Cybraphon – Found are Fucking Geniuses
I’d hate to turn into the sort of parent who thinks their brain-dead, irritating, charmless little fuckwits of children are cleverer, lovelier and more delightful than the very Baby Jeebus himself, despite their evident lack of any sort of talent or even bare sliver of tolerability to the entire rest of the human race. In the words of Bill Hicks: “Your children aren’t special. Oh, I know you think that they’re special… I’m just telling you that you’re wrong.”
Well, without wishing to imply that everything by bands from Edinburgh is better than anything by bands from anywhere else (that’s where that nonsense in the first paragraph was coming from, y’see) I have to confess that I am somewhat amazed by this piece of work: the Cybraphon. It’s fucking amazing, basically.
Cybraphon Demo Song from Cybraphon on Vimeo.
Found have already demonstrated their incredible attraction to bizarre and wonderful projects, including a set of musical robots installed in the Botanic Gardens last year and their stunning* work for the Playing With the Past project, but this might just top the lot.
Basically, it’s a band in a box – imagine taking the concept of the Player Piano, taking it to its insanely illogical conclusion, hooking the whole shebang up to the fathomless rivers of sludge which are teh internetz, and setting it loose. It responds to who is saying what about it on the internet and plays tunes according to its mood – sort of like a cross between the aforementioned Player Piano and Marvin the Paranoid Android, I suppose. For those wanting to find out more, the contraption itself can be viewed at the InSpace Gallery on Crichton St. in Edinburgh from the 5th August onwards. There is also a website with some amazing videos of the making of the Cybraphon, such as the one below, and a Flickr page with some gorgeous pictures.
Solenoids and Motors from Cybraphon on Vimeo.
Honestly, without wishing to sound like a small-time, partisan curtain-twitcher with a horizon no broader than the walls of my own back garden, I really do get the impression that if this sort of mental genius was being produced in London or by a band who make more effort to dress like hipsters and proclaim their genius to the world, then it would be all over the damn news. It’s genius, pure and simple.
In fact it reminds me that, instead of wondering why some bands end up disappearing down the avenue of experimentalism and bizarre crossover projects with architects and painters and various other mentalists, I find myself increasingly wondering why so few bands do it. I mean, if you’re creatively inclined and curious and interested in the world and exploring ideas and so on, surely bizarre experiments and weird projects should be something you’d be inescapably drawn to, rather than remaining cossetted in a narrow little world of three and a half minute verse-bridge-chorus pop songs.
Found, I salute you. This lunatic contraption is a joy to behold and one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Ever.
*Apparently, I have yet to see it for myself, but it’s on again on the 22nd August so be sure to get your tickets.
Looks like they are going to be live in studio on Marc Riley’s show (6 Music) this evening, too.
you do know they are all artists mate right?
i once saw them construct a song from scratch. it took about half an hour to reach a climax. it was amazing!
This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t really have a comment besides wanting to express admiration for this coolness.
It IS genius. It’s been a bit of a FOUND night for me, what with the radio and all that…
The world should know about this. Mind if I re-run this article on Dear Scotland tomorrow?
I suspect Cybraphon will be delighted to find an article on Dear Scotland when it Googles itself tomorrow!
I think it’s a wonderful thing.
Mrs. Toad and I were chatting during the Toad Summer party the other night, and I was trying to explain Cybraphon to her. The heady mixture of the fanciful tales I was telling about antique instruments locked in a cupboard, yet somehow alive and on the internet, combined with Mrs. Toad’s internal body clock hovering somewhere over the international date line at the time, I think led to Mrs Toad’s baffled, slightly bewildered, yet nonetheless intrigued response.
It’s an astounding achievement, and I can’t wait to meet it in the flesh.. er.. Wood. Whatever.
Incidentally, I found some Cybraphon’s demos
available to download here, it looks like the guys have been generous enough to whack them up as a freebie.
This is a great idea, didn’t really understand it at first (Bart had to explain it to me in pictures, nearly) so I’m really looking forward to ’seeing’ it in motion so to speak.
