Art Moving Moving On

Apskafters Issue 3 - Battleship Potemkin Special

2012-01-21T20:09:00.001Z

Open publication - Free publishing - More alternative

New Soundtrack for Metropolis

2012-01-18T13:50:00.000Z

I've recorded a new soundtrack for Fritz Lang's "Metropolis". The video is on YouTube and the individual tracks can be downloaded from last.fm

Metropolis Soundtrack by Peter-David Smith

Tracklist

		Track
1		metropolis1 robot voice intro free download
2		metropolis 2 free download
3		metropolis 3 Bad Music free download
4		metropolis 4 free download
5		metropolis 5 free download
6		metropolis 6 free download
7		metropolis 7 free download
8		metropolis 8 free download
9		metropolis 9 free download
10		metropolis 10 free download
11		metropolis 11 free download
12		metropolis 12 free download

Play Peter-David Smith Radio

New photos to promote my recordings

2011-12-31T09:59:00.001Z

New photos to promote my recordings:

Personality Test Experiment

2011-12-27T19:28:00.000Z

Please keep your eyes on the screen during the test and your fingers on the buttons.

New Apskaft Album: Musique Concrete Collective

2011-12-27T19:03:00.000Z

http://www.last.fm/music/Various+Artists/Apskaft+Presents%3A+Musique+Concrete+Collective

Apskafters Issue Two

2011-12-27T18:51:00.002Z

Well the second issue is published. Thanks to Hox Vox worked on even after an injured leg.

Open publication - Free publishing - More alternative

Raw Footage: Road Sweeping and Litter Picking 2 - Lunchbreak at Miller's Crossing

2011-12-20T03:46:00.002Z

As a road sweeper I had to be out in all weathers, rain, snow, ice, blazing sunshine, etc. all the year round. I had a one hour, unpaid, lunch break and I had to find somewhere to sit and eat my lunch while keeping an eye on the sweeping barrow. Sometimes, if it wasn't raining, I would sit by Miller's Crossing and Blackaller Weir. The key thing for lunch was to know somewhere on the route where I would be less bothered by members of the public than usual. Members of the public are always bothering road sweepers with stupid questions and comments ("You're doing a good job there, boy" - etc., or "How do I get to the concert hall?" and so on....) ["You have to practice"]

Raw Footage: Road Sweeping and Litter Picking 1

2011-12-20T01:43:00.001Z

I was working as a road sweeper for Exeter City Council. The only road sweeper with an honours degree. I took a video camera with me for a bit of reportage from the environmental front line.

Raw Footage: Exebridges - and the speculative extension

2011-12-20T01:32:00.003Z

First here's the raw footage of the timeslipping Exebridge area of Exeter, where previous centuries seep through into the rubbish of modern day traffic noise:

Now here's one possible parallel universe extension of that cultural slice:

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 13, 14 and the video painting

2011-12-20T01:20:00.002Z

13

14

Painting-P The Dartmoor Landscape

This is the video painting I made from some of the raw footage:

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 9, 10, 11, 12

2011-12-20T01:15:00.001Z

9

10

11

12

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 5, 6, 7, 8

2011-12-20T01:12:00.002Z

Video sketches of Dartmoor.

5

6

7

8

Painting-Q exeter-version 5

2011-12-19T20:15:00.000Z

The final version. Painting, video, audio in one.

exeter-version 4

2011-12-19T20:13:00.003Z

Moving on with the Apskaft World project I continued altering the sound and the images. Aiming to achieve a union of musicality and painterlyness in a time based work.

exeter-version 3

2011-12-19T20:12:00.002Z

Further along into the project for "Apskaft World" I had begun to introduce musicality to the soundtrack.

exeter-version 2

2011-12-19T20:09:00.004Z

Another version of the video I made for the Apskaft World project. Slightly further along. The concept begins to develop. At this stage I was beginning to get the feeling of "painterlyness" into the video. One of the reasons I still like to use analogue video tape even though I own several digital video cameras is the analogue scan lines and interference artifacts which create serendipitous texturing in the stream of images.

exeter-version 1

2011-12-19T20:08:00.001Z

An early version of the video I made for the Apskaft World project. Video art goes into Audio art. A little bit of a mini-homage to Derek Jarman.

