Toy for a Grown-up / Rhythm Indicator

This electronic device is —– I may say, Rhythm-Indicator !

When I was a Disco-King (you believe or not 😀 ) often people (other keen dancer) asked

me a question about the way I dance, which is completely free movement hence virtually

no pattern still exactly follow and synchronizing with the Rhythm —– I needed to explain

what the Rhythm is.

Since I’ve been almost a fixture of the club, I also made enormous observation of the

people’s dance movement.    Among the many funny discovery, the most interesting

phenomenon was, that some of the people dance with the song, not with rhythm beat,

therefore it looks odd and off the rhythm still,  the person was not aware of it but

pretty much enjoying the dance  (in fact nothing wrong with it ! )

And another discovery was that the Spanish moves a moment later than the beat.  (It is

common with the Flamenco Dance, the movement occur not at the tense moment of the

beat, but the moment when its highest tension collapsed ! ! ! )

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Anyhow, to talk about the Rhythm in the noisiest environment, it’s easier to show it visual.

So, I made this Rhythm-Indicator  (but only for a Rock beat)   which shows the emphasis of

the 8 beat in red, amber, green, small green LEDs.   And I explained, the movement what

the Rhythm demands, not what I want to move. = So, the movement was the exact reflection

of the music in each moment, not a pattern in fashion  (such as in a film) or choreographed

planed movement. —–  Funny things even among the keen dancer was, that they dance

what they want = regardless the different music, still repeat the same movement !

(= What is the point to have different music.   😀 )

My indicator shows 8 beat, strong, weak so on, and having BPM (speed) controller, and a

Selector for x2 and ½ speed.   The Reset button was to synchronize with rhythm cycle. —– so,

in operation, reset to the first base drum, and adjust the speed to match the music =

Red LED to come coincided with every base drum of following cycle.

Voila’ the rhythm of the music was visually indicated.

—– To put the circuit and the batteries in a thin cosmetic case, I needed to curve the inside

to make a bit more space.    (It was long before SMD components or Lithium battery.)

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Though, even in the same music, same song, the speed is not constant and the pattern and the

use of percussion is changing. (that’s the way to make a music more dynamic and exciting).

—– So, inevitably, I had to design more elaborated system such as automatically pick-up the

base drum and synchronize the LED to the Rhythm cycle.

But instead to develop Rhythm-Indicator Mk-II, I changed the direction to design the

Sound-reactive Disco Pendant. = It was a by-product of the Base Drum synchronizing circuit.

—– I’ll show you those Sound-reactive LED Pendant in the coming posts.

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Zen Sound of Fuke Shakuhach

There was a funny chain of connections.  It was started a word “Kuwa-no-mi” 

(桑の実 / Mulberry) in a post by a prolific blogger Tokyobling, in which he talked about it

with the photo of tree in Tokyo. —– I’ve put a comment  “80% of Japanese may not 

know what the Mulberry tree is, still 99% of them knows the Word

 “Kuwa-no-mi” because of a song “Aka-tombo” ( 赤とんぼ/ Red-Dragonfly) which

was dubbed as the Second National Anthem of Japan.

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May be with my emotional attachment to this song which strikes Japanese psyche and

my associated memory, (—– Aka-tombo only appears on the end of summer which

meant us the end chapter of all the sweet and bitter memory in that summer

(and our youth) —– (you must remember, when you were young and small, how one

summer was long and eventful which was engraved deep into your subconsciousness =

You know, we only had 10 or so summers in the whole life to grow into an adulthood !)

And I’m very conscious about this Mulberry tree and the distinct taste of its berry.

So that, since when I accidentally found this tree in a town called Hitchin, I made my

annual ritual to visit there every year and eat the berry, until I found the another tree

in south London.       (I talked about this tree in one of my post.)

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As an answer to my comment, Tokyobling sent me a link for a song-video of

“Aka-tombo” in Youtube.

—–> while listening a song, I found another Japanese old folk-song as well, which was

accompanied by a traditional Japanese bamboo wind-instrument called Shakuhach (尺八).

—–> as usual in Youtube, many related or similar kind are listed next by next.

