SteamSHIFT

Coming soon:

Technorati Tags:
VJ, Southampton, music, club

I often bemoan the lack of a decent art school in Southampton, and that the bulk of the students seem to be involved in Medicine or Engineering. However, now and then, something comes up (thanks Matt), that makes me think that that might not be such a bad thing. Check out the Research and Activities sections for some of the exciting work they are doing in the field of Sustainable Energy.

SteamSHIFT out.

Technorati Tags:
Southampton, ecological, sustainability, green

So here it is, proof that there is something of an art scene in Southampton, even if it is underground (haha, groan, sorry poor joke).

Technorati Tags:
art, Southampton

click for quicktime movie

Part of my recent VJ set at the Temporary Assignment event. Done using Quartz Composer. And I am still loving the fact that I can alter nodes on the fly - usually ’cause I’m preparing right ’til the last minute (and often beyond!)

I think I am going to have to look at a faster machine though - some of my compositions can easily bring my 1.5Ghz Powerbook to it’s knees!

Last night was the Temporary Assignment night at the Soul Cellar 78 in Southampton (UK). Big shout to all the great contributions:- LoHz (Jelly Bass) - great first outing for a fab new sound; DJs Chix and Purpose B - nice mix of alt.club tunes and random other stuff; Shakinda - and his marvellous automatic VJ software; the Artful Badger - with a twin projector art installation; Audacity - decor and dancing girls in full effect; and me, SteamSHIFT with all new visual graphics. Cheers also to Jonny Simps for filling at the beginning.

And big thanks to anyone who came along, braving the pants south coast weather. We were relatively few, but it was a top night even so.

Photos and screenshots to come soon. SteamSHIFT out.

Click the image to download the full size poster archived in zip format (warning : big 5.5Mb).

gallery news :: about us :: John Hansard Gallery: “Due to open in 2008, Southampton’s New Arts Complex (SNAC, a working title - a permanent name will be chosen in the next few months) will bring together a diverse mix of art forms, including visual, performing, film and video and Asian arts in a dynamic new building, overlooking the City’s East Park and Guildhall Square. Featuring two landmark towers, the building will bring alive a cultural quarter in the city centre, providing a breathtaking new visitor attraction.

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I am pleased to announce what is hopefully the first in many upcoming art shows ‘curated’ by me….

Temporary Assignment
Ephemeral Explorations

29th March 2006, @ The Soul Cellar, Southampton

Featuring VJ Flint, a BA.dger, SteamSHIFT and decor by Apocalipstick. DJ tbc.

More details to follow soon…

I have spent far too long on this….

Four jobs I’ve had in my life

• Electroplater
• Factory Worker
• Building Site Labourer
• Multimedia Developer

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On Sat (10th) I was all set to be doing visuals with Gojira at The Brook in Southampton; when I got there I tried to load up my (admittedly way complex) quartz composer composition. Now I’m not exaggerating here, it took a full 10 minutes to load and then crawled like a snail carrying a very heavy load. This is on a 1.5Ghz G4 Powerbook with 1Gb RAM; no other foreground apps running. As you can imagine - I was getting very stressed.

So, at the suggestion of the BA.dger (Q: why didn’t I think of that??), I created a new user account, and shifted the movies and composition etc. over to the /Users/Shared directory (and then went through the tedious re-linking … ooh if quartz composer compositions are essentially just xml files, could I have just done that using plist editor or a text editor and search and replace?? Also I have one movie that I can’t find the broken reference to - will that help me find it??)

SUCCESS! Ran beautifully. So there you go - hope it helps someone avoid the stress!

SteamSHIFT out.