Updates from Ben Dalton RSS
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10:49:02 am on May 27, 2010 |
I love how these read like some sort of miniature poetry. Maybe one day I’ll upload some of the recordings.
disk 4 2005-07-04 12_44.wav - supermarket 6.8 Mb 2005-07-04 12_44(1).wav - supermarket talking in background 11.7 Mb 2005-07-04 13_16.wav - squacking bird, too windy 3.1 MB 19s 2005-07-04 13_16(1).wav - quiet a few birds 22.1 Mb ** (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 13_20.wav - cleaning up sounds 14.4 Mb ** (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 14_23.wav - bbq little wind at start 22.2 Mb *** good for radio (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 14_25.wav - clearing sticks train in the middle 66.6 Mb * really high pitched sounds 2005-07-04 17_21.wav - town and country 19.2 Mb 2005-07-04 17_58(1).wav - windmill and laughing *** good for radio 2005-07-04 18_01.wav - cars and windmills (a touch of wind) 23.1 Mb ** bit windy, maybe ok 2005-07-04 18_37.wav - rustling birds wind at end 8.3 Mb windy 2005-07-04 18_39.wav - flies, cars, rumble 13.2 Mb *** good for radio (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 19_38(1).wav - talk, fireworks, some wind in middle 20.4 Mb *** (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 20_11.wav - klang klang wind at start and end 17.5 Mb windy 2005-07-04 20_13.wav - drips and wind mill 11.2 Mb ** make into loop cut before beeps at end 2005-07-04 20_57.wav - mdstartup noise, long approach car, some birds 18.8 Mb windy 2005-07-04 21_10(1).wav - v quiet. metal tinking. birds. cow at end pinto canyon road 18.4 Mb ** (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 21_14.wav - cows, birds insect, stone throwing 31.3 Mb *** (speaking at very end) 2005-07-04 21_38.wav - bad sound in car, car door, after dusk at pinto canyon, cars passing 52 MB 5m10s *** edit down start 2005-07-04 22_23.wav - town and country after dark, train passing 27.7MB 2m45s 2005-07-05 06_51.wav - windy then quiet then windy luna at the arroyo, dogs and roosters, distant highway 53.9MB 5m21s 2005-07-05 06_59.wav - amber at luna on the last morning, birdies chirping, roosters 25.3MB 2m31s wind 2005-07-05 07_26.wav - Ben at luna on the last morning, birdies, dogs, roosters, crickets 32.2MB 3m12s *** (speaking at very end) radio too 2005-07-05 7_37.wav - Burros and pissing and and crickets and a truck at luna 58.7MB 5m49s *** (speaking at very end) radio too 2005-07-05 9_11.wav - footsteps and birds, beautiful, quiet metal banging 14.7MB 1m28s ** wind through 2005-07-05 9_13.wav - good cars passing rockshop, quiet, 14.2MB 1m25s ** edit off start 2005-07-05 9_14.wav - GOOD TRUCK (topped out) 11.8MB 1m11s 2005-07-05 9_16.wav - seven minutes of perfection, am at rockshop 73.6MB 7m18s **** fade in and out 2005-07-05 9_23.wav - one minute of perfection, am at rockshop ** a little wind 2005-07-05 9_32.wav - truck at rockshop 9.2MB 55s 2005-07-05 9_57.wav - Good! train tracks by the drug blimp 54.8MB 5m25s 2005-07-05 11_54.wav - annoying mexican radio broadcast 45.7MB 4m32s disk 3 2005-09-13 19_01.wav - TALKING the fear is that the train was going away 13.7MB 1m22s 2005-09-13 19_02.wav - TALKING I don't hear anything. 1m22s 2005-09-13 19_02(1).wav - TALKING and cars 7m17s 2005-09-13 19_02(2).wav - drunk and under the shirt, beer bottles 5m07s 2005-09-13 19_03.wav - nowheresville 18s 2005-09-13 19_03(1).wav - redford dog story 1m48s 2005-09-13 19_03(2).wav - junk 02s 2005-09-13 19_03(3).wav - blather 1m45s 2005-09-13 19_04.wav - this is the train, shh 5m56s 2005-09-13 19_04(1).wav - crickets, cars, listening from trestle, some wind, scratchy 5m45s disk 2 2005-07-03 13_31.wav - judd 2m09s 2005-07-03 13_52.wav - footsteps, crunching at chinati, wind ~2m *** radio cut wind 2005-07-03 14_29.wav - inside artillery shed at chinati 1m53s *** radio cut talkk at very end 2005-07-03 14_35.wav - inside artillery, joey speaking 21s 2005-07-03 15_35.wav - what are you recording? crap 1m30s 2005-07-03 15_57.wav - boring 1m24s 2005-07-03 16_07.wav - joey braiding hair 1m07s 2005-07-03 19_24.wav - rays are supermarket 1m28s 2005-07-03 21_54.wav - wind 28s 2005-07-03 22_17.wav - 3m of crickets, then rest yapping 7m14s 2005-07-03 