—–> and I stumbled this viz, which plays “Fuke Shakuhachi” (普化尺八)

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Fuke-shu (普化宗) is in fact, one of the Zen sect unique to Japan, and

there is a temple called “Fuke-dera” (普化寺) in south of Kyoto.

(I hope it still exist though, many years ago, it was said only 9 monks left

but in this viz the monk was from Mukai-ji temple, there might be more monks in

another temple —– incidentally, why he is hiding his face is a symbol of  No-Self )

(Composer Toru Takemitsu’s “November Steps” is the most famous adaptation of

this sound to Contemporary music.  It’s worthwhile to listen ! )

—– This sect is using the sound of Shakuhach to teach what the

Dharma, and the Enlightenment is.

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But in practice, just to make a sound out of this instrument is hard enough because,

there is not much structure to make sound = one end of bamboo was just cut in angle

and having small notch to blow (that all 🙂 )= it is the matter of the way to blow in

certain angle.  —– ( for me it wasn’t too difficult as I had an experience to blow sound

out of Peruvian Quena Flute which got somewhat similar structure)    Still to play

good sound, let alone to master Kaza-iki etc. must takes 10,20 years of practice.

And THE result is —– just as it is = the sound you can hear but just the sounds,

nothing more than the sound neither Bamboo changed to the Gold.  😀

= still, if it is good, it’s good and in deed, it shows (or sounds) the Dharma, 

—– or you may hear it, as a sound of the nature or its reflections.

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This is in deed, touches the hardest part of the Zen teachings and the deepest

human psyche which could interact or communicate with the Dharma.

(I wouldn’t imply, Dharma would talk to you though —– we might only feel, passively. 🙂 )

For this, please read those posts;   [Harmony in Dharma] / [Aaaaaa~~~~~]

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Still some of you might say, So what ? —–

Nice tone which sound no apparent pattern or rhythm, hence it refuses

our mediocre comprehension, and its high tone makes our perception

sunk deep into the spiritual state (or totally open minded blank state).

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I met quite few professional Shakuhach players as most of Japanese traditional music

regularly needs to have them.  Of cause, a player, able to play and able to make

beautiful sound doesn’t needed to be an enlightened Zen Buddhist, let alone Fuke monk.

And not necessary beautiful sound makes the people to get enlightenment.

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Yet still, to a person who actively seek an enlightenment, start from making

Shakuhach out of raw bamboo by himself, and try to achieve the best sound,

is the typical (endless, repeated) Zen practice.

—–> on the end, no wonder, the one could achieve and reaches to the state

of Ichijo = player, bamboo pipe, the air, the sound, all become one = as what

the Dharma is.    Still, this is nothing but the state of blankness, Mushin

= the mind was sublimated into infinite Void.

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—– Because it is blank or Void, there isn’t much of use, hence it is a Dog shit.

And only there is a blank, what left in your life is, Just carry on, be who you are.

(expecting anything else is nothing but one’s Greed and Pretentious Ego and it is nothing but

a Delusion.   Since, Void will not hold anything in it —– though, Mahayana

understanding is, because of it is Void, everything is in, since it would make no difference

at all = So, your life is your only life.)

Never mind, as long as the sound is good, it’s good.   

___/\___

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Rare Earth Gig or Party ?

Last night, there was a gig or party in a corner of north London, somewhere

undisclosed address, having had 100 of the visitors.  —– In fact, the place was

a disused office building occupied by 40 of the Artists or Musicians —– it was

said to be 37 people are living though, always having their friend etc staying,

so about 70 is the population there. 

The performance was Experimental Jazz kind of live music and many

live DJs, mostly rather experimental techno kind  —– still some were

quite  danceable good beats, not just an out of rhythm loud noise. 

So, I had an opportunity to have some rapid steps.  🙂

Those photos are for those who participated the performance, to download

and use for their own promotion, hence I didn’t put their names here.

Any how they are my friend’s friends etc.  

The place is not only undisclosed, but officially not exists, hence it’s a kind

of a vacuum in the society = more likely in other planet.  Some of residents

might have found a freedom and a free studio, free rehearsal, performance

space and some are just having a gap time in their life.  

And as the Artists respects each others, despite its chaotic looks, it’s quite

relaxed nice atmosphere there ( — and the kitchen looks very clean !)  

—– So, I might go back there again.

