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Friday, April 23, 2010
KORG padKONTROL MIDI Studio Controller
Saturday, April 17, 2010
徐冰《木·林·森》计划及其时空养料
“艺术怎样摆脱困境？艺术怎样往前走？艺术到底是什么？”
徐冰设计的《木·林·森》计划看起来不像艺 术项目，更像一个公益系统。简单来说，它是一个生态循环模式：徐冰教肯尼亚孩子们画树，通过网络画廊拍卖，所得资金用于肯尼亚植树。有人对《木·林·森》 的艺术成分多寡提出疑问，徐冰的解答是：“以公益为目的的创作大方向不会有问题，在这样的动机面前，任何深奥的艺术概念都要让他三分。《木·林·森》本身 的目的并不是艺术，但涉及到了当代艺术的核心问题。比如艺术怎样往前走，怎样摆脱困境，艺术到底是什么等等”。徐冰近年来的作品和轨迹，似乎也带有这种无 心插柳的气质，他深觉中西方当代艺术双双无聊，于是有意识地跳出标准艺术体系，保持一定距离并与现代生活保持密切联系，以寻找艺术的新空间。
除了名声在外的《天书》、《地书》和《新英 文方块字》，他的作品有时像社会课题，有时像科技发明，有时候又是公益系统。他甚至在2006年和加拿大科学家共同设计了一台名为“缓动桌面”的电脑桌， 这个工作台的键盘和屏幕能够前后左右缓慢地水平移动，徐冰参照中国太极拳原理：牵一发而动全身，人一伸胳膊，牵动了浑身所有肌肉。“我兴致勃勃地去做，为 什么没有实用性的东西才是艺术家应该做的？”徐冰说《木·林·森》计划的理论准备其实从上世纪70年代就开始了，经历过上山下乡的他骨子里活跃着 “艺术为人民服务”的基因。徐冰近年的尝试似乎和美国八十年代现代艺术的一大趋势类同：竭尽全力地让艺术“不纯”，混淆艺术与非艺术的区别，打破正统艺术 用人为区分扼杀人创造性的愚蠢。徐冰说：“我的艺术越来越不成形状，这是我不得不走的方向”。
1
徐冰轻快地走在肯尼亚山里，包围他的森林像一团鲜嫩的巨大绿藻，在赤道上舒张。草木奇异，散发异常清新的空气，让徐冰与助手有了一个念头：为当地恢复森林而集资的自循环计划。按照这个名为《木·林·森》的系统，部分资金将从地球上最富裕的地方源源不断地流向肯尼亚。
这是2005年。一个名为“Rare”（稀 有）的国际资源保护机构联合美国圣地亚哥当代美术馆、伯克利大学美术馆及太平洋影片库，共同发起题为“人类/自然”的自然文化遗产保护项目。“Rare” 在全球邀请8位“注重深思和创新”的艺术家，每人选一处自然文化遗产保护地，用艺术的方法提高当地人对环境的保护意识。徐冰选择了非洲东部的肯尼亚，他之 前做过与蚕、烟叶虫和种猪等动物有关的作品，在他想像中，肯尼亚是个遍地奔跑着野生动物的国家。
徐冰在肯尼亚考察一番之后，发现当地所有的 事情——政治、经济、人和野生动物等等，都跟树有关系。于是他穿梭在林木之间，走访专家、林业研究所、森林保护机构和动物保护组织，发现两个有趣的事情。 在100多年前，肯尼亚就有一项政策：给农民土地，让他们种地、种树，等树长大了，再给他们新的土地，继续种地、种树，直到几年前，肯尼亚环境部副部长万 加丽·马阿萨伊取消了这项政策。理想主义色彩浓重的万加丽到偏远地区带领当地人种树，发起“绿带运动”，要恢复真正的原始森林，为此她获得了2004年诺 贝尔和平奖。许多当地人认为树和人其实可以共生，徐冰则觉得，支持万加丽的人多少带有些西方知识分子的价值趣味。徐冰还发现，也许是长期殖民的原因，肯尼 亚有很多捐助基金会，有人的职业便是不断从西方找来资金用于当地，但徐冰认为这种捐助关系夹带着怜悯和欣赏，而且所有资金都是单向的，不能循环，
不容易长久。最后他提交了一个公益项目：《木·林·森》计划，他希望这是一个像永动机的系统，能自己“转”起来。
2
《木·林·森》计划的宣传海报，是一个常见的可循环利用标识，三个深绿色箭头组成一个坚固的三角形，上面分别画着代表人、树和美元的符号。《木·林·森》正是这三者间的环环相动。
徐冰编写教材，教授肯尼亚6-12岁的儿童 学习用人类祖先发明的文字符号，创作组合树的图画，对这些画作编号后，经过美术馆和网上画廊www.forestproject.net展出，以每幅30 美元的价格由世界各地热爱艺术、关心环保的人们在网上拍卖收藏，所得资金转入Bill Woodley 肯尼亚山基金会，用于当地植树。
