Dallas Jeffs – The Speaker News Journal

Business Better Than Ever At The Last Cassette Factory

September 9, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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Springfield, Missouri is home to the National Audio Company — or as it is colloquially known, the Last Cassette Factory. It’s a fairly self-explanatory name. NAC is indeed the last major producer of audio cassette tapes still in business in the United States — a business that’s better than ever thanks to the retro movement encouraging a growing number of bands and audio producers, young and old, to return to the music-sharing media of decades past.

President of the NAC Steve Stepp has said in numerous interviews that his company was surprisingly unhurt by the large scale move from cassettes to CDs, and from CDs to MP3s. According to production manager Susie Brown, bands today are increasingly driven back toward the “warm analogue sound” of cassettes and records.

Perhaps part of the reason for the NAC’s persistence is that during the heyday of cassettes, the company mainly produced tapes for spoken word performers and blanks for private use. This meant that when the CD wave hit, the company was largely untouched. Fast-forward to 2014 which saw company producing over 10 million tapes – and sales are up another 20 percent this year. Albums being printed on NAC tapes include a Metallica album and a special release of the theatrical soundtrack for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Cassettes may be a more tangible and personal way of sharing music — if you ask some people, like music critic Rob Sheffield, cassettes are far more romantic than MP3’s. There’s certainly something to be said for being able to give a friend a painstakingly recorded mix tape in the form of an actual tape, rather than just uploading it to their iPod or posting it online. Cassettes are also more portable than fragile, easily scratched CDs – it’s easy to throw one in your backpack or on the seat of your car, and expensive carrying cases are rarely required.

Undoubtedly the resurgence of tapes relies at least in part on the nostalgia of an older generation who grew up with the tapes and now has the money and influence to start bringing them back to the mainstream, as well as hipsters picking up on the fad of retro music mediums like vinyl. At any rate, especially with new “cassette-only” labels now popping up, it might be time to head down to the thrift store to pick up a cassette player of your own.

By Dallas Jeffs

Snarkitechture’s THE BEACH Transforms Museum Landscape

September 2, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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The National Building Museum in Washington, DC, has become host to THE BEACH, an installation that emulates a natural landscape while flying in the face of museum tradition. The oddly commercialized, sleek shoreline is a vaguely humorous, somewhat subversive take on multiple modes of summer leisure.

The show, running until September 7^th,2015, is getting most of its press for the inclusion of a 10,000 square-foot ball pit, composed of almost one million recyclable plastic balls in a uniform translucent white. At the end of this ball pit “ocean” is a wall of mirrorsthat play the role of a distant horizon, providing the illusion that the ocean goes on forever.

Creators Daniel Ashram and Alex Mustonen are the duo behind the Brooklyn-based design collective Snarkitechture. THE BEACH seems perfectly in keeping with the firm’s usual style. Frequently ustilizing stark white objects and often addressing themes of consumerist and design-oriented society, the team specializes in large installations, innovative interior designs, and art projects with a slightly subversive, humorous edge.

THE BEACH is an interesting addition to any museum space, encouraging guests to sit in chairs and idle on its shores, eat organic, fair-trade snacks from the included Union Kitchen snack bar, and to “swim” in the ball pit. All these activities seem to exist in a place of passive opposition to the traditions of a museum, where food is forbidden, guests glance at paintings and sculptures for a few seconds before moving on, and where touching any artwork is strictly forbidden.

It might not be a germ-a-phobe’s paradise, though the museum assures visitors that all of the balls in the pit are molded with anti-microbial agents, as well as being sprayed with anti-microbials and cleaned nightly. The average person should leave the BEACH with their health, but good luck if your phone happens to fall out of your pocket while you swim toward the mirrored horizon.

What is clear is that while the exhibition has been on, the National Building Museum has reported a threefold increase in the number of visitors it’s welcomed during its summer season. Is this sort of interactivity the answer to revitalizing the museum experience? We’ll have to wait and see as more and more artists begin to experiment with the medium.

By Dallas Jeffs

British Library Wants Your Help Decoding Text on Ancient Sword

August 26, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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The British Library is asking the internet for aid in deciphering a mysterious inscription on an 800-year-old sword. Discovered in 1825 on the river Withal in Lincolnshire, the sword is currently on view at an exhibition at the Library entitled Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy. As of this posting, Library researchers have yet to decipher the code. Comments are now closed on the original blog post, however those still curious are invited to share their thoughts on Twitter.

