Shoord's Spaceless Place » Leisure

Good times at the Global Game Jam

Sjoerd — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:07:59 +0000

Hi all. As a short update: last weekend I participated in the Global Game Jam, a contest in which teams are to create a game within 48 hours. As everyone started brainstorming around this year’s theme (‘extinction’), me and my team worked out the idea of the extinct Scottish beaver who runs away for a wave (caused by his careless demolishing of dams). As the main character eventually always dies in the act, we titled the game ‘Beaver Damn’.

All in all, it was a helluvalot fun to be a part of this weekend of developing, discussing, stressing out, and very little sleeping.

You can download the game here. To play, unzip the package and run the .SWF (from your web browser) or open the .EXE file if you run Windows.

Stop the tapes!

Sjoerd — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:41:52 +0000

To continue on the subject of one of the last posts; the Hmtpng challenge ended a while ago. As a participant, and newbie music producer, I managed to upload a humble album. Or rather, an EP. Because I started about four days before the deadline, I assembled all of the instruments (from a harmonica to my Korg DS-10 emulator) I could find in the house to compose something.

Although I was unable to squeeze out 20 minutes of music within the weekend, I had some fun fooling around on my roommate’s MIDI-keyboard. What surprised me the most towards the ending was the enthusiasm and the richness of the community, I got to meet some nice people and liked a lot of different things that were posted within the extremely short production period.

All in all, if you like it or not, I might give this another try this year.

(*Drumroll*, and here’s the result:)

Hometaping 2 by Shoord

Workworkwork

Sjoerd — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:56:57 +0000

Hear hear. Good news y’all. About four weeks ago I started working as an interaction designer at Service2Media, a company which is well known for developing applications for mobile platforms. So far, it’s great to be a part of product development and its dynamics. And while I’ve designed interfaces before, mobile is a specific working field where I can still learn a lot.

That said. The second update is that I blogged for the Economies of the Commons 2 event on Saturday. The conference consisted of seminars, and intense theoretical as well as straight-forward practical presentations. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to follow the stream during for the entire conference (due to office occupations), but the third day I contributed to the blog with two articles, the first one being a report of the presentation by Harry Verwayen (about Europeana) and the second being about Dolf Veenvliet’s talk of ‘opening up’ as a 3d artist.

Participating in a group of enthusiastic bloggers has been a good experience, and it also helped that I enjoyed the conference (or at least, the few sessions I was able to join) in general quite much. I’d definitely look out for similar opportunities in the future!

Ninja Tune XX – “Twenty years! Twenty fu*king years!?”

Sjoerd — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:45:17 +0000

As mentioned in the earlier post about the Bonobo Band gigs, I’m admittedly a fanboy of the hip-hop / electronic music label Ninja Tune, founded by the sampling pioneers Coldcut. While I’m not familiar with the entire catalogue and also dislike a few of the contracted artists, the label has released a lot of triple A records over the years.

This year, the label also happens to exist for twenty years, which is celebrated with a series of gigs, luxury box-sets and yes, giveaways like downloadable tracks of their first 12″ release (more to be announced)! Because of their anniversary, I decided to compile a list of 20 albums and 20 tracks that have personal nostalgic (although many of the albums still sound contemporary) or emotional value.

Enjoy.

(2010) Funki Porcini – On
(2010) Blockhead – The Music Scene
(2008) Mr. Scruff – Ninja Tuna
(2006) Bonobo – Days to Come
(2005) The Herbaliser – Take London
(2004) Hexstatic – Master View
(2004) Skalpel – Skalpel (video)
(2004) Wagon Christ - Sorry I Make You Lush
(2003) Kid Koala – Some of My Best Friends Are DJs (video)
(2003) The Cinematic Orchestra – Man with a Movie Camera (video)
(2003) Bonobo – Dial M For Monkey (video)
(2002) Mr. Scruff – Trouser Jazz (video)
(2000) Amon Tobin – Supermodified
(2000) Hexstatic – Rewind (video)
(1999) Flanger – Templates
(1998) Amon Tobin – Permutation
(1997) Coldcut – Let Us Play (video)
(1996) Funki Porcini – Love, Pussycats & Carwrecks
(1994) 9 Lazy 9 – Electric Lazyland
(1991) DJ Food – Jazz Brakes Vol. 2

