Gaite Lyrique
Wednesday October 16th, we went to the Gaite Lyrique, which opened as a center for digital art and music in 2001. There are different areas on the first floor for exhibits to be set up. There is one room where the blocks on the floor can be moved to arrange the room differently. On the second floor there is a resource center that provides free Internet access, there is a store, library, gaming area, and it is a place open to the public. There is also a concert hall were they hold concerts throughout the year; we got a sneak peak of the Mountain Goats who were performing that night. It is a really cool space. The city pays fifty percent for the resource center and the other fifty percent is supported through the exhibitions, concerts, and store sales throughout the year. I found this location to be very interesting and worth seeing.
Vincent Puig – IRI
Thursday October 17th, Vincent Puig talked to us about a software the Institute for Research and Innovation(IRI) has been working on. HE told us about needing to target the problem of new communities and also the problem of listening. They are working to design new writing tools and new tools to listen/create music. He told us about amateurs in different areas, which is someone who loves what they are doing, whether it be in painting, music or cinema.
He emphasized the importance of working together and having communities. Told us about the concept of individuation, which is changing a situation or something collectively, for example Wikipedia. The software has been successful for teachers to use first and then once they know how to use it, they can show the students. Overall concept is to have a space for communities to form and to develop things together.
IRCAM
In the afternoon we went to IRCAM, which is a research and creative center to bring together art and science. There are labs and studios near each other to allow interactions and for artists and scientists to collaborate. We got to meet with a computer music designer, Thomas Gopfer, and he talked to us about how he works with composers. He mostly works with contemporary music and mixes in electronic. He helps composers with projects in programming and adding treatments. He is currently working with a Spanish composer and showed us some samples of how he helps put in sounds and blend them with the orchestra for live performance. HE emphasized that he stays by the score for the composers. He uses an algorithm he made in max msp to add treatments and work on the projects.
We viewed a production/concert room. The panels in the wall can change and the room can be split to allow multiple concerts, or to change seating. The ceiling can be lowered to change the acoustics. Also, talked about creating hologram sounds to make it feel like a noise is projected from a certain spot in the room.
People travel all around to work with them and there are similar facilities in other areas. They have created software called OMAX, which follows the score in real time, lining up the electronic part with the instrument parts.
Instruments have properties that can be scientifically generated; they have made instruments from scratch electronically. Have the option to change size, shape, thickness, and material. They have done these kinds of projects through max msp. For example, one of them is a violin with four strings. Also, they have worked with voice manipulation. An example of Marilyn Monroe, they take parts of her voice from interviews and put them in a database. Find all the different parts to create the correct tonation. To create the proper expression of emotion need to consider rhythm, speed, and tonation.
Overall I found IRCAM to be my favorite location in Paris. I found the building and all of the rooms to be very interesting. I think it would be awesome to have more centers like this and more artists and scientists collaborating together.
Michael Joyce
At night we had dinner with Michael Joyce. He wrote a hypertext fiction novel called story space. Now working on idea of locative fiction. Having locative AR for smartphones. It is an open source system currently four locations including Chicago, Cambridge, Venice, Paris and Sweden. Basically a user will be able to see history or information about areas. It would be a panoramic on a smartphone for interactivity and important for users to understand to have a good experience.
He also talked to us about his past. Told us that a genius is someone who sticks with a stupid idea for a long time, which is what he did with the idea of copy and paste. He worked on the idea of copy and paste with Jay Walter. Also told us that opportunism is about making changes when they need to be made. He talked about different people with ideas to create HTTP. The web was originally created for forming communities and creating knowledge, it has become too commercialized. The media has given us a false sense of freedom. Our drive is about desire and we look at a lot of pointless information on the web today.