NESTA Innovate08

Today I went to conference hosted by the National Endowment for Science Technology and The Arts. Speaking at this event was Bob Geldof, Gordon Brown and a host of creative/political cronies.

It was a good event on the whole: some good speakers, others not so good. Gordon Brown was surprisingly uplifting and dynamic considering the bas press he gets (he obviously doesn't have a special relationship with Murdoch unlike PM Blair did). For those that didnt know, Geldof has genuine gravitas and charisma which is backed up by thorough thought - he was not over the top, and made some really good responses to questions he was posed. I particularly liked the bit about education in this country, and the importance of allowing creativity within our populace at all levels, including school - there was a hint of blame towards current 'box ticking' pedagogy pushed by the government, and I think 99% of those active within education would agree with what Bob and the others said.

The organisation NESTA funds research and business start-ups into innovative applications of technology, and there was plenty on show today. I saw revolutionary real-time wifi video broadcast, bursaries for budding science film makers, and many other cutting edge products developed with the guidance and gold of the organisation.

The one thing that was appallingly un-innovative was the production of the event, which had hammy vision mixing and the most terribly cliched motivational music. It was a good job the food was good otherwise I may have screamed when "We Are The Champions" came on for the fourth time.

Keep an eye on NESTA if you are developing science/technology/art!!

Laurie Anderson - Homeland

I went to see Laurie Anderson last friday, it was incredible (I would have wrote before, but I had a busy weekend archiving a historical performance lecture about Sylvia Townsend Warner at St Annes College Oxford). 

Enough about my own endeavors, on to the magnificent Anderson: The performance was fantastic. It mixed compelling music with sharp humour, and made subtle use of equally sharp and compelling sonic technology. Anderson nourished my ears, brain and conscience with a skill and passion that I personally have never experienced before in such abundance. It features songs and sounds about the current state of world power, how the strategies of world power impact upon society, and how utter ridiculous it is to believe anything 100% (at least that was my interpretation, Laurie Anderson may well be appalled by my views).

With the regard to the sound, I am pleased to say there was interesting stuff going on! First and foremost there was the excellent musicianship of Anderson her crew of three (Eyvind Kang, Peter Scherer and Skuli Sverrisson). The music was a mixture of meandering structures and actual songs, ranging from anthemic sing alongs to ambient textures. In terms of technology I heard vocoding and harmonisers, percussion that fused africanesque rhythms with technoesque sounds, and some clever subtle use of triggered gates and effects. It was so well placed that I likely could not identify much of what was happening, but to be sure that there was enough going on from a listening perspective. Kudos must go out to Charlie Cambell and Jody Elff who are cited as being sonic architects for this show.

Brilliantly, for the encore after an enormous ovation,  Anderson came back on stage to treat us to a solo violin performance that was backed by an affected version of what she played (delayed and pitch shifted alternately higher and lower, but always sounding beautiful). I can conclusively claim this to be a great show to see - Laurie Anderson is a true star.