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Reverse Engineering of ZEN

As I often wrote before, my approach to Zen Buddhism is a

way of reverse-engineering = disassembling a product to

analyse the structure and components etc. to find the reason

why it was designed in such a way, for what purpose and for

what advantage.

Then able to see even a philosophy behind of it.

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In a case of Zen, to see what sort of practice in such as

Tea-making or Martial-art etc. which were well known to be

a part of Zen culture, and see what is the common factor and

common philosophy, how they are related to Zen teachings.

—– from those observation, it was

easy to see that the key-word was the [Mushin], and

to attain, it was achieved by the years of repeated practice.

—– But, what repeated practice to do with [Mushin] ?

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For me, it took many years of search until I connected it to

the neurological phenomenon, which is the threshold of the

perception rose against the same repeated signal, and

become immune to it.

It was almost an Eureka moment to me. —– With this,

how the emotional tension decay after while, or how we get

used and overcome a fear, even become apathetic, all became

clear and able to make straight connection to the Zen.

Then, I realized that this is the reason why all the Buddhism

sects are using the endless repeating practice as a part of their

teachings.  (whether chanting the same or banging the drum,

walking round and round etc etc —–

Lord Buddha said to have used the way of breathing as a practice)

—– All for getting the state of [Mushin]. —– And I realized

that the continuous action such as cutting the log in a mountain

shelter, or even Disco-dancing which automatically reflect to each

element of music I did, had in deed having had the same effects.

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Mushin is not only to abandon the thinking process

but more importantly, it disconnects perception 

(coming signal) to the emotion. = This is exactly what

Buddhism says [Detachment] which is behind the

[8 Right path]. (I wouldn’t presume that, it included a

Disco-dancing though. 😀 )

And as a neurological fact, detached emotion cause a

detachment even from a conscious of Self and the own belongings.

= Detachment from primordial Instincts, Ego and

Greed, is exactly the State of [Selflessness] and not 

attached to any fixed tendency is the [Middle-way] = 

Hence, all the peculiar phenomena in the Buddhism became clear.

(In fact, all those [Mushin], [Selflessness], [Middle-way] even

[Mindfulness] are all created by the [Detachment] of the nerve

signal from the Emotion = actually they are the same one

phenomenon, but named it seeing from different angles.)

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As all those phenomena was the core of

the Buddhism teachings, it’s mean,

Lord Buddha did know all those mechanism in our mind

though, to trace back all those to his teachings in the scripture

is not straight forward, such as metaphor and his real wording

may not been correctly recorded and translated.

—– A description in the Vimalakirti Sutra “If you have a mind

that you are giving, it is not true giving” or in a typical

Mahayana expression “Giving as not-giving is the giving” are

in fact all meant “Giving in Mushin or in Selflessness”

(without conscious of action).

—– All the religion require the active mind-set, “Complete

attachment to the Belief which was written” but only the

Buddhism teaches [Detachment] = this is the very

distinctive point though, to describe something

which is not there = [Empty mind] is very difficult.

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The trouble of the Buddhism is, virtually no reliable written

record exists.   It’s a pile of hearsay after 10^th, 100^th of Chinese

whisper.  🙂   And seemingly, the person, good in writing may

not be the person who actually reached Mushin or Selflessness

— otherwise such as Abidharma-kosa was never been written.

And on top of this, even though the matter is all in the depth

of murky subconsciousness, there was no understanding of

psychology neither a notion or word to describe was existed then.

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In such an environment, to pretend to be a Master and boast,

creating yet another Mantras was very easy, but to disprove

it was difficult. = all came down to the political power game of

the sects. Winner takes all and justify their righteousness,

regardless of its authenticity —– hence, created utter

mixed-up-Buddhism (in fact, it was a Tantra mixed Hinduism

with some idea from the Buddhism)

for a sake of populism and a commercial success. =

(It’s easier to sell, “This God would save you” than “Need to

know, Suffering is not exists” —– after a death nobody ever

came back to complain “God wasn’t there”= So, its sale’s point

has never been disproved and able to keep assume that the

dead are in Heaven. 😀 )

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Obviously, it is necessary to re-examine and to see what was

the original teachings, even though it might be yet another

guess work. —– Still, my approach, which is based on the

neurological mechanism, can explain all the Buddhism

phenomena. —– If not what else could explain it ?