“孩子们画在纸上的树会变成真的树，长在肯 尼亚的土地上”，徐冰算了一笔简单的账：“2美元在纽约只能买一张地铁票，但在肯尼亚可以种10棵树”，来自流行网络服务的功能和地区间的经济落差，用最 低廉的人力消耗，将资金从其它地区流向肯尼亚，用于植树；“所有与此项目运转相关的部分都获得利益，这里面包含着知识传授、艺术创造、爱和关怀、沟通互利 和理想实现的因素”，徐冰由此相信《木·林·森》计划的自我循环能力。
3
2008年，徐冰第二次来到肯尼亚山。由于肯尼亚的政治和战乱，《木·林·森》计划被拖延了3年。
这一次，他带来一本细心编写的教材。当地的 老师把孩子们召集到环保中心，临时设立了课堂。徐冰先给孩子们讲了一个有些像神笔马良的故事，那是一个生活在大森林里叫做 “扇”的孩子，他和森林中的生灵们共享着这个空气湿润的清新乐园，“各种各样的树枝对称又精美，小虫子在树叶上吃出的花纹那么有趣，风吹过树林发出动听的 声音，扇很想把这些记录下来，他画了一只小虫子，小虫子竟然爬了起来，他不停画着树的符号，一棵棵大树拔地而起……”
徐冰在教材中使用的方法，延续了他在代表作 《天书》和《地书》中对文字的持续热爱，他坚信当下是第二轮象形文字兴起的时代。在为期4天的课堂上，徐冰给孩子们讲古老文字的形状，所有文字从象形画符 开始，变成今天的拼音文字和表意文字，他画了一幅表格，上面排列着“草”、“叶”、“石”、 “土”、“云”和“鸟”如何用象形文字画出来，再教孩子们神奇的构图法，比如怎样在茂密的树叶里藏进一行字，怎样用“水泥诗”构成一棵有含义的字母树。
“肯尼亚的孩子长得都很像，我有时分不清男 孩女孩，因为头发都是那种短短的小卷。每个孩子都很有礼貌，很害羞，一个个睁着诚实的大眼睛，翘着憨厚的嘴唇”，有的孩子在课程结束后不肯离开，站在桌子 前不停地涂抹，“很多艺术家最开始都是迷恋这种愉快而找到自己事业的”，当徐冰搜集完一部分孩子的画，他开始觉得这个项目对肯尼亚孩子的影响是深远的，甚 至是终生的。
从肯尼亚回来之后，徐冰开始临摹这些孩子的 画——有中国书画临摹经验的人知道，临摹是进入范本作者世界的最佳方式——用孩子们的一棵棵树组成一大幅森林风景画。这些画的身价因徐冰的创作而水涨船 高，同样会进入《木·林·森》的拍卖收藏和循环系统。徐冰用他发明的新英文方块字在一幅森林画上写下题记：“我像临摹大师的画一样临摹这些孩子的画。我不 敢对它们有任何改变，如果改变，就像砍掉了树木的某些枝干。在我看来，它们像生长着的树木，是自然的一部分。”
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
iPad上周下載逾百萬應用程式
該公司稱，首三個最多用戶下載的付費iPad應用程式，均可提升iPad的生產力，是蘋果iWork工具的改良版，包括文字處理器Pages、試算表Numbers及幻燈片製作程式Keynote。每個程式的售價為九點九九美元（約七十七港元）。
Star Walk是首十大應用程式中最有趣的一個，售價二點九九美元，是天文學應用程式，可將iPad轉成星圖，只要把iPad面向天空，便可啟動內置數碼指南針，可馬上確定星星、星球及星體的位置。
GoodReader是最常下載程式中的第四位，售價九十九美仙，iPad安裝此程式後可閱讀不同格式的文件，包括PDF檔案及高解像的圖像。
網上下載名單中亦包括SketchBookPro，它是先進的繪圖程式，用戶可用手繪畫草圖，售價八點九九美元。
當然，遊戲也極受用戶歡迎。首十大名單包括賽車遊戲Real Racing HD，售價九點九九美元；航空交通模擬遊戲Flight Control，售價四點九九美元；拼字遊戲Scrabble，售價九點九九美元■
Zoom H2 and H4: Two Handy Recorders
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COMMENTSEvery now and then, someone in my blues/R&B band will bring a recorder to a gig or practice. For a while, it was a Sharp minidisc, but that whole category of recorder is outdated and a bit complex to use – plus, transfering the music in real time is a pain.
