AVANT/CHICAGO

Digital World Through Art

In working through the creative potential of new technologies artists of all types are helping us to find new ways to think about these tools and working out how to integrate them into our wider cultural and commercial practice. Read - Giving Digital Life a Shape.

Annotated Bibliography Entry for Convergence Culture

We had to construct an Annotated Bibliography to lay out some structure for the direction of our studies in the PhD program.  We're going to post a few of the enteries here for your information.

Showing how consumers are using new and emerging technologies to produce and control media, Convergence Culture points to future trends in popular culture. It proposes that new and old media will converge to make a unique brand of news and entertainment. This is an important book due to exploring the popular culture implications of new media and technologies as well as addressing how consumers are now an integral part of the media and entertainment making apparatus as active participants. Jenkins uses concrete and entertaining examples from the recent entertainment landscape to show that these changes have as much to do with new technologies as with a shift in cultural dynamics. Jenkins work is cross-disciplinary in scope and speaks to many developing narratives in current society.

Benson & Chisel At Lincoln Hall

Save a few Lotus concerts our normally prolific live music regiment has really taken a nose-dive since starting the PhD program. So we're excited to get out and cover a show at the new Lincoln Hall.  Both Benson and Chisel are two performers we've wanted to see solo for awhile. The only negative we see about this night is that it's an XRT show, which usually brings out the Yipsters and Burb Boys in high numbers.  Hopefully we can find a nice, chill spot away from the PBR guzzlers.

Academe and the Decline of News Media

Newspapers, newsmagazines, and broadcast-news outlets are drastically cutting staff members, bureaus, page counts, and news holes—that is, when they're not simply going out of business. What do 16 of the top educators think is going to  happen next?

Watch What You Eat

The Peril of Palatability Dangerously delicious food, designed by Big Food and by restaurants to taste so good, threatens public health. Congress needs to do something

DC In Pictures - A Few Tourist Shots From Last Week

We found a little time to be touristy while in DC for the ASA Conference. We did not bring along the Rebel, so all of these shots are on a 3.0 megapixel 7 year old camera. For the most part they are just as good, except the night shots. Anyway take a quick run around the main attractions of DC.

Best Device For The Future Yet

We called this being what's next about a year ago. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine Minority Report and then some. See the demo SixthSense (Video)

 Just Another Plus From The Web

How the Internet enables intimacy - Video

Some worry that IM, texting and Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent's research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.

It's Called The Boob Tube For A Reason

People cannot be trusted with so powerful a medium. It is not used responsibly, sensibly or moderately, and so it does great harm.The Toxicity of Television tells us why.

Why It's Easier to "get" Modern art than Avant-garde Music

Music tastes are much more conservative than art, an idea that dates back at least to Adorno, but why is this? Who’s afraid of the avant-garde? is an interesting article on the subject.

Music, like any art, must be constantly rejuvenated by experiment. But “experimental” music surely only qualifies as such if it includes the possibility of failure. And if musical composition takes no account of cognition—denies that cognition has a role to play, or actively frustrates it—then composers cannot complain when their music is unloved.

Put This On The X-Mas List - Steering Wheel Desk

With all the driving we are now doing back and forth to Purdue this would be a great time saver as the article suggests.

Van Ghost Webisode - Summer Recap

A video from Van Ghost that we helped direct and prodcue this summer during Rothbury and Wicker Park Fest. Find out more about the band and their amazing summer. We were happy to be able to document it and party alongside. Check them out on tour next week opening for Nershi from SCI.

Machine in the Garden

We've been reading some good books for our PhD program. Lots of them actually. We'd hoped to keep you, our faithful readers, up on some of the works. Sadly, we've slacked on that end. One of the better ones read was Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden. It's a classic work about pastoralism, industrialization and aesthetics. A few points worth knowing -

• The pastoral idea masks troubles of industrial society and allows for escape from complexity
• America has always been a contrast between two consciousnesses
• "Geography controls culture" therefore if man wants to control culture he must control geography
• There has always been an American technophobia, mainly deriving from Puritan ideals
• Nothing is inherently ugly about scenes of industrialization, what is ugly is the dislocation/detachment from the whole which they represent when seen only from the limited perspective of that understanding

Here's Another One

Another article on social media's benefits. How Twitter is Changing the Face of Media.

The most radical shift to media in recent years is that we now have a central real-time hub that serves to enhance every other content platform on the web. Sure, we could always use RSS for blogs, and sign up to follow a person’s activity on a video or photo sharing site, but used correctly, Twitter now provides a one-stop, real-time service for all of a person’s content.

