Project Übernörd

2002-11-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

noodles. coffee. cycle~ 440.

2002-11-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

*Good*morning! noidonothaveahangover threelargebudvarsdonotgiveyouhangovers when you're on a Nutritious Diet(tm). I slept way too much (5 hours) but I did sleep very well.

Geek, student and bohemian lifestyles don't mix. Geek need Brain and therefore no Alcohol. How depresing.

My last log entries yesterday were eaten by a random bug-of-the-system. I am writing this by hand so I won't have to trust those nasty computers to publish it on the web.

Guru pointed out the impossibility of recording sound from within the sound carpet the program is trying to generate. Good point. Guru also came up with the idea of using a simple webcam to track movement within the "cell". Detecting changes in the darkness, contrast etc. of a sequence of images is a fairly straightforward task (in MAX, that is) and so there's a cheap and elegant solution to the sensor problem. Guru is so wise.

No real progress on the Patch. Whenever I feel like I understand MAX, MAX does something unexpected and I'm back to start. But my sounds sound better.

2002-11-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

A few minutes ago I took off my headphones only to discover that Eirik was missing! I found him splashed out on a couch! Perhaps we should reconsider the nutritous content of 3 large pints of Budvar?!
I myself feel a craving for splashing out on something soft... But no! First I've got to have some sort of order in my videomaniac chaos!

Should I drink yet another CULT? They're definitely not based on long-term energy!!!

2002-11-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

I feel an irresistetable urge to crawl into a comforting bubble for a very long time... Ahem.. ahh... I expect great benefits from this project!

2002-11-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

What is sensible??? I mean have you ever FELT it? No... I suppose I've given up on it...

2002-11-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's 00:38 and there's no turning back - I dedicate this night to the wonders of Final Cut, Pro Tools and ... MAX, which will be functioning as I'm-taking-a-break-entertainment, since it's only been 12 hours since the Guru introduced us to this programming wonder - aah... spectacular...

I'm now drinking my second CULT-energy.activator (No shit, somebody actually named it so..) and I must confess: it's working - perhaps not intentionally?! I'm feeling rather hyped and I'm insecure about the energy-factor duration. The can says that it contains maximum content of gurana caffeine... Guarana?! Isn't that some form of bat-shit???

2002-11-19T06:01:00.000-08:00

There is no such thing as caffeine schock. Had there been, I would have experienced it ages ago.

The MAX/MSP program is progressing nicely. It now produces different kinds of annoying sound at different input levels. The sounds are crap, but it's meant to be torture, right? Right.

Disadvantage of visual programming (like MAX): for the graphically inclined, you spend more time making your patch look really great than you do actually programming.

Julie has taken a break from project Übernörd, but not from work. She has simply left the building to get some stuff done outside. Soon I will take a "break", too, to get stuff done in the outside world. Tonight is the real break: 2.5 hrs of Bouvèt Beer.

2002-11-19T03:18:00.000-08:00

Guru is in. He is teaching MAX. I am learning. Right now, he's showing samples of Jitter on the projector. Jitter extends MAX to handle realtime video stream modification, which can be connected to MAX'es arsenal of realtime sound and sensor input tools. Jitter is to die for. My one goal in life is to master all things MAX.

(BODY ALERT: caffeine levels dangerously low, press YES to insert more coffee, press CANCEL to be reminded in one hour)

2002-11-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

Been awake for 2 hours now, struggling with the DAT-machine!
This morning I nearly managed to go through a casual morning ritual: Get up, get dressed, wash face, do toiletish stuff, drink coffee, smoke,drink more coffe, smoke, eat breakfast, smoke... Now I'll await the Guru's arrival. There's nothing else to do! And I'm impatient! I should very much like to get started.
Todays program:
-edit 1. edition of sounds - find a rythm
-scan some x-rays for the video
-make a sketch for my visual diary
-if there's time or I'm not too exhausted: Begin to match sound and video

2002-11-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

The school makes strange noises at night, like some big ship or factory in process or I dunno. I dreamt about a guy who had frozen to death in a storm of pixels. You could see them dripping off the ice on his face.

3.5 hrs. of not very good sleep. Too much. Must find the optimal work-caffeine-sleep balance.

2002-11-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

NOTE: I just went to the toilet and locked the door!!! Strange since there's no one here except me and Eirik...

2002-11-18T16:43:00.000-08:00

Verdammt!!! Or whatever it's called ... I had just written heaps of stuff to the blog, when some idiotic so-called illegal system failure occurred!!
Ah well, I just wanted to notify that I've just experienced a quantum leap

2002-11-18T15:45:00.000-08:00

00:34. The school's alarm system kicked in at 00:00, meaning there will be no entering or exiting the school until 07:00. No turning back now, project übernörd is a reality. Hard to focus on the S.O.S. project: I have a couple of more-or-less nasty sounds generated and tweaked and layered in ProTools. I have a beginning MAX/MSP patch.Tomorrow, Morten Carlsen (henceforth called "Guru") will be back to tell me exactly what I need. Until I receive the word of Guru, I am lost in the Shadow of the Valley of Dead Kilobytes.