We've been known to go to the other end of the spectrum and have hauled a rack case with a high-end digital recorder and top-notch preamps. But that setup is complicated and there’s a lot of gear to haul in addition to our usual PA, amps, etc. In the end, we had the potential to get a CD-quality recording, but were always stymied by something – the wrong level on one of the tracks, bad acoustics in the house, an overly noisy audience – you name it.
I've been looking for a simpler solution to take home the goods – something to toss in the gear bag, plop down on a table and just hit 'record.' Enter two little gems from Zoom that both wear the label “Handy Recorder.”
The Zoom H2 and the Zoom H4 are indeed handy. They're also on opposite ends of the field recorder realm. The H2 – the newer of the two models – is a straight-forward recorder with a minimal learning curve. The H4 is like a loaded burger with everything on it. It has a bigger learning curve but it can do nearly anything you can dream up.
The Zoom H4
The H4 is really three devices in one: a stereo field recorder, a 4-track recorder for songwriting on the road, and a USB computer interface. As a field recorder, it has two mic capsules on the top in an X-Y pattern. The most straightforward application is to switch it on, aim it toward the band and press the record button. To set the level, there is a 3-level sensitivity switch. Pick the right sensitivity and let the H4’s auto-level scan calibrate the appropriate amount of gain. This isn’t an auto-gain function that rides gain during recording but instead a quick way to get started. When you’re ready to record, press the record button again, the red light goes from flashing to solid, and you’re underway.
In the stereo mode, you have four recording options controlled with a set of four buttons that select 96khz, 48khz, 44.1khz and MP3 (at several levels of resolution). The included 512 meg SD card gets around 40 minutes of stereo recording at 44.1 khz. Drop in a 2 gig card instead and you’ll get more than 3 hours worth of recording time (in MP3 mode, you can record for hours on end!). If you’re so inclined, it’s possible to dial in several options – phantom power for an external mic, compression/limiting, high-pass filtering to cut wind rumble, even mic modeling for four popular studio mics.
To navigate these features, the H4 uses a combination of a menu button and a tiny jog wheel. The display was fairly tiny and for my old eyes, reading glasses were needed to get through the menus. Probing the Zoom website (www.samsontech.com), I found a system upgrade that added a few features and also changed the display font to something easier to read. Nonetheless, there were times when I got caught pushing the menu button instead of turning the jog wheel – that meant starting over – but eventually I got used to the routine of starting with one button and shifting to the other.
To give the H4 a whirl, I recorded an old upright piano at home from a few feet away. Running through my studio monitors, the sound was great, with a clear frequency response and a good bottom. At a gig a few nights ago, I ran the direct out from my bass amp directly into the H4’s XLR jack to create some play-along practice tunes for our guitarist. Again, the recordings sounded fine and should be helpful – and if he can figure out the songs from just the bass part, I’ll give him extra credit.
Need a Tiny Recording Studio?
Moving to 4-track mode, the H4 becomes a recording studio in one hand. On the bottom of the H4, you’ll find two input jacks – incredible for a device this small. Each is a combo jack that can accommodate a guitar cable or an XLR mic plug. You can use the built-in stereo mics, too, plugging in a guitar, bass or keyboard, or use the mic of your choice. You can even use both inputs at once. Once you’ve toggled the menu button down to pick an input you can dial in a plethora of effects – essentially, the H4 has a couple of Zoom multi-effect pedals inside, with amp and cab modeling, plus auto-wah, phaser, chorus, reverb, delay, and even more. In addition to the factory presets, you can edit and store your own patches.
Working in 4-track mode doesn’t end with adding effects to your input. I was pleased to find a metronome and a tuner, too. There is also a tiny mixer screen that allows bouncing tracks, panning, setting track levels – even punching in to fix a few muffed notes. Looking through the manual, I noticed that you can only use the 44.1 khz recording resolution in this mode. That makes sense, though, because you’re juggling total recording time with recording quality and 44.1 khz is a viable level to shoot for.