A Message from the Man who Knows What He's Talking About.

2011-12-18T23:44:00.001Z

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 4

2011-12-18T23:43:00.001Z

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 3

2011-12-18T23:42:00.001Z

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 2

2011-12-18T23:41:00.001Z

Raw Footage: Dartmoor 1

2011-12-18T23:40:00.001Z

Peter-David Smith » Take the Smooth with the Rough

2011-12-18T16:20:00.000Z

Take the Smooth with the Rough by Peter-David Smith

Tracklist

		Track
1		01 wild fing 1 free download
2		02 wild fing 2 free download
3		03 wild fing 3 free download
4		04 Guess What free download
5		05 2113 free download
6		06 All Delilah Regrets free download
7		07 Ballad free download
8		08 Existence-Consciousness-Bliss free download
9		09 Chill 1 free download
10		10 Chill 4 free download
11		11 Cursed Earth free download
12		12 Double Star free download
13		13 Ecce Homo free download
14		14 Fanstatic free download
15		15 Get It Together free download
16		16 Ghosts in the Web free download
17		17 Necklace of Skulls free download
18		18 Rough Noisy Chill free download
19		19 Sad Pixies free download
20		20 Steamy Jungle Planet free download
21		21 The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock (remix) free download
22		22 They Give Us the Minimum They Can Get Away With free download
23		23 They Take the Maximum the Law Will Allow free download
24		24 They're Throwing Me Out of My Home free download
25		25 VH20111107_193817 free download
26		26 Wig Wearing Woogie free download
27		27 Zeta Beam free download
28		28 New Moon Over free download

A Language of Movement, Shape and Electronics.

2011-12-18T04:04:00.002Z

A language of movement, shape and electronics. Experimental work by Peter-David Smith at University of Plymouth in the 1990s. Making shapes with dancing hands, video editing and electrical interference.

comic relief mid-1990s

2011-12-18T02:55:00.001Z

How Tired I was Then

2011-12-18T02:52:00.001Z

Paint Jeans

2011-12-18T02:50:00.001Z

Exeter, 1990s

2011-12-18T02:47:00.001Z

Table-Paper

2011-12-18T02:40:00.001Z

Move Chair

2011-12-18T02:38:00.001Z

how gymnastic i was then.avi

2011-12-18T02:36:00.001Z

University of Plymouth Art Dept. 1994/1995 when it was still in Exeter - 2

2011-12-18T02:33:00.001Z

University of Plymouth Art Dept. in 1995 when it was still in Exeter - 1

2011-12-18T02:29:00.001Z

A Version of the Apskaft World Movie

2011-12-18T02:27:00.000Z

Parallel Universes - 11th Dimension - Meditation Subject

2011-12-07T22:27:00.001Z

Meditation Subject - How should information like this be addressed by fine art? What does this theory mean for people's lives?

Apskafters - Issue Number One!

2011-11-12T19:55:00.001Z

Hooray! The first issue of Apskafters magazine is published on ISSUU.com Apskafters, arguably the most important magazine in the world today!

Open publication - Free publishing - More avant-garde

The Village and the Mobile Cell

2011-10-24T23:21:00.000+01:00

Concerning "Jeremy Bentham's Mobile Cell".

