition of the project was to investigate music and sound histories in relation to gender, and the curators set out to create a lasting resource in this area.

Throughout the development of the project, the curators conducted dozens of interviews, whilst also compiling sound recordings and printed materials which would eventually form the Her Noise Archive. The Her Noise Archive is a collection of over 60 videos, 300 audio recordings, 40 books and catalogues and 250 fanzines (approximately 150 different titles) compiled during the development of this project. The archive remains publicly accessible at the Electra office in central London.

Much of the material available in the archive was shot specifically for this project, and is uniquely available as part of this archive. The documentary 'Her Noise - The Making Of' was commissioned by Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen on the occasion of the 'Sound' festival and 'SoundAsArt' conference at University of Aberdeen.

The video documents the development of Her Noise between 2001 and 2005 and features interviews with artists including Diamanda Galas, Lydia Lunch, Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether, Peaches, Marina Rosenfeld, Kembra Pfhaler, Chicks On Speed, Else Marie Pade, Kaffe Matthews, Emma Hedditch, Christina Kubisch and the show's curators, Lina Dzuverovic and Anne Hilde Neset. The documentary also features excerpts from live performances held during Her Noise by Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether and Jenny Hoyston (Erase Errata), Christina Carter, Heather Leigh Murray, Ana Da Silva (The Raincoats), Spider And The Webs, Partyline, Marina Rosenfeld's 'Emotional Orchestra' at Tate Modern, and footage compiled for the 'Men in Experimental Music' video made during the development of the Her Noise project by the curators and Kim Gordon, featuring Thurston Moore and Jim O'Rourke.

To find out more about the Her Noise Archive, or to make an appointment to visit the archive please go to
www.electra-productions.com

John Cage is Everywhere

I have been bumping into John Cage everywhere lately. Here are some points:

The Cambridge Companion to John Cage (greets me every morning as the last book on the shelf near the door to my office).

John Cage and David Tudor in Concert in San Francisco, Jan. 16, 1965

Video of 4,33 performed in London recently in a concert dedicated to John Cage

John Cage performing Water Walk in January, 1960 on the popular TV show I've Got A Secret

New Radio OM

On Monday, May 14, 2007, Other Minds marks the 90th birthday of late composer Lou Harrison with the launch of the new radiOM.org website, offering free worldwide access to streaming audio and video programs that span the history of new music.

The new website makes easily accessible the expanding Other Minds Archive of 4,500 hours of recorded materials, which includes 3,500 hours of audiotape recordings from the KPFA Radio Music Department collection, highlights from past Other Minds Music Festivals, materials from the private archive of composer George Antheil, selected programs from the Cabrillo Music Festival, and other rare and unusual recordings. The archive will continue to grow as the KPFA library is digitized, and recordings from Other Minds concerts and events are added.

The Bounty of UBUWEB

I have been ill for the last two days and the two days before that I was caring for the rest of my family that were similarly infected. I rise this morning after two days of fevered dreams and find so much of interest around me. The day seems clear and colors bright. And UBUWEB is publishing:

The complete works of Maya Deren (1917-1961) streamed online
A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945)
At Land (1944)
Meditation on Violence (1948)
Ritual In Transfigured Time (1946)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
The Very Eye of Night (1958)
Witch's Cradle (1943)
Divine Horsemen 1985
Original footage shot by Deren (1947-1951). Reconstruction by Teiji & Cherel Ito

Joseph Bueys Filz TV (1970)
Beuys turns up the bottom left corner of the felt, revealing a glimpse of the faulty TV picture. The voice of a TV reporter, who is talking about current milk and meat prices, is still audible. Beuys declares he has 'undertaken a gradual elimination' by 'filtering away' the picture first while leaving the sound, 'but when the picture has gone, the sound becomes absurd.'

Samuel Becketts' complete dramatic works
Including Krapp's Last Tape (1960) a brilliant study in technology and presence. Also Embers in Swedish!!

You Only Life Twice...Cliché but Informative

This is me..

The Australian current affairs program Four Corners has an online edition on Second Life, You Only Live Twice. "The way into a virtual world is through a computer......" A good introduction to some of the practices and understandings around SL.

Micheal Franti and Spearhead

In 1993 I saw The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on their last tour before splitting. It was obvious that Micheal Franti was gifted. I saw him again in 1995 in a spoken word performance which was held in an abandoned strip club in Sydney. This shows where he is at now. The embedded player comes from Fabchannel which archives and streams online performances from the Melkweg and Paradiso in Amsterdam. Dozens of full length concerts are available for streaming, free. I can hear the Youtube bubble slowly splitting, making millions of tiny bubbles that grow slowly.