alisonboston.com

Out walking about last evening, Edith and I bumped into a couple of young Hungarian women who had seen Sunday evening’s performances…They recognised me (yikes) and said how much they liked what I had done.
“What did you like?”
“Your energy.”
“Did you understand it?” I asked.
“I got my understanding.”
“What was that?”
“It was a comedy about […]

Perhaps the most important thing I got from the workshop and the festival is the complexity of creating a meaningful work of art using modern technology. While the workshopping artists were able to realise partially satisfactory technical results, it was the invited artists presenting at the festival who managed to say something with the medium (Max/Msp/Jitter).

The most successful of these isKo Kon nashi, presented on the first evening of the festival (written about in my first post about the festival) and realised by an international collective. Also, last night’s Bridges - presented by quintet.net

In any case, what I love about Max/MSP/Jitter is how straight forward and visual it is. The ability to construct a patch to do what you want, within the capabilities of the software. Jasch compares it to Lego, which I always enjoyed as a kid. But it’s what you can do with a few words, symbols and numbers within all those little boxes that I like so much; and how the numbers give you such precise control over what is happening.

Right. The compilation CD I am on was released last night. There was a CD release party on the a38 ship. I have no idea what any of it is like other than my song, as I have not yet seen, or heard the CD! All I know is that I […]

Yesterday I continued in Jasch’s workshop. He started us off with a little Max/MSP/Jitter demonstration that had me spellbound, mesmerised and completely enraptured. (I’ll let you know if I come up with any more adjectives.)

The Making New Waves Festival continued yesterday with workshops during the day and performances in the evening.
I participated in Swiss artist, Jasch’s Eye and Ear workshop where I teamed with a young musician/composer from Pecs and was introduced to working with the Max/MSP/Jitter software I mention in my preceeding post. We are working […]

Another highlight for me, was the fluid, multi-colored, inkblot-like image created by cycling74.com’s Max/MSP/Jitter software - manipulated at this concert by Austrian composer Johannes Kretz. What started as a simple purple circle, flowed, bounced, and morphed into a constantly evolving psychadelic inkblot. It literally flowed with the music - as the Jitter program is designed to directly respond to the intensity of sound.

My friends are asking me for this recipe…it’s a hit with the fellas:
Here’s my own recipe for fast and easy, healthy snacks you can bake at home and carry with you.
Alison’s Granola Cookies
Turn the oven on and set the temperature at 350F or 180C
While it’s warming up…
Mix together:
1/3 cup/85ml canola or sunflower oil (may […]

Alison–
I clicked the link immediately and read it start to finish. Your poetry is like eating M&Ms. Can’t stop ’til they’re gone. I’ve always been kinda stupid where poetry is concerned, so I probably don’t even get it all, what it means, but it did make me feeeeeeel! And that’s the […]

I submitted my website to a Portfolio Exhibition in Frankfurt Germany and received this message today from the organiser:
This is a message for all who helped make the Portfolio Exhibition a success at the Städelschule Rundgang 2006 in Frankfurt, Germany from February 10-12.
In all, 55 participants from 13 countries contributed real or fictional portfolios […]

I wrote Hope in 1989 when I was living in Montreal, Quebec. All through the 80’s I had written angry, feminist poetry and I said “No More!” I want to write something beautiful and hopeful. So I locked myself in my Fabre Street apartment on the Plateau, Montreal and scoured my notebooks […]

I made this to go with a post I wrote last week about using poetry in the ESL classroom, but for some reason it is just getting uploaded today.
I have so many images stored on my computer. I am making them faster than I can process them. And I’ve got […]

Here’s an entry I posted this evening in Lee Hobbs English Blogg…
Although I am a writer, I haven’t taught much writing, but I do use pictures.
The beauty of using images - and in this instance a highly visceral one - rather than words to teach a foreign language is it provokes the students […]

“Listen to your inside…” Bumper Sticker, copyright Alison Boston
(not actual size)
Alison Boston’s Cafe-Pressed Art and Poetry is now open for your shopping pleasure! My first - and so far only - product is a unique, bumper sticker!
Why did I make a bumper sticker when I don’t even have a car?
Because as […]

Digital Self Portrait, copyright Alison Boston
View more art in the Gallery
What a night mare that was! I nearly went cross-eyed reading the Coppermine Photo Gallery help forum with these obnoxious little people standing with their hands on hips making me feel like an absolute dweeb. You should go look at the Coppermine forum. The figures […]

Sorry! I updated my gallery software and now we can’t look at the pictures I hope things will be up and running again very soon!
LATER: Well, we can all look at it, but the template has changed - from a black background to a white one and it no longer […]

“..to the ends of Being” is like the soul. Remember we talked about the soul? The soul is and the soul never ends.”

She nodded and drew the infinity symbol on her paper, and said: “Does it mean this?”

Hólyagcirkusz is a company unto itself. The show I saw last Friday - CSŐDCSICSERGŐ - is set in a theater. The characters are all musicans, playing bizarre instruments - conceived by Szőke Szabolcs, based on a dream he had, which arose from his work experience in a music shop where antique instruments were built.

I believe we need some kind of global body that will standardize accreditation, and negotiate with countries to recognize an accredited native speaker teacher as a type of global citizen, and thereby permit that person to work in signed countries, issue invoices to their employers, and pay taxes in their home, or ‘native’ country as a self-employed person, complete with legitimate business expenses and yes, appropriate tax and social contributions.

Mike01, digital art, copyright Alison Boston

…built from sandbags.
Every now and then a good idea gets through and gets realised.
I love this…
Housing for a Sustainable World
Honey House