Here's my recording of "Jeremy Bentham's Mobile Cell", from the "My Subversions" album (one day people will get what this means - but it may be too late): Jeremy Bentham's Mobile Cell free download

Panopticon

The Cube

2011-10-24T22:24:00.000+01:00

I've enjoyed all three "Cube" movies: Cube, HyperCube and CubeZero. Now I've stumbled upon "The Cube", a 1960s forerunner to them all and created in 1969 by Jim Henson. "The Cube" is very different to any other work I've seen from Jim Henson and there are no muppets anywhere in the production. A strange piece of experimental television which somehow fits into the abstract psychology of the later "Cube" movies. Here, in it's entirety from Google Video is "The Cube" - and here also are the trailers for the three "Cube" movies - Oh, and as a bonus on the same theme, here's also Antonio Mercero's 1972 TV movie "La Cabina":

New Album: Free Download: Steam and Alternate Timelines

2011-10-06T17:34:00.000+01:00

I've released a new album, "An Alternative Steam Age". Listen and download here:

An Alternative Steam Age by Speculativism

Tracklist

		Track
1		In Our Lovely Little Garden free download
2		The Lord Chancellors Song free download
3		My Name is Doctor Jekyll free download
4		Doom Bop free download
5		Marching to the Time War free download
6		The Mock Turtle's Song (remix of Cory Doctorow) free download
7		Temporal Battle free download
8		A Skirmish Just Outside the 20th Century (Not Sure Which End) free download
9		Terrible Time free download
10		The Horror in Wimbledon Broadway free download
11		Doctor Wyrdenstrang's Electro-Mechanical Music free download
12		Tripe Odd and Bree Strange free download
13		Requiem for Robot Leif Ericsson's Robot Parrot free download
14		Very Civilised free download
15		Tunnels Under the Castle 1 free download
16		The Gods of Time and Change free download
17		By Autogyro to Tibet free download
18		Brian Ferries the Tank Engine Across the Mersey free download
19		Exploring the Antipodes free download
20		Tunnels Under the Castle 2 free download
21		The Mechanical Serenade free download

Nemesis free download

Cameras and Mikes Please

2011-09-24T12:43:00.002+01:00

I already posted this on another site but it needs to be here too. It's important to get this idea to as many people as possible:

I think policing is pretty bad in most, or possibly all, countries. The sad fact is that, while we need laws and someone to enforce them, the job of policing attracts the bully type of personality. Something must be done about it and here's my suggestion:

I think it would be good if all police officers had to wear small video cameras and microphones attached to their uniforms and record everything they say and do to members of the public so that they would be forced to behave correctly.

Experiences as a Witness

2011-09-24T11:54:00.000+01:00

To be an artist means also to be a witness. The job of the artist is to look, to see, to listen, to witness and to communicate the seen and heard and witnessed to the world. The artist must notice that which others overlook. The artist must be willing to pay attention to that which others ignore.

Art must record not only beauty but also truth, and truth may be ugly, like the attack on Guernica.

Images are not reality. Vision is not truth. Pictures always lie. But the job of the artist is still to find some way of communicating some sort of truth to the world.

Here are some experiences I've had as a witness:

Example One:

A few years ago I saw a man being arrested on Cathedral Green, Exeter. He was being arrested by one police officer and one traffic warden. I stood still and watched the process. I was about 100 metres away. I didn't move any closer because I wanted to observe without becoming involved.

The policeman left the arrested man in the hands of the traffic warden and went away, perhaps to get a vehicle.

I stood and watched. The traffic warden was kneeling hard on the man's head, pressing down with his knee in an unnecessarily forceful and vindictive way. I don't know what the man was being arrested for but I continued watching in case there might be a call for witnesses at some later date.

The traffic warden continued pushing his knee down hard onto the man's head until he noticed me watching him. Noticing me, the traffic warden relaxed the pressure visably and the man began to struggle less, presumably because he was now in less pain.

Eventually the policeman returned and the man was taken away.

Example Two:

On another occasion I observed an incident in Exeter High Street. There used to be a shop in the High Street trading under the name of "Game". They sold computer games and bits of hardware, cables etc. I observed a young man walking out from the shop. As soon as he reached the pavement he was set upon by 4 or 5 youths wearing badges which showed they were employed by the shop. They were surrounding the first youth and pushing, pulling, shoving, grabbing and generally attacking him. They were not behaving in a professional manner, but instead were acting like a gang of thugs, laughing and enjoying the opportunity to attack someone.

I was standing about 5 metres away. I didn't move. I didn't speak. I stood still and quietly observed the events. It seemed that the young men were hired as security guards in the shop and believed the other youth to be a shop lifter. However, instead of simply detaining him they had decided to have a bit of violent fun at his expense.

