tom moody

Have been working on my "main site" or portal page. Added the photo from LA's Distributed Gallery of one my bitmap animations on a TV monitor in a restaurant hallway. Added the "press clips" link from my sidebar--a million thanks to anyone who took the time to write about what I'm doing. Fixed broken links--it's always interesting to see what has changed and what has disappeared. And slightly updated my "artwork archive" page, to include links to work I've been posting on this blog since July '07. That page, and my art archiving in general is scattered and slightly incoherent. It led at least one editor to tell a writer he couldn't review "isolated instances of work." The concept of a cumulative mass or virtual image cloud is not a ready sell.

Have been using the same artists' statement--about failed computing--since I wrote it around '00. Although it continues to locate me in the "artists using computers" camp, as distinguished from new media, it's basically a dodge. It's always easy for an artist to talk about media or process issues as a way of not talking about the psycho/sexual/narrative/interior issues of what's going on in your work. My archive includes work made before I started using the computer almost exclusively, around '97 or so. Whatever themes carried over are probably what the work is really "about." It's hard to condense to a paragraph.

"Jam Science (Arpeggios)" [4.4 MB .mp3]

Kontakt 2 has an arpeggiator script I've avoided using till now. A little of that stuff goes a long way but this is short and I've piled three arpeggiating synths on top of each other for maximum doomy psychedelia. The "Jam Science" beats are running underneath so it can't get too serious. It appears my blog will now consist of posting the songs I'm spending days working on and old pictures. I have felt marvelously free of any compulsion to write about other needy artists' work lately, so, sorry. Except in comments of other blogs.

A friend suggested I put some vocals in these songs. Yeah, and what your paintings need are some friendly farm animals in them to warm them up.

Update: Took about six seconds of arpeggioing out at the beginning. I now have it down the maximum of what I can tolerate.

Jungle Spheres (ink, paper, linen tape 17 x 12.5 inches)

"Jam Science" [6.3 MB .mp3]

Minimal high school techno. Belatedly discovering a Reaktor synth called Rhythmmaker: simple front panel, easy to program, no mystification in the form of hidden effects parameters. The attempt here was to wring content from changes in "air" or room tone, as three basic drum patterns change abruptly from one level of reverb to another. Some basic FM riffs provide bare bones melodic content. Could probably take about a minute out of this but for now it is long (for me) and messy.

Update: Shortened by almost two minutes, some new drum parts substituted for old ones.

"Disco Volition" [5.8 MB .mp3]

More robo-latinate stylings, mostly done with Kontakt 2.

via lalblog.tumblr

Painter discovers art can be made with personal computing device, Earth moves

AbExcremental discussion (painter discovers action painting resembles feces-smearing, Earth moves)

my web page for an online exhibit. the theme was announced by email at 4 pm and artists had 4 hours to complete their projects. organized by harm van den dorpel for the IRL exhibit at Capricious Space, Brooklyn, March 8, 2009.

the show is still viewable at club internet.

copied and pasted:

framed photos of Konrad Fischer in 1967 and Ghislain Mollet-Viéville in 1975
photos from the Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden (former SS bunkers and Hitler’s eagles nest)
photos of bunkers in Switzerland camouflaged as rock formations
photos of cars with furniture and other worldly possession tied precariously on top of them
photo of tourist taking other tourist's photo with white sculptures of lion, classical figure, modernist abstractions, etc behind them
photos of smashed kaleidoscope contents in floor puddles
silhouetted man studies digital projection of bodybuilder on wall (link to video)
16th Century woodcut of holy roman emperor leading spear-carrying aboriginals
barefoot and/or injured people re-enact G8 summit conference
gold scimitar encrusted with gold plated jewels, skulls, and tumorous growths
gray and white sculpture in gallery space resembling model of high rise building
blurry photos of high rise apartment towers with green space (river banks) in foreground
ebay logo rendered on canvas with Abstract Expressionist paint splashes
relationpalooza: "Negotiation skills course, staff of the Kunstverein München, verbal interactions, ink on paper"
original diagram of a museum display case, glass shelving and bought, found and borrowed artifacts
five vitrines in row: four with tropical plants and one with projector aimed at paper rolls on wall with fractal marbling
group show installation photo with stack of DJ crates and mosaic grid of illegible images
scale model of escalator made of cardboard, plexiglas, enamel paint, MDF board
electronic sensor pads attached to public stair-rail with title "Tuned Stairway"
mazes in art 5: exterior construction scaffolding and stairs fill Mediterranean-style gallery interior
mazes in art 4: construction of wood 2x4s in gallery supports ascending spiral ramp
mazes in art 3: yellow tent scaffolding forms nested yellow arches in gallery
mazes in art 2: yoko ono plexiGlas maze in gallery
mazes in art 1: spiral jetty-like wooden raft
solid colors of acrylic paint poured on tops of mock-Neolithic vases
grisaille computer graphic of cast shadows in domestic interior with JG Ballard reference in title
black "Ad Reinhardt" made with CSS for web page
motion detectors analyze lightness distinctions of images taken by the cameras on opposite sides of each other
translucent rhomboids overlap Cubist-style against black background (still from video)
cut-up, painted-on map appears to be dripping blood
digital photo pastiche of kitsch objects hovering in front of grisaille gradient
anni albers 1947 horizontal band abstraction made of cotton, hemp, and metallic thread
computer program breaks down film into vertical/horizontal lines or concentric squares
18 antennas in gallery space represent antenna field of military base
21 monitors face each other in circle with individually looping dvds of b&w photo imagery
upside down white plaster building with doric columns supporting moonscape on "roof"
diptych of Christian crosses made of illegible materials (track lighting and wall molding?) against white and wood grain surfaces
magician's wand photographed in sections on shiny surface
makeshift raft with ladder and home furnishings floats in ocean surf
photos of car radios "taken while good music was playing"
grey, washy, biomorphic, psychosexual Picasso drawing
list of almost every city, town, village, or named living location in the world (book and video)
olympic themed photo collage with checkerboards in mall atrium
john chamberlainesque crushed airplane on sidewalk
kaleidoscopic grisaille pattern projected from tripod onto glass (?) panel
data moshy pastiche with blurred faces, partially legible pixelated imagery including palm trees

"The Beast Two" [5.8 MB .mp3]

Minimal tech hip-house. Four drum loops were run through various analog and digital filters and then overlayed.