The ancient sword dates back to around the year 1200, a time when it was considered a status symbol for a knight to wield a sword with an inscription. This is according to Utrecht University professor Marc van Hasselt, who has provided some context for the sword’s origins on the British Library’s blog. According to van Hasselt, it is possible that a certain medieval workshop began making inscribed swords and selling them to the elite, perhaps with the pitch that these inscriptions imbued the weapons with mystical power. The blade of the sword appears to be made from German steel, while the hilt is English in origin.

The mystery inscription appears to read as a series of capitalized letters: +NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+. Researchers thus far tend to believe that the words are an acronym for a religious prayer or invocation. Because Latin was the international language of the area at the time, it is highly likely that the letters represent Latin words or phrases.

If a conclusion is reached, this won’t be the first time that internet users have successfully translated mysterious writing on ancient artifacts. In 2014 the University of Chicago Library held an online contest to see if internet users could help experts decode the unusual marginalia in one 500-year-old copy of Homer’s Odyssey. The text was eventually decoded by an ltalian computer engineer, with the help of google books and various online databases. As it turned out, the text was simply a rough French translation of the original Greek.

By Dallas Jeffs

The Cultivist Opens Exclusive Doors To The Art World

August 12, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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Want become an art world insider but not sure where to start? Marlies Verhoeven and Daisy Peat might be able to help you. The duo are the co-founders of The Cultivist, a web-based members-only club that promises exclusive, expertly moderated access to museums, art fairs, and the inner workings of the art world – though some critics question the service’s ability to replace years of education and experience.

The concierge service turned private club is accepting 1,000 members in its first year of business. For Americans, the annual fee is $2,500; for residents of the U.K., £1,900 and for the rest of Europe, €2,700. For this price, you’ll enjoy free, front-of-the-line access to museums and galleries, VIP access to art fairs and private events, and even access to the CEOs’ personal network of art insiders who are ready to “deepen your relationship with art.”

While business seems to be going well for the duo, critics of the service wonder how it will affect an industry that is built on years of education, personal experience and subjective understanding. As one reporter at Hyperallergic notes, “contemporary art in particular is often rewarding in almost direct proportion to the effort exerted to unpack its various and serried meanings.” The Cultivist promises easy, instant access to crucial art fairs and a curated selection of well-known international museums. The argument here is that there is more enjoyment to be gleaned from spending years waiting to get into museums, visiting art fairs with the tourist crowd, and acquiring an individual sense of what art is and what it means, than there is in simply paying to have someone else explain it to you.

The company states that there are no restrictions on who can become a member, however the prohibitive fees and questionnaire required to apply may be interpreted as contrary to that assertion. What is true is that the Cultivist is funded on membership alone, meaning it receives no payouts from institutions in exchange for favoring them in its services. Applicants can rest assured that they will be privy to an unbiased, experienced view of the art world – even if it is someone else’s.

Matt Parker’s New Electronic Music Uses Sounds of Computing

August 5, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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A new project by British sound artist Matt Parker uses an archive of historic computers as instruments. Using computers on display at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, U.K., Parker has created a full-length album of ambient electronic music titled The Imitation Archive.

The National Museum of Computing is devoted to the history of modern computers and their uses, with physical examples dating all the way back to 1939. While the computers in the museum remain largely functional, they are not in use while the museum is open to visitors. Bletchley Park is best known as the historic location of the Government Code and Cypher School, where the Enigma cypher of WWII was broken.

Parker’s album is a ghostly homage to the sounds of computing, something surprisingly far removed from the gentle hum of the desktops and laptops that most people have in their homes today. The opening song WITCH is an eerie, ambient track that creates a building tension – equal parts movie score and haunted house sound-effect. The track relies in part on the clicking, shuffling and creaking noises made by the 1951 Harwell Dekatron WITCH computer, the world’s oldest functioning digital computer. The computer was restored by a team of volunteers between 2009 and 2012 and was rebooted on November 20^th, 2012, in front of two of its original designers.

Each of the 10 tracks on the album are constructed from combinations of the 126 separate recordings that Parker made during one night spent running the computers in the museum. The name of the album is a reference to the recent film The Imitation Game, about computing pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing.

The Imitation Archive is available for download by donation on Bandcamp.com, and more of Parker’s sound works can be found on his Bandcamp page or on his personal website.

