Cats

catsynth pic: Reed Ghazala Tape Canvas Device

I was reviewing Get LoFi for yesterday's circuit-bending article, and came across a reference not only to Reed Ghazala, whom I also referenced, but a catsynth pic to boot!

Who knew the “father of circuit bending” was also a cat person? Then again, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised…

The tape canvas (illustrated above) itself is interesting as well, allowing expressive control of a device and process that is traditionally linear. It inspires me to revive my interest in musical reading of barcodes using a CueCat, which has the added advantage of continuing the feline theme.


The CueCat has proved a difficult device to work with, however. I have a modified version that gets beyond some of the proprietary issues and shows up as an HID device that can be read in OSW, but I have yet to make it work properly.

Weekend Cat Blogging #64: Luna and laptops

Luna gets distracted while checking whether the battery on our iBook is subject to Apple's recall.

Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances.

That is Apple's gentle corporate-speak way of saying “may burst into flames.” Fortunately, it looks like we dodged this one. My Dell Latitude at work was not so lucky, and is now relegated to desk duty while awaiting a replacement battery. Ironically, my home Dell Inspiron whose warm and toasty characteristics I described preparing for my August 6 performance was not on the recall list – indeed, since installing the fan-control software things have improved significantly.

Thanks for boo_licious and her cats Ms. G and Fluffy over at masak-masak for hosting this Weekend's Cat Blogging.

It looks to be a pleasantly lazy Saturday for all of us.

catsynth pic: Gingerbread

MIT Media Lab assistant professor Dr. Joseph A. Paradiso includes the above photo of his old Himalayan cat Gingerbread atop a synthesizer cabinet as part of his web page documenting his modular synthesizer. His collection of modules and writings about synthesizers are quite impresesive, and I've spent a bit of time looking through them. That is one of the fun things about looking for these pictures of cats and synths: it often leads to something more interesting.

Dr. Paradiso's synthesizer has received note in Keyboard magazine, and he had a synth rig featured at the 2004 PrixArs Electronic festival. He has some great photos of synth rigs from the 1970's as well.

Luna joins Weekend Cat Blogging…

at least if I'm not too late already. Weekend Cat Blogging, or WCB, is being hosted this week by Heather along with her adorable cats Pause and Carmel. Hopefully, I get this post in time. If not, it's a good excuse to post a recent action shot of Luna enjoying a new gift from a friend:

I have also added a separate category for Luna alongside the existing cats category for those who want to see more of her and less of the other stuff…

Actual Cat Synth

jfm3 of Ouroboros Complex posts about as literal a “CatSynth” pic as you can get, featuring his cat Kona and accoutrements as part of his rig. Cat aside, the rig and website include a wealth of personal experiences with analog synthesizer hacking as well as circuit bending (note the mod'ed Speak&Spell). Please give jfm3 and Kona a “catsynth welcome” by visiting their site.

Green Kitties

Green kitties need green love!

This was an early rendering I created with Poser, combining cats and geometric elements into a surrealist image. It brings together my interests in cats and modernist art of the 20th century.

morning cat

A black cat that looks and sounds a lot like Luna has taken up residence in my neighborhood – a bit shy, but he(she?) wandered over to the patio this morning, walking around me and mewing, then going over to the fountain for some water – I've seen cats do that before, lick the water of the sides of the fountain. Unfortunately, i don't have a camera handy at the moment, not even my cell phone. Just use your imagination for now…

another cat from Lebanon

From AFP: a kitty amidst the rubble in a fishing port south of Beirut. This is essentially the type of image I see in my mind when I think about the situation, or cats in war more generally. It was part of an AFP article that Yahoo! syndicated for their main news page covering the middle east conflict today, right under the news that the Lebanese PM had rejected the cease-fire deal.

I haven't seen or received any updates from BETA or the groups in Israel since my previous article, I will certainly post anything that I receive.

shades of luna

As I was writing the previous post, Luna poked her head out the glass door leading to the patio. I can't help it, just had to snap a pic:

Cell phone pics aren't particularly high quality, but they're creat for moments like this. Plus, the image inspired a few variations. Enhancing the reflection of the patio in the glass gives us a cat as mirror to the world:

And I also like this highly processed version in red and black, done with some of the new image-processing tools I've build for Open Sound World: