Urbanized posits that city dwellers must not only forge an innovative self-reliance, they must imagine higher forms of living. The radical fluctuations of growth and decline happening in modern cities necessitate infinite innovation. Urbanized is an extraordinarily ambitious attempt to make sense of a world flowing into cities. This visually arresting film, like Hustwit’s past work, elegantly conveys the omnipresence of design in daily life. Essential viewing.

www.urbanizedfilm.com

There is exactly one line of dialog in this, and it kinda is totally true.

However, they all have the same problem I do.. the laptop scrunch. Let’s all agree to go back to multi-screen-iverse land and make our backs happy.

I curated a Chicago-artists-only compilation of innovative electronic music for my label, subVariant called “Frequencity. Read more about it and download it here. I’ve also contributed a track as Quantazelle. Enjoy!

TRACKLIST:
01. Beanbake: “A Bicycle In Your Mind” [Melodic Electronica]
02. Belmont and Clark: “Dark Compression” [Analogue Electro]
03. Ella Laurence: “aaaAH” [Acid]
04. [esc]APE: “Square Fingers” [Dark Electro]
05. Polyfuse: “Blood on the Urinal” [Electro Industrial]
06. Foe Paw: “Dos Otros” [Prog Rock]
07. XYZR_KX: “Home” [Folk IDM]
08. Mike Gonsior: “Reflections” [Downtempo Electronica]
09. Quantazelle: “Polychromatic Tomatoes” [Melodic Electronica]
10. Lokua: “Hue” [Minimal Techno]
11. Drasla: “Moonlight Somnambula” [Neo-Classical IDM]
12. Elock: “Ari on Acid” [Chiptune]

Like Ms. Sherman, my creative process involves being alone, thinking, devising, mentally-sketching, tweaking, re-tweaking, re-thinking; sharing for feedback, and then re-tweaking some more. It’s emblematic of the contemporary, technology-enabled artist, in a way. Creative types have so many resources available: so many mediums to muck around in, so many visual sandboxes (like Adobe CSx–Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier); audio playgrounds (like Reaktor, Ableton, FL Studio) and platforms for interdisciplinary / cross-medium work (like Max/MSP, etc).

…

When I applied to art colleges, I was so disheartened by the rampant insistence that I choose a medium. I didn’t like the feeling of being forced to create within an established “language” (medium) that could be critically evaluated (by critics who specialized in media). Then I found California Institute of the Arts, was accepted, and played and played and played and finally found my voice. A voice that was me, and not limited to choice of media, but one that used media to express the ideas I wanted to introduce to the world.

And that, I feel, is true contemporary artistry. Knowing that the clay of the world is yours to play with and yours to enjoy.

Full Quantazelle rant is here.

subVariant is planning to release a free-to-download collection called Frequencity featuring quality songs from regional musicians. All electronic music genres are welcome.

subVariant will also release an original t-shirt design in the theme of “Chicago Electronic Music” when the compilation is officially released.

Ready to submit? Read more and do it now!

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 8pm.

On  June 4th, 2011 is the 4th Annual Experimental Garage Sale! This craft fair  focuses on circuit bending and DIY musical instruments at the Experimental Sound Studio space with 12 sellers who will have plenty circuit bent devices, un-bent toys, electronic parts, kits, experimental instruments, contact microphones, guitar pedals, art, and more. The sale will begin rain or shine at 12:00 PM and last until 6:00 PM.

Here’s the  Facebook Event page.

Cosmic Blooper ( Evansville, IN ) – Laser CNC cut circuit bending panels for SK-1 + others.

Low-Gain Electronics ( Minneapolis, MN ) – SK keyboards, circuit bent devices, synths, parts.

Unatronics ( Chicago, IL ) – Beep-its, Oscillators, circuit bent toys.

Read more over at GeLofi

Here’s a cool mini-documentary on the Roland TB-303, by Nate Harrison, the same guy who did the Amen Break documentary.

via Michael O’Shea

Elmer Lynn Hauldren, aka “The Empire Carpet Guy” passed away this week, but he definitely left his mark on the advertising industry industry and affected generations of young people who had local-broadcast televisions running in their houses in the 80s / 90s. The ultimately-catchy jingle made Mr. Hauldren a celeb mainly because of his earnest delivery and the understated nature of them. “Empire” commercials weren’t cranked up beyond cheap speaker-potential for impact, for one, and it seemed like Hauldren was the owner, or at least a dedicated installer who loved his job.

Empire Man Original

Harlem Furniture

Peter Francis Geraci

Eagle Man

Moo & Oink

Victory Auto Wreckers

Celozzi-Ettleson Chevrolet

Schmerler Ford

And some of my favorite Local Commercials by Rhett and Link:

EDIT: Reader submissions

Bob Rohrman (Thanks, Jackson)

Bert Weiman Ford

Al Piemonte Ford

Chicago gets a taste of the Montreal-based digital art and electronic music festival that showcases innovation in music and creativity on April 21-23 with Avant_Mutek: Chicago.

Founded in 2000, Mutek is an international festival organization dedicated to the promotion of electronic music and the digital arts. Its main event is an annual five-day event in Montreal, Canada that takes place in late May and early June. Many of electronic music’s most established figures have performed, as well as numerous new artists who have gone on to build sustainable careers. Along with performances, the festival also features workshops relating to gear and software showcases, and panel discussions concerning the issues that face electronic music and music production.

Read more and see the full lineup.

What really makes a music scene? You know–those certain reasons that make you put on a jacket and promptly head for the El or call a cab just to get there in time. That’s what Chicago Innovative Electronic Music (CIEM) and subVariant are asking via their Crowdsourced 1.0 event: What is it about electronic music that people want to see live?

It really is a heady question. But, CIEM & subVariant‘s preliminary answer seems to be: "That which is "crowdsourced."

To the unfamiliar, "crowdsourced" means that the content that is the most popular "rises to the top" via votes–as in, the crowd chooses what’s the most relevant. On Digg.com (a popular news and entertainment aggregator) the front page is filled with only the content that has been voted up through "diggs." Threadless is also a good example: only the designs that are voted hottest actually make it to production.

On April 10, CIEM will test their theory in the electronic music world. Electronic music fans and supporters were asked to vote on a number of the submissions from Chicago artists to determine the lineup for the night. After approximately 600 online-votes later, the results were in, and the top four will perform in order of the number of votes recieved.

It’s democracy in electronic music. Like, seriously, democracy. Not that "republic" stuff that’s been thrown around. These artists have been chosen by the people, for the people. 

Crowdsourced 1.0:

dreamlogicc 9:15pm [mix]
Protman 8:30pm [mix]
Roth Mobot 7:45pm [mix]
Polyfuse 7:00pm [mix]

The Empty Bottle 
7pm – 10pm
$3
1035 North Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622

Here were the contenders:

Rebound Kawa DJmix by Kawa

Alphabasic Arctic Tour 2011 Portland Whiskey Bar Live by Protman

Vista damage mixdown by [esc]ape

Audition For Randy by Justin McGrath

Live on RTS.FM by dreamlogic

Latest tracks by RothMobot

The Consequences by Liz Revision