"Yomiuri Global Newspaper - Electronic Paper" is a wall-sized (2.2 meters high and 2.6 meter wide) newspaper utilizing E Ink Electronic Paper technology exhibited by Toppan Printing at EXPO 2005, Aichi.

Incredible. Think of the possibilities for art projects. This demonstration of a wall-sized newspaper was made from 272 Electronic Paper tiles. They also cheated by embedding a flat screen TV among the tiles to include video.

Seems the most logical use of this is for handheld newspapers, journals and other periodical materials, but imagine the possibilities for new media work.

Did you see that U2's video for "Vertigo" is also an iTunes ad? Or is it that Apple's new commercial is a U2 performance?

(Click above to view QuickTime movie)

Interesting how Apple never ceases to seemlessly connect art and culture to their image. Art and commerce are one.

I've been looking through some diagrams recently created using the sitemap generator. In general, it seems that hierarchies with many broad/flat sections will not be well served by graphviz. Those broad sections become difficult to visualize on the same 2d plane when sibling sections have a lot of child nodes as well. Small to medium hierarchies that are deep rather than broad seem to do better. Using SVGs to zoom through a diagram might work with larger hierarchies.

Here's the example diagrams. Most of these were produced before good SVG output was implemented:

small trees:
"process":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=process

vertical trees using colors:
"Capt_Andersons":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=Capt_Andersons
"Schooners2003":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=Schooners2003

medium-sized radial diagrams
"redheadSAID2":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=redheadSAID2
"LexisNexis":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=LexisNexis

large trees:
"dasf":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=dasf

medium-sized vertical trees
"NSCU.com":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=NSCU.com
"Object":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=Object

huge trees that become unusable in an automated diagram
"cbot":http://urlgreyhot.com/graphviz/?q=view&a1=cbot

I as talking to a few colleagues at the IA Salon about some new ways to use hardware/software to control audio -- applications that mix tactile physical interfaces with digital audio.

FinalScratch is commercial software and hardware (cable interfaces and special records) that work with turntables to allow a DJ to play and scrub (move back and forth) through MP3s on the computer. A video on TechTV shows how it all works.

Audiopad is a remarkable project at MIT that uses a projected image interface (a la Minority Report) and a physical widget that looks something like a plastic disk to select and control play of audio tracks and use filters against them. The video is truly amazing.

I saw the JODI INSTALL.EXE show at EYEBEAM last week and was pleasantly surprised at how well their stuff works in large format and in a large open space. From the EYEBEAM literature:

INSTALL.EXE, "The First Time You Start Your Computer", consists of a collection of screen recordings more similar to JODI's work on the web. The art is the visual realization of everyday computer programming that translates into colorful screens, cryptic characters, and an endless labyrinth of lines and spaces. The results are hypnotic depictions emulating our relationships with technology.

According to Benjamin Weil, Curatorial Chair of Eyebeam, "This exhibition fosters a reflection on how artists increasingly choose to operate at the conflation of the two different time/space realms, pointing to the way they have become increasingly difficult to dissociate."

I was struck by how the disorienting barage of stimulation worked so well in the open space of the large back gallery, which has the feel of a vacated factory cell with raw concrete and iron everywhere. The gallery allows you to view multiple projected images of computer desktops painting a landscape of windows, browsers, and dialog boxes along a massive wall as the layered sounds of clicks and dings echo throughout the room. The end result of the perceived chaos makes me think of an orchestration of robots and video games tuning up before a performance althought what you're witnessing is the performance itself. It's overwhelming at first, but with time the effect lulls youm invites you in and simultaneously drives you out. Maybe that's the point. Computer as a tool exists as connecting and separating point when it comes to expression. There is a sense of the user behind the mouse or keyboard that made these images come to life, but at the same time, there is a definite separation between user and use. What you see is not the person, but the projection of a recording of a person's interactions with a computer. The degrees of separation grow with each level of examination. There isn't the personal mark of a brush stroke to be seen in digital art, but the cumulative expression evokes something immediate and human.

For some reason, this all works better for me than the chaos of the www.jodi.org sites. Perhaps because the invasion of my desktop is more violating than walking into the chaos and being able to walk out once I had enough. It's much less pleasant to have to force quit my browser to remove myself from the www.jodi.org experience. In any case, JODI has brought their art out in open meat space to prove that it works there as well.

Next week (hopefully),,, The Ellsworth Kelly shows at the Matthew Marks Galleries.

In Whisper the Songs of Silence, Wired looks at "Lowercase sound". (article includes links to MP3s)

"Lowercase sound" is the name given to a loose movement in electronic music that emphasizes very quiet sounds and the long, empty silences between them.