November
12, 2008 -
Owl Project short listed for SHARE
PRIZE 2008! Italy's
oldest pole lathe expert tries out Owl Project Sound Lathe
at SHARE festival 08, what a way to end the festival -
we put on a special show for this guy who turned up specially
to see us!
Interviews with the artists involved in the exhibition Share
Prize 2008: Chistine Sugrue, Emanuel Andel, D3D, Kentaro Yamada,
Owl Project, Scenocosme.
Leonardo
Music Journal 17 (2007)
My Favorite Things: The Joy of the Gizmo
Owl project feature in the CD 'The
Art of the Gremlin: Inventive Musicians, Curious Devices'
curated by Sarah Washington. The LMJ series is devoted to aesthetic
and technical issues in contemporary music and the sonic arts.
Currently under the editorship of Nicolas Collins, each thematic
issue features artists/writers from around the world, representing
a wide range of stylistic viewpoints. Each volume includes the
latest offering from the LMJ CD series---an exciting sampling
of curious and unusual, but eminently listenable, music. Independently
curated and annotated by experts and aficionados, these CDs offer
a feast for the ear and mind a like.
April
12, 2007Sound Chair
- Owl
Project in Edale
This specially commissioned project explores the relationship
between the crafting of physical objects and the shaping of sound.
12/04/07 DEAF07 - V2
Dutch electronic art festival. 'Interact
of Die! http://www.v2.nl/
Rotterdam NL (Antony Hall will be representing the Owl Project
at the critical ecosystems seminar) 28/04/07 Phoenix
gallery
Brighton UK http://www.phoenixarts.org/exhibitions.htm
(See the Log1k SoundLathe, and the first iLog's on show)
06/05/07 Lovebyteshttp://www.lovebytes.org.uk/
Sheffield UK. (We make a new sound lathe and work with Mike Abbott
to make the exciting new SoundChair - finally we will have the
technology to sit down) 02/10/07
21.30 Musikprotokoll Close
Enough – Music and the immediate
On sewing and cooking, lying and loving, listening to radio and
listening to music
Goodiepal/Gæoudjiparl
conducts planets and makes his mechanical birds sing for the
audience. Owl Project plays iLog's to turn the hearing habits
of the iPod generation upside down. And FM3 invites visitors
to “Buddha Boxing” (the acoustic game with the
Buddha Machine developed by them), finally rounding off the
concert evening with Es and Staalplaat Soundsystem – who
also play Buddha Machine; an evening full of new, wondrous
instruments that blurs the traditional line between music production
and music reception as an intimate dialogue.r/calendar.php?eid=295
Nature can be defined as the physical world containing all natural
phenomenas and living things, including the forces and mechanisms
that collectively controls and run these processes independently
of human volition or intervention. Mankind has tried to master
and refine these mechanisms from its very beginning. " NATURE
[of man]" presents artists and researchers with projects
that takes a deeper look into man´s relation to nature,
and the consequences and possibilities that lies therein."
.....Le Projet Hibou, littéralement, rassemble Simon Blackmore
et Antony Hall, deux artistes de Manchester, branchés
science et technologie, qui passent leur temps à inventer
toutes sortes de machines. Un soir, alors qu'ils font du camping
dans la forêt, ils allument un feu, dégainent leur
sampleur et s'amusent à communiquer avec les oiseaux de
nuit en mimant leurs ululements. Le Owl Project est né à la
suite de cette cession nocturne de 1998. Les deux comparses retournent
dans la forêt, tailladent un tronc à terre et ramènent
des rondins avec l'idée d'en faire une sorte de laptop
: «On s'est dit qu'on pourrait créer notre propre
style en mimant les craquements et crépitements d'un feu
de camp, on a voulu émuler le son d'un laptop dans une
bûche.» De leurs multiples bidouilles naît
une première version de l'instrument qu'ils baptisent «Log1k».