22_30.wav - loud, boring crickets with wind 49s 2005-07-03 22_30(1).wav - loud crickets and cars under trestle 2m20s 2005-07-03 22_43.wav - more crickets and cars under trestle 3m20s 2005-07-03 23_18.wav - this is the train from ben's mic 5m43s 2005-07-03 23_44.wav - crickets and cars again (plus one dooley) and some wind 1m14s 2005-07-03 23_45.wav - crickets, crickets and a car 1m23s 2005-07-04 00_08.wav - mumbling at the marfa lights and a truck or two 3m26s 2005-07-04 00_27.wav - luna crickets, foosteps and Lalito's engine 12m45s disk 1 2005-09-13 18_22(1).wav - wmbr 8s 2005-09-13 18_22(1).wav - wmbr 2005-09-13 18_23.wav - wmbr 2005-09-13 18_23(1).wav - wmbr 2005-09-13 18_23(2).wav - rockshop rustling not so crappy but crappy 2005-09-13 18_23(3).wav - testing rockshop 15s 2005-09-13 18_23(4).wav - birdies and cars ar rockshop; some wind but not bad especially at the end, train horn in distance 5m20s 2005-09-13 18_24.wav - wind 8s 2005-09-13 18_24(1).wav - lots of wind and drops of rain on tin and rustling, cars 1m27s 2005-09-13 18_24(2).wav - wind. metal. 2005-09-13 18_26.wav - nothing 2005-09-13 18_26(1).wav - rain and thunder. nice a bit short 2005-09-13 18_26(2).wav - rain and thunder. 2005-09-13 18_26(3).wav - thunder and rain. 2005-09-13 18_26(4).wav - wind. birds. laughing. "hello" 2005-09-13 18_26(5).wav - rustle rustle. wind. 2005-09-13 18_27.wav - wind and rustle. then quiet rooster. then more wind. 2005-09-13 18_27(1).wav - boring. 2005-09-13 18_27(2).wav - trying to record the train. *** radio 2005-09-13 18_27(3).wav - glitch 2005-09-13 18_27(4).wav - train horn bad wind in middle. 2005-09-13 18_27(5).wav - rustle. late night fire talking. 2005-09-13 18_28.wav - aroya. wind and mic knocking. 2005-09-13 18_28(1).wav - long windy walk through aroyo 2005-09-13 18_29.wav - frogs and crickets 20s of good then windy 2005-09-13 18_29(1).wav - slow fade in and out. crickets and aroyo 2005-09-13 18_30.wav - 2005-09-13 18_30(1).wav - 2005-09-13 18_30(2).wav - rock shop birds short wind: 2005-07-04 12_44(1).wav 2005-07-04 17_58.wav 2005-07-05 9_12.wav 2005-07-05 9_56.wav - crunching, walking and wind 10.5MB 1m03s short speaking: 2005-07-04 18_45.wav - throwing rocks 18 Mb 2005-07-04 22_55.wav - luna "what are you thinking- of painting the house white?" 9.1 MB 55s bad: 2005-07-04 18_21.wav - banging headphones test 2005-07-04 19_38.wav - nothing 2005-07-04 21_10.wav - not much 2.2 Mb
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02:17:15 pm on April 27, 2010 |
- Use pentacom’s BitFontMaker to create some pixel letter forms. Test the letters and, if you want, save the resulting ‘truetype font’ for use in photoshop/word/etc..
- Use the Super Mario flash level editor to create a tiled platform environment. It could be a playable game or an experiment with retro aesthetics.
Document this challenge
A blog post. Include your level game code so that others can try your level.
Taking it further
- Go back to BitFontMaker and try making a complete pixel font with lower and upper case letters and punctuation. The more complete your font, the more useful it will be to you and other people.
- Have a look at some of the ’self-playing’ Super Mario levels fans have made. Can you make a level that is predominantly a form of entertainment like a comedy or music video, rather than a playable game.
- Look at Cal Henderson’s guide to making a full pixel font using dedicated software. Fontforge is the free, opensource font creation package. Make your own font.
Background
Pixels now feel ‘retro’ and ‘digital’ when used in graphics design. This is because for a while small numbers of pixels and colour choices is all people had to make game graphics and computer typography. Now that these constraints are no longer necessary, pixel design is just another stylistic choice that you can make when looking for inspiration. Some examples of pixel art being used creatively in a modern context include the work of the eboy collective and Craig Robinson’s MiniPops on FlipFlopFlyin.
Pixel font design started out as a way to try and best replicate traditional printed type on screen. Over time, typographers have continued to explore how much style and readability can be conveyed with as few pixels as possible.
