foley artist (12. 265)

Via Web Curios, we are directed to a creative individual from the Sunday Sites social and coding club who spent an afternoon recording various audio samples, footfalls, creaking hinges, thumps, ticking and general din and dropped them in, mostly unheard, into a programme with an embedded player for each to produce a wall of sounds, landscaped according to the visitor’s choices. With some tweaking, replaying on a loop that gets richer and fuller the more one adds, one can create a unique sculpture from these isolated fragments in concert.

synchronoptica

one year ago: predictions for 2024 (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: a robotic crew member aboard the ISS plus Three Thousand Years of Art

eight years ago: a monumental civil engineering plan for Amsterdam plus outtakes from DJ Moby

nine years ago: more probable time travellers plus eradicating all mosquitos  

ten years ago: a table-top photo studio, knitted fashions plus a disgraced anchorman

ultra vires (12. 264)

US district judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued a decision that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must rescind directives sent to some departments and agencies ordering them to fire employees serving under their probationary periods—that it was overreach on their part, illegal and “in no universe” can OPM direct other bureaus to hire or fire. Although the defence maintains that the memoranda did not constitute a direct order, the judge citing substantial evidence to the contrary from unions, media and personal accounts sided, after another case had been dismissed for want of standing, and petitioning for legal remedy and relief, believing those dismissed are likely to win on the merits of their case. The initial ruling, pending a later evidentiary hearing, is limited in scope, however, and only pertaining a few agencies, the Bureau of Land Management (park rangers), the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and subsequent to this decision, parts of government that layoff employees, not included among the defendants, are doing so of their own volition and not entangled by legal proceedings.

11x11 (12. 263)

broadband equity, access and deployment: Trump administration thinks the BEAD programme of the Infrastructures Investment and Jobs Act is too woke   

fermata: a thousand artists release a ‘silent’ album to protest changes to UK intellectual property rights to attract AI companies interesting in training their models on copyrighted material—via the New Shelton wet/dry—also more music without sounds 

late stage capitalism: Washington Post owner Bezos will only allow editorials that defend “free markets” and “personal liberties”—see also   

annual reformulation: important meeting of the US Centres for Disease Control to discuss strains for next season’s influenza vaccine cancelled, confirming fears that the new health secretary will pivot away from proven preventative medicine 

rif me daddy: what Trump’s AI enhanced shitpostings reveal about the administration and plans for the future of Palestine 

absalom, absalom: William Faulkner’s record-setting run-on sentence 

torus and tokamak: a German fusion startup is lauded for its plans, peer-reviewed, to launch a functioning power plant   

only the markets can save us: America’s total economic boycott planned for the last day in February 

touch grass: an app that blocks screentime and doomscrolling until one has proven one’s gone outside—via Waxy  

snoopers’ charter: Apple’s capitulation to the UK’s Investigative Powers Act is Chekov’s Gun for privacy worldwide   

by the people and for the people: dossiers of the people working for the Department of Government Efficiency

synchronoptica

one year ago: ceramicist Yoonmi Nam (with synchronoptica) plus the age of ludicrous inventions 

seven years ago: A Million Random Digits plus assorted links to revisit

eight years ago: more misattributed quotes 

nine years ago: Sàmi tone poems

ten years ago: theodicy, get anything delivered, more links to enjoy plus RIP Leonard Nimoy

able was i (12. 262)

Courtesy of our faithful chronicler, we learn that the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte eluded his guards and escaped aboard a Sylphe-class brig of the French navy called the Inconstant, making his way back to the mainland on this day in 1815, having under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau been exiled to Elba less than a year before, conveyed there on the HMS Undaunted. Knowing the unpopularity of the King Louis XVIII, realising his family would not be joining him, not receiving the stipend promised and hearing rumours he was to be sent to a more remote location in the Atlantic, Napoleon plotted his return, amassing an army of followers. The banished emperor was not exactly a captive during his time on the Mediterranean island, with it designated as condition of his abdication as la principauté de l’île d’Elbe to be an independent principality “possessed by Bonaparte in complete sovereignty and as personal property”—until his death, at which point it would pass back to the Kingdom of Tuscany. Although eager to leave his villa in Portoferrario, aside from assembling an small army of loyalists, Napoleon during his short time there reformed the island’s legal and educational system, ordered the construction of roads, overhauled the nascent iron mining operations and improved agriculture.