Tho I do have issues around the stuff you say about being creatively inclined and thus wanting are needing to be drawn to this type of outlet….. I think that is balls!
Anyway kudos to the found boys!
Well if Toad wants to object just tell him to cybraphone me.
a…m….a….z…i….n…….ggggggggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think i want to have sex with it.
Wow, no American would ever create such a thing and if someone tried to import it I’m sure they’d be prosecuted, sued, and sex-taped (perhaps with Mr. Bear, he seems willing)
Euan, I do know that they are all artists, but lots of other bands have broader artistic backgrounds and yet don’t seem to get as broadly or as weirdly involved as Found do.
Chutters, fuck off, what do you know, you’re about as artistic as a bowl of Tesco’s Own cornflakes.
Peej, go ahead, by all means.
Tart, no American? Are you telling me that the country which brought us Jeffrey Lewis, Tim Burton, Calvin & Hobbes and The Muppet Show is artistically sterile?
and it’s a bloody great big bowl of cornflakes, that i will take pleasure in stuffing one by one up your big old nose!
btw little do you know toad, little do you know!
I don’t mean to piss on anyone’s chips, but I don’t get all the fuss over what is essentially an end of pier mechanical orchestra.
thats the funniest thing i’ve heard….you’re wrong mind….but at least you’re funny wrong!
Chutters, instead of just going around proclaiming things to be ‘balls’ and declaring people wrong it might help if you actually explained yourself. Otherwise people might just start to think you’re a penis.
DC, well the interactivity is clever – a little gimmicky I guess, but clever – and it is a thing of great beauty. And I don’t think it just plays back from a list of pre-programmed songs either.
???
The computer feeds data generated by humans into its software to create/interpret the ‘mood’ by which the thing determines it’s musical output from a pre-arranged source.
Or, someone punches holes into a roll of paper & feeds it through a scroll, which interprets the holes as notes & therefore determines its musical output from a pre-arranged source.
DC, this is like any other work of art, it’s not really fair to deconstruct it like that and look at it merely in terms of a practical application. That’s missing the point of art, isn’t it? It’s not necessarily meant to stand up in a practical sense.
I don’t think Found intend for everyone to have a Cybraphon in the corner of their living room in five years.
If I told you the joke about two goldfish in a tank, (one turns to the other and says “You drive, I’ll man the gun.”), you could quite easily ask how the fish were driving the tank when they’ve only got fins which don’t provide the manual dexterity required, and how would they reach all the controls when they’re that small, and wouldn’t the tank have to be full up with water anyway, couldn’t you?
But that would be entirely missing the point, too.
Maybe people will start to think I’m a penis, i doubt it, but i concede you may be right.
However, I’m sure that, these people, may also think that someone declaring themselves as the daddy of the Edinburgh music scene is the bigger penis by far!
tongue in cheek and all that!!!
p.s. i will come back and make more substantive arguments in due course.
I’m not attacking the edifice of art, Dylan, or the artifice of its construction. I was merely pointing out my incomprehension at the rather 1920s Gosh Blimey reaction to something that, frankly, already exists as a functioning object.
I ‘deconstructed’ it to re-enforce my point to RCC.
My problem really, I suppose, is I have a serious suspicion of deep pocket ‘Art’ funding & the end results of same being nothing more than something the world never asked for or needed.
If you look at it for what it is, yes it has a charm. It’s what you could describe as ‘Future-Retro’, given its mixing of new & old technology. But really, truthfully, & I’m sorry guys/Found – because you are very pleasant fellows indeed – is it at all necessary? Whether in the grander scheme of things or in the world of so-called ‘Art’?
i will be going to see this thing and hopefully be entertained but i have to agree with dc. its clearly not what you would call genius is it? a fun idea and a good piece of engineering but… not genius.
it is fucking cool though.
That’s just daft.
What has the Mona Lisa ever “done” for the world? Or Tom Waits? Or my goldfish joke, for that matter.
Apart from making it a slightly nicer place to be, in one way or another.
If you’ve got concerns or interests regarding the funding that’s a different matter quite apart from the merits of the end result.