Most platform games were built at a time when game ‘roms’ could only store a small number of pixel sprites. To get round this, they built complex levels by repeating a small number of functional tiles.
Game engines can be used for aesthetic experiments and as an art form. Cory Arcangel’s Super Mario Clouds is a good example of this – a hacked mario game cartridge with all of the sprites removed apart from the clouds.
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04:18:08 pm on March 16, 2010 |
I previously mentioned the Ant Farm DVD as a source of good DIY tips for building inflatables. Turns out their videos are up on Ubu Web. Check out Dirty Dishes for inflatable building tips (just sit through the giggly camera play at the start)
Ubu is much more in keeping with their sharing attitude – I was always surprised their videos were not archived on the web.
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12:47:00 pm on March 14, 2010 |
To fix this error:
error: malloc.h: No such file or directoryosx does not support
malloc.h, instead usestdlib.h. I did this by replacing#include <malloc.h>in all the .c files with:#if !defined(__APPLE__)
#include <malloc.h>
#else
#include <stdlib.h>
#endifMissing libraries:
error: sndfile.h: No such file or directoryI installed this library using macports:
sudo port install libsndfileAnd then added the paths to macports libraries to the Makefile:
INCLUDE = -I/opt/local/include
LIBRARY = -L/opt/local/lib
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03:58:40 pm on February 15, 2010 |
I decided to forego the knock-and run antics that give this Cornish event the Monday before Lent it’s name, and instead focus on the traditional meals that accompany the roguery. The options (according to wikipedia) were hearty pea soup or fresh seafood known as ‘trigg meat’.
I’ve been eyeing up the fresh mussels in the supermarket for a while now, so this seemed a good chance to give them a go. I went with the recipe on the packet: 1. clean beards and any dead mussels out. 2. add mussels, 1/3rd bottle white wine, 1/3 block of butter, a small carrot, leek, celery and onion – all chopped small, black pepper, bay leaf to a big pan. 3. with the lid on, bring to a boil over a high heat, and steam for 5 mins. 4. spoon out mussels and then reduce stock before pouring over.
Not quite the traditional Cornish cooking method I’m sure, but tasty all the same. Speaking of which, does anyone know the traditional UK ways to cook mussels?
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06:23:59 pm on February 8, 2010 |
Cooked porridge in homage to Meal Monday (traditionally the second Monday in February):
During the 17th century, Scottish university students lived in very basic accommodation and were required to bring their own fuel, faggots or peat, to maintain a fire. Their diet was meagre too, largely consisting of oatmeal, which they would make into porridge. … As the students’ country homes or farms were some distance from the city Universities, an occasional long weekend was scheduled to permit them to replenish their supplies.
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04:09:13 pm on February 6, 2010 |
This tasty little pastry (Runebergintorttu) is named after a Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804 – 1877) who is perported to have enjoyed one with coffee each morning. They are traditionally eaten running up to and on Johan’s birthday, 5 February.
I jumped between a number of similar recipes while cooking these. What you end up with is a moist muffin with overtones of almond, cardamom and rum. The raspberry jam and lemon icing are a tasty addition too.
I’ve eaten two this evening already, cos I can’t wait until breakfast. And yes, I know, these are a day late, but there was no chance of concerted baking on a Friday.
If you want to know what Runeberg’s poetry sounds like, there’s a short recording of Rakastava as part of a multilingual librivox poetry collection.
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02:47:37 pm on February 3, 2010 |
I threw some beans out of our door. I also had a go at shouting “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!“. Why? Today is the Japanese Bean throwing ceremony, Setsubun, that marks the start of each season.
At the start of the year I had the idea of trying to appropriate as many festivals as I could, preferable ones involving food. I’m a big fan of those small celebrations unique to one place or community, like the tomato fight in Buñol in Valencia, and this is really an exercise in trying to seek more traditions of that sort out. I thought I’d test the idea out on the month of February. So I sat down with wikipedia’s list of observances and drew up a calendar of possible days. I’ll let you know how I get on.
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01:08:33 pm on February 1, 2010 |
Selected member in the first ARTiMELT group – The Culture Company’s and Arts Council England’s new support programme for arts organisations and individuals based in Yorkshire, who “wish to develop knowledge and ideas with the purpose of producing proposals of strong creative media content for digital and social media funding programmes such as Channel 4’s 4iP programme, The Wellcome Trust’s Arts Award scheme and Grants for the Arts from Arts Council England”.
Included visits to We Love Technology, Lovebytes, V&A’s Decode, The Story and the Guardian Changing Media Summit, as well as a range of support and discussion sessions and a £1,500 development award to buy in expert consultancy to develop ideas.
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10:50:20 am on November 26, 2009 |
Case study presenting Our City, Our Music and other projects for Turning Point participants. The day considers the climate and conditions for experimental learning and visual arts partnerships.