Those same buttons that choose your recording resolution in stereo mode become track selection buttons in 4-track mode, allowing you to select which tracks you record to and which tracks will be playing back. Handy!
In case you feel cramped putting a tune together with the H4’s buttons, menus, and small display, there’s yet another option. With the recorder turned off, you can plug in the included USB cable, hook up the other end to your computer, and voila! – the H4 is powered by the computer’s USB port. In this mode, a new menu pops up with two choices – audio in/out and connect to PC. The first of these two options lets you record through the H4’s guitar and mic inputs right to your computer. Although the H4 includes a version of Cubase, I used it with GarageBand. On its own, a USB interface will cost a good chunk of the H4’s $300 street price, so if you anticipate that kind of use, it’s a definite plus.
Going with the “Connect to PC” option lets you take whatever you’ve recorded onto the SD card and dump it onto your computer. Compared to the old minidisc, this is a real timesaver, with transfer taking place as data rather than in actual recording time. Once in your computer, the standard WAV and MP3 files are available for whatever recording interface you like.
To work with the 4-track mode, I recorded a bass duet. On one track was a melody line played up high on my fretless electric bass – a jazzy version of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” I played a walking bassline on the second track using my electric upright bass. I monitored the sound through studio monitors, which worked fine since no mics were involved. Once recorded, I was able to pan each instrument left and right and tweak the balance between them. Finally, I sent the two tracks to my computer, imported them to GarageBand and added some reverb, compression, and EQ. In all, these tasks were easily done once I figured out the basic working scheme. If you’re writing a song with, say, acoustic guitar, vocal, bass and a lead instrument, the H4 makes it a snap to record and mix.
The Big Picture for the H4
Despite all I’ve written about the H4 so far, this barely scratches the surface of what it can do. Dig into the 100-page manual and you’ll learn a lot more about what it's capable of. On the plus side, you’ll find the Zoom H4 to be a very versatile, do-nearly-everything unit. Although the first few minutes seemed daunting, it soon became manageable, even logical. I was also initially concerned about some of the switches that are quite tiny – I wondered how sturdy they would be. I’m a careful guy, though, and after some time with the unit, I think it should last quite awhile.
The H4's tiny display is one of the key downsides, as is the multi-layered menu system and the need to work between the menu button and the jog wheel to make selections. I wish there was a way to mount the H4 on a stand besides the option they provide – a cradle attached with hook-and-loop straps with a tripod-threaded nut on the back side. The SD card is a little difficult to grasp and remove because the plastic door gets in the way. And frankly, I don’t think I’d use mic modeling, preferring to apply EQ after the fact to accomplish approximately the same thing. Ditto with the effects, because it’s easier to edit and adjust an unaffected track. But for quickly adding in a convincing modeled electric guitar in 4-track mode, this is your baby. Finally, the H4 is a bit bigger than I’d prefer, but given all that it can do, I can live with that.
Buy if...
you're looking for a moderately-priced recorder with a lot of versatility.
Skip if...
a big learning curve will keep you from using great features.
Rating...
| MSRP $499 - Samson Tech - samsontech.com |
Keeping it Simple with the H2
The H2 Handy Recorder takes the opposite route of the H4. It’s a simple recorder that can be brought to a gig, set up quickly, and forgotten until the end of a set. The H2 is a couple inches shorter than the H4, but about the same width and thickness. When I first brought the H2 to a gig, our guitar player mimed shaving his chin with it – the H2 has an uncanny resemblance to an electric shaver. You might also mistake the H2 for an old-school mic from the ‘50s, at least when looking at it from the rear.
Lurking under that shaver-like screen is something surprising – two pairs of mic capsules that can be used in either a 90 degree angle (on the front) or a 120 angle (on the back). You can also combine them together for recording 360 degrees in either stereo or 4-track sound that can be edited into surround sound.
Compared to the H4, the H2 is more intuitive to operate. After sliding the on-off switch, the H2 boots up in whatever mode you used last (same as the H4). Although it also uses menus, more of the controls are right on the face as dedicated buttons. Two arrow keys let you choose the mic configuration, which is noted by a tiny red LED dot. Another red dot lights on the top of the recorder, showing which side has the active mics.
Rather than using the menu-button-plus-jogwheel method of selecting options, the H2 uses a single menu button and the forward/back membrane buttons for playing back recordings. It’s a bit unintuitive at first to move up and down by arrows that point sideways, but that’s still a problem most of our logic systems can handle. Working this way with the menus, the red record button in the middle becomes the selection key for menu choices. It’s a cleaner approach than with the H4, but it still requires patience to work your way up and down the menu options.
