Hyper-Mash : The Symbiotic Selekta
October 14, 2003

Abstract :

Hyper-Mash : The Symbiotic Selekta is a web-based interactive “responsive environment” which allows users to seamlessly “mash-up” (or layer together in permutation) any two combinations of audio selections available on the site. Ideally 3 sets of 4 permutations will exist at minimum; in other words, 1 track could be “mashed” with 3 other tracks for a total of 4 permutations, offered in at least 3 separate banks of audio mashing elements. The interface will utilize a wireframe image of Vannevar Bush’s Memex desk to which the user can either drag or click selected audio pieces. The interactive programming will be achieved using either Director or Flash.

Hyper-Mash is also a passive listening center where users may simply listen to the continuous “Memexmix” created by DJ E23 mixing together his own collection of original mash-ups using Ableton Live software. The Memexmix will also feature a linked timeline relating to the tracks which have been mashed in the mix as they occur in the audio sequence. In this way as a listener hears a track or mash of tracks of interest, s/he may click the approximate location on the timeline to learn trivia about the music and artists. S/he will also have the option of submitting hir own comments, trivia tidbits, corrections or criticisms into an “annotation engine” which will function more or less like a blog to which future users can contribute and investigate.

I. Foundations :

Themes :
Collage art; found art; Warhol; Rauschenberg; culture-jamming; a post-production extension of the DJ Selekta; Negativland; Plunderphonics; P.M. Dawn; Vanilla Ice; Rock + Disco + Pop + Hip Hop + Electronic + anything goes; Malcolm McLaren & the Bootzilla Orchestra; EBN/Consolidated media mashes; Psychic TV/TG live set recycling; Electroclash

Critical Contexts :
Synthesis & process; mixology, improvisational cut-up composition/interaction; authorship vs Third Mind symbiosis; juxtapositions unifying dissimilar objects in space; the user creates their own meaning through play, the “Third Mix” as it were; the idea of “synthesis” & “responsive environments”; “happenings”—everyone gets in the game; abolition of distinction between creator and spectator (mostly), & responsibility of the observer; personal dynamic media; composition via the network; web as new “public commons” & delivery system; Open Source & “transcopyright”; a web that operates in “constructive mode”; idea of “Alternate Versions”—“more than one arrangement of the same materials”; appropriation; freedom of press; “Eternal Revision”—“there is no final word. There will always be a new view, a new idea, a reinterpretation”; archiving & anthologizing; interactivity; notebook computing (laptopism); ease-of-use; “a system for representing and controlling musical images . . . which has very strong analogies to the visual world”; the way of dealing with info in space, manipulate it, organize it, project ideas out of our heads, creating another data object for others to interact with and comment onàthis extends human intellect; functionality; interface invariably leads to new methods of cognition; rethinking authorship; even non-artists can create thru play; reclamation of technology which creates a sense of dread and disempowerment for Weizenbaum-types and so many others—now it’s time to play and share with friends and to create objects which are personally meaningful; with new technology miracles happen; network collaboration.

Critical counterpoints:
“Creation springs only from autonomous individuals”—sure, but “errors” can be fun! ; individual computing over networking (true for the laptop artist & the mash-up soloist, but not the interactive community Hyper-Mash proposes); nor laptops as media players (audio, video, animation); language isn’t the main source of this interactivity (unless one considers email, blogs, forums and MUDs), but rather p-to-p, and esp. music!

Supporting Material :
Literature Review:
New Media Reader: Kaprow, “’Happenings’ in the New York Scene”
NMR: Englebart, “Augmenting Human Intellect”
NMR: Weizenbaum, “From ‘Computer Power and Human Reason’”
NMR: Kay & Goldberg, “Personal Dynamic Media”
NMR: Nelson, “Proposal For A Universal Electronic Publishing System and Archive”
NMR: Burroughs, “The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin”
(additionally sourced from The Third Mind – Viking Press)
NMR: Six Selections from The Oulipo

Additional Lit Materials:
Jesse Walker, “Monster Mash-Ups: How musical collages are challenging traditional ideas of authorship”
John Oswald, “Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative”
Hakim Bey, Immediatism
Thom Holmes, Electronic and Experimental Music
Robert Sobieszek (ed), Ports Of Entry: William S. Burroughs & The Arts
Simon Dwyer (ed), Rapid Eye Vol. 1 & 2 ; articles by Genesis P-Orridge, “Behavioural Cut-Ups”; “His Name Was Master: In Memory of Brion Gysin”
Ryan Supak, “DJ-ing Techniques with Live”