Un rondin (log) fendu en deux avec un faux écran luminescent,
un disque en bois activé par un moteur, des piles, des
fils électriques, des interrupteurs... «On était
tous deux versés dans la sculpture mais on n'avait jamais
touché à l'électronique.» Ce qui explique
peut-être que, lors de leur première performance,
les haut-parleurs ont pris feu...... See
full article -- http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=327543 Desperate
Poaching Affray
For Star radio The International Owl Project have created an
audio soundtrack to William Haggar's silent film Desperate Poaching
Affray (1903). As opposed to creating a musical interpretation
of the film The Owl’s have recorded and edited field recordings
precisely to the film. The soundtrack sonically adapts cinematic
techniques developed by Haggar. Listen
to all the
star projects
here... see
more images
of this project...
It is beautiful. I love the square corners and sleekness.
Even without a screen, I think it is aesthetically
pleasing.
-Bryan
Another Player for the Birkenstock carriers among us: ILog,
the current product of the Owl Projects, has a housing to
the largest part from wood exists. The Player had a photograph
function with which one Soundhaeppchen also at the same time
mix can. Who wants to rumlaufen there already still with
a plastics Player in the trouser pocket?
http://www.gizmodo.com/
iLog Sample Machine
The iLog is a second-generation electronic music device from
Owl Project. With a series of touch-sensitive knobs and switches
(aren’t they all?), the iLog lets you record samples
and loop them from one easy, woodland device. It’s
a personal project, though, not something mass-produced,
so just look and love. It does make me wonder, though: how
hard would it be to mill a super-thin wooden veneer for the
back of an iPod? Wood would be so much better than smudgy
metal http://www.ofoghlu.net/log/ http://www.dapreview.net
Caveman-style
player: the iLog
We're not sure what this thing really is, but it appears to be
some kind of DAP-like device stuffed into half of a log and that's
pretty awesome by itself. The guys who made it call themselves "The
Owl Project" and only supply us with these few details:
• Touch-sensitive switches
• Record samples and create electronic beats from your pocket
• Just over 3 inches thick
• Sync with Log1k, Mac and Windows at blazing speeds
So... it's a recorder, and synthesizer too? Right on, that's the
best kind of log. There's no screen, so you'll have shuffle up
your music, and who knows what kind of capacity it has, if any.
Could be just an soundbox for all we know. The description is completely
vague but that's to be expected - anyone who builds something like
this has to be the mad-scientist type, and they can't be bothered
with such details. via Near Near Future
iLog as the iPod killer?
The iLog device (from the Owl Project) is a working digital music
player and recorder! Could it be the next iPod killer device. I'll
leave it to you to decide. http://www.gizmodo.com
iLog: the real iPod killer
Posted Apr 12th 2005 8:00AM by Barb Dybwad
So many have claimed to be the portable audio device that would
bring about the downfall of the mighty white-budded player, but
this — this is clearly it, folks. It's sustainable, it has
a recording function, syncs with Mac and Windows — what could
go wrong? True, it doesn't have a screen, but then again, those
iPod lovers have been willing to put up with that so this shouldn't
be a strike against the iLog. Well, okay, maybe three inches is
a bit thick for a DAP… but it has a recording function, people.
How could a rational mind go back to those featureless players
after witnessing this? Oh, screw it. Some people just don't know
a decent product when they see it. ilog-the-real-ipod-killer www.engadget.com
Straight
from the files of "Looks-like-an-April-Fool's-but-it's-real"
The Log1k and iLog are instruments built from logs. ...The Log1k
is a log with a gearbox motor that spins wooden disks to produce
rhythmic noises, complete with "touch-sensitive switches" --
wait, as opposed to non touch-sensitive switches? Don't forget
the flat panel display. (It's a blank opaque flat panel that lights
up, in other words. But it is flat.) The
iLog is a new portable version with the same wooden toggle switches.
The iLog records samples, but much of the sounds have to do with "the
bare sound of electricity." And how does it sound?Completely
terrible. But you know, in a good way, if you're into woodland
noise art. (Is that a baby crying in the second video? Nothing
like log instruments for terrorizing children.) And, as if that
weren't strange enough, the same team of Simon Blackmore and Antony
Hall has created an instrument out of a lathe (scroll down to see
it), with sensors to pick up the sounds of woodworking. Quote Hall
and Blackmore: "From a practical point of view, the lathe
can easily produce truly round objects." Something that cannot
be said of the latest USB keyboards.
