Archive for February, 2008

08w06:4 Smurfconomy

by timothy. 0 Comments

Tragedy of the commons explained with Smurfs | Ryan Somma
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/tragedy-of-the-commons-explained-with-smurfs/
“Our Earth is filled with finite resources that we, as the Human Race, exploit for personal gain. Oil, Fish Stocks, Forests, Clean Air, and water are just a few of the resources that nobody “owns,” but everybody needs in order to survive. However, in our current system, nobody who is taking away these natural resources from the whole of us has to pay back into the natural system. Thus, there is a great incentive to consume all of the available resources before somebody else gets to them, Garrett Hardin called this nuance the ‘Tragedy of the Commons.’ Let’s take Smurfs as a natural resource. There are 100 smurfs living in smurf village and they do not reproduce. Every Saturday in the 1980s, entertainment producers broadcast a show documenting the life and times of Smurf Village, and made money from the advertising revenue brought in from millions of viewers watching the show. The cartoon’s producers use the smurfs in the manufacture of intellectual goods.”

08w06:3 The Bubblegum Sequencer

by timothy. 0 Comments

The Bubblegum Sequencer | Hannes Hesse, Andrew McDiarmid and Rosie Han
http://backin.de/gumball/
“The Bubblegum Sequencer is a physical step sequencer that lets you create drumloops by arranging colored balls on a tangible surface. It generates MIDI events and can be used as an input device to control audio hardware and software. Finally, people can’t claim anymore that electronic music isn’t handmade. Here’s how it works: A grid of holes, consisting of several rows with 16 holes each is the canvas. On it, you arrange colored gumballs. The 16 columns represent the 16th-notes in a measure. Each color is mapped to a specific sample. Because the output is generated in the form of MIDI events, the Bubblegum Sequencer can be used to control any kind of audio hardware or software.”