Multi Touch Light Table: GERGWERK from GERG WERK on Vimeo.

and here's another video demo that utilizes iPads.

Thoughts:

1. Greg's description of having to haul all your gear to the club is very misleading. No self-respecting club would be without decks and a mixer. I also find it hard to imagine one digital DJ platform becoming the defacto standard for DJ'ing in the way that the Technics 1200s have for three decades now. One of the main advantages of a standard Technics setup is not having to worry about things like latency, version numbers, crashes, upgrades, etc As a DJ, you can be fairly confident that you'll have reliable tools to work with that have little variation from place to place. If touchscreen DJ'ing does take off, I imagine a variety of platforms competing against each other and since most DJs are particular about the tools they use, they'll probably want to bring their own setup rather than relying on the club.
2. Greg rightfully calls out the flaw in having a flat surface from which the DJ has to focus their attention. Fixating down for long periods of time distances the DJ from the crowd so I found it confusing when the video illustrated a system that forces the DJ to look down at all times. A performer using a physical controller or mixer can usually control the gear blind once they've used it enough. The orientation of objects in 3D space provide something for the hands to bump into (sort of how most keyboards have a raised edge on the F and J keys) which allows the DJ more freedom in where they direct their eyes. Perhaps this could be mitigated in an all touchscreen based system if there were physical anchor points for the hands which guaranteed proper placement. Haptic feedback could help here as well.
3. I don't recall if Greg mentioned this in the video, but if the interface is only displayed right in front of the DJ, facing upwards... then no one aside from the front row in the crowd will be able to see what the performer is doing (even then, they may have to do some extreme neck craning to get a glimpse of what's going on). One solution is to have the interface projected on the wall behind the DJ (similar to how cameras display the hands of turntablists in DMC battles), but unless the performer is doing a significant amount of manipulation, I can see the projection becoming quite dull after the initial "wow" factor wears off.
   
   

   Artists like Daedelus have the right idea in using their instrument as a way of bringing the audience into the performance...

   
   (jump to 2:45)

   I think any digital instrument that attempts to capture the feeling of an acoustic one (like that of a violinist), needs to have this element of transparency. In the absence of that, the performer just needs to be entertaining and crazy, a la Girl Talk...

4. No touchscreen surface will provide the same level of tactile feedback as something with knobs and sliders. There is more fine grained control with physical objects... less chance for error due to mis-taps/swipes... and it just feels more physically satisfying.




5. From a UX presentation standpoint, I have to hand it to Greg for putting together a compelling demo video. I particularly enjoyed the performance he gives at the end as he makes the system feel real by combining well timed hand movements with the demo playback on the screen.




6. I also like the gestures he chose for controlling the virtual decks and mixer, but I think for the system to really shine, it needs to introduce concepts that would not be possible in any other DJ'ing platform. Things like looping, cue points, multiple effects are all available in various hardware mixers and digital packages like Serato and FinalScratch. What are the things a DJ could do that are uniquely well suited for a touch interface? Showcasing those will help make a much stronger case for this style of DJ'ing over more traditional and time-tested systems.

I'm heading to my favorite European city, the lovely Barcelona, this week for the Sonar Festival. The line-up is insanely good... a bit too good. The amount of overlap in the schedule is really going to force some tough decisions. It's like the promoters scheduled two independent festivals in the same city at the same exact time. My hope is that the venues will be close to one another (update: they are) and that going in and out will be an easy affair. Here's who I hope to catch...

Thursday, June 17th
20:00 :: Nit Grec-Sónar (Teatre Grec) :: live :: Ryoji Ikeda (raster-noton/JP)
20:00 :: Planetari CosmoCaixa :: live :: Stephan Mathieu & Carolina Mikalef: Constellations (/DE-AR)
20:30 :: SonarHall :: live :: Broadcast (Warp/UK)
21:00 :: L'Auditori de Barcelona :: live :: bcn216 + Cristian Vogel, Ricard Marxer & Oscar Sol: Japó (/ES)