Bonobo Band at the Melkweg and Tivoli

Sjoerd — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:39:27 +0000

Hiya, again it’s been a while again. I just decided turn this blog towards a bit more informal one, starting with an announcement of upcoming gigs of Bonobo. Being one of the long-runners on the Ninja Tune label, I’ve been following him (and well, the entire label) for years now and adore most of his work. From the remixed tracks (like those of Four Tet and Quantic) to the collaborations with vocalist Bajka (on the Days to Come album). I find it to be an artist that constantly reinvents himself while staying true to the desolate yet atmospheric sounds.

The Bonobo Band will fill the stage at the Melkweg (May 11th), and to Tivoli (May 17th), there are still tickets for both gigs!

Drumroll: Here’s the Bonobo Band performing Flying Lotus’ Tea Leaf Dancers.

Additionally a playlist of some great tracks:

Enjoy!

Ontleding van de feedreader: design

Sjoerd — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:47:08 +0000

In deze serie zal ik een opsomming doen van de blogs die al ruim een jaar de inhoud van mijn feedreader bepalen. Beginnend met de categorie ‘design’:

Brand New (graphic/visual design), posts over branding en communicatie. Redesigns worden onderworpen aan een kritische blik, vaak erg compleet onderbouwd.
Design Milk (industrial/visual design), komt veel verschillend spul langs, vooral productdesigns die eerder in productie werden genomen. Echter vaker impulsieve posts (veel verder dan het ‘leuk vinden’ komen de schrijvers niet) dan echt onderbouwde relevantie of motivatie vanuit de maker. Ook niet altijd even actueel.
Designboom (architectuur, installaties, graphic/visual design), haakt in op actuele exposities, winnende ontwerpen of uitgebrachte vakliteratuur (met reviews), erg breed en internationaal. Veel beeld en weinig (maar vaak genoeg) tekst.
Dezeen (architectuur, industrial/visual design), veelal over architectuur, daarnaast worden er interne wedstrijden gehouden en komen er af en toe vacatures en stageplekken voorbij.
Fontanel (visual/graphic design, motion), Nederlands design-blog met diepte-interviews en artikelen over happenings en exposities in de designwereld. Degelijk geschreven en in een kritische context.
Fubiz (visual design, motion, advertising), een Frans blog dat zich richt op de advertising, maar dan wel op het neusje van de zalm.
Glennz (visual design), een gerenomeerd designer waarvan de ontwerpen als shirts of posters te bestellen zijn
Letters to LoveLiza (visual/graphic design), een blog met vragen vanuit de ontwerpwereld, erg nuchtere inzichten over hoe bepaalde (herkenbare) problemen te benaderen zijn. Helaas minder actief de laatste tijd.
Lunch Bag Art (visual design), dagelijkse portie aan tekeningen op een papieren lunch-zakje.
Motionographer (motion), erg volledig en actueel blog over alles wat beweegt.
Wooster Collective (street art), artistieke (guerilla)acties van over de wereld.
Yanko Design (industrial design), volledig blog over productconcepten. Ook vaak een uitgebreide beschrijving met het uitgangspunt van de maker, of de haken en ogen van het ontwerp.

De complete lijst aan RSS-feeds is hier (samen met andere content-categoriën) te downloaden als OPML-bestand.

Schildereien ’09

Sjoerd — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:08:31 +0000

Sixpackje gepimpte eieren

Op verzoek van 'ons mam' ("Maak eens een vrolijk mannetje" -"Eh, okay")

Levensecht.

MelighEId