Media Review:
Rubaiyat Plunderphonics / The Doors “O’Hell”
NAG http://turbulence.org/Works/freeman/index.php
EZDJ http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/ezdj (I esp. like the “email your mix to a friend option”)
DSICO http://4trak.net/dsico/
Lance Lockarm http://falco.kuci.uci.edu/~brianm/lancelockarm/
DJ BrokenWindow / “Leave It Turquoise”
Richard X pres. X-Factor / rX vs Mazzy Star w/ Jarvis Cocker “Into U”
Ableton Live 3

Production/Delivery Skills :
· Phase 1) Content gathering : collect instrumental, acapella and other tracks with symbiotic acoustic space which will be suitable for mashing (very familiar)
· Phase 2) Audio processing : constructing mash-up combinations (probably in groups of 4 possible combinations), which are relatively flawless and which can provide the basis for “Memexmix” (familiar)
· Phase 3) Audio mixing in Live : creating an extensive DJ mix using Ableton Live software—the “Memexmix” (barely familiar)
· Phase 4) Designing/testing interactive interface : creating visual design wireframe of Memex, applying audio-loading interactive elements to interface, testing (barely familiar); developing user-feedback forum for annotation engine (not familiar)
· Phase 5) Web implementation/delivery : uploading interface and audio files into website, testing (familiar); uploading annotation engine, testing (not familiar)

Desired Outcomes :
A web-based combination of interactive user events, or fields of action altered by use, experience, and perception:
1) an interactive mixing center—users can listen to a self-contained mix of mash-up experiments (the “Memexmix”) passively, or may mash-up various combinations of the tracks which make up the mix
2) a resource center—points within the mix or interface provide links to historical facts, anomalies and timeline information
3) an annotation engine—a place where users can interpret ideas or add historical or factual info about the mix or the individual tracks, and upload to a site with which future users can view and interact

II. Project Goals :

My ambition is to create a fun destination point for interested mixologists, music tinkerers, and aficionados of music trivia. I’m anxious to further the development of my DJ and production techniques and skills utilizing Ableton Live and moving into the 3.0 interface of that software with an end-product in mind. I want to better develop some of my graphical design skills, as well as my understanding of developing interactive web elements. Lastly, I’m anxious to learn tricks of the trade for integrating an easily maintainable annotation engine into a website.

III. Outline :

· Phase 1) Content gathering : select instrumental, acapella and other tracks with symbiotic acoustic space; encode into WAV
· Phase 2) Audio processing : layer audio pieces into Live; test mixes; generate permutations of mash-ups; export to MP3
· Phase 3) Audio mixing in Live : create an extensive DJ mix using Ableton Live software—the “Memexmix”; select appropriate mash-ups to blend into a 30-50 minute mix; export to MP3
· Phase 4) Designing/testing interactive interface : creating visual design wireframe of Memex; apply audio-loading interactive elements to interface; create timeline with links for Memexmix; testing; develop user-feedback forum for annotation engine; testing
· Phase 5) Web implementation/delivery : uploading interface and audio files into website, testing; uploading annotation engine, testing

IV. Timeline :

· Phase 1 completed by Oct. 21
· Phase 2 & 3 completed by Oct. 28
· Phase 4 completed by Nov. 4
· Phase 5 completed by Nov. 11

V. Abstract :

Hyper-Mash : The Symbiotic Selekta is a web-based interactive “responsive environment” which allows users to seamlessly “mash-up” (or layer together in permutation) any two combinations of audio selections available on the site. Ideally 3 sets of 4 permutations will exist at minimum; in other words, 1 track could be “mashed” with 3 other tracks for a total of 4 permutations, offered in at least 3 separate banks of audio mashing elements. The interface will utilize a wireframe image of Vannevar Bush’s Memex desk to which the user can either drag or click selected audio pieces. The interactive programming will be achieved using either Director or Flash.

Hyper-Mash is also a passive listening center where users may simply listen to the continuous “Memexmix” created by DJ E23 mixing together his own collection of original mash-ups using Ableton Live software. The Memexmix will also feature a linked timeline relating to the tracks which have been mashed in the mix as they occur in the audio sequence. In this way as a listener hears a track or mash of tracks of interest, s/he may click the approximate location on the timeline to learn trivia about the music and artists. S/he will also have the option of submitting hir own comments, trivia tidbits, corrections or criticisms into an “annotation engine” which will function more or less like a blog to which future users can contribute and investigate.