Artist Douglas Coupland 3-D scanning and printing Canadians for 4-year project

July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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Vancouver, British Columbia artist Douglas Coupland is visiting Simons department stores across Canada, scanning and 3-D printing customer volunteers for an art project that will be unveiled in 2019. The project will be shown in conjunction with the opening of a new Simons location in Yorktown, Ontario. Commissioned by Peter Simons, CEO of the Canadian chain of department stores, the work intends to emphasize the chain’s ongoing support of the arts.

Titled 3DCanada, Coupland’s project will be a collection of miniature busts of the individuals who are scanned during his tour. He plans to scan around 1,200 people in total over the course of his tour. Each finished bust will be roughly five centimeters in height, and the artist plans to apply gold leaf to the white plastic in the final piece. Coupland’s idea for the project began when he purchased his own 3-D printer and began offering personalized busts to house guests.

The artist is known for his work with technology and speculative futures, having achieving wide-spread recognition for his 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Waxing existential on the subject of the 3-D printed objects, Coupland notes that the idea of 3-D printing seems to hang between the 2^nd and 3^rd dimensions. Each bust is effectively a mirror that can be viewed from all angles.

Coupland plans on continuing his tour until 2017, visiting a total of six Simons locations. His visits will take place on Saturdays during regular business hours, allowing roughly 100 people per visit the opportunity to be scanned. The scans are free and each volunteer will receive a bust which will be ready for pick-up the following week. The next two scanning sessions will take place at Simons locations in Vancouver, BC and Mississauga, Ontario.

The Globe and Mail

Montreal Gazette

Central Park Statue Fund seeks to honour historic women

July 29, 2015July 20, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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Of the current 22 historic figures who have been memorialized as statues in New York’s Central Park, none are women. Now several residents of New York have started a fund in order to raise money for statues of notable female figures.

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund is helmed by President Pam Elam, Vice President Coline Jenkins and Vice President Dr. Miriam Miedzian. The quest to include more women among the park’s memorials effectively began in November 2014, when Jenkins addressed NYC Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver during a talk by the latter at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. Jenkins announced to Silver that there were no statues of women in the park; Silver admitted that he was unaware of the issue. Jenkins is the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a noted suffragist and women’s rights activist.

While statues in Central Park currently include fictional characters such as Alice from Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland” and Juliet from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” representations of real women remain notably absent from the park’s grounds. Previous plans have brought up the possibility of erecting commemorative statues of women such as Brooke Astor and Princess Diana, though none have made it to the construction phase. This seems especially odd considering the relative obscurity of some of the male figures in the park – for example, a large equestrian statue of 14th century Polish king Jagiello.

In May 2015, the fund gained the approval of the parks department for placement of the statues near the 77th Street entrance to the park. Thus far, all of the statues installed in Central Park have been funded privately, rather than through city commissions. The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund is now collecting donations, noting that it will have to raise as much as a million dollars to cover the design, installation and ongoing maintenance of the statues.

By Dallas Jeffs

Hyperallergic
NY Times
Central Park Where Are The Women

USC’s Roski students call for removal of dean

July 29, 2015July 18, 2015 by Dallas Jeffs

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In an ongoing saga of controversy over changes to the MFA program at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design, a petition has been started with the goal of removing Erica Muhl from her current position as dean of the program.

This comes roughly two months after the entire first year MFA class dropped out of enrollment at the school due to changes that were made to the program without their prior knowledge. Among the changes was a notable reduction in the amount of paid teaching experience that the seven students expected to receive, along with unexplained changes to core faculty. These apparent cuts to the MFA program came despite a recent $70 million gift to the school from music industry giants Jimmy Lovine and Andre Young.

On July 14, the former MFA students posted the petition on Change.org, addressing USC president Max Nikias and board of trustees provost Michael Quick. The description on the website includes accusations that Muhl and other school administrators are being overcompensated at the expense of students, and that the dean has acted unethically in refusing to adequately discuss changes to the program. Three days after its posting the petition had over 300 signatures, with 500 as the goal.

To date, Muhl has responded to the controversy by suspending recruitment for the MFA program, noting that the 2017 program had accepted only one applicant. The dean admitted that outrage and subsequent media attention has negatively affected recruitment for the Roski MFA program, though she maintained that the changes are relatively minor and would not have interfered with the experience of the students who dropped out.

By Dallas Jeffs

Hyperallergic
Hyperallergic
Artnet
LA Times
Change.org