Australians don't have the first amendment, which is becoming clearer everyday.
As Labour have done quite a bit of lately, they’re trying to get more sweeping changes through whilst everyone is looking away. This time, whilst the world is watching Copenhagen, Senator Conroy has suddenly decided that the Australian internet filter trial completed in September was a resounding success and will now become mandatory.
There’s an unending list of reasons why it won’t – or shouldn’t – work, but what concerns me more is the arrogant attitude with which Labour is approaching more and more legislation. They do not have the mandate of the public (nor those who are considered ‘professionals’ in the area) which voted them in not so long ago and should stop behaving as such. It only takes a quick search of Twitter to spot just how many people are baffled by what’s taking place. And once the Government takes control of website blacklisting (claims of an ‘independent board’ are dubious at best), it surely won’t be long before policy dissidents are quietly removed from public view.
So with this kind of attitude coming from those in power, it often feels as though people can’t make a change. And to be honest, it’s unclear whether Conroy will rethink his position. However, we can make as much noise as possible, to let the government know we not only have a voice, but are prepared to speak out against abuse of power. Using the internet against him, fill up Conroy’s inbox with sharp words at the excellent GetUp!, or get involved with those behind No Clean Feed. We may have to use our voices to keep them.
Update 18/12/2009: Bernard Keane has posted an article outlining the best way to ensure your letters to Conroy get noticed. Good advice that I’m betting will annoy a few public servants.
So there is quite a large gap between this post and the last in terms of work done. Whilst the technology I was developing the project with didn’t change too much, I spent a great deal of my time refining its response to the interaction of the dancers. A decision made in my concept, I didn’t want to inhibit the movement of the performers, but instead the technology should support their actions.
So where possible, I continued to map the movements of the dancers and look for clear data that I could use as a trigger. Watching the incoming values within OSCulator and Processing was helpful, even if a little bit overwhelming – the most difficult part was refining the information to block out unwanted noise.
Here are a few sequences during the mapping process (apologies for the poor quality)…
It’s been a while since I posted. The Festival Of Scott began on November 19th and continued for around 4 days, pretty much making me incapable of coherent speech, let alone dispensing worthwhile blog posts. After The Festival Of Scott ended, The Vacation Of Scott’s Immune System began, then I quickly hit The Madness Of Finders Keepers Preparation, which brings you all up to date…
As part of the music stage I was running at The Finders Keepers markets, I decided to introduce some live visuals. I started building a basic video mixer in Processing, but after a few ill-advised incarnations (v2, v3, v4, v5), I was distracted by the flashy lights of the newly released MaxForLive. With Jitter being a part of MaxForLive, I thought it would be a good chance to dip my toe into the graphic-programming-language-behemoth.
It wasn’t long before I realised I was out of my depth. For anyone looking to MaxForLive/MaxMSP for visuals, don’t expect to be able to jump straight into the deep end. You really do need to start with the basics, which Max does provide with a truly excellent tutorial system. Even though it’s a graphic language, it’s certainly no easier than taking on something like Processing. In fact, I’d probably recommend starting with Processing – I personally believe learning the basics of code helps to understand some of the structures within Max. And there are excellent opportunities to combine the two on the way.
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