Cultural Analysis in Washington D.C.

iAm: The Work of Self in the Age of Digital Replication ,Open the Door: Race and Citizenship in Popular Music and Zombies and Vampires: Identifying American Anxieties over Alterity and Belonging are three of the many talks we caught this week at ASA 2009. We hit about 3 lectures per day. We had 2 dinners to attend, a reception for our program as well as hella site seeing. And then there was the 10 hour drive both ways. It was a fun, enlightening but busy weekend. (pictures soon) We have plenty to do for school for the rest of the week, so things might stay low-key here for another day. As always hit up our Twitter for the good word.

Lotus Episode 6 of the Web Series

Lotus: Through the Mirror Episode 6 is up. Footage from Camp Barefoot and lots of thoughts from the guys. Great music too. In related news, Lotus has announced the Hood Internet as their opener for the 11/27 show at the Vic. Sweaty, dance party no doubt.

Wanna Go For A Ride?

 This has been out for a year now, but My Morning Jacket - Black Cab  Sessions video is worth a watch. Wish we got in a cab with Touch Me I'm   Going to Scream Pt 2 going down live.

Landscaping the Future with Brian Eno

We must think creatively about what's next, we have obligations to consider the Long Now. Tomorrow is not today all over again. And why in the hell is Brain Eno the voice of the future? Article tries to answer the question.

Groove With Family And Good Company

FGC in Chicago Saturday at the Abbey Pub. Simple flow, fine jams, hella tight music. Wish we could. You should.

Future Of Film Viewing

The New Movie Theatre is here and it looks supa-fly. Much better then getting gum stuck on your shoes in a place decorated like your Grandma's place. Hopefully tickets are not too tax.

Predictions On What's Next

A Look at a Future of the Social Web is a simple article about how the five eras of the social web overlap and how the metamorphosis that’s happening is accelerating, driven by technology as a spark amid people’s rapidly-changing online lives.

The Rest Of Our Journey With Lotus in the Midwest

First there was St. Louis, then we kind of filled you in on Wisco and an off day in Chicago. After a busy day at Purdue we headed through a minor monsoon down to the quaint town of Bloomington for the last Lotus show we'd be able to hit in the Midwest. The show was at a little spot and the weather was a little icky, but the crowd was super amped. There was a gang of old friends around, so hanging with them was nice. After drinking wine and good micro-brew on the bus, the guys were leaving by 5am, so we took over one of their rooms at this neat B & B in the heart of Bloomington. It was sort of an organic kind of spot, mixed in with some yoga studios and apartments. Super sweet. It was a really nice weather down in Southern Indiana when we awoke in the morning and grabbed a bagel at a cafe in the heart of town and made the trip back to Chicago. Pix from the excursion are going to have to be put off until next week. A couple items to tide you over - pic of goofing on bus and cell phone vid from Turner Hall.

Fairly Stout Weekend of Art Openings

There are a healthy handful of really good openings this Friday. One of the tops is Death Party at Monument2. For a list of more, check here.

We Can Dance If We Want To

Basement Jaxx, MSTRKRFT, Modeselektor at Congress this Friday. Serious, deep dance party. Plenty of other DJs in the mix too. Lock this one in for sure.

A Few Bands Worth Checking Out - Dream-Pop/Fresh-Folk

• Skygreen Leopards
• Kings of Convience
• Six Organs of Admittance
• Vetiver
• Kingsbury Manx

Good ones if you haven't tuned in already.

How To Look Sexy With Ease

Awhile back we opened up a Cafepress store. It has all sorts of generic goods for the Moho set to sport around the city.  Take a peek at hats, mugs, stickers, buttons and clothes.  This isn't haute couture for sure, but trust us you'll look crush no matter what in some A/C threads.

Getting Old A Thing Of The Past

Aubrey de Grey says we can avoid aging (Video) Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey argues that aging is merely a disease -- and a curable one at that. Humans age in seven basic ways, he says, all of which can be averted.

Nicaragua Surf Town Builds Home Out of Tires

In the San Juan Del Sur region of Nicaragua, the famed Earthship crew, along with 13 Nicaraguans from the local community, created the start of what will be entirely off-grid, sustainable community, titled Casa Llanta ("Tire House"). (From Treehugger)

Eating Healthy And Clean

Organic In Chicago is a nice little site for good eating in the city. A resource for information, ideas, and thoughts on how eating organic foods can do good for your body and mind. Not updated as frequently as you might like, but plenty to look in to. (via)

Get Hip To Ha Ha Tonka

Once upon a time we loved this band, then they slipped our mind. Now they've put out a Daytrotter Session. (Ha Ha Tonka). We remember why we like them. You will too.