Friday, June 18th

19:00 :: SonarHall :: live :: King Midas Sound (Hyperdub/UK)
19:00 :: SonarDôme :: live :: Caribou
20:30 :: SonarHall :: live :: Nosaj Thing Visual Show (Alpha Pup/US)
21:00 :: SonarVillage :: live :: Delorean (Mushroom Pilow/ES)
23:30 :: SonarClub :: live :: Air (Virgin/FR)
00:00 :: SonarLab :: dj :: Mary Anne Hobbs (/UK)
00:00 :: SonarPub :: live :: Hot Chip (Parlophone/UK)
00:30 :: SonarClub :: dj :: Aeroplane (Eskimo/BE)
00:45 :: SonarLab :: dj :: Joy Orbison (Doldrums/UK)
01:00 :: SonarPub :: dj :: Magda (Minus/US)
01:30 :: SonarClub :: live :: LCD Soundsystem (DFA Records/US)
01:30 :: SonarLab :: live :: Flying Lotus (Warp/US)
02:00 :: SonarPub :: live :: Plastikman (Minus/CA)
02:15 :: SonarLab :: dj :: Roska (Roska Kicks & Snares/UK)
03:00 :: SonarPub :: dj :: Dixon (Innervisions/DE)
03:00 :: SonarLab :: live :: The Sugarhill Gang (Sugar Hill/US)
04:00 :: SonarClub :: live :: 2manydjs (/BE)
04:00 :: SonarLab :: dj :: Hudson Mohawke (Warp-LuckyMe/UK)
04:30 :: SonarPub :: live :: Booka Shade (Get Physical/DE)
05:30 :: SonarClub :: dj :: Claude VonStroke (Dirtybird/US)
05:30 :: SonarPub :: dj :: Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi & Riton) (Ed Banger/FR-UK)

Saturday, June 19th

16:00 :: SonarDôme :: dj :: Moodymann (Mahogani/US)
16:00 :: SonarVillage :: live :: Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu (Strut/FI)
22:00 :: SonarClub :: dj :: DJ Hell (Gigolo/DE)
23:00 :: SonarClub :: live :: Roxy Music (Virgin/UK)
23:30 :: SonarPub :: live :: Jónsi (XL/IS)
00:30 :: SonarClub :: live :: Dizzee Rascal (Dirtee Stank/UK)
01:00 :: SonarLab :: live :: Fuck Buttons (ATP Recordings/UK)
01:30 :: SonarClub :: dj :: Caspa feat. MC Rod Azlan (/UK)
02:30 :: SonarLab :: dj :: Machinedrum (LuckyMe/US)
03:00 :: SonarClub :: live :: The Chemical Brothers (Virgin/UK)
03:00 :: SonarLab :: live :: Mike Slott (LuckyMe/UK)

Download: 1 big mp3 | zip of individual tracks

-- The openers were a hip-hop DJ and a noise artist... very fitting since that's exactly the space Autechre sit right in between.

-- The club, La Machine, was gorgeous... perhaps the fanciest club I've ever been in.  Which is hilarious since as soon as Autechre took the stage, all the lights were turned off.  Their performance is about the space inside your head, not about them or anything else.

-- This was my 4th time to the see the band and the only one where the crowd didn't seem to thin out as time went on.  The French clearly have a high tolerance for experimental music.

-- As I've written about before, enjoying an AE show is all about having the right mindset.  There were no pauses in between tracks... no recognizable songs... basically nothing you'd find in a concert setting that allows you to latch onto something.  It's truly a unique mental exercise in concentration.

-- Just as soon as you get into a groove and think you know what's going on with the music, they change it up... it's the equivalent of trying to hold water in your hand... just as soon as you think you have it, it starts to slip away.  I love this aspect of their performance.  This also makes it really hard to remember or describe the music that was experienced... it's completely fluid and evolving.

-- Another beautiful aspect of the show is looking around and observing other people in the audience... many have their eyes closed, some look exasperated, some are moving around to the music, others look like they just want to get the hell out of there.  I posit this form of visual accompaniment to their music is more entertaining than the run of the mill screensaver visuals found at most electronic music shows.

Essentially what I want to say is that I think these guys are geniuses... they view sound as their giant sandbox to play around in... whether they acknowledge it or not, their art's connection to meditation and mindfulness is very inspiring and I thank the Gods that they exist and continue to make music.

"I'm only interested in the art that children make, that retarded people make and that criminals make. You see you have a subconscious function and a conscious function and between these two mental functions is a filter.

In a child the filter is undeveloped and the stream of consciousness is unrestricted between the subconscious and the conscious. In a mental person the filter is either retarded or damaged. In a criminal that filter is not fully functional, so there's an unrestricted flow of information from the subconscious to the conscious. The most exciting thing in my life is to make art based on these ideas." (source)

He's described something I've had a hard time articulating about the sillier things I enjoy.   Here are some examples...

Tim & Eric:

John Maus:

Negativland:

Miguel Soares, Negativland's Time Zones from migso on Vimeo.