Then one of the youths noticed me witnessing the events.

He turned toward me and shouted "Go away! Stop standing there! Go on, move! Go away!"

I didn't move or speak. I continued to stand still in the same spot, quietly witnessing.

The young man shouted at me some more, telling me to "Go away". He began to punctuate his words with pushes and shoves and began balling up his fists threateningly. I still didn't move or speak. Other pedestrians in the High Street continued to hurry past, ignoring the incident, literally "passing by on the other side".

The young man from game shop began actually trying to physically push me away from the scene. He was still shouting and the others were still roughing up their suspected shoplifter a short distance away.

I allowed the young man to push me down onto the pavement. The experience of many protest marches in my younger days meant I knew how to fall to the ground without offering resistance when shoved.

The young man then stood over me shouting "Get up! Get up!" I stayed down and continued observing. By now another passer by was videoing the events on his mobile cell device.

The young thug gave up on trying to make me stand up. I had still not spoken. I could have argued with him but I reasoned that any use of words would only muddy the waters. I was on a public street and was certainly entitled to stand still for a few minutes.

When it seemed clear that the thugs had lost interest in me I slowly stood up and continued observing as the police arrived and the thugs from the game shop handed their captive over to be arrested. When the incident was over I continued along my way home.

Example Three:

On another occasion, in Sidwell Street, Exeter I saw the police put an arrested man into a police vehicle and drive him away, while a woman complained to another police officer. I don't know on what charge the man had been arrested and I don't know what relation the woman may have been to him. The thing which interested me about it was this: The policeman threatened the woman that if she didn't stop shouting at him he would arrest her too, but she wasn't shouting. She was speaking to him in a reasonable quiet and peaceful voice. Her voice had an emotional, distressed tone to it, but was not at all loud or raised above ordinary speech. I was walking past and overheard this exchange between them without stopping to hear more. I simply slowed down and walked slowly enough to hear what was said before continuing on my way.

It was unmistakable. The policeman deliberately pretended that the woman was shouting when she quiet clearly wasn't, rather than be bothered to treat her complaint in an honest and fair way.

This sort of behaviour from officialdom interests me greatly. The routine lying, conniving and falsyfing by means of which police officers and other officials rob the public of any sense of there being decency in the world.

I made a mental note of the policeman's face so that I would recognise him again and not be too surprised by his lack of honesty.

Forgotten Bookmarks

2011-09-23T02:39:00.003+01:00

http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/ Fabulous blog. Recommended! http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/

Recognise Palestine

2011-09-14T19:16:00.001+01:00

Religion

2011-09-07T23:16:00.000+01:00

Current status of my thinking on religion:

I definitely don't believe in monotheism.

Monotheism is self-contradictory.

We're asked to believe in a god who is simultaneously all-good, all-wise and all-knowing.

That means the god, being all-good, would not tolerate evils such as child rape or mass murder.

Being all-knowing the god would certainly know of any such evil.

Being all-powerful the god would have no difficulty in eradicating such evil.

Therefore it follows logically that if such a god existed none of these evils would exist.

And since these evils obviously do exist it therefore follows that the usual monotheist concept of god must be false.

On the other hand, I definitely don't believe in atheism.

There are (it seems to me) lots of little clues to the existence of some kind of divinity in the universe.

One great big clue is the coincidence of the sun and the moon.

The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon.

However, by coincidence the sun is also 400 times further away than the moon.

This astonishing coincidence results in the sun and moon appearing to be the same size when viewed in the sky of the Planet Earth and allows eclipses to occur.

A lot of other coincidences result in the Planet Earth existing in a "Goldilocks Zone" which is perfect for life.

Okay, these coincidences don't entirely disprove the athiest view but, to my way of thinking, they make it seem very unlikely to be true.

So, if the truth is neither monotheism nor atheism, what does that leave?

Polytheism, pantheism? Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Paganism?