I doubt many people have stood in front of the Mona Lisa and conspiratorily whispered “Yeah, nice. Pretty girl. But do you know where Da Vinci got his paints?..”
Sorry, Michael. You’re not daft.
DC is.
I’m drawing a line under my opinion because I think I’ve made a valid counter & am not going to be drawn into a pointless tit for tat ‘but Art says…’ argument.
Does that mean I win?
Cool.
i think we would be all better off if we read the preface to ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, this is where Wilde defends the role and reason of the artist.
plus the actual book is fucking awesome!
I’m a little bit worried about DC’s last comment. “Is it necessary”…..you cannot possibly associate art with a question like that. Name me art that IS necessary? I know of Turner winners whose art was far from a necessity in the literal sense (in fact, what art is a necessity?) but that doesn’t devalue the quality of the art surely? Sometimes art can just be about fun and about brightening up people’s existence – can’t it? I’m currently working on a project with a Turner winner and it’s not exactly genius or necessary, but it would be fun and that would be the point. Who cares if it’s necessary, if it achieves what it sets out to do? And this clearly does that. In my opinion.
Although I DO have to take exception to this:
If you’ve got concerns or interests regarding the funding that’s a different matter quite apart from the merits of the end result.
From the point of view of the visual arts (purely to simplify the argument rather than confuse with too many terms & genres), which is what the Cypbraphon falls into in some sense – i.e. contemporary sculpture – the funding aspect most certainly does warrant a mention with regards to the end result. That’s public money you’re dismissing there, Dylan.
In the 17years I’ve been involved in the local cultural scene & Arts funding in Cardiff I have seen millions of pounds spunked down drains on so-called vital Art ventures. As much as the public Arts purse system across the UK deems itself impenetrable to corrupt or blue sky practices, based on its individual strict assessment procedures, the amount of fucking shit & pointless/needless bullshit that’s granted funding in the beleaguered/abused name of ‘Art’ is absolutely astonishing.
So, yes, I think raising the fact that this project is publicly funded is a very valid point to make.
Euan, the question of whetehr something is necessary is a fucking vital question. Art is necessary, entirely. But what constitutes is composition is up for question any day of the week.
Especially when you consider, as I said, this is really only an engineering feat recreating an existing artifact. Is that Art or hobbyism?
This discussion has gone way too highbrow for me. I like the shiny lights and how it goes tinkly tinkly.
I think the artistic commentary with Cybraphon, without sounding too much like a pretentious cock or second-guessing Found’s intentions, is to reflect the way many of us validate ourselves through social networking and ‘Web 2.0′. How many Facebook friends we have, how many hits our blog gets, how many people download our podcasts etc.
So, if merely in terms of interpretation, for me Cybraphon is a valid work of art.
I don’t disagree with you about public funding for art, that’s a complex issue and I’m sure plenty of utter wank has been paid for with taxpayers’ money. I just don’t think that’s an argument we need to worry about while we’re discussing Cybraphon.
The fact is for now Cybraphon is exciting and delighting a lot of people, and stimulating debate, isn’t that a couple of points scored for it as an artistic project?
I think it’s important that public money is invested in art, however, that’s not to say it shouldn’t be spent wisely, and it’s equally important that the subsequent works are allowed to fulfil their potential so that as many people as possible can access and enjoy them.
I was reading something the other day about a local council somewhere who had spent tens of thousands of pounds commisioning an artist to design and sculpt a fence they intended to install around a public space. The fence incorparted some relevent designs or other and was meant to stand on its own merits as a work of art, as well as providing the practical function of a fence.
Apparently the same local council have subsequently decided the best use for the expensive public art installation they commisioned is to use it as a hoarding to hang huge tarpaulin banners advertising the local gym membership scheme.
That’s where the danger lies in public funding for the arts, too many numpties in charge of too maneny council departments leading to the public benefits being lost.
This Tomoraphone has yawned and shut down!
Dylan, have you checked to see how much public funding (& I’m talking tens of millions) is going into Chapter Arts Center’s refurb? It is really, really outrageous given the contemptible shite they put on, again, in the so-called name of ‘Art’.