Wesley Willis:

These are all artists that have been able to tap into illogical, childish, dream-logic worlds... but there's a fine balance here. Like banging all the keys on a piano or drawing wild lines on paper with crayons, it's easy to make something abstract... anyone can do that.  The skill is in marrying the abstract with the real.  How can the artist take the crazy ideas we all get while standing in line or that come to us in dreams and manifest them into art. David Lynch would probably describe this as "catching the big fish"... the ability to get at the ideas buried way down deep in the subconscious.  Whether it be through meditation, drugs, schizophrenia, or just silencing internal filters from time to time... there are lots of ways to tap into this wacky world and it doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.

I also find it interesting how the more abstract forms of art quickly becoming polarizing... creating a "you either love it or hate it" dichotomy.   Anything that creates legions of fans and haters alike must've touched a nerve somewhere.  In a world with so many clones and soporific artists (yes, I used the s-word), kudos I say to anyone who is able to take the wacked out contents of their brain and put them on display for others to ponder.

-Sean Batemon, from this.

It hit me today that I don't *really* know what's going on with my friends as much as I did when I was a little kid... all the way up until the dawn of Facebook.  Allow me to extrapolate...

As a child of the 80s and 90s, I had a relatively small social circle that I primarily interacted with in person.  I always had a good sense of how my friends were feeling, what they looked like, and what they were up to.

This continued all through college and even while the internet was getting more popular, the number of online friends I had was small and I continued to mainly interact with my friends in real life.

When I graduated college in 2000, the internet had become pretty mainstream and I was introduced to the world of LiveJournal which created a new form of friendship.  Because LJ was used for both silly and serious things, you could actually get a sense for what a person was like.

People would share some things publicly, some privately and there was a social norm that made it ok to follow the journal of a stranger.  Since most people used aliases and there was no set standard for using a real profile picture, there was a freedom that allowed for deeper self expression.  There was room for bumping into strangers and turning virtual friends into real friends.  It feels like those days are long gone and I really miss that.

A few reasons why...

• Friendster was the beginning of the end.  Once a social site was no longer about self expression, but purely focused on illustrating the social graph, the emphasis was no longer on ideas, thoughts, and feelings... it became all about who and how many people you were connected to
• Then came MySpace which allowed a bit more for expression than Friendster with custom profile pages and bulletin board posts.  Some people shared things there, but they were never the kind of personal posts you'd find on LJ
• After that came Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr which is where we are today.  These sites may have taken us the furthest away from creating quality content than any other preceding social network.  They are optimized for short bursts of communication... and lend themselves more towards showcasing the thoughts and creations of others, rather than our own.

While it's been great to have tools that expose people to interesting things, I fear that their convenience has taken away much of the incentive for self-expression.  Why take the time and expend the mental energy to create something new when you can just share the work of others?

Facebook and Twitter reinforce this mode of communication largely through their UI.  Just compare the text box size for saying something in Facebook vs LiveJournal..

Telling your friends your innermost thoughts requires a lot more room than a system optimized for link sharing or how long the line is at the DMV.

I should also mention that I don't think all communication needs to be of the "real" variety... sharing trivialities is also important... it just feels off when it's too much of one or the other.  There's a quote on this I like but can't remember the source of... something like "If all your communication is deep, then that's not a relationship, that's therapy."

Facebook does provide some outlet for longer form content via their blog-style Notes feature, but it's tucked away in the interface and mostly serves as a way to syndicate content from a blog hosted elsewhere.

So now we find ourselves in a world where as we get older, our friends move to other cities, making us even more reliant on the web to stay in touch.  At the same time, tools that support deeper sharing with those you care about most are severely lacking.  Well, the tools are out there, but no one's really paying attention to them.  (And when it comes to LJ specifically, I'm not sure how much longer I entrust my content to their parent company, SUP).

Some reasons why deeper sharing seems to be going away:

• Facebook and Twitter style posts are easier to create and over time, have become the norm of what we expect from one another
• Monetarily, there's no incentive for Facebook or Twitter to encourage privately shared content.  If they can't mine your content and show relevant ads next to it, then why bother encouraging that use case?
• As we get older, our desire to share with others goes down.  We're probably paired up and find that confiding in a partner enough of an outlet... or we just give less of a damn in general.

And even if Facebook were to provide a better experience around privately shared posts to groups, would you trust them to really keep your stuff private?  They've changed around their privacy controls so much over their short history, it's a case of the boy who cried wolf, even if they did want to support this.

As for LiveJournal, I feel their days are numbered (at least in my social circle).  Fewer and fewer posts show up there, particularly of the friends-only variety that I enjoyed reading between 2001 to 2008.

A few last thoughts:

• Consumption isn't cool
• If you're a friend and we haven't spoken in awhile, I'd really like to know what you're up to and how you're doing... preferably over a meal in Zurich! but email works too
• Social sites should look beyond the all mighty dollar and try to facilitate deeper connections between people instead of allowing us to bombard each other with distractions

Over n' out!

