I just finished a bodum full of coffee and a toasted bagel. I’m munching on an apple and I just finished washing dishes.  I’m kind of at this point in my packing where I’m SICK of seeing cardboard and can hardly see my floor to clean it. My new roommate did an awesome job helping me clean and unpack. I didn’t see him until Saturday night and when I tried to help he assured me, “no Laura, none of this mess is your fault….”

So yah, I missed everything on Friday. YYZ’s having a thirtenth party, MOCCA has Contact’s opening (man when did MOCCA change there website? Well about flippin’ time anyway), and come to think of it 401 had lots of openings that day. Plus the odd housewarming I said I would attend, rsvped via facebook. So I feel bad for not doing that. I was asleep by 10:30pm on May 1st. Right now my apt right now looks like a bad James Carl installation, I’m trying to not be grumpy and believe in art right now.

The best art experience I had in the last two weeks was treating my younger brother and his friend John Naro to a FADO performance called Not Waterproof by Julie Andree T. I admit I had never seen her work before that night, and the description sounded pretty straight forward, installation based set design, perhaps theatrical, etc, so I thought it would be pedestrian. Man, did I call THAT one wrong, and am I ever glad I did.

The performance started with the artist talking conversationally to the audience, and had to start the performance having a cigarette. She grabbed it  from the audience, took a drag or two and then taped it to a table, all while casually dropping anecdotes describing her practice. She made reference to previous performances where she urinates on the floor, at which some laughed nervously, and then drank a large glass of wine in one gulp. She then asks for another cigarette, does the same gesture, and swallows another full glass of wine, and I can hear my 18 year old brother muttering “Chug, chug, chug, chug!” After the fourth taped cigarette and before she sits by a stringed instrument, Julie runs to the nearby vase of water and vomits into it silently while the water inside turns a plum red. The tone changes quickly and my brother realizes this isn’t Janeane Garofalo.

another iteration of Not Waterproof performed at the Cardiff Art and Time (CAT) festival

photo credit - aguno - nobody-is-there

After a brief hiatus, Vague Terrain is back with a new website and the newest issue of our digital arts publication. Vague Terrain 10: Digital Dub features a variety of multimedia projects that explore the intersection of digital culture and the legacy of dub music.

This diverse body of work contains contributions from Aguno, DubRocket, Eduardo Navas, Jonah K, NAW, Ohrwert, Segue, The Straggler and interviews with Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) and Kevin Martin (aka The Bug) conducted by Eduardo Navas and Corina MacDonald.

To view the issue please visit http://vagueterrain.net/journal10

Vague Terrain have rejigged http://vagueterrain.net into a related group blog. Swing by for a visit soon or subscribe to our feed via http://feeds.feedburner.com/vagueterrain

TUESDAY JUNE 24th . THE AMBiENT PiNG presents
SUMMER LAPTOPiA with NAW, URM and SRF
@ The Central . 603 Markham St . 1 block from the Bathurst subway
Map, info and directions at: http://www.thecentral.ca/info.php

PiNG doors open at 8pm . 1st set at 8:30 . $6 / PayWhatYouCan

———————————————-
a little note from Scott M2 of the Ambient Ping:
Hi Everyone! It’s been a while since the Ambient Ping has presented a show in
a nice comfy bar with good food and fine beers
so I have booked 3 terrific sound-artists to create the scapes & grooves
for a Tuesday night at the Central in the Annex. Located right beside
Honest Ed’s and Suspect Video at 603 Markham St, the Central has
all of the above + an intimate main-space to immerse yourself in the
performances + a connected room to reconnect with your friends
at the PiNG
Mark June 24th on your calendars now – we’re really looking forward
to seeing everybody again! ~ Cheers, Scott M2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NAW – Neil Wiernik (Whisper Room) produces warm,
atmospheric, and cinematic electronic music with sound design firmly grounded in the rich traditions of dub studio culture & formal contemporary composition. http://phoniq.net

URM – Jamie Todd (dreamSTATE / SADU / NOiNO) explores
alien mutant psycho jazz, dark / light ambience, soundscapes &
sequencer driven pulse-music with a laptop filled with a virtual
mountain of soft synths and sound toys. http://www.urm.ca

SRF – Kevin Doherty (SleepResearch_Facility) is a dark ambient
artist from Glasgow, Scotland, now living in Toronto & specialising
in beatless ambient music of spacious, extended, richly-textured
sounds & throbbing undertones. http://www.resonance-net.com

We’ve got one space left in the Photovoltaics workshop tomorrow! Hurry up and get your name in, you won’t be sorry!

Photovoltaic Workshop
Co-Presented with the Subtle Technologies Festival and FoAM
Instructor: Bart Vandeput (Bartaku)
Venue: InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre
Date: May 29, 2008, 2-6 pm
In the PhoEf workshop participants will explore the interdepending relationship between people, photovoltaics and light as a primary resource.

(image by Flickr user kitseeborg, used under Creative Commons license. )

While installing my latest piece, I was thinking that I should make a list of little lessons I’ve learned over the years about making things so that they don’t fall apart or break down. Sort of like one of those folksy little overpriced books of wisdom, but actually useful. So, the beginning of an open-ended list. Feel free to add on in the comments.

1) Learn to solder properly. Seriously. It’s not hard.

2) If you are going to make more than one copy of a circuit, make a circuit board. The time spent designing the board will be saved in construction time and troubleshooting. Hand-wired boards always have errors. Circuit boards often have errors, but at least it’s always the same error.

3) Breadboards are for prototyping. Your final circuit should be soldered or wirewrapped.

4) Use cable ties. Don’t have nests of dangling wire. Or, if you really want to impress, learn to lace cable harnesses. Make sure you cut cable ties properly- don’t leave razor-sharp ends.

5) Colour-code your wires. Sure, it’s easier to buy one big roll of a single colour, but you’re going to hate yourself when trouble-shooting time comes.

6) Learn to wire connectors with the all the conductors the same length. If you yank on the connector, all the wires should share the force, not just the shortest one.

7) Use heat shrink to insulate connections, and also to providemechanical strain relief for connections. Get a heat gun. (A paint-stripping gun works well, a hair dryer does not. In a pinch, you can use the side of the soldering iron, up from the tip, but the results will be ugly.

8) Drilling sheet stock, such as project boxes, with ordinary twist drills is asking for trouble. Use a step bit, and you will get a nice round hole, and the piece won’t grab the drill bit and whirl around like some ninja weapon. Use a centre punch to make an indent whenever you’re drilling, the spring-loaded ones are especially handy. Always drill a pilot hole first, then the bigger hole.

9) Use lock washers. Or nylon locking nuts. Or Loctite. Or even nail polish. Just don’t let screws and nuts loosen.

10) Use separate power supplies for digital stuff like microcontrollers, and electromechanical stuff like relays and motors. Make sure your power supply is rated for the amount of current you circuit draws, and is the correct voltage. Don’t trust the label. Measure.