A pragmatic accomodation of all these in a spirit of enlightened agnosticism?

Definitely something like that...

Government Hypocrisy

2011-09-04T12:18:00.000+01:00

I gave up smoking in 1997, 14 years ago. Since then I've had a little more money in my pocket, my tastebuds are able to taste more subtle flavours of food because they aren't covered in nicotine and my general state of health is better than it would have been if I'd continued smoking. I'm careful about passive smoking too. I cover my mouth and nose with my hand when passing smokers on the street. They have their freedom to smoke and I have my freedom to avoid breathing the smoke in. Fine.

But what annoys me is the government hypocrisy. the long list of poisonous substances added to tobacco has been APPROVED by the government. The British government, the American government and all the other governments APPROVE the addition of hundreds of poisons to tobacco while simultaneously listing these chemicals as harmful. One department of the government CONDEMNS these chemicals while another department APPROVES them.

My suggestion to government is this: Don't ban cigarette smoking - instead, why don't you stop giving permission for these hundreds of poisons to be added to the tobacco? If permission for these additions were withdrawn tobacco companies would squeal that the cigarettes won't burn properly anymore. Our response should be: "Tough! That's YOUR problem!"

Just my twopennyworth on the subject...

Album Review

2011-08-25T11:30:00.004+01:00

One of my albums, "War and Peace", got a very favourable review on the "Recent Music Heroes" blog here:

http://agier.blogspot.com/2011/08/speculativism-war-and-peace-2010.html

Data Painting and Dreaming and Painting

2011-08-23T12:47:00.000+01:00

When I was at art school, in the 1990s, there was one tutor who thought we had to either embrace digital art or stay with conventional painting and sculpture. I was an annoyance to him, I think, because I had this bee in my bonnet about working back and forth between digital art and painting, finding the relationship between the two. I'm interested in painting in relation to the electronic and the electronic in relation to painting. When I followed a module of digital art with a large oil painting on canvas the tutor in question called it a "retrograde step". Anyway, I've stuck with it over the years since then, painting, drawing and creating digital work. One of my favourite inspiring images is that of Data the android, from Star Trek, painting on canvas in the 24th Century. I love the concept of a positronic brain who still cares about oil and canvas. As so he should.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11001001 Stardate: 41365.9 Original Airdate: Feb 1, 1988

[Observation Lounge]

(Data is painting an image on glass)
LAFORGE: Well, what do you think?
RIKER: Tell me what it's supposed to be, then I'll give you my opinion.
DATA: It is an attempt at pure creativity.
LAFORGE: What we're investigating is, can Data be creative?
DATA: And this is my attempt, with guidance from Geordi.
LAFORGE: I suggested the zylo eggs.
RIKER: Is that what those are?
RIKER: Keep notes. This project might turn out to be of interest to scholars in the future.
LAFORGE: Really?
RIKER: Well of course. Think about it. A blind man teaching an android how to paint? That's got to be worth a couple of pages in somebody's book.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Matter of Perspective Stardate: 43610.4 Original Airdate: Feb 12, 1990

[Art class] (A life class is in process, and a young woman is posing as a semi-reclining nude)
DATA: Captain, we have arrived at Tanuga Four. The away team has completed its survey of Doctor Apgar's work and is ready to return to the ship.
PICARD: Good.

Please. And feel free to examine the work of the other students too.
DATA: Ensign Williams' striking style is heavily influenced by geometric constructivism.
DATA: Lieutenant Wright has effectively fused the incongruities of the surrealists with the irrationality of Dadaism.
(Then back to Picard's tall canvas)
DATA: Interesting.
PICARD: Oh, thank you. In what way?
DATA: While suggesting the free treatment of form usually attributed to Fauvism, this quite inappropriately attempts to juxtapose the disparate cubistic styles of
Picasso and Leger. In addition, the use of colour suggests a haphazard mélange of clashing styles. Furthermore, the unsettling overtones of proto-Vulcan influences
PICARD: Thank you, Mister Data.
DATA: You are welcome, sir. If I can be of further assistance
PICARD: No! Thank you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Birthright, part 1 Stardate: 46678.4 Original Airdate: Feb 22, 1993