It's about something Ted mentioned during the clinic that took all of a few seconds to say and it's been one of the most profound lessons I've learned in a long time.

Towards the end of our clinic, Ted was describing how he handles it when he encounters funny looks or disparaging comments about his decision to run sans footwear (or in funny looking shoes).  Instead of going through a full diatribe with stats, facts, and figures on why barefoot is better... he uses more of a "whatever floats your boat" attitude.  Paraphrasing... "I use a little yin instead of more yang... making a joke about it can actually diffuse things way better than arguing."

As soon as he said that, it resonated with me and now I  keep it mind whenever a disagreement arises.  Obviously in certain situations and depending on who you're talking with, convincing the other person that you are right is incredibly important.  There are lots of books written about persuasion and of course debate competitions that turn skillful arguing into a game.

But not all situations require you to win the other person over.  By trying to convince others that you are right, you may actually do irreparable damage to your relationship and get them to dig in even deeper.

The wise Dale Carnegie has a time-tested way of diffusing even the thorniest disagreement with one simple sentence...

"I may be wrong. I frequently am. Let's examine the facts."

Most arguments aren't over facts... so what should one do when it's a matter of opinion?  I think these are the ideal times to throw in some of that yin Ted referred to.  If someone makes a definitive statement like "I hate chocolate... I really don't see why so many people like it"... responding with, "That's insane, how can you not like chocolate!?!" may just make you sound like a judgemental asshole.

Making fun of the situation by responding with something like, "Well, that means there's just more chocolate for me!" works well because you just demonstrated that:

• You're not interested in converting them
• You acknowledge they've probably thought through why they feel that way for some time (so you're not insulting their intelligence)
• It may show that you value the relationship more than showing how smart or right you are
• It'll probably save you time since you can move on and talk about something else
• On the reverse psychology angle... maybe it'll get them to consider your position even more since you displayed confidence by not feeling the need to persuade

I can see the fruits of this now because up until Ted said that, I was more likely to be the person who would try to "out logic" others which rarely ever worked.  I pick and choose my battles more effectively now and would like to think I've salvaged some relationships too.

Arguing can be really fun sometimes, but that's completely dependent on who it's with and what your relationship is like.  I know couples where their main form of interacting is by arguing and that works for them.  We all have super-opinionated co-workers who love o broadcast their provocative opinions all the time.  It can be fun having a back n' forth with them, but I think in a lot of cases, it's better to stop and think for a sec about the yin approach and maybe you can completely flip the direction of where things were headed.  Perhaps this is all super obvious and I'm just the last one to know... but I am curious to hear how other people think about handling disagreements... get to commenting below!

• After thinking about web annotation for many years (starting back in grad school), my big project at work was released
• Learned how to ride a motorcycle
• Began running regularly again.  Completed the SF half marathon which was my first race in 2 years (due to injury)
• Incorporated swimming into my exercise routine and learned how to do a proper front crawl
• Wrote a few blog posts about UX, Dave Chappelle, finding new music, & running
• Reviewed 2 books that left a big impression on me: The Creative Habit & Amusing Ourselves to Death
• Made another mix
• Digitized all of my cds
• Visited Houston, Seattle, Zürich, London, and Berlin
• Finished watching all episodes of The Wire and Tim & Eric Awesome Show (loved both)
• Pared down all of my possessions, moved to Zürich, and switched over to the Gmail team
• Movies I  enjoyed: Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2 Days in Paris, Children of Men, Gran Torino, Touching the Void, Gadjo Dilo, Latcho Drom, Zombieland, Let the Right One In, Manufactured Landscapes

2010

• Find an apartment, move in, get new furniture, get settled
• Improve my design skills by beefing up on Photoshop, Flash, CSS/JavaScript (maybe even learn After Effects?)
• Do kick ass work for Gmail
• Continue running, yoga, cycling, and swimming (hopefully a lot of lake swimming!)
• Run another half marathon, but this time, in my VFFs
• Visit London again (and again)
• Check out one of the big euro music festivals
• Visit Berlin during the summer
• Go on some hikes in Switzerland once the weather gets nice
• Use up some of my vacation time in Spain
• Reunite with Stephan in Bamberg and Nathan in Paris (perhaps in conjunction with seeing Daft Punk?!)
• Go skiing a few more times
• Cook more
• Take German lessons
• Read more
• Make another mix or two
• Get my huge backlog of photos posted online
• Dust off my SLR and start shooting again
• Bonus: visit Iran if things cool down there, ideally via Turkey
• Bonus: help start up Ignite Zürich with Russell
• Be open to whatever comes next!

