by software artist Scott Draves. You may also follow me on google+ or twitter, buy art, or join me on facebook.

November 22, 2004

coral and sheep

A week ago I tweeked Electric Sheep to use the Coral Content Distribution Network. Sheep clients are now pointed at Coral's network of about 100 servers. These servers are in machine rooms all over the world. They fetch the sheep mpg files from ethereal.net, our original server, and then share them among themselves with a P2P network. Coral makes clever use of DNS to connect clients to nearby servers. Despite some glitches users report much improved download speeds. And the graph shows how the bandwidth used by ethereal dropped off from 15mbps where it was capped, to about 3. There is a downside too: coral uses port 8090 which means Electric Sheep no longer runs in many firewalled corporate networks. Thanks to Mike and Tristan!
Posted by spot at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

David Heskin

David Heskin's New Skin Studio and amazing oil paintings. Another participant in Synergenesis.
Posted by spot at 02:03 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2004

Norwegian Wood

Get this. Recently a couple was arrested in norway for having sex on stage during a rock festival. Turns out they are founders of a radical group "fuck for forest" that sells porno of themselves and other "youth reclaiming nature" to raise money to save the rainforest. And is dedicated to having sex in public to promote their cause.

links: the ananova story about the court case, a story with an uncensored pic, and finally, their site. Further research turned up this article in Grist Magazine (from which I cribbed the title).

Posted by spot at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2004

100 fresh random genomes

Posted by spot at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)

100 mutant children


A test run of the mutation operator consisting of 100 mutant children of a single sheep.
Posted by spot at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2004

Dia de los Muertos and Synergenesis Photos


Two new galleries from recent events.
Posted by spot at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2004

word for the day

Cicisbeo \Cì·cis*·bëo\, n. (pl. cicisbei) from the Italian: 1. a knot of silk or ribbon attached to a fan, walking stick, etc. 2. a married woman's lover or escort. 3. a kept man.
Posted by spot at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2004

new dvd goes to replication

I am happy to report that Michael Lazar and I have finished remastering the SPOTWORKS DVD and sent it to the factory for replication. Expect a release party announcement soon!
Posted by spot at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2004

triple power this saturday


I'm playing at Triple Power this saturday at The Sublounge.
Posted by spot at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2004

e-sheep and google ego-ranks

Patrick Farley's fanastic Electric Sheep comix has a splash for a upcoming issue on the election and inauguration titled Mother of all Bombs. I'm really looking forward to it.

A while ago I bragged that my screen-saver had finally become the #1 google hit for "electric sheep". Today I noticed that Patrick is back on top :)

More good news: I am now the 55th "spot".

Posted by spot at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)

Bathseba

Bathseba Grossman makes beautiful mathematical and scientific designs out of metal and glass using computer design and laser scanners that "print" in 3D.

Includes a use of the word excrescence which reminds me of two other words: apophysis (this) and of course concrescence (this).

thanks cas. related work: George Hart, and Carlo Séquin, who was in the Siggraph art gallery with me this year.

Posted by spot at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2004

Imbolc and Lughnasadh

For some time I've known that Halloween has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks the entrance of darkness halfway between autumn equinox and winter solstice. Similarly, May Day goes back to Beltane, halfway between spring equinox and summer solstice.

I realized that I didn't know anything about the other two symmetric points in the Celtic calendar. What ritual marks halfway between winter and spring, likewise halfway between summer and autumn?

The answers: Imbolc and Lughnasadh. I wonder if these are not so popular because they are so hard to spell.

Posted by spot at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)