http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3716 – James Chimpton (with Steve Lambert)
http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3715 – openFrameworks (with Zach Lieberman)

One of the manifestations of this research group for me personally is a class. Here is a rough draft of the course description.

Course Description

The premise of this class is that, like television, film, audio, and other traditional media, software can be a very effective medium for humor, which, in turn, can be a powerful tool for activism, editorial, and hilarious jokes. Beyond simply rendering our CG, hosting our Flash animations, or providing a target for nerd jokes, the computer can be exploited for its strengths (interactivity, procedurality, logic, networkability) to achieve the funny.

We will explore what makes good humor in traditional media by looking at several comedy styles such as absurdism, prop humor, sketch comedy, improv, and black comedy, with special attention to parody and satire.  We will also look at some software artists who have already struck software comedy gold, including Cory Archangel, Max Goldberg (“YTMND”), Ze Frank, and Evan Roth. We will apply the ideas of game theorists and other prominent software gurus such as Ian Bogost, Chris Crawford, and Tim Berners-Lee to the styles of comedians such as Tim and Eric, Andy Kaufman, Yakov Smirnov, Douglas Adams, Stephen Colbert, Mr. Show, the Wondershowzen team, and Eric Fensler to produce funny software.  The final independent projects will be shown at a New York comedy club.  All of the example code will be provided in openFrameworks, but you may also work in Processing or Flash.

Prerequisite: you must be experienced with either oF, Processing/Java, or ActionScript.

Learning objectives:

1. To attempt to define humor in the context of software
2. To answer the question: Are there such things as funny algorithms?
3. To explore tropes and mechanisms frequently used in software – not just games, but software art and plain old software – that can be used to achieve a humorous  effect
4. To invent the field of software comedy in the same way that there are comedy writers, actors, and even singers

The final lineup is (from left to right):

1. David Jimison – mobile technologies expert
2. Steve Lambert – culture hacker, activist
3. Andrea Polli – sound artist, environmentalist
4. Michael Mandiberg – browser artist, environmental activist
5. Jeff Crouse – me. you’re already on my site.
6. Friedrich Kirschner – machinima storyteller, tool-maker
7. Christina Kral – videographer

The dates are:

1. Saturday, November 15th: Mills College – Studio Art Department
2. Sunday, November 16th: Berkeley College – Berkeley Center for New Media and Berkeley Art Museum
3. Wednesday, November 17th: UC Santa Cruz – Computer Science Department
4. Tuesday, November 18th: UCLA – Design | Media Arts
5. Monday, November 19th: UC Santa Barbara -  Department of Art
6. Thursday, November 20th: Integrated Media Program
7. (tentative) Friday, November 21st: UC Irvine – Arts Computation Engineering [ACE] Program

2008 Eyebeam Roadshow Catalog (PDF)** – This catalog contains all of the workshops that we are offering at each stop of the show.  The specifics haven’t been nailed down yet, but we will be doing some combination of artist talks and workshops at each of the venues.

If you live near one of these schools and would like to lend your couch to a traveling artist, please contact me.  We’re doing this thing on the cheap.

** Here is a new version of the catalog!  2008 Eyebeam Roadshow Catalog (PDF)

The rest is history.

• Wired – September 19, 2008 | 9:09:55 AM
• Digg – September 19, 2008 | 11:00 AM
• BoingBoing – September 19, 2008 | 12:54 PM

I saved the BoingBoing and Wired for posterity.

paid-placement-for-brands-in-pop-lyrics-boingboing

products-placed_-how-companies-pay-artists-to-include-brands-in-lyrics-listening-post-from-wiredcom

Others

• Which Rappers And Divas Get Paid For Product Placement?
• Yes, Ludacris will sing about your jeans
• Selling out: Product Placement in Songs.
• The First Rule Of Product Placement In Songs: You Don’t Talk About Product Placement In Songs and here | September 19th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
• And The Brand Plays On Pt. 12
• Ad or Art? Why Not Both? | Sep 19 2008 2:32PM EDT
• Products Placed: How Companies Pay Artists to Include Brands in Lyrics
• Ad Supported Music: inside the ‘secretive market for song lyric product placement’
• Product Placement in Songs
• Anti smart | 5:59 PM on Fri Sep 19 2008

ABSML is a markup language that is used in a variety of projects incluing Inside the Artists Studio, Befriend a Recruiter and MadLibs Karaoke, and the winner of a 2008 Turbulence grant.

Here is an example of what some ABSML code looks like:

<sentence id="q-art-14" >Have you considered <pickone>creating, making</pickone> <pickone>more, less</pickone> <library>modifier</library> <library plural="true"><get>medium</get>_outcome</library>?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-15">You had an exhibition at <organization><source><get>website</get></source></organization>. Some say this was a turning point in your career. <pickone>Do you agree?, but I have my doubts, I'm curious what you think.</pickone></sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-16">Do you ever <pickone>wonder if this is all, wonder if this could be considered </pickone> all just a big shaam?  and - why do you think so?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-17">Tell <pickone>me, our listeners</pickone> about your exhibition last year at <organization><source><get>website</get></source></organization>.</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-17"><pickone>I will let Alfred know., Alfred sometimes makes mistakes., I will speak to Alfred about this.</pickone></sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-18"><pickone>My youngest son - Alfred, Alfred- my youngest son</pickone> <pickone>is a fan of, enjoys </pickone> <pickone>your earlier work, early work, the work from the beginning of your career </pickone> in <city><source><get>website</get></source></city> <pickone>personally I am not a fan - however, but he is young and has childish tastes </pickone> - <pickone>for the benefit of our listeners, for the radio audience</pickone> <pickone>please tell us, do tell us</pickone> <pickone>about, of </pickone> your early career.</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-19"><pickone>Tell me more about, Let us discuss, Let us return to </pickone> your relationship to <city><source><get>website</get></source></city>, <pickone>which, which I must say </pickone> <pickone>is one of my favorite cities, holds a special place in my heart, is near and dear to me.</pickone>.  How do you feel about it?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-20">What about your <pickone>most recent, latest</pickone> <library plural="false"><get>medium</get>_outcome</library>?</sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-21" >But is that really art?<pickone> or something else entirely?, or a <library>modifier</library> fantasy?</pickone></sentence>

<sentence id="q-art-22" >Tell me about your teaching practice at <organization with="University, College, Academy, Institute, school"><source striptags="true"><get>wesbite</get></source></organization>.</sentence>

See the roadshow site for more information.

With Chimpton (and ABSML), I once again returned to the theme of generative text. The operator (or “puppeteer”, as we called them) would enter into the software the interviewee’s name, website, and medium, and based on that information, a set of interview questions would be generated. The puppeteer would then use the software interface to trigger the questions.

After the break, I have posted all of the Chimpton interviews, courtesy of Neighborhood Public Radio

Joe Delappe
Michael Triglilio
unknown
Lewis Schwadron
Julian McCullough
Joan Wasser
Stephanie Diamond
Steve Lambert
Friedrich Kirschner
D Lanzilotta
Sara Cook
Mazeav Marsha
Julia Schwadron
unknown