alisonboston.com

Same Rain: Different Town
I’ve managed to get to four small music festivals in-between my 6 weeks of work here in England this summer, and each has provided something unique.
At Finsbury Park’s FREE Rise Against Racism Festival earlier in the summer, it was three poets and a French duo (names and photos to follow). A […]

Happy Easter, 2007, original digital artwork, copyright Alison Boston

Christmas Spirit 2006, original digital artwork, copyright Alison Boston

Well, I’ve been in Barcelona just over 3 months now and I have just moved into my sixth accomodation (seven if you count the crazy woman I left my bags with for 1/2 a day, then chose not to sleep there for even one night!) […]

Yes, it’s true! The Hungarian band Sziami broke the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest concert given by a band - they played, non-stop for 48 hours!
Non-stop: the rules permitted a 5 minutes break every hour, and if they played more than one hour, non-stop they could accumulate the minutes to take […]

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.

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.)

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.

Good Bye Mike, digital artwork, copyright Alison Boston

…for a full moon.

Moon Heads, digital image, copyright Alison Boston

Digital Image 09 d, copyright Alison Boston
The principal image I worked with to create Gathering Souls is in this composite image. Can you find it?

Gathering Souls
digital artwork 09, copyright Alison Boston
Digital Artwork 9 is a series. This is 1 in the series. I think this is 9 (c) or (d). The others are notes from which I cut and pasted the two pieces which went together to make the single image which is pasted
38 (?) […]

Looking into My Third Eye
digital image 07, copyright Alison Boston

Maple Leaf Rag:
Textile Art for the New Millenium,
digital artwork 06, copyright Alison Boston
This started as an image of a red maple bonsai tree in a blue pot, now I think it looks like an embossed satin, hence the name.

Meeting of Minds in the New Millenium,
digital artwork 05, copyright Alison Boston
I can’t stop making these images. I fear I will vanish into cyberspace, disappear into a black hole, and never see daylight ever again.
This one took four hours…I still haven’t read the instructions!!
Oh yeah, it […]

…with Protector

Tree Seed for the New Millenium,
with Protector
digital artwork 04, copyright Alison Boston
I’m obsessed.
This was originally a photo of some fern trees in the rain forest, hence the title: Tree Seed for the New Millenium, with Protector.”
The Protector is a shadowy figure standing at the base of the seed. Can you […]

Chocolate Fairy Christmas Card
digital art work 03b, copyright Alison Boston
I am so pleased with my Chocolate Fairy I made this Christmas card… I sent it to all my friends in my address book, and a few people I’d like to be friends with, and a few others who just happen to be there. […]

Chocolate Fairy

Chocolate Fairy
digital art work 03, copyright Alison Boston

Life Chocolate 02,
digital artwork 02, copyright Alison Boston

Life Chocolate
digital artwork 01, copyright Alison Boston
(my first digital artwork)
“Life is a box of chocolate covered possibilities: the filling and flavor are created by our mind.”
Alison Boston
I’m going to contemplate this today, and perhaps I will not crave quite as much chocolate!

Not sure if this means I have been spending way too much time at home alone with my computer, or if looking at Tamas Waliczky’s animations sparked something, but I stumbled on NYC’s 1-20 gallery’s website today and while cruising the artists, Kiki Seror caught my eye with her eye…but it was this […]

‘Sculptures’ Tamas Waliczky
A 20-year retrospective of Hungarian media-artistTamas Waliczky’s work opened this evening (Saturday) at Millenaris Park. It’s his first major exhibition in his home town, having left Budapest many years ago for the advantages of living and working in London, Paris, Tokyo and Berlin. Tamas is currently a professor in […]