(Leaving the matter to mythical unknown power and

its blessing ? —– Joking !  We are in the 21^st century ! )

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This neurological, psychological response is common to

all human being (hence it was described that everybody

born with it) it is applicable to anybody and many area of

human activities. (In fact it has been used a lot.)

And it will prove that the Buddhism has a tangible substance.

(unlike any other religion, which is based on a fantasy which

is only exists if it was believed) —– As the Buddhism is based

on the tangible substance, not on the imagination or belief,

it was often classified as a philosophy not a religion.

___/\___

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Last event on Stubnitz

While I’m putting this post, the Ship Stubnitz is leaving  Canary Wharf and taking

a voyage to Normandy, France.

So, the last night, there was a kind of noisy farewell party on the ship.

(I went there with my Sound-reactive Flushing Pendant. = one of my disco regalia.   🙂 )

It was called  Algorave.  And the Info’ here was copied from their web site.

[ Featuring Cursor Miner making dance music in the frequency domain, Ardisson augmenting his tb303

and tr606 acid house with gamelan, Alo Allik twisting his audio/visual algomusic into beat-driven techno,

Alexandra Cárdenas live coding minimal techno from supercollider impulses, Martin Klang making

Euclidean acid with hybrid digital/analogue algorithms, Shelly and some Mandelbrots uniting

Birmingham and Karlsruhe with three-way live coded house, and Meta-eX leading us into the night by

live hacking an extended build up with code and controllers..

plus algorave residents Slub (with guest Elvi$ Ca$h) and Sick Lincoln. ]

Some of their music creation were quite experimental  (hence, not necessary natural to

a body to dance, or even impossible to follow.)  😀   and some were quite aggressive, still

good to dance.  (Loud drumming doesn’t necessary mean strong beat.  The matter is the

syncopation and minute gap, which gives instantaneous tension to the body movement.)

Live means,  lots of adjustments, conjuring, connecting / disconnecting cable,  

moment to moment on the spot, etc. etc.  —– looks messy business.   😀

Any how, it was a very enjoyable vibrant evening. 

(May be I was the one, dancing most.)   😀  

Good luck to Algorave and the ship Stubnitz.

ZEN Photography

There was a very tricky question, what is Zen Photography.

Before talk about photo, what is Zen is harder enough.

Still, in few occasions, to see a photo — m m m ? !

THIS must be the Zen !

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The Matter is, how the visible image contains beyond of what it shows.

= How invisible, unknowable element has been captured in the photo !  

Not a mere suggestive image but has overwhelming power of existence !

Which has been seen by the clear-eyes of Zen, and captured in Mushin.

= Mushin mean without a manipulative intention.  

It is even better if it was in Ichijo with the subject, or the photographer

was completely absorbed by the subject.

And such photo starts to shows its own “raison d’ etre” as strong as the

existence of the subject itself, because the Dharma of the subject and

the Dharma of the photographer has been fused together, or in Ichijo.

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There are some different approach among the so-called Zen paintings.

Some did symbolical approach, such as a drawing of a Potato.

—– Humble, ubiquitous, utterly insignificant object, still, because it is

utterly insignificant, this could be the Universe or the Dharma.

But this is a very intellectual approach, expecting the viewer to see it

in Zen context. —– To convey this concept, may be it’s even better to

leave a paper blanc, hence, [nothing] could mean everything =

the whole Universe.   

In the same time it would save a ink and a time, bother to draw anything. 😀

—– Something similar but different approach is, just one straight line or

a circle on the paper = in this case, it is not only a superimposed idea in

a drawn-line but the action to draw it, was the Zen.

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In the photography, the same symbolical approach wouldn’t necessary work.

A photo of one potato would leave little imagination of anything else.

It is just a potato = “Is this a symbol of Universe ? You got to be Joking” 😀

In the other-hand, photography is very easy to make an ambiguous

confusing image, by just make it out of focus, burred image or almost

disappearing over-exposure, under-exposure, even with multiple exposure,

and those vague image makes our brain to abandon to read the

meaning of the image,  we were left in the blanc mind, wordless.