I haven’t checked, but I’ll happily take your word for it, and I’m prepared to agree with you that it in the case of the Chapter Arts Center it might not be being spent wisely.
But are you proposing that all public funding of the arts should be abolished because some instances are being mis-managed?
Would you propose abolishing all public spending on defence simply because the government’s justifications for our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan are fucked up?
Would you propose that all public funding for health is abolished because the different local NHS trusts can’t agree on a cohesive nationwide plan for the prescription of cancer medication?
Public bodies heammorhage cash, that’s what they do and it’s fucked up; but a great deal of the money they spend can be justified. I guess the question here, if it’s not should public money be spent on the arts, is which category you think Cybraphon fits in.
I think that this is just brilliant – one of the coolest things i have seen in ages. And i think that everyone here is sucking the joy out of it…
So i stopped reading all of your nonsense and skipped to the part where i say this is fucking cool…
AGREED
shit shonagh. i’m sorry i didn’t come to dinner on monday night! ok?! for what it’s worth dylan said you made a mean spag bol.
michael. i have nothing for you.
but to be honest i agree with both of you. it’s a fun invention, designed for fun, for those who want to have fun.
Hmm.
DC – I agree with some of your points, but there are a few I think are completely wrong.
Just a ‘feat of engineering’? Garbage. That’s all sculpture dismissed. Art isn’t just created with paint and brushes as you well know, and most of the time in galleries I find the works which use a lot of the materials and visual language of engineering to be the most beautiful. This is not even very engineeringy – i.e. it doesn’t have all that much of a deliberately technical look – but to suggest that it is merely a piece of engineering is to imply that its only merits are technical rather than aesthetic which, IMHO etc etc etc, is clearly entirely wrong.
As for it being simply a remake of something which already exists, you know full well that’s nonsense as well. It may be a play on a concept which already exists, in terms of being a mechanical orchestra, but it isn’t merely a faithful facsimile of one copied from a prior source, it has been reimagined with great and obvious skill to create both a sculpture and a statement, which is what art is supposed to do, isn’t it?
Are chairs which are so sculptural as to be works of art rather than practical objects also redundant simply because the concept of a chair has been invented already? Are they all by definition devoid of merit?
Most people’s reaction to art is pretty superficial: there’s an instant emotional reaction that something is beautiful/hummable/enjoyable/sad/enraging/whatever, and that’s all you get with most people. I enjoy paintings which I think look nice and often ones which are simply a beautiful exploration of light and colour and which contribute far less to the grand sum of human knowledge than this does, because there is at least some kind of commentary going on here, whether or not you think it’s all that deep.
I agree that a lot of public arts money is wasted on rubbish, but I think that has a lot to do with issues of class – who actually controls those purse strings – and the hapless bungling of bureaucracy. I certainly have my doubts that your argument makes any sense where a couple of grand (I don’t know the figure, or even if there is one) is handed out to a couple of artists to make a piece of sculpture.
You’re welcome to not like the results, but surely arts councils spending small sums to fund specific projects is exactly what they should be doing, rather than putting it into massive chunks and handing it out to a small number of people and potentially a small number of pet projects. I think you’re venting a personal (and a justifiable) bugbear on a subject to which it really doesn’t apply.
I’m sure that, these people, may also think that someone declaring themselves as the daddy of the Edinburgh music scene is the bigger penis by far!
Who, seriously, are you talking about, Chutters? Who has declared themselves the Daddy of the Edinburgh music scene?
I was telling you that if you disagree with someone it is not enough just to say ‘rubbish’ when you want to, because that’s so pointless a remark as to not really warrant the typing involved. Make a point or shush.
Do I get marks for length?
Oh no, it’s girth that matters, isn’t it.
Agreed too – it’s maybe not the work of genius (who’s to say – very few things are) but I think we can agree that it is really fucking clever.
I can’t be bothered reading the very long comments above about it’s funding and artistic merit, but it clearly is a piece of art and it seems more necessary, vital and relevant to me than the vast majority of other projects that I’ve seen.
