Decided I would try to do something every day on Twitter, just for the hell of it. My wife had come across something to do with 6 words that you might wish to have on your gravestone (one day!), and some of the things were really good. So, as Colartz is seven letters long, I thought I would go for seven words, and call it “sevensz” - 7 letters, too, of course!

As it is only a once a day thing, I thought it would not take up too much time, and I can send it in via SMS, so that is also OK. They will all be labelled ‘7z: something or other in seven words only’, for example.

Anyhow, check out the Colartz Twitter site if interested. No doubt it will likely be boring, but there may come out the odd gem . From restraint and limitation comes invention!

Also popped into my head that is possibly a new twist on the Eno ‘Oblique Strategy’ cards. Well, maybe not .

It is possibly in the same kind of area as a Haiku, but that is based around syllables, and sevensz is around words…

I keep wanting to get around to trying a technique I call “sloppy copy”. This is basically having an audio track going in the background, and using an audio to MIDI plugin to then extract some MIDI information from it. I then want to feed that into noatikl to get it to compose around that data. At the back of my mind is that I want to try this with some of my guitar work. However, I think this could also be fun with other tracks, and it would be interesting to see what noatikl could come up with!

The interesting thing about this technique is that it is really nothing at all to do with copying (i.e. a one to one process). It is more a case of indirection, where the underlying element can be used to create a one to many relationship.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to trying it….

I was at the latest Mash Up event in London last night, all about Identity 2. It was a very informative evening, the panel were excellent, and it was well worth the trip. On the train on the way back I was reflecting on what was covered in the evening, and some of the comments around identity theft, anonymity etc. For some reason I got to thinking about VPEX (virtual personality extension), and figured that as our identity extends into virtual space, then there is no reason to expect that these extensions would not also be prone to parallel afflictions to those in the real world.

The panel’s closing comment was along the lines that privacy is fast becoming an endangered thing, and there is no way to hold back the tide. Seeing as our every move online is tracked and logged (somewhere), then surely that can lead in some to a real sense of “claustrovobia”, a fear of being trapped, of not being able to escape virtual surveillance. Our virtual personality cannot go out the door without being monitored, which leads to a sense of diminishing freedom. I am sure a more general set of virtual afflictions will one day be diagnosed and catalogued, but it seems that “vobias” are a good place to start. After all, we are moving into a whole new world and there are many unknowns to concern ourselves with.

OK, so it is an odd name, but it is was an acronym for something I came up with back in 1996? Back then I got to thinking about how the net would change things, and came to the conclusion that people would extend their personalities into the virtual world. That would mean creating/aquiring virtual assets to adorn/extend their virtual character. I guess we are now seeing this happening fast with the the likes of the social networks and people (including me) surrounding themselves with digital assets and links.

Why write about this now? Dunno. I suppose I wish I was thinking I put my money where my mouth was back then. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing . Anyhow, I still think that tools are required, especially on mobile devices, to help create these “extensions”.

Back then I got to wondering what would be the first born virtual child, and how it would come about. Surely, if people have more and more a virtual/digital persona, then in that dimension there must come a time when it is important/developed enough for that to happen?