I am beginning to see the contours of the project übernörd Daily Nutritious* Diet-in-a-Box:
- 1 vitamineral pill (they're all good)
- 20 Kings (brown, blue or yellow, depending on personal preference)
- 1 litre of coffee + 1/4 litre milk. Milk to be mixed with coffee. (sugar is for wankers)
- 6 units of Yum Yum or Minute Instant Noodles. (minute's taste better, but yum yums come with three different plastic packs of oil and spices)
- Chemically flavoured pink chewing gum w/nicotine (for prolonged periods of exposure to non-smoking space)

Product research notes: Isostar(r) Fast Hydration(r) New Formula Energy Drink. Not as good as Battery, Cult or Red Bull. But drinkable.

* The word "nutritous" is used according to the McDonalds definition, not the medical or biological definition. Project Übernörd(tm) is not in any way liable for malnutrition-related deaths following the totally unrelated consumption of our products.

2002-11-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

My work process is dangerously close to become sporadic - unfocused. This must not happen... I'm trying to combine a video clip with a man screaming his heart out and a heartbeat, sounds and noises.... The man in the video holds his hands to his ears and is capable of listening to his heartbeat and the instance he let go he hears his own screams... It's an experiment in giving the inside and outside sound of a human - recognizable sounds (my English is a bit rusty I fear...)
Eirik... that is a cruel statement/idea... but I like it - "why?! It's compeletly new!" (qoute: Skeleton Jack)

About living off instant noodles and vitamin pills... What about coffee and smokes?????????? Which leads me to the reasonable and logical conclusion that I need a cigaret and COFFEE!!!!

Stuff on my desk:
1) A plastic football
2) a noodlebowl
3) a pair of ugly glasses which I bought during the dot-com wave (Now, there's an excuse!)
4) A DAT-tape frowned with weird sounds made by myself
5) One comicbook
6) My all-time favourite Power Puff alarm clock
7) Eeh... my old-school surfin' cell-phone: Siemens C35
8) And last but not least: COFFEE!

2002-11-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

I wonder if you can live off just instant noodles and vitamin pills?

Eiriks project: S.O.S. - Sonic Opression System

Problem: While interactive technology permeates almost every aspect of modern culture, the field of torture remains essentially the same as in the middle ages. While these ancient techniques are certainly effective, they lack the essential cool sought by todays hip, urban torturist. With the explosion in the North American and European prison-industrial complexes, the modern torture-aware industrialists need refined technological methods to cut costs in an increasingly competitive sector.

Design Solution: The Sonic Opression System (S.O.S.) will be a long-term cost-effecient way of Keeping Prisoners Down while still giving them a hard time. The base idea is that prisoners must not be allowed to sleep or relax (long-term effecient torture), but neither must they be allowed to shout, be agressive or fight (contraproductive). The S.O.S. uses an array of sensors to regulate the sound carpet of the area (the "cell"). If prisoners are motionless and/or silent, surrounding sound is annoying and with a high volume. If prisoners talk loudly and move with rapid movements, the sound carpet becomes equally annoying. If prisoners talk and move at a normal pace and volume, the sound carpet will be somewhat more friendly. The S.O.S makes sleep impossible and resistance undesirable, leading to a physical (and subsequently, psychological) breakdown of the prisoner(s) after which more blatant methods of torture or correction maybe employed.

Technical Specifications of prototype:
1. An array of sensors and microphones gathering data from the cell ("area")
2. An I-cubeX MIDI port connecting the sensors to:
3. An Apple Macintosh computer
4. Loudspeakers surrounding the area
5. A MAX/MSP patch (program) translating microphone/sensor input into audio torture output.

Time frame Expected alpha trials thursday, expected working beta by friday.

2002-11-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

Alright! These noodles beats the Hell out of Yum Yum... it's quite nutritional considering the fact that we will hardly move in a physical way for the next 5 days. I think I'll take a break now, enjoy my noodles and flip through a comicbook...

2002-11-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

It is now time for instant noodles - we've never tried this brand before and it might well turn out disasterous if we dislike the flavour - YUM YUM is better...

2002-11-18T13:35:00.000-08:00

The degeneration of Western civilization began with the invention of the perspective drawing.

The discovery of perspective was the kick-off for the witch burnings, the development of nationalism (and hence, fascism and nazism), protestantism, Fine Art and other unspeakable acts of evil.

On moral grounds I therefore refuse to draw anything in perspective.

2002-11-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Contents of todays shopping basket:
- Little Cook Noodles, chicken flavour: 12 units
- Little Cook Noodles, curry flavour: 6 units
- Coca Cola: 3 litres
- 500g Coffee
- unspecified new weird orange-flavoured energy drink: 2 units (will purchase more if tastes well)

days left till deadline: 5