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Intellectual symbolism works in a way = “It shouldn’t be just a boring

Potato. It must be something behind, otherwise the painter wouldn’t have

worked to draw this”

In contrast, it is very difficult to see a meaning from a photograph,

since even in a photo with intentionally placed potato looks the same as

an accidental photo of potato.   (Drawing wouldn’t be made without

intention, still, even an accidental click makes one photo. :-))

Unless the meaning was clear, we wouldn’t go behind and the graphical

digital manipulation of a photo would rarely convey this meaning,

because we see it only as a graphical purpose in after process, not in an

original meaning, unless the effect match the subject naturally.

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—– in the time of film photography, high-temperature development of

high-speed film created rough-grain photo which showed harsh reality such

as in Sebastiao Salgado’s photo, though, to mimicking the effect with digital

manipulation in high-contrast only creates irritating harsh image =

photo looks harsh but not necessary make the reality looks harsh !

In other words, superficial graphical effect doesn’t affect much to the

meaning of the photo, let alone in its spirituality.  (In Paintings, spirituality

is relying on mostly in its narrative subject and our subconscious connect 

it to a spiritual legend or feeling of owe = it’s in our imagination.  

But in photography, it also emanated from its atmosphere or enigmatic

air which makes our perception suspicious.)  

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Spirituality in the photography lies in either overwhelmingly

strong reality of the subject which provoke our imagination, or

ambiguous depth of air in the image which strikes our emotion.

Therefore, the Zen photography (visual, not a wishful conceptual photo,

which can hit a subconscious of the viewer, before reading brah brah)

exists in two different direction.

One is finely detailed photo of overwhelmingly heavy subject.

Other is a hint of rather humble object still having full of

ambiguous air. —– Either case, the photo will hit the viewer

straight, with the former, facing with overwhelming reality, owe

to the Dharma, the later, with its unknowable field of infinity.

In either case, we just abandon the thinking,  standing alone

naked,  dumbstruck.

This is the Zen Direct transmission. 

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Ship Stubnitz in Canary Wharf

I’ve been visiting the Ship Stubnitz many times and talked about in many posts here.

In early days she was in the King George IV dock in the east London.  Then she moved

and moored in the several different docks,  but now she is in the Canary Wharf.

(5 minutes from the Jubilee line’s Canary Wharf station).

She looks pretty impressive isn’t she.

Where to moor the ship need to have funny negotiation behind with the London

Port Authority.   And it was said to be depend on the whim of the Authority.  🙂

What so ever the story, She to be in the Canary Wharf is very convenient to us. 

(In comparison to have an awkward journey to east London, not to mention to

climb over a barbed-wire fence.  😀 ) 

So, these days many groups are using the ship for their meeting or as an event venue

and the photo above was a gathering of the video film makers = Open Video London.

And the another group, slub.org is having  Experimental Digital Sound demonstration.

( commonly known as Techno —– still, I noticed, their rhythm was pretty good.  🙂 )

If you have an image of London, as a red brick’s traditional town scape, you must be

disappointed to be lost in the grass and steel structures in the Dockland. 

Still, this is the another face of the London.

Yet, supposedly the modern concrete structure still giving strangely ancient temple

like impression. —– I like this paradox.  🙂     And this is the same feeling I’m having

from the Ship Stubnitz = 60 years old ship interior giving the SiFi like atmosphere.

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Capricorns Ball

Last night, there was a party [Capricorns Ball] held in a Pub in Brixton.  In fact this party

started as a birthday party of the Capricorn people among the staffs or ex-staffs of the

Fridge Night Club,  and as a regular I was invited every year —– in the past 15 years or so !

May be an excuse to get together and get drank or annual reunion of the people who had

their youth in the Club  (I mean, while working —– I was only dancing though)   😀

And all the photos here were intended for the guest to download and copy,  if they want.

It’s nice to see the old faces, even though everybody is getting a bit older and having

different kind of life. (It’s really amazing, I acquainted many of them 20 years ago ! ! ! )

As a party in a pub,  Pub-quiz is in a menu—– this time, about the Capricorns  🙂

( I didn’t know our Emperor, I mean Japanese, is also Capricorns.)