[Data's quarters]

(the painting has developed a lot when the doorbell rings)
DATA: Come in.
LAFORGE: Data, what are you doing? We were supposed to meet at
(There are lots of paintings stacked around the walls. Corridor, hammer striking metal, hand. Data is working on two more at the same time.)
LAFORGE: Data, what are you doing?
DATA: I am painting.
LAFORGE: I can see that. How long have you been at this?
DATA: I have created twenty three individual illustrations in the past six hours, twenty seven minutes. I believe you could say I have been inspired.
LAFORGE: I'll say.
DATA: I have done as Captain Picard suggested. I have tried to explore the images.
LAFORGE: Has it helped?
DATA: I am not certain. I began by painting the image of the blacksmith. Then I painted the corridor. After that, the anvil, the hammer, and Doctor Soong's face. The thought then occurred to me that I should paint smoke.
LAFORGE: Smoke? Why smoke?
DATA: I cannot explain it. It is not an image I saw during my vision.
LAFORGE: Well, you have the smoke coming out of a bucket of water. Blacksmiths used to use water to cool the metal. Maybe that's why you painted it.
DATA: Perhaps. After I painted the smoke, it then occurred to me to paint a bird's wing. I then drew an entire bird. A flock of birds flying in formation. An individual feather. If the image of a bird is related to my vision, I do not understand how. I am left with more of a mystery than ever. Geordi, I would like to recreate the experiment which caused my initial shut down.
LAFORGE: What for?
DATA: I do not know how much longer my vision would have continued had I not been reactivated.
LAFORGE: Data, that plasma shock almost fused your neural net. I don't think it's such a good idea to try that again.
DATA: I am aware of the risks involved. But I can think of no other way to investigate my experience. Will you help?
LAFORGE: Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll go find Doctor Bashir.
DATA: I will prepare the power transfer.

[Engineering]

LAFORGE: Okay, Data, we're going to monitor every subsystem in your positronic net. If I see any neural pathways overload beyond sixty five percent, I'm shutting down the experiment.
DATA: Agreed.
BASHIR: We're ready.
LAFORGE: Initiating energy transfer. Get ready, Data.
BASHIR: Power levels are rising.
LAFORGE: It should be any second now.
(the energy burst knocks the tricorder out of Data's hand)

[Corridor]

(Once again, Data finds Soong at the anvil. He plunges a bird's wing into water, and steam rises. When it clears, Soong is gone and a raven is there. It flies off down the corridor)
DATA: The bird did not appear in my original experience. This vision is different.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And, to finish off this inane rambling about Data's and Picard's paintings here's...........

...........Data's painting of his cat, "Spot".

Comic Book Art

2011-08-23T06:56:00.001+01:00

I grew up reading and collecting comics. One of the favourite comics in my collection was Space Mysteries #9 which was published in 1964 (when I was 11) and reprinted the entire issue from Planet Comics #73 (originally published in 1953 by Fiction House). Here are some pages. Click the image to see a larger version and then use magnify to read. I loved the Bill Benulis artwork on this 1953 story of an electronic brain gone mad: "Cerebex":

And the artwork here (by Jack Able) perfectly compliments the spooky story. I loved this story so much when I was eleven!

I can post these because the're old and in public domain. I'd like to post the pages from the first comic book to ever make me cry tears. Unfortunately I can't post all of it because it's from a 1980s Marvel Comic and is still in copyright. Nevertheless, under the rules of Fair Use here's one page from New Mutants #045 - Novenber 1986 The first comic to ever make me cry. The story is about a mutant artist who makes sculptures of pure light.

Comics. A potentially serious artform shackled to a funny name.