iLog Sample Machine
next generation electronic music device from Owl Project. With
a series of touch-sensitive knobs and switches (aren’t they
all?), the iLog lets you record samples and loop them from one
easy, woodland device. It’s a personal project, though, not
something mass-produced, so just look and love. It does make me
wonder, though: how hard would it be to mill a super-thin wooden
veneer for the back of an iPod? Wood would be so much better than
smudgy metal. via We Make Money Not Art] http://www.hicomm.bg
iLog Vs. iPod
" True, it doesn't’t have a screen, but then again, those iPod lovers
have been willing to put up with that so this shouldn’t be a strike against
the iLog. " More here.Does it come from sustainable forests? The iRiver
iFP-995 looks like it is made of recycled beer cans, and the iPod Shuffle looks
like it is made of old plastic bags.no mention of ogg support, either
Also note that it offers sync compatibility with the Log1k computer.
Brilliant,
but if only I had a musical lathe to go with it -- wait, we're
in luck!
Wooden Log, Lathes as Musical Instruments, Written by Peter Kirn,
Tuesday, 12 April 2005
The
Owl Project / Dick Slessig Combo / Matmos / Leafcutter John
/ The Soft Pink Truth, Yaxu Paxo, Scala, 6 June 2004
'The Owl
Project are the first to take the stage on this humid Sunday
evening. The duo’s black, woolen balaclavas betray an
admirable degree of commitment to their art given the prevailing
weather. You’d think that such headgear might liberate
the duo from their inhibitions, allowing them to go wild in
some unforeseen way, but instead they spend the entire duration
of their short set crouched down at the front of the stage
in a sort of, er, owl-like way. As well as balaclavas, logs
appear integral to the Owl’s performance: their laptops
are sandwiched inside them in blithe disregard of the all too
real threat of woodworm infiltration. As to The Owl Project’s
music, there’s lots of scurrying, whooping and scuffling – are
these verbatim reports from the front line of forest life?
Who knows, they’re gone too quickly to draw any firm
conclusion....Published at: http://www.absorb.org
*Please note - there are no laptops sandwiched into the log1ks.
2004
Chorlton Arts Festival - Manchester
aLECTRO
eCUSTIC Castlefield Gallery
Manchester 2004
2002
Walking distance, [owl project]
open studio, Log1k demo, Salford
2002
FLUX party, Log1k performance.
The Ritz, Manchester.
2000
Chapter Arts Center, Cardiff.
International Festival
of the owl.
Festival
begins Friday 25th August
6pm 2000
The Guardian Guide August 2000
The International Owl Project is about to descend on Cardiff
for the first time, and reveal their latest eclectic work. Although
IOP have remained deep underground for two years, the owl watching
critics and public have engaged in non-stop debate about the
hidden progress of their varied and sometimes shocking work.
All eyes are on the bar area, which will be transformed into
a temporary venue for a celebrity "Festival Of The Owl".
Look out for Sipukha; The Russian film banned in the U.K in 1985
due to British government concerns about subliminal socialist
propaganda and rumors of British/ Russian revolutionary collaboration.
Also worth noting are the previously unseen strategic documents
and "Sticky Shrew Traps". A vital and long awaited
exhibition not to be missed.
Who are the International Owl Project?
This is a question which has been speculated upon for many generations,
it has in recent years become apparent that the Owl Project members
are a constantly changing group of people handpicked by an unknown,
higher order. One of the first recorded mentions of the IOP was
in a transcript of Bohemian folklore dated 1318. This document
suggested that at this time the IOP members were seen as a kind
of village shaman who would use their knowledge of the sacred
owl for healing purposes. Of later years, however, the IOP have
been associated with more far reaching international issues and
it is believed that members of the group are in professions such
as diplomacy, international relations and the arts. Their cause
is clear.
In putting up this show in Chapter I was granted a secret interview
with one of the members of the project, although forbidden to
transcribe the conversation directly, I was able to discover
that the group members are chosen and convene at a secret venue
every seven years. It is the responsibility of each individual
to learn the ways of the owl catcher and to carry on the harsh
and brutal traditions of the countryside.
This show in Chapter and, of course, the film "Siphuka",
give an insight into the rituals of the group and ask the question:
Why aren't we all out catching owls'
