70 Billion Pixels Budapest: 360 degree panorama image
"The observation tower of János-hegy [the Elizabeth Lookout on János Hill is], the highest vantage point of Budapest with a 360 degree panorama, was an obvious location. It also allowed us to take on previous world records in both the 'highest definition image' and the 'largest spherical panorama' category. When contacted, the Council of District XII informed us on the upcoming anniversary of the tower. We agreed to cooperate in commemorating the September 2010 event by setting up new world records-give them our best shot if you please. ."
(360systems Ltd., 360world.eu)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Blur Building: Anti high-definition and visual fidelity
"The Blur Building was built for the Swiss Expo 2002 on Lake Neuchatel. It is an architecture of atmosphere. The lightweight tensegrity structure measures 300 feet wide by 200 feet deep by 75 feet high. The primary building material is indigenous to the site, water. Water is pumped from the lake, filtered, and shot as a fine mist through 31,500 high-pressure mist nozzles. A smart weather system reads the shifting climactic conditions of temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and processes the data in a central computer that regulates water pressure.
Upon entering the fog mass, visual and acoustic references are erased, leaving only an optical 'white-out' and the 'white-noise' of pulsing nozzles. Blur is an anti-spectacle. Contrary to immersive environments that strive for high-definition visual fidelity with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition: there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself."
(Diller Scofidio + Renfro)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Limitations of Acoustical Recording
"In 1925 the electrical broadcasting microphone was introduced into gramophone studios. Because of its enormously greater range and sensitivity the microphone revolutionised gramophone recording overnight. Thinking about recording methods as they had been during his entire career up to 1925, Fred Gaisberg wrote:
In some ways acoustic recording flattered the voice. A glance at the rich catalogue of that period will show that it was the heyday of the singer.... The inadequacy of the accompaniments to the lovely vocal records made in the Acoustic Age was their great weakness. There was no pretence of using the composer's score; we had to arrange it for wind instruments [largely] ... and all nuances (such as pianissimo effects) were omitted ....
Acoustically recorded sound had reached the limit of progress. The top frequencies were triple C - 2,088 vibrations per second - and the low remained at E - 164 vibrations per second. Voices and instruments (especially stringed instruments) were confined rigidly within these boundaries, although the average human ear perceives from 30 to 15,000 vibrations per second, and musical sounds range from 60 to 8,000 vibrations"
(Marc Shepherd)
A VOICE IN TIME: The Gramophone Of Fred Gaisberg 1873-1951", Jerrold Northrop Moore, Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London: 1976
[extract Fred Gaisberg compared the limitations of acoustic recording with the improvements in sound fidelity available with electric recording; which he first found out about from his old friend, Russell Hunting]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Authenticity: Authority Of The Object
"The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning, ranging from its substantive duration to its testimony to the history which it has experienced. Since the historical testimony rests on the authenticity, the former, too, is jeopardised by reproduction when substantive duration ceases to matter. And what is really jeopardised when the historical testimony is affected is the authority of the object."
(Walter Benjamin, p.221)
Benjamin, Walter. 1988 Illuminations, New York, US: Random House.
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