The Slippery Slope to a Fascist Europe

2011-08-15T18:28:00.001+01:00

Thanks Morris, for reminding me about these events. I've always worried that a lack of democracy in the European Union was the start of a slippery slope downwards into fascism. This timeline seems to confirm my worst fears:

2001

2005

Ghosts of G8 haunt Genoa By Chris Summers and Irene Peroni BBC News Website More than 70 Italian police officers, many of them senior commanders, are about to go on trial accused of orchestrating a campaign of police brutality at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 and then organising a huge cover-up. Before 9/11 and the arrival on the scene of al-Qaeda, the western world's Public Enemy Number One was the violent anti-globalisation protesters who disrupted several major summits. “ We are prosecuting the commanders, those who had the responsibility for the whole action. They are the ones who ordered it and then ordered the cover-up ” Enrico Zucca Prosecutor Certain anarchist groups, such as Black Bloc, revelled in attacking police and smashing up shops belonging to global brands such as McDonald's, Nike and Starbucks. The level of violence at summits rose from Seattle in 1999 (World Trade Organisation summit) to Washington DC the following year (World Bank/IMF summit). There were also riots at an EU summit in Gothenburg in June 2001. So when the leaders of the G8 nations, including Tony Blair and George W Bush, arrived in the Italian city of Genoa in July 2001 everybody knew what was in store. The vast majority of the 100,000 anti-globalisation protesters were peaceful but a small minority were intent on violence. They clashed repeatedly with police on the streets close to the Red Zone, the fenced-off area where the summit was taking place. On the Friday a protester, Carlo Giuliani, was shot dead by police and his death ramped up the tension and mutual hatred. The summit ended on the Saturday afternoon and the clashes died away. But just before midnight on 21 July 2001 a squad of around 200 masked riot police officers, armed with batons and shields, arrived at a school two miles from the Red Zone. The Armando Diaz school complex was being used to house dozens of protesters. Across the street was an alternative media centre being used by Indymedia journalists such as Mark Covell, who was one of five Britons staying at the Diaz. Mr Covell was beaten unconscious and received several broken ribs, a fractured hand and the loss of all his front teeth. British victims Mark Covell, then aged 33, from London Norman Blair, 38, from Newport, Wales Dan McQuillan, 35, from London Nicola Doherty, 26, from Elgin, Scotland Richard Moth, 32, from London Other injuries included an American who was kicked so hard in the groin that he will never be able to father children. Forty of those arrested at the Diaz were taken to a holding centre at Bolzaneto, outside Genoa. There they were submitted to physical and verbal abuse, including being threatened with rape by officers who were singing fascist-era songs. The international media was then duped into believing the Diaz was a hotbed of violent resistance. Two Molotov cocktails were planted and police also showed off an array of knives, sledgehammers and pickaxes which they claimed to have found on the premises. One enterprising officer, Massimo Nucera, also claimed to have been stabbed and produced a damaged jacket to prove it. Tests on the jacket later showed the stabbing was faked, and it later emerged the penknives had been used to prepare food in the school kitchen and the tools were from a nearby building site. Mr Covell told BBC News Website: "Everybody staying at Diaz was peaceful. We had nothing to do with Black Bloc. They found nothing in that building which was incriminating. It was a conspiracy to justify the brutality with trumped-up charges." By the time the truth emerged the world's media had lost interest in Genoa and the public was left only with the memory of riots by unkempt hooligans. A Downing Street spokesman said at the time: "The Italian police had a difficult job to do. The prime minister believes they have done that job." More than 70 officers, including the second-highest ranking officer in Italy's anti-terrorist unit, Franco Gratteri, face charges ranging from false arrest to aggravated slander and abuse of office. There are separate trials relating to Diaz and Bolzaneto. Because police at the Diaz that night were all masked and did not have numbers or names on their uniforms - such identification is not required by law in Italy - it was impossible to attribute acts of violence to individual officers. Only one, Luigi Fazio, has been charged with assault. So the prosecutor, Enrico Zucca, has targeted the commanders. He told BBC News: "We are prosecuting the commanders, those who had the responsibility for the whole action. They are the ones who ordered it and then ordered the cover-up." He said he had come under political pressure from all sides to drop the charges but he insisted the trial would go ahead. "Every political party in Italy wants to keep their distance from this matter. We have come under political pressure to drop it, not in a direct way but indirectly," said Mr Zucca. “ Everybody staying at Diaz was peaceful...They found nothing in that building which was incriminating. It was a conspiracy to justify the brutality with trumped-up charges ” Mark Covell The SILP police union represents several of those on trial. National secretary Claudio Giardullo told the BBC News Website: "In the months before the G8 in Genoa, the government built up a law and order strategy of a military type, which was meant to have a heavy-handed approach in maintaining law and order. "The focus was more on this than on preventing violence and defending the city of Genoa. "I am not saying there were any written guidelines or orders in this sense, but by not saying that clashes (between police and demonstrators) must be avoided at any cost you create all preconditions for incidents to take place." 'We trust the judiciary' He added: "The Italian police trust the judiciary and want the truth to be ascertained as soon as possible. Personal responsibilities must be established, and those who have made mistakes must pay. “ The Italian police trust the judiciary and want the truth to be ascertained as soon as possible. Personal responsibilities must be established, and those who have made mistakes must pay ” Claudio Giardullo National secretary, SILP police union "But generalising would be a mistake. A relationship of trust between police forces and society is fundamental, because this prevents divisions which don't allow a democracy to work properly." It is not only the police who are facing justice as a result of the events of July 2001. The trial of 26 alleged rioters began last year and is only halfway through. The Genoa Justice Campaign, set up by the mother of Sara Bartesaghi, one of the injured demonstrators, is demanding a full apology for the police's actions by the Italian government. It also wants those injured, arrested and deported to be fully compensated. Preparing for next summit The events of Genoa 2001 are a salutary reminder to British police as they prepare to "welcome" anti-globalisation protesters to the next G8 summit at Gleneagles. The hotel, near the Scottish town of Auchterarder, is hosting the next summit in July. Its remote location has been chosen to help security arrangements. Chief Superintendent Brian Powrie of Tayside Police, who is in charge of policing the summit, told BBC News: "We have been planning for a year now, looking at all the contingencies to make sure we have a fully equipped, highly trained, flexible resource to police both the summit and any other events related to it. "We have also been looking at the security surrounding a number of large scale events, including previous G8 summits, sharing intelligence and working with other agencies." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/4217629.stm Published: 2005/02/07 10:09:30 GMT © BBC 2011

