For those of you wondering, this is a reference to Larry Niven's "The Fourth Profession". This is considered one of Niven's best short works. --- Summary is as follows:
An interstellar trading ship arrived in the moon's orbit two years ago, and the few aliens who have descended to Earth have stayed in their landing craft or at the United Nations building in New York City. When one of the aliens unexpectedly shows up in a Los Angeles tavern, bartender Ed Frazer awakes the next morning with the strangest hangover of his life. Ed barely remembers taking the pills offered by the alien; each pill flooding his brain with the knowledge of an alien profession... spaceship captain... teleporter.... translator... but Ed can't remember how many pills he took, or if the confusing overload of information in his head shadows the terrible secret of their mission.
In related news, Pathe has delivered an Immediate Cease And Desist letter to God, claiming prior ownership of all history and requiring that God pay a licensing fee before continuing to direct human events.
We found that having the projected image very bright at all was quite distracting. Also, for any large venue (say >1000 seats), you need a fairly large image for the entire audience to see it -- probably 80% of your concert-goers are past retirement age.
I think there's a lot of difficulty balancing the desire to have functional visual stimulation on stage against the actual visual artistry inherent in a live orchestral production. It's done a lot of ways, and sometimes fails miserably -- and that's just with things like canvas art, which doesn't have a strong luminosity or dynamic presentation.
What's interesting is that more a "tradition" visual [dynamic] addition seems to be less distracting. Modern dancers performing in front of and around the conductor's podium for Carmina Burana works; flashy lighting doesn't. I'm sure there's some happy medium, but I don't know that it's been explored much.
I work at the Colorado Music Festival, and this year we implemented a similar concept. Our conductor was aware of the Aspen system, but hadn't been impressed with it. He felt that it distracted from the musical experience to have that much going on... I suspect it also had a little to do with people looking down instead of up at the orchestra.
At any rate, we elected to use a subtle projected numbering system that corresponded to each movement or theme. In the paper program for the concert, these themes/comments/history were listed. We called it "Keeping Score". (Yeah, I know...)
It was a brilliant success, however. The festival saw something like a 10% attendance/revenue increase this season. For a Colorado arts organization, that's huge: Our governor removed all funding for the arts this year, including blocking millions of dollars in matching funds from the National Endowment. Arts orgs in the state have been collapsing left and right.
I think that having a cheap solution like Aspen implemented is fantastic for smaller orchestras. Don't get me wrong, CMF is pretty big, but it's no Aspen. I'd love to see both options next season though -- a subtle projector *and* a handheld option. We had a few pieces this year that had opera or spoken parts which we were able to project English translations for; I'd love to be able to push different languages to our international attendees.
This may exist already, but why doesn't someone set up a foundation dedicated to seeking out and patenting technology concepts, and then open-sourcing them?
If you're looking for a comparable sci-fi series, check out Peter F. Hamilton's trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction | The Neutronium Alchemist | The Naked God). It's the only science fiction I've read that I could really comfortably classify as being that Quality.
Be careful, though, I haven't been able to read sci-fi (or fantasy, really) since I finished his stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
First time working at Kmart has qualified anyone for anything....
...other than unemployment benefits.
Takka vrt frvz, vvive targle non.
Zigga ton bon fall gras, mitsa gal fal fib grafta. Giggla barty loki wadow, diggle flar try growl. Gogga monka bar frat barty loki a tine, gonda barty lokin mine vort. Vigga try wida loki null; lokin barty vrt frvz.
Dig, hoki hack barty wadow?
--
Kinna Soviet Russia, barty loki vrt frz you!
For those of you wondering, this is a reference to Larry Niven's "The Fourth Profession". This is considered one of Niven's best short works.
... spaceship captain ... teleporter .... translator ... but Ed can't remember how many pills he took, or if the confusing overload of information in his head shadows the terrible secret of their mission.
---
Summary is as follows:
An interstellar trading ship arrived in the moon's orbit two years ago, and the few aliens who have descended to Earth have stayed in their landing craft or at the United Nations building in New York City. When one of the aliens unexpectedly shows up in a Los Angeles tavern, bartender Ed Frazer awakes the next morning with the strangest hangover of his life. Ed barely remembers taking the pills offered by the alien; each pill flooding his brain with the knowledge of an alien profession
In related news, Pathe has delivered an Immediate Cease And Desist letter to God, claiming prior ownership of all history and requiring that God pay a licensing fee before continuing to direct human events.
We found that having the projected image very bright at all was quite distracting. Also, for any large venue (say >1000 seats), you need a fairly large image for the entire audience to see it -- probably 80% of your concert-goers are past retirement age.
I think there's a lot of difficulty balancing the desire to have functional visual stimulation on stage against the actual visual artistry inherent in a live orchestral production. It's done a lot of ways, and sometimes fails miserably -- and that's just with things like canvas art, which doesn't have a strong luminosity or dynamic presentation.
What's interesting is that more a "tradition" visual [dynamic] addition seems to be less distracting. Modern dancers performing in front of and around the conductor's podium for Carmina Burana works; flashy lighting doesn't. I'm sure there's some happy medium, but I don't know that it's been explored much.
I work at the Colorado Music Festival, and this year we implemented a similar concept. Our conductor was aware of the Aspen system, but hadn't been impressed with it. He felt that it distracted from the musical experience to have that much going on... I suspect it also had a little to do with people looking down instead of up at the orchestra.
At any rate, we elected to use a subtle projected numbering system that corresponded to each movement or theme. In the paper program for the concert, these themes/comments/history were listed. We called it "Keeping Score". (Yeah, I know...)
It was a brilliant success, however. The festival saw something like a 10% attendance/revenue increase this season. For a Colorado arts organization, that's huge: Our governor removed all funding for the arts this year, including blocking millions of dollars in matching funds from the National Endowment. Arts orgs in the state have been collapsing left and right.
I think that having a cheap solution like Aspen implemented is fantastic for smaller orchestras. Don't get me wrong, CMF is pretty big, but it's no Aspen. I'd love to see both options next season though -- a subtle projector *and* a handheld option. We had a few pieces this year that had opera or spoken parts which we were able to project English translations for; I'd love to be able to push different languages to our international attendees.
Heye, Tele, can you drop me a line? I have some follow-up questions about power generation and IT.
iiiii0iiiii@hotmail.com
If anybody needs me, I'll be in my bunk.
...walking, talking proof that fluoride kills brain cells...
This may exist already, but why doesn't someone set up a foundation dedicated to seeking out and patenting technology concepts, and then open-sourcing them?
If you're looking for a comparable sci-fi series, check out Peter F. Hamilton's trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction | The Neutronium Alchemist | The Naked God). It's the only science fiction I've read that I could really comfortably classify as being that Quality.
Be careful, though, I haven't been able to read sci-fi (or fantasy, really) since I finished his stuff.