88x31 (12. 261)

We had come across this collection of micro-bar banner advertisements from the 1990s and early 2000s a few years ago, and so were pleased—via Quantum of Sollazo—to discover the curation of button ads was a ongoing project of one anonymous individual and a reminder of the aesthetic that resonates somehow, certainly seeming less intrusive, distracting, badly juxtaposed and a bit more captivating than the commercial ecosystem we are served nowadays. There are two theories regarding the format, unobtrusive yet large enough to catch the eye—the first being that GeoCities, the then largest provider of personal hosting required users to have a link back somewhere on the page to the host or that Netscape sought a way to scale assets, informed by credit card logos, for publishers and promoters easily adjusted to fill blank space—either way many users started making buttons of their own to create a directory. Moreover, these banners, in deference to their chosen native platforms and browsers were sometimes labeled “best viewed in…” with recommended plugins to enhance the website’s experience, gradually displaced by pop-ups, badges and social media icons for sharing or subscribing.

synchronoptica

one year ago: 1983’s Thriller (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus the problem with loving the unborn

seven years ago: the art of craft, combatting food waste plus the spatial frequency effect

eight years ago: sign language lessons, civil forfeiture, passports of defunct countries plus flag emoji

nine years ago: the educational system of the Caliphate plus a spy-proof underseas cable from Brazil to Europe

ten years ago: more links to enjoy, DeepMind plus some otherworldly plants

done a lot of foolish things, that i really didn’t mean (12. 260)

Honouring his musical hero on this day in 2009, US president Barak Obama invited Stevie Wonder to the
White House to bestow a Gershwin prize on the artist, a distinction from the Library of Congress for popular music and lifetime contribution, given in the tradition of the fraternal collaboration that produced Rhapsody in Blue and many other standards from the American Songbook. The first recipient was, with input from public broadcasters PBS and NPR, was Paul Simon with a gala performance in 2007 including Philip Glass, Alison Krauss, Grover and Elmo and Art Garfunkel. The below promise was a campaign song for Obama’s bid for presidency and he doubted whether their relationship would have been sustainable if they had not been mutual fans.

eye opener (12. 259)

Via Clive Thompson’s always excellent Linkfest (lots to explore there), we are directed to a revealing tool created by the photo app-maker Ente that discloses what the Google Vision API (Application Programming Interface) sees when it sees your photos. Intrigued by the idea of seeing myself how the algorithms see me and not having a standard headshot handy, I snapped a quick selfie and uploaded it—not the best picture and obviously it got a few things right but didn’t think I necessarily presented as fatigued or wary—or particularly agnostic (I like to think of myself as a vaguely Jesus-y bon vivant, thank you), and not only did it zero in on my location, it also annoyingly focused on the pile of laundry in the background and decor and makes up a little narrative of insights for targeted advertisements, which are way-off base. I understand that’s how the commercial ecosystem works and people are algorithmically pigeon-holed and typecast all the time—sometimes with consequence, but seeing it in action, all the good and bad bits to be gleaned even from information and artefacts that are not public-facing, is a bit of off-putting fun.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Austria’s national anthem (with synchronoptica), assorted links worth revisiting plus Hitler’s first official postion

seven years ago: a Trump-branded property in Panama, street debater kits plus animator Len Lye

eight years ago: signals to the stars, a cruel captivity called off, our privileged view of the Cosmos, a flatpack pavilion for urban gardening plus a fast food franchise with a view of a Roman road

nine years ago: where are my flying cars, attentive listeners plus a Beaux Arts apartment in Manhattan

ten years ago: a tarot deck inspired by the art of Edward Gorey

marbury v madison (12. 258)

In the aftermath of the fiercely contested US presidential election of 1800 (see previously), a three-way race among incumbent John Adams, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, with Jefferson ultimately winning with the electoral college by a very narrow margin. Once realising that they were unseated Adams and the Federalist party attempted to fill as many judicial vacancies as possible with loyalists and avowed “anti-Jeffersonians”—mostly circuit judges, during the last days in office. One of these appointees was a wealthy businessman and lawyer from Maryland, the plaintiff, William Marbury—nominees approved by the senate en masse. The new judges received their commissions and sworn in, however, for a few, it was not accomplished before inauguration day—including for Marbury—Jefferson instructing his secretary of state, James Madison, to withhold those commissions not yet delivered and declare them void. The ensuing lawsuit, elevated to the supreme court, was decided on this day in 1803, ruling that Marbury was legally entitled to his commission and withholding it was a violation of his rights—issuing a writ of mandamus and ordering the matter be remediated, but more over established the principle of judicial review, meaning that the courts have the power to strike down statues and legislation that run counter to the constitution, understood as the national codex and not just a statement of political ideas and aspirations and gives the judicial branch the responsibility to review the acts of the legislative and executive.