And a birthday cake  🙂

The top two Quiz winner received Trophy = they are ecstatic with a joy  😀 

The each candle on the cake was blown by each Capricorns one by one.

Then, live gig. (Not necessary my kind of music —– still it’s OK )

I think it’s a nice photo !  (or, at least they think I’m a nice man. —– mind you, the camera

was only 10″  away from their faces)

The Capricorn Short cake was made by a young lady and the piece here said to be an

art installation created by another young lady = happen to be a Japanese though, too

young to know what the Fridge Club was  😀

This is not intended for a self portrait but a demonstration of how the lighting of those

photos were done. (Hand aimed bounce lighting).  By the way, something hang  from my

neck is one of my Disco Pendant = Sound-activated Flashing Pendant, I made 20 years ago

and been used in the Club almost every week. (I’ll talk about this design, in here soon)

Then, let’s dance  🙂

Despite the London having quite a snow and pretty cold though, number of people turned up. 

And it was a fabulous joyful night. 

Thanks to the Ex-Fridge Capricorns, work hard to organize this.

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Video Geeks in Wireless Workshop

Wireless Workshop (SPC.org) is in the Greenwich former Town Hall.  The members (?) are

meeting every week,  generally for a talk shop. (some time to save broken computer !)

To create Video images, there are many approaches,  from purely shooting real scene, or use real

image as a trigger or source of secondly image —– to Computer Graphics or Graphical animation

or Clay model animation etc etc !  —– Strangely you might think, there are many different kind

of Artists are visiting Wireless Workshop (some said Wireless Wednesday) —- So, last Wednesday

as video artists came, the meeting was held in their  “Video lounge” = top of the building which

was the lighting and the  Projector’s  room of the former Greenwich theater.    🙂

Photo left is a Thermin (Electronic musical sound generator) and the right, there might be old

Super-8 Cine fanatics. = the trace of how this group is related to such as Exploding Cinema.

And as the Electronic Geeks network, it extends to continent too,  and also overlapping with

Linux users groups (and Huckers as well  😀 )

Video lab,  and the sound mixer —– even hand knitted small pouch (photo right) said to be a

” Testicle Warmer” and its rainbow color suggest “the Gay power movement” though, I have no

idea how it came here  😀

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Exploding Cinema at Goldsmith

Last Saturday evening,  the Films and Art event / Exploding Cinema  was held in a big church

building ( now it was converted to an art-space for the Goldsmith college / London University

of Art )   It seemed, it was one of the most successful evening of the Exploding Cinema’s history.

Impressive massive space though, as it has been converted = not purposely built = make use of

the space needed a lots of work especially running all together 100m of the electric extension

cables etc. —– while having time count  ” One hour left” ” Another 15 minuets” — then over load

power cut etc.    The DON / Facilitator of many art events /  James Stevens had to work hard   🙂  

( Photo right = Brian Steel’s sculpture / Dummy)

( Photo right = I brought my kinetic sculpture Virtual Woman with  3W LED light to project

a shadow of moving image on the wall. )

( Photo left = Jini Rawlings installing her video projection system with water reflection. 

Photo middle = Matt Lloyd was setting up the AV system in the performance Room.  

Photo right = I brought yet another piece / Hell Fire —– color changing

rotating LED with reflection ! )

Then the door open —– loads of audiences has come and enjoyed the evening with massive

amount of all sorts of moving images —– save the coldness of a winter night in the massive

stone building  😦      = though, the advantage was, we didn’t need to use  Cloak-room  🙂  

Other than individual set-up of video projection by each artists, the main screen

showed nearly  30 short videos —– some were pretty experimental  🙂

And the Performances !   ( Photo left = Blanca Regina performed her amazing singing

with her video image !  ( And I intruded with my dancing — seemed they liked it  :-D)

Photo middle = Pete Gomes  played his impressive Flute accompanying his 8mm cine

images shot in India.    Photo right = Vicky Smith draw tyre track with her bicycle. )

Celina Leiesegang’s group performed their movements.  ( Dance  ? ) 

And it is,  another fixture = Mould Wine !    Good for chilly night  🙂

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PS :  Any participated Artist who want to have more photos in a bit  larger size, 

Please put a request as a comment saying Photo number / left or right or so =

Comment has your URL which enable  me to send it by Email.

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