Visual Feedback Loops
Many artists work from indeterminate concepts, as opposed to a fixed plan (like mechanical or architectural drawings), so the thinking about the work as it is being made is constantly changing, all the way up until the work is finished, at which point the artist realizes, "That's what I was thinking and doing." Understanding the process usually comes in hindsight, and only matures after many years or decades. Sometimes making another version of it helps you to understand it better, or to fully put it to rest. [more...]

On Working Incrementally
Everything we do is incremental in some way. Activities that involve making something are almost always reliant on a series of linear or non-linear action chains, sometimes taking place in a period of weeks, months or years. [more...]

On Cover Art
Cover art for books and music was always a 'push' phenomenon: You didn't have to request it--it was standard equipment. Now one wonders where it might be located. [more...]

Where's That Confounded Bridge?!
Bridges (sometimes used synonymously with middle-eight) are difficult to do well because not any musical transition can qualify as a bridge device. They typically appear only once in a composition: If a section is repeated, it technically is not a bridge. [more...]

Why musicians are joined at the hip with technology
Computers have become essential appliances in our lives that are ubiquitous in the background, but the first sparks of an idea in which a computer is involved are essentially creative and artistic in purpose. The Silver Scale was more of a rough prototype (an étude, as it were) than a finished piece, but was a demonstration of the fun things we could do with hardware and software. [more...]

Emily 2.0: Possible applications for AI in music
When I first heard Emily play this I thought it was interesting, and when I reverse-engineered it, I understood the set of rules that made it. [more...]

Vivian Girl
Maier was self-effacing and modest about her abilities as a photographer. Celebrity was of less importance during her lifetime, and perhaps suppressed by the fact that the medium was still analog, and was not influenced by the Internet celebrity mill. [more...]

Information and Exformation in Music
Exformation is a term coined by author Tor Nørretranders in his 1998 book 'The User Illusion', and defined as explicitly discarded information. It is all the extraneous details that are removed to achieve an elegant result--one in which is easy to understand and use. It is everything cut to the chase. [more...]

Beat Artifacts: Clyde Stubblefield and the Pillage of Roman Art
In the 18th century, the Bourbons raided the ancient city of Herculaneum, entombed in the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Their intention was not archaeological, but rather a ruthless pursuit or Roman art. In recent excavations, evidence was found of hacked frescoes: art not taken for examination for historical and cultural context, but for the loot. [more...]