Plus I really enjoy watching/listening to it. And I very much like it’s vintage presentational aesthetic.
I also think that if a band more famous than Found did something like this they would be taken very seriously indeed. It’s no mean feat to be able to write songs as good as Found do and to do something like this. Those combined talents are something to behold.
No, Dylan – I don’t think public funding should be stopped; far from it.
It’s a very difficult area to judge, to be perfectly honest, because there will always be at least one person saying ‘that’s a waste of money’.
Most Art Councils, I believe, are now overseen by their local county or city council. Up until about 5 or so years ago Art Councils were responsible for bidding for, justifying, budgeting, managing & distributing their own budgets. This led to cries of ‘jobs for the boys’ & ‘feathering your own nests’ when it seemed like the same names/faces were receiving the grants/funds/bursaries/etc. every year.
So the local governments took steps to take control of the budgets & monitor the situation a little more closely. This lead to cries of ‘censorship!’ & worries that it would lead to the local government depts. agreeing funding for populist projects only.
So there has been this uncomfortable impasse ever since.
Public fund expenditure needs to be controlled but also allowed to take risks. It’s the deciding how far you, as a funding body, are willing to go either way is the key to a successful balance.
In my experience in Wales, funding bodies aim for the populist angle &, when they have to clear the coffers at the end of the financial year in order to start the tendering process for more funds the following year – i.e. if you don’t spend it now you’re not going to need it next time around, then piss whatever money’s left into any pot (as long as there’s a whiff of an end product) & call that their ‘Positive Diversity’ action.
Shonagh, do you have one of those little metal wind up music box innards? The ones that play the first verse + Chorus of the likes of Love Me Tender or Love Me Do? I bet you do, don’t you?
I think that your comment on art are pretty spot on Matthew.
However, one can critique art, music or whatever in as many or few words as one feels like….it may not be the most enlightening at times but hey i was just giving my initial thoughts anyway….it would make a pretty shite blog but then again i don’t write a blog, yet.
re the daddy issue – have a look again at your first 2 paragraphs…..and join the dots.
Twitter’s what you want Chutters. 140 characters – more than enough to say ‘this is shit’ and variations on the theme.
Give us a kiss you big muppet.
I’d forgotten about those two paragraphs.
It’s not all about you Euan…
Yes, DC, yes i do, it helps me sleep when i have no reading material on arts funding…
Toad, whether it’s a few hundred or a few thousand, it’s still public money. Public money, I might add, whose distribution has no real regulation or concrete criteria. There’s no accountability, regardless of it now being moreorless Govt. handled, & we do get vast piles of shite being funded as a result.
Also, I would suggest the amount of electronic/trical know how required in putting this together confirms it as an engineering piece.
& just because it is ‘driven’ using the internet as a jump off point doesn’t make it any more or less dissimilar to the original mechanical orchestras / player pianos of the world. It’s just an update. But do we need an update? Regardless of deep/shallow/whatever philosophizing may have been chin tapped in order to get to the end result. That’s my question. What’s the point? Who’s benefiting? Any need?
Your point about chairs is somewhat redundant. We’re not talking about chairs. We’re talking about something that’s been constructed as a work of art. If a chair was constructed & presented as a work of art then we’d ask the same questions. 99% of chairs, regardless of shape, are brought into being because they are required as furniture.
I think what you’re confusing here is the notion of ‘found’ art (no pun) – such as Marchel Dupont’s “Fountain”, which pretty much started the whole notion of ‘anything is possible’. The Cypbraphon, although made up of ‘found’/acquired objects, is not itself ‘found’ art. It is a constructed piece, an engineered piece. Therefore in an entirely different aesthetic to a chair in a lounge or a chair tunred on its side next to a banana skin in a gallery.
So we all agree that public funding of the arts, in one guise or another, should continue.
We all also agree that the way some of the public money allocated to the arts is spent is sometimes questionnable.
What are we arguing about?
I am going to ignore the comments about funding, because there ain’t much debate there -generally we seem to agree, for the most part.
