In an age where so many photos seem filtered or artificially polished, photographers weigh in on the ethics behind retouching in commercial photography.

The Magnificent Bribe.

The megamachine, in Mumford’s estimation, seeks to turn all people, whether they realize it or not, into cogs whose every action serve only to further entrench the power of the megamachine. It is often easier to describe an intimidating dictatorial system than it is to explain why people go along with it. Thus, the bribe.

Relevant: Lewis Mumford.

Surprise! The Future of Media Involves a Crypto-Based Popularity Contest

On one level, Mirror is a simple blogging platform like Substack or Medium. But it also offers an ever-expanding suite of crowdfunding tools made possible by blockchain technology that pushes the act of raising money on the Internet into psychedelic new shapes. Through “Crowdfunds,” a writer can issue financial backers a custom token that gives them fractional ownership of an essay—and a future cut of the proceeds if the writer decides to auction it off as an NFT. A creator can automatically route a share of any revenues to a collaborator, using a “smart contract” tool called “Splits.”

Relevant: mirror.xyz

Monday, 15. November 12021

The Future of Meat Edition.

Future generations will likely look back on factory farming as one of humanity’s greatest crimes. The science is clear: humans must eat less meat. Climate impact is the urgent task of all of us, and each cattle feedlot and industrial piggery is an environmental disaster. In the cruelty-free plant-based world, morality and climate conscience are the great motivators.

The internet is leaking.

The first possibility is that all of this metaverse nonsense is a desperate death gasp from an irrelevant and bloated company on its way out. Meta was forced into this pivot by Frances Haugen’s leaks and this is the beginning of the end for them. The other possibility is that this will work. Zuckerberg will overlay our current world with a new virtual one — that he owns — which will allow his algorithms to further embed themselves into the way we talk, dress, eat, and socialize. Our lives will become an endless and chaotic montage of viral flash mobs and micro-trends, while we’re surveilled by our wearables and screens and projectors. But our robot butlers will be very smart.

Ozzillate – Transfer Files via Sound ID.

You only need a speaker and a microphone, which means that the software can run on most older as well as newer hardware.

Rebecca Allen

Once in a while this funky synth tune pops back into my head, the intriguing bass line with these high notes, the chant “it’s you, only you”, the chorus “make it habit, make it happen” – and then I’m again searching for the video of the song “Adventures in Success” by Will Powers…

In the early 19-8Ts I heard and saw it for the first time, no clue what it’s actually about, neither getting the reference, nor the parody. And of course I did not have the slightest idea who was behind Will Powers, some music group obviously – suffice to say there was nobody knowledgable around to enlighten me, either.

Fast forward 30 years and the web gives me all the information I could not even dream of as a teenager. The name is Lynn Goldsmith, a photographer, singer, artist, and the song and the album of the same name are one part of her story.

A story that needs to be told another time, though, because this is about the video, one of the earliest incarnations of computer-generated three-dimensional moving images in a music video, if not at all in pop culture.

The first time I have seen “Adventures in Success” (which most likely was not on MTV because that was not a thing before 1987 in Germany, and my parents did not even have satellite TV, anyway) I was mesmerized by the hollow-mask illusion of the 3D faces and the perfect, shiny shapes of the musical symbols floating on the screen.

Some years later, I should have a similar mesmerizing effect seeing Kraftwerk’s “Musique Non Stop“ video. Goosebumps!

In my memory, the creative process of this video was always connected to something like NASA or MIT, a faceless(!) organisation.

What a delight to finally find out after all these years this was either a false memory or one of the myths those white privileged men tell you all the time in case the glorious maker wasn’t one of their kind – both videos were made by Rebecca Allen, and she just as well established methods and tools for digitizing and processing the visual information to make it come alive on the screen.

Back then, it was a very crafted process. I would have to put little pieces of tape over the models.... Then you put it in this reference cube, and then point by point you'd digitize.
— Meet Kraftwerk’s Original 3-D Animator, Rebecca Allen

To think of her art school almost sabotating her interests I can only be glad she remained determined and did not let this narrow-mindedness interfere in her path:

I asked if I could take an independent study in computer animation and interestingly enough when I asked the art school if I could do that, they said no. Computers and artists? No.
— Neon Lights: The Digital Art Of Rebecca Allen

Thank you for all the mesmerizing, Rebecca Allen.

Relevant: The History of Computer-Animated Music Videos.