My consumption of new music hasn't gone down at all, but I feel like I'm discovering fewer 5 star albums (where the whole damn thing is good from end-to-end) than I used to.

Twist my arm though, and here you have my top 10 for the year (album covers link to video clips):

01. Kings of Convenience - Delcaration of Dependence

I've been a long time fan of these guys, but re-fell-in-love with them just as I heard they had a new album coming out. I know their music bores many to tears (*cough* Dave *cough*), but I'm a huge unrepentant fan. What can I say, they speak singularly to my inner sad bastard. Hoping to catch them live next year (and hoping even more that Erlend does another DJ Kicks record).

02. Röyksopp - Junior

If my #1 choice was all about melancholic introspection, this was my get-up-n-go album of the year which probably accompanied me on half of my outdoor runs. Röyksopp isn't the same band we heard on that first record (which I still long for), but I continue to be a fan and wish I hadn't missed out on their tour earlier this year.

03. The Sight Below - Glider

Technically, this is a 2008 release, but it came out in November and didn't go into my regular rotation until this year. It's the perfect record for "getting into the zone" and focusing. Broadly categorized as ambient, but most of the songs here have a subliminal driving beat in the background that give the song a pulse. I can't count the number of times I put this on at work when I needed to crank on some designs. I hope Raf won't take my utilitarian usage of his record as a negative It's seriously a gorgeous album and I can't wait to hear what he comes up with next.

04. Zomby - One Foot Ahead of the Other

I heard a lot of dubstep this year, but not much of it held my attention for very long... especially since the genre is driven by singles, not albums (here's my favorite dubstep single of the year while we're on the subject). Having said that, this record (listed as an EP... an EP with 9 songs???) really did it for me. The sounds are super pure, clean, and would be at home in any modern remake of an 8-bit NES game. Now if only someone could get the guy to show up for his own gigs.

05. Ryuichi Sakamoto - Playing the Piano

I also re-fell-in-love-with Sakamoto this year, revisiting as much of his backcatalog as I could get my hands on. I was all set to see him perform his piano works in Birmingham, but that gig was canceled Regardless, his music left a big mark on my 2009 and I suspect it will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

06. Patrick Cleandenim – Orange Moonbeam Floorshow

This was a random discovery made at Other Music in NYC. Really catchy tunes in the vein of Pet Shop Boys and other great dramatic synthpop of the 80s. I'm curious to see where he goes from here.

07. Fever Ray - Fever Ray

It really took me awhile to get into this record, but then I finally succumbed to the awesomeness that is Karin's solo project. I still long for new Knife, but this album, plus her Royksopp contributions will help tide me over until the next one comes out. (also file this under "shows I wish I could've caught this year").

08. Eluvium - Life through Bombardment

Another album that probably shouldn't be in this list (it's a 2009 comp of older material), but I'll bend the rules since it's what really got me into his music. I fell asleep to this more than anything else over the last 12 months (a high compliment). It's painfully pretty.

09. Omar Souleyman - Dabke 2020: Folk And Pop Sounds Of Syria

This was definitely the "funnest" find of 2009, just look at that album cover for crissakes! I have to thank Other Music again on this one... seriously, I had no idea people threw down like that in Syria. I can only hope living in Europe means I have a greater chance of seeing him live next year... preferably at some huge wedding.

10. Portico Quartet - Isla

The importance of brick n' mortar record stores is proved yet again with this latecomer to the list... picked up at Rough Trade in London. Fantastic instrumental compositions for fans of Tortoise and Cinematic Orchestra. Would love to see them perform sometime.

And that's all she wrote. For 2010, I'm looking forward to hearing the new Massive Attack, Burial, and Radiohead records. It sounds like Trent is already itching to come back out of hiding too and I'm praying it'll be more like Ghosts than anything else he did with NIN. Maybe Aphex or Boards of Canada will surprise us with something too?

I've checked out most of the other top ten lists floating around the web and it looks like Animal Collective came out as top dog. I can appreciate the band for their playfulness, but I never felt compelled to go back to this album. Maybe I will once all the fanfare dies down.

What were some things you dug this year that may have been overlooked by everyone else? I'm particularly interested in under-represented genres in my list like hip-hop or metal (does anyone even make good metal any more? I suppose that depends on who you ask and how you define "metal"... I know Isis and Circle are still doing good stuff). Whatever happened to bands like Faith No More, Ministry, Helmet? I suppose Tool are still around, but we need some young blood to step up and kick some sonic teeth in!

'Till next time...
-------------------------------

See my list for 2008 here.

Some pics from Houston. Back in SF tomorrow!