As to who benefits, well that’s obvious. As with any piece of art who benefits is any person who finds it intriguing or beautiful or thought-provoking. This clearly meets those criteria.
It is not engineering instead of art simply because it requires engineering skills to construct. Just as it would not be a piece of millinery if it included curtains. The engineering skills were being used beyond mere technical utility and there is an obvious artistic statement being made. Just because you personally aren’t impressed doesn’t mean you get to redefine art to suit your preferences.
This is nothing to do with found art. This is about something which has been constructed with an aesthetic and intellectual purpose, not a practical one, therefore the skills used to achieve that end are irrelevant.
What about sculptures made of LEDs and buzzers – you would never call those simple feats of engineering and not art merely because they made use of soldering and basic knowledge of circuitry to complete, would you?
This is *also* a feat of engineering, but it is inescapably a work of art first and foremost.
Ooh! Wouldn’t it look good with a nice pair of curtains?!
sorry i forget how to do links but have a wee look at this.
this is also cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2JChnwv2Ws
oh that was easy
Robots are cool as fuck.
I simply wouldn’t call them art, mate, let alone engineering feats.
But back to the point: you are confusing the terminology here for ‘genre’ – I am saying this is an engineered piece, which it is, clearly, based on its very design & construction. That doesn’t mean I am therefore dismissing its potential as Art. I’m not arguing it’s presented artistic status. Its status as a piece of ‘art’ as it is being presented is not under question. I agree this is being presented as art. That has no bearing on whether I like or dislike it. I understand its purpose is that of a presented piece of art. I hope that’s now clear.
This is nothing to do with found art. This is about something which has been constructed with an aesthetic and intellectual purpose, which makes your comparison with a chair entirely meaningless, then, which was my point to begin with.
Chairs only become art when they are placed within that context; that definition is ‘found’ art. The Cyp therefore cannot be compared either as furniture or found art, it being neither.
Art is whatever you want it to be, to try and define it is absurd and pointless.
Bullshit Tom.
Cheers. Up now. http://bit.ly/TFX9B
I highly recommend you check out the Scottish animation by Swayrick Payze on there too. Now THAT is art. http://bit.ly/34WKlV
I wasn’t referring to found art. I was referring to a piece of design taken so far into the aesthetic realm that it ceases to function as a practical object and becomes a piece of sculpture. It was just to point out that the ostensibly functional cues in a work do not necessarily place them within the functional category to which they might superficially belong.
So if you aren’t using the ‘really only a piece of engineering’ as a dismissal implying that it is therefore not art, then why were you hammering on about it? Lots of great art is engineering based, how is that a criticism?
As far as I can tell you are dismissing the artistic feat as ‘merely engineering’ which implies that the technical skills required to create the piece do not count towards it’s artistic merit – would you say the same of a painting? That making something beautiful is simply a technical feat and not an artistic one?
They may be using materials other than brushes and canvas, but most paintings exists either on pure whim and to look nice, or to evoke a particular emotion. How is this different? You can see the emotions and fascination it’s generating right here – that is more validation, more point and more necessity than most art work ever gets, isn’t it?
I meant to say:
Bullshit Tom.
Otherwise by your own definition if anything can be art simply ‘because’ then it itself becomes pointless on any artistic level because that level no longer exists due to the potential of everything being on the same level.
the only thing that ‘art’ has to have in my mind is some form of narrative, and even then it can be in the loosest form.
and yes, you are right DC, tho i doubt you’re wanting me to say that right now!
I don’t get the engineering argument either. Surely the function of the peice defines its merits either as art or engineering.
As has been pointed out, Cybraphon doesn’t really carry out a practical function, that’s what I was getting at when I said that I don’t think Found intend for everyone to have a Cybraphon in the corner of their living room.
I mean, The Angel Of the North is an astonishing feat of civil engineering, I can only imagine the enormous practical measures required to keep such a vast, top-heavy and unstable structure from tumbling down its hillside.
