Loomer – Cumulus
October 1st, 2011 · Inquer
A few months ago I got involved with Loomer’s latest project, an exclusive give-away for this current months Computer Music Magazine.
Cumulus is a granular sampler which radically transforms sample content by breaking it into tiny slithers of audio called grains and reorganizing them to form new sounds. Cumulus is capable of a wide ranges of timbres: from evolving atmospheric soundscapes; to organic physical textures.
Through The Viewfinder
May 9th, 2011 · fStop, Inquer
I recently came across this article on photojojo.com about adapting a digital SLR camera into a underwater capturing vintage machine. Granted, it’s an ingenious Macgyver-esque contraption, but what really sparked my interest was the technique it uses called Through-The-Viewfinder or TTV. As the diagram illustrates and the name suggests, you take a DSLR and take pictures through the viewfinder of an old camera. Easily distracted, I thought I would take my old Brownie camera and have ago.
Bypassing the whole ingenious Macgyver periscope thing, I had the ambidextrous task of using two cameras simultaneously, with varying degrees of success. Despite the pictures being over-exposed and blurred, they had a Turner(ish) quality about them which I rather liked. It’s definitely a technique I would like to explore in the future.
Make butterflies dance and wolves howl
May 2nd, 2011 · fStop, Inquer
Without realisation, I found myself caught up in a world of silhouette and seduced by shadow…
Okay, I admit it, an insipid line that could’ve been directly ripped from a popular teen “saga”. All it needed was the brooding alabaster hunk and a doe-eyed love interest. But before I elaborate, let me contextualise!
So a couple of years ago I got myself a half-decent DSLR camera and like a kid with a new toy I was eager to play. Being digital enabled me to be as frivolous and whimsical as I wanted, without regard for composition, focus and all the things a semi-proficient person with a camera would care about. This nonchalant photography stance went on for a brief period until my camera refused to process any more, its poor 2GB brain had reached maximum capacity. A camera dump was needed and a “photos to go through” folder was created. Unfortunately this was a cardinal sin because as some of us know, anything labelled “to go through” will get lost in the labyrinthine structure that are folders.
You’d think having this knowledge would stop me from repeating such sin. But it’s too easy, too convenient to just create a “photos to go through 02″ folder and make a pact with my conscious, relieve me of my guilt and I’ll see to sorting ASAP. Of course it’s a big ol’ lie. But that’s the thing with lies, they’ll come back to bite you in the arse. It’s only a matter of time until guilt gets wise to my foxy wiles.
So like a archaeologist I began excavating the sidelined relics, meticulously dusting off snap-shot mementos until unbeknownst to me a theme started emerging. Without really knowing why, I had recorded moments in silhouette and shadow, where detail is lost and form accentuated.
Perhaps this was an unconscious rekindling of childhood nostalgia, as I still vividly remember sitting in bed at night with a torch balanced on a makeshift plinth. Freeing my hands so I could contort them in such a way to make butterflies dance and wolves howl.
That’s part of the wonderment of silhouettes and shadows for me, it’s the way they can imply, tease or obscure ideas of form, create perception-shifts and ultimately capture the essence of something with a low-res beauty.
Armed with the gems of my findings, I begin to try and do something with them. A few have fed directly into image manipulations, some find their home in the tumblr spew, but most lay dormant in a “Shadows and Silhouettes” folder, biding their time, waiting for their moment in the light.