Exploratory sounds from Boorloo.
Doing: Finally paid a visit to the new ECU campus in town - it's a massive upgrade to the old campus! I visited the foley room and had fun playing with the sounds of my footsteps on different surfaces. I still harbour secret ambitions of becoming a foley artist: sounds are limited to your imagination. Yes, I know it's very niche and highly competitive, but one can still dream... Playing: I picked…
I was recently discussing ideas around authenticity and the digital with a friend, and posed the question, "Does authenticity always involve the analogue, or can you also be authentic using digital means?" There is an increasing distrust of the immateriality of the digital environment - and rightly so. There's so much AI slop around, with its various hallucinations and trickery, regurgitating and…
Doing: My band's album launch was a blast! Great to see so many folks supporting the local scene. I also signed a bunch of vinyls, like a good rock star. I have been re-visiting and updating the FMOD package for the next iteration of ARia: Song Unseen, as part of an augmented reality project. As part of the process, I've also been updating my knowledge of FMOD and seeing what else I might be able…
Doing: 5:30am starts at work are not my friend - what a terrible time to be awake. The funeral for my friend was a beautiful affair. It was a bright, Makaru day. My friend didn't want this to be a sad affair (and the service fittingly ended with a pumping dance track), so instead I'm going to celebrate her generosity, her radiant personality and her zest for life. Generally enjoying time in the…
In recent years, I've unfortunately become very acquainted with grief. Case in point - on Wednesday, I'm attending a funeral. To celebrate another life taken too soon, and to carry on this plane of existence. Grief is a surreal experience. Life is both at a standstill, yet still moving. It doesn't feel right to carry on with the mundane tasks of living, after such a life-altering change - yet,…
Doing: Gave myself a haircut. I can do basic cuts on myself, as long it involves a clipper. I've tried hairdressers in the past, but they either a) move away or b) get bored of me as a client - I don't talk a lot, I don't want to have to put product in my hair all the time because I'm lazy, and I don't want to colour it. So DIY it is! Plus, it's much cheaper. In the age of digital music releases,…
For the past few years, I've been thinking more about how being a member of a diaspora has impacted on my life, and how I might represent this in my work. I was born in Hong Kong and migrated to Australia as a child. I often feel like I don't belong - something that many cross-cultural folks have experienced . I am pretty much Australian in a lot of ways, having spent all but my first two years…
Doing: Finally learnt how to use tags on bearblog - it was actually quite simple, just not in a format I'd encountered before. Really appreciating the rain, as are my plants. Playing: Chase Bliss - Onward - what a remarkable guitar pedal. Loving the musicality of the freeze and glitch options and how it evolves with your playing. Great to see an innovative guitar pedal maker who isn't afraid of…
Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese set out a new framework for approaching AI in Australia . There's a lot to dive into (including a lot of discussion about water and power usage in data centres, but of most importance to me is the pledge to protect the copyright of creatives. Namely, to have control over if, and how, creative work is used to train AI . It's been a long-standing point of…
Recently, I finally began working on a collaborative project...that started two years ago! It wasn't that I forgot about the project - I was very aware of it - but life and time-sensitive projects happened. Days, then months, flew by. On the other hand, it's been refreshing to work on a project where both of us can allow ideas to percolate. It's also refreshing to work at our own pace and allow…