But despite that, surely you would classify The Angel Of The North as a work of art first.
the boys from found must be pissing themselves reading the absolutye pointless drivel that has been said here. the readers of this site always seem to jump at the chance to show everyone how fucking smart and articulate they are but at the end of the day WHO GIVES A FUCK! get a fucking grip. the whole argument of what art means is something you get out of your system by about the age of 14.
Exactly.
DC, listen to Michael!
The most telling question in all of this (yes I read it all) is the question of who benefits. And no matter the balance of funding between public and private nor the balance of definition between engineering and art, most often those who benefit from such a thing are the class of folk from whom create such a thing. Think about that.
Now what makes this cool, to my mind, is the accessibility of it via it’s presence on the Internet. How successful that presence is will determine who benefits. And therefore, to my mind, the worthiness of its funding.
Sorry, no time to defend my opinions, I’m off to the airport, but I do still want a copy of that sex tape with Mr. Bear and the blasted contraption :p
haha
AGREED
i love Michael…..well i do as long as that comment wasn’t directed at moi!
lover
My agreed was for Michael, but fair dues too, Tart
One thing though, Matthew..
Can you correct that typo in the headline? It’s been bugging me all day.
And how will Cybraphone be able to Google itself if its name’s spelt wrong?!
i.e. without a ‘p’ in the middle, or an ‘e’ on the end for that matter!
There’s no ‘e’ on the end. Never noticed that extra ‘p’ though, whoops.
Sorry Michael, but if I disagree with someone I’m going to say so, particularly on this site.
No, I put an ‘e’ on the end when I was talking about you making a typo.
Which tickled me!
anyway, where has that annoying little oink Nineball gone?
[...] of musical box of tricks, currently on display in a gallery as part of the Edinburgh festival. Read Matthew’s post for some enthusiasm about it, or go straight to the Cybraphon website, and be [...]
matthew im not getting at anyone for disagreeing or putting thier points across, this is what forums are for after all. but you have to admit sometimes it gets a bit carried away. especially when you get people going over the same point again and again.
Yes, it does. Butl it can ages to tease out exactly what the point is when everything is one comment at a time, by necessity. It would probably have taken two minutes in an actual conversation.
Mind you, there are lots of sites with no real participation at all, and in balance I’d rather one which got a bit too involved from time to time to one which was largely met by silence. So yes, it can get annoying, but I’d rather that to apathy or disinterest.
i agree. and furniture robots are cool.
Yeah, but is it art?
its fart.
Now what is art Dylan? aaaaaaand… do you think that funding art is a good idea?
BORING!!!!!!!!
this entire thread is making my penis hurt.
cybraphone exists…the world is a better place for it.
natch.
Actually, I don’t think you can say that until the aforementioned curtains have been installed.
Embroidered curtains.
I declare it Not Art until it has some curtains.
And Mr. Bear, get your spelling right.
You see boys, someone always ends up hurt in the end
Now what’s going on the t-shirt?
Can we talk about that parrot that says “twat” now please? That was great!
As a philistine I fucking hate most art. Interpretative dance makes me want to punch babies, opera gies me the boak and ballet is just a make work scheme for anorexic neurotics. If I had a job that involved punching Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, I’d skip my lunch hour everyday and work weekends. I did art history at school in Paris and I’ve been dragged round some right dreary piss in the alleged name of art in my time. So who gives a shit if its art or not, whats so fucking great about art?
What it is though is awesome, clever, uplifting, impressive, ingenious, amusing and original. And thats a better use of taxpayers money than bailing out fucked up banks or pissing around foreign sandboxes with guns.
My missus fucking rocks. Did you all see how cool she was, because I thought she was fucking cool.
yes, I saw how awesome your missus is…VERY AWESOME INDEED!!!!!
best post ever!
FACT
you two should really get drunk more often, it definitely improves the conversation!
i like Tracy Emin but hate Damien Hirst
go figure
fact
What’s so great about art? Without art (and the galleries that house it) socially awkward undergraduates would have no place to “score.” I once got laid simply because I knew a bit about Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece. And I’m sure he got laid for making it, although I suspect it was a rather crabbed, gothic sort of laid.
Cybraphon’s beginning to capture the attention of the broadsheets.