I put some music together this winter which you can hear on soundcloud:
It features both some neural audio decollage and the voice of Jessa Carter. The decollage works with the material of Four Tet and Burial’s Moth and recomposes the track by John Tejada – Farther and Fainter.… Continue reading...
Ever wonder what happens when you’ve been accused of violating copyright multiple times on YouTube? First, you get a redirect to YouTube’s “Copyright School” whenever you visit YouTube, forcing you to watch a cartoon of Happy Tree Friends where the main character is dressed as an actual pirate:
Second, I’m guessing, your account will be banned. Third, you cry and wonder why you ever violated copyright in the first place.
In my case, I’ve disputed every one of the 4 copyright violation notices that I’ve received under grounds of Fair Use and Fair Dealing. Here’s what happens when you file a dispute using YouTube’s online form (click for high-res):
3 of the 4 have been dropped after I’ve filed disputes, though I’m still waiting to hear about the response to the above dispute. Read the dispute letter to Sony ATV and UPMG Publishers in full here.
The picture above shows a few stills from what my Smash Ups look like. The process described in greater detail on createdigitalmotion.com is part of my ongoing research into how existing content can be transformed into artistic styles reminiscent of analytic cubist, figurative, and futurist paintings. The process to create the videos … Continue reading...
Dear Sony ATV Publishing, UMPG Publishing, and other concerned parties,
I ask you to please withdraw your copyright violation notice on my video, “PSY – GANGNAM STYLE (?????) M/V (YouTube SmashUp)” as I believe my use of any copyrighted material is protected under Fair Use or Fair Dealing. This video was created by an automated process as part of an art project developed during my PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London: http://archive.pkmital.com/projects/visual-smash-up/ and http://archive.pkmital.com/projects/youtube-smash-up/
The process which creates the audio and video is entirely automated meaning the accused video is created by an algorithm. This algorithm begins by first creating a large database of tiny fragments of audio and video (less than 1 second of audio per fragment) using 9 videos from YouTube’s top 10 list. From this database, the tiny fragments of video and audio are stored as unrelated pieces of information and described only by a short series of 10-15 numbers. These numbers represent low-level features describing the texture and shape of the fragment of audio or video. These tiny fragments are then matched to the tiny fragments of audio and video detected within the target for resynthesis, in this case the number one YouTube video … Continue reading...
A product of my PhD research is now available on the iPhone App Store (for a small cost!): View in App Store.
This application is motivated by my interests in experiencing an Augmented Perception and of course very much inspired by some of the work here at Goldsmiths. The application of existing approaches in soundspotting/mosaicing to a real-time stream and situated in the real-world allows one to play with their own sonic memories, and certainly requires an open ear for new experiences. Succinctly, the app records segments of sounds in real-time using it’s own listening model, as you walk around in different environment (or sit at your desk). These segments are constantly built up the longer the app is left running to form a database (working memory model) for which to understand new sounds. Incoming sounds are then matched to this database and the closest matching sound is played instead. What you get is a polyphony of sound memories triggered by the incoming feed of audio, and an app which sounds more like your environment the longer it is left to run. A sort of gimmicky feature of this app is the ability to learn a song from your … Continue reading...
Working closely with my adviser Mick Grierson, I have developed a way to resynthesize existing videos using material from another set of videos. This process starts by learning a database of objects that appear in the set of videos to synthesize from. The target video to resynthesize is then broken into objects in a similar manner, but also matched to objects in the database. What you get is a resynthesis of the video that appears as beautiful disorder. Here are two examples, the first using Family Guy to resynthesize The Simpsons. And the second using Jan Svankmajer’s Food to resynthesize Jan Svankmajer’s Dimensions of Dialogue.
I was recently invited to the CULTURE lab at Newcastle University by director, Atau Tanaka. I would say it has the resources and creative power of 5 departments all housed in one spacious building. In the 12-some studios housed over 3 floors, over the course of 2 short days, I found people building multitouch tables, controlling synthesizers with the touch of fabric, and researching augmented spatial sonic realities. There is a full suite of workshop tools including a laser cutter, multiple multi-channel sound studios, full stage/theater with stage lighting and multiple projection, radio lab, and tons of light and interesting places to sit and do whatever you feel like doing. The other thing I found really interesting is there are no “offices”. Instead, the staff are dispersed amongst the students in the twelve-some studios, picking a new desk perhaps whenever they need a change of scenery? If you are ever in the area, it is certainly worth a visit, and I’m sure the people there will be very open to tell you what they are up to.
I also had the pleasure to give a talk on my PhD research in Resynthesizing Audiovisual Perception with Augmented Reality at the Lunch … Continue reading...