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Showing posts from March, 2020

The Theatre Of Cruelty & Of The Absurd

The Theatre of Cruelty (French: Théâtre de la Cruauté, also French: Théâtre cruel) is a form of theatre generally associated with Antonin Artaud . Artaud, who was briefly a member of the surrealist movement, outlined his theories in The Theatre and its Double. The Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as a break from traditional Western theatre and a means by which artists assault the senses of the audience. Encyclopædia Britannica describes the Theatre of Cruelty as "a primitive ceremonial experience intended to liberate the human subconscious and reveal man to himself". It goes on to say that Manifeste du théâtre de la cruauté ( 1932; Manifesto of the Theatre of Cruelty ) and Le Théâtre et son double (1938; The Theatre and Its Double) both called for "communion between actor and audience in a magic exorcism; gestures, sounds, unusual scenery, and lighting combine to form a language, superior to words, that can be used to subvert thought and logic and to shock the specta

Virtual Reality (VR)

Currently standard virtual reality (VR) systems use either virtual reality headsets or multi-projected environments to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual environment. A person using virtual reality equipment is able to look around the artificial world, move around in it, and interact with virtual features or items. The effect is commonly created by VR headsets consisting of a head-mounted display with a small screen in front of the eyes, but can also be created through specially designed rooms with multiple large screens. Virtual reality typically incorporates auditory and video feedback, but may also allow other types of sensory and force feedback through haptic technology. The exact origins of virtual reality are disputed, partly because of how difficult it has been to formulate a definition for the concept of an alternative existence. The development of perspective in Renaissance Europe created conv

DAF - Gabi Delgado-López

Gabi Delgado-López , vocalist and co-founder of DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) has died at age 61. His bandmate Robert Görl shared the news on Instagram late last night, writing “Got word today my long time friend and bandmate Gabi Delgado passed away last night.” Fomed in 1978, DAF were a pivotal act in EBM and electronic music. Their 1980 album Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen was the first LP released on Mute Records and Delgado-López was an active figure in Berlin’s early nightlife scene. Formed in Düsseldorf featuring Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López (vocals), Robert Görl (drums, percussion, electronic instruments), Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke (electronic instruments), Michael Kemner (bass-guitar) and Wolfgang Spelmans (guitar). Kurt Dahlke was replaced by Chrislo Haas (electronic instruments, bass guitar, saxophone) in 1979. Since 1981, the band has consisted of Delgado-López and Görl. Görl came to Düsseldorf in August 1978 and met Delgado as bot

Documentaries Archive

Generative Music

Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system. Eno is also credited with inventing the phrase “ambient music,” first using the term to describe his 1978 release Ambient 1: Music for Airports . A generative piece sounds different every time it is played. The first indications of generative music date from the composer Johann Philipp Kirnberger  in 1757, he wrote a work entitled "Musikalisches Wrfelspiel" based on a series of templates written by him, which he modified according to the result of rolling dice. Generative Music 1 is the name of a floppy disk (composed by Brian Eno in 1996). The work, made up of twelve pieces, was not recorded in an audio format, but in '.skp' format, and therefore, to be able to listen to it you would need the Sseyo Koan player software, a real-time music generation system. As the Sseyo Koan is an algorithmic generative software, each

Takeshi Kitano

Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo and becoming one of the three biggest comedians in the country. After several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989's Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine (1993). He was not widely accepted as an accomplished director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997. In October 2017, Kitano completed his Outrage crime trilogy with the release of Outrage Coda. Violent Cop (1989) original poster. In 1989 Kitano was set to star in a police thriller that was to be directed by gangster film veteran Kinji Fukasaku . When Fukasaku had to leave the film, the film's producers offered Kitano the directing chores. He reworked the script and the result was Violent Cop , a deliriously violent masterpiece that brought him recognition in the international film community. With this film Kitano would introduce his lean directorial styl

Genesis P-Orridge

Last month, industrial performance artist and provocateur Genesis P-Orridge performed her final concert at London venue Heaven. It wasn’t just a farewell to her audience, but also a means for Genesis P-Orridge to bid farewell to herself. Recently she told the New York Times that the course of her chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia meant that she had “less optimistically, a year, maybe six months. And then I’m on the downward slope to death”. As with the Fall’s Mark E Smith in January this year, it’s difficult to imagine the UK music underground without this constant fixture. The death was confirmed by Genesis's daughters, Genesse and Caresse, the musician and artist, who had been battling leukaemia for two-and-a-half years, was 70. “It is with very heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge,” Caresse and Genesse P-Orridge said in a statement shared online. “S/he will be laid to rest h/er other half, Jaqueline “Lady Jaye” Brey

Recycling Guide

Recycling: The evaluation of processes that protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption to most favorable to least favorable actions. The hierarchy establishes preferred program priorities based on sustainability. To be sustainable, waste management cannot be solved only with technical end-of-pipe solutions and an integrated approach is necessary. The waste management hierarchy indicates an order of preference for action to reduce and manage waste, and is usually presented diagrammatically in the form of a pyramid. The hierarchy captures the progression of a material or product through successive stages of waste management, and represents the latter part of the life-cycle for each product. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste. The proper application of the waste hierarchy can have several benefits. It can help prevent emissions of greenhouse gases, reduces p

FM Synthesis

FM synthesis is short for frequency modulation synthesis . Simply put, FM synthesis uses one signal called, the “modulator” to modulate the pitch of another signal, the “carrier”, that’s in the same or a similar audio range. This creates brand new frequency information in the resulting sound, changing the timbre without the use of filters. FM synthesis can create both harmonic and inharmonic sounds. To synthesize harmonic sounds, the modulating signal must have a harmonic relationship to the original carrier signal. As the amount of frequency modulation increases, the sound grows progressively complex. It was discovered in the 1967 experiments of John Chowning at Stanford University. At first, Chowning was using complex waveforms to modulate the pitch of simple sine waves. This resulted in supersonic signals at frequencies over a million Hertz. [FISEA 1988] Workshop: John Chowning, Zack Settel & Ernst Bonis – FM-Synthesis/Psycho-acoustics. Yamaha