Stripped Down but Nicely Functional
Although the H2 lacks the effects available in the H4 – no reverb or amp modeling, for example – it offers some useful options in their place. There are two levels of auto-gain, plus three levels of compression and three levels of limiting. I found the limiter to be a useful feature for managing peaks while recording at a gig, making the H2 a set-and-forget gig recorder.
Imagine any accessory that you could possibly want – the H2 likely comes with it. In addition to the wall-wart power supply, USB cable, windscreen and carrying pouch of the H4, the H2 has some great conveniences. Rather than a strap-on cradle, the H2 has a tripod socket on the bottom. Besides using a tripod, though, the H2 has a little three-legged screw-on base and a mic clip adapter. There is also a pair of earbuds for listening to what you’ve recorded and a stereo Y cable with 1/8” miniplug to a pair of RCA plugs – great for running the H2 into a mixer, or conversely, going into the H2’s line-in jack from your CD player.
Inputs and options are simpler for the H2. The H4’s combo ¼”/XLR jacks are gone, with only a 1/8” miniplug mic input and 1/8” line-in/out jacks instead. The output jack doubles for connecting the earbuds, with a rocker volume switch alongside. If you see the H2 as a basic gig recorder, these differences should be no problem. I can imagine using the earbuds or running through my studio monitors, but probably wouldn’t use the line-in or mic-in jacks.
Like the H4, when you connect the USB cable to the H2, you’re ready to transfer files to a computer or have the H2 serve as a computer interface. Again, I wouldn’t use the H2 as an interface through its built-in mics, but the file transfer capability is extremely handy.
Giving the H2 a Gig Test
As with the H4, you can record in WAV or MP3 formats. The MP3 format proved useful at a gig where the H2 was first tested. In part, this was because of the long recording time on a 512 meg memory card, but also because the MP3 format is the standard for online sharing. We were in a noisy bar with poor acoustics, but once the crowd thinned out, I decided to record our last set from a table out in front of the band where a some loyal fans were willing to babysit the H2. Playing the recordings back at home, I thought the quality was excellent and the performances were better than usual.
Using a shareware product called MP3Trimmer (deepniner.net/mp3trimmer), I quickly listened to the tunes and picked out four. MP3Trimmer easily extracted the tunes to separate files and another program, MP3Gain (mp3gain.sourceforge.net) helped me bring up the sound level – I didn’t have a chance to fine-tune the recording level while playing, but the low sensitivity setting on the H2 kept levels in bounds.
You can hear the gig recordings at my band’s MySpace site, all done with the Zoom H2 (www.myspace.com/tornadoesblues).
The H2 went to a second gig where we performed in a small restaurant with a stripped down trio of guitar, bass, harmonica and vocals. I set the H2 on a shelf above a wine rack at the back of the room and let it run. Again, the recordings were crystal clear, so much so that we could understand conversations between the wait staff and the diners – I’ll pick a better recording location next time! The recording at that gig was well-balanced, with clean highs and smooth, focused lows.
Another handy use – one I didn’t take advantage of – is to record a practice where we typically play in a circle. Set the H2 to 2-channel surround and everybody gets into the mix with little fuss. This would be great to record an acoustic livingroom jam, too. And if you’re a podcaster, imagine using the H2 in either 2- or 4-channel mode to record an interview with just one device and no extra mics.
Which Recorder to Pick?
In all, both the H2 and H4 are excellent recorders, chock full of features and priced at a very nice level. With care, both should last quite awhile. The H2 typically sells for about $200 and the H3 for $300. If you want to record your gigs and practices, the H2 is a no-brainer choice. If you envision more recording needs – song writing on the road, for example – the H4 will easily do that, plus record your gigs as you go.
The H2 shows that Zoom learned some things from its first venture with the H4. For many of us, we don’t really need effects, mic and amp modeling, 4-channel recording and all the rest. In their place, we’d like easier, more intuitive controls that get the recording job done with fewer operator errors. By concentrating on the essentials needed in a field recorder, the H2 provides quality recording at a new low price point. The SD card on the H2 is easier to reach through a bottom hatch, and the accessories are nicely functional. For my gig recording needs, the H2 is the Handy Recorder of choice.
Buy if...
you want a value-priced recorder with easy-to-learn basic functions.
Skip if...
you need multi-tracking or convential input jacks for guitars or mics.
Rating...
