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Tokyo 2

2008-11-11 09:37 air-japan

After my two performances at Make: Tokyo Meeting 02, I had some time to retrace my steps in this metropolis. visiting the same places, taking the same pictures.

Now and then...

photo tokyo now photo tokyo then

Now and then...

photo tokyo now photo tokyo then

But I also made some new acquaintances: plastic food town / Kappabashi street...

photo tokyo kappabashi 1 photo tokyo kappabashi 2

the iceman...

photo tokyo ice man

window cleaners...

photo tokyo window cleaners 1 photo tokyo window cleaners 2

SuperCollider Socks

2008-11-11 05:02 supercollider

A fantastic present from tn8. Thank you so much.

Quarks.install("redSys");
//and then recompile
s.boot;
{RedFrik.ar(2008)}.play  //noise socks!
SuperCollider socks photo1 SuperCollider socks photo2 SuperCollider socks photo3 SuperCollider socks photo4

Yamaguchi

2008-11-04 13:55 air-japan

One peaceful place. Specially Sesshu's beautiful zen-garden of Joueiji Temple.

photo yamaguchi 1 photo yamaguchi 2 photo yamaguchi 3 photo yamaguchi 4

'a place of sonic beauty'

photo yamaguchi 5

Also, Yamaguchi is a city of hot springs (onsen) and new media art (YCAM). A very good combination.

photo yamaguchi 6

SC Multiple Apps

2008-10-31 04:57 supercollider

During a recent gig, I suddenly felt a need to crossfade between two songs/patches (strange as it seems). As I'd coded my music using RedMst and it, in turn, makes heavy use of class methods, starting up a new song would disrupt the current music playing (tempo, current index, etc). I also had some global effects running on bus 0 and 1 (ReplaceOut) that belonged to a particular song and I didn't want those for the new one.

So how to isolate patches? I got the idea of running two copies of the SuperCollider application at the same time. They'd be identical, use the same soundcard and share class library. Having two apps running would also be good for safety reasons. If one crashed I could keep on playing with the other. It turned out to be quite easy. The trick is to use the internal server and find a way to visually tell the two applications apart.

Dan Stowell helped me by implementing thisProcess.pid and I got some great tips from Cylob. He used a similar setup for his live performances. Here's my take on it... (you'll need a recent version of SuperCollider (>30 Oct '08)

  1. put the code below into your startup.rtf file. It'll make the secondary app green and shift windows to the right - this only so one can tell them apart.
  2. go to SuperCollider application folder and duplicate the program file (cmd+d). Rename the copy "SuperCollider (green)". Remember to duplicate again when you've updated your main SuperCollider app.
  3. important: from now on use internal as the default server in your code. Localhost will crosstalk when running multiple apps.
SC multiple apps screenshot

So with a simple duplicate command and minimal change to SuperCollider itself (just for cosmetic difference), I can now crossfade my songs.

//put this in startup.rtf...

//--detect secondary application and colour it green
var p, l;
~green= false;
p= Pipe("ps -xw | grep 'SuperCollider (green)' | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'", "r");
l= p.getLine;
if(l.notNil and:{l.asInteger==thisProcess.pid}, {~green= true});
p.close;

if(~green.not, {  //for main app (red)
  GUI.skins.put(\redFrik, (
    background: Color.red.alpha_(0.8),
    foreground: Color.black,
    selection: Color.grey,
    unfocus: 0.9,
    fontSpecs: ["Monaco", 9],
    offset: Point(0, 0)
  ));
}, {  //for secondary app (green)
  GUI.skins.put(\redFrik, (
    background: Color.green.alpha_(0.8),
    foreground: Color.black,
    selection: Color.grey,
    unfocus: 0.9,
    fontSpecs: ["Monaco", 9],
    offset: Point(455, 0)
  ));
  Document.listener.background_(GUI.skins.redFrik.background.blend(Color.grey(0.9), 0.9));
  Document.initAction_{|doc| doc.background_(GUI.skins.redFrik.background.blend(Color.grey(0.9), 0.9))};
  Server.set.do{|x|
    x.window.bounds= x.window.bounds.moveBy(GUI.skins.redFrik.offset.x, 0);
    x.window.view.background_(GUI.skins.redFrik.background.blend(Color.grey(0.9), 0.9));
  };

});
Document.listener.bounds_(Rect(GUI.skins.redFrik.offset.x, GUI.window.screenBounds.height-580, 450, 580));

Shanghai

2008-10-23 08:24 air-japan

One crazy place. So big, so impossible to grasp. Traffic, air pollution, very many and very high buildings.

photo shanghai 1 photo shanghai 2 photo shanghai 3 photo shanghai 4 photo shanghai 5 photo shanghai 6 photo shanghai 7 photo shanghai 8 photo shanghai 9 photo shanghai 10 photo shanghai 11

sweet potatoes.

photo shanghai sweet potatoes

Tai chi morning.

photo shanghai tai chi morning

Maglev train station. 300km/h to the airport.

photo shanghai maglev train

Tokyo

2008-10-11 12:04 air-japan

Tokyo is a tough city. Very high buildings, very many people and very tired office workers near the end of the week.

photo tokyo busy street

Tokyo subway just before closing hour... men in business uniform spread out all over. Too tired or too drunk to go home.

photo tokyo tired office worker photo tokyo high buildings 1 photo tokyo high buildings 2 photo tokyo high buildings 3 photo tokyo plastic food

This would never happen in Europe... (out of order note (I think) on a clock in this small park)

photo tokyo clock photo tokyo signs

Lunch, Tokyo Opera building, 54th floor...

photo tokyo 54th floor view 1 photo tokyo 54th floor view 1 photo tokyo 54th floor view 1

Japan Fire Practice

2008-10-08 14:01 air-japan

Today fire emergency practice day at IAMAS. Finally, I got to see one of these fireboxes/cabinets in action.

video

A great reason to put on uniforms and bring out the megaphone. There's one uniform of every occasion it seems.

photo fire practice 1 photo fire practice 2 photo fire practice 3

Despite this, I was a little bit disappointed - no special effects or smoke machines. Everybody kept calm and the dummy didn't bounce when they used the defibrillator on its chest.

photo fire practice 4 photo fire practice 5

The defibrillator looks like a speak&spell. It also talks to you and instructs you how to connect the cables - in Japanese only. I'd love to circuit bend one of these.

photo fire practice 6

Toilet Toy

2008-10-08 05:44 air-japan

Silly toys are everywhere. Everything should be cute and should have a mascot/icon. Even serious institutions like banks and insurance companies can't help but use little characters where ever possible. My favourite is a local bank here in Ogaki that uses the Paddington bear as their logo - for no apparent reason and probably without copyright clearance.

Here's a video of a very funny present I got from ap&bi. Tack så mycket.


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