2007

Genoa riot evidence 'disappears' By Adam Blenford BBC News Key evidence in the trial of 29 Italian police officers charged over violence during the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa has vanished, police say. Two Molotov cocktails allegedly planted by police in a school used as a base by anti-globalisation protesters can no longer be found. The bombs are seen as crucial physical evidence against many of the defendants in the high-profile trial. The police are accused of brutality and perjury over a raid on the Diaz school. The petrol bombs - expected to be a key piece of evidence in the case - were due to be presented in court this week. Prosecutors now fear that the case could collapse, allowing many of the high-ranking defendants to walk free. Case at risk The apparent disappearance of important evidence sparked strong reactions within Italy. “ I'm a bit shocked and numb at the state of the Italian judiciary ” Mark Covell British journalist injured in Genoa The presiding judge called for an immediate explanation. The Reform Communist party - part of Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition government - has asked for a parliamentary investigation. Mark Covell, a British journalist who suffered serious injuries in the Diaz raid, told the BBC News website the disappearance could endanger the whole trial. "They have spent 20 million euros (£13m) on this and if these Molotov cocktails aren't found it could all be for nothing," he said. "I'm a bit shocked and numb at the state of the Italian judiciary. "But we can't calculate the full impact of this yet. We will have to wait and see." Police hopeful One police officer, Francesco Borre, told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that police routinely kept records of what they received and handed over. He said he believed the responsibility for keeping the Molotov cocktails rested with Genoa's police, known as the Digos - the same unit under investigation by the court. The secretary general of the Italian police union, Claudio Giardullo, held out hope that the trial could continue. "Because the Molotov cocktails were actually photographed before they disappeared, the material need to have the bottles has been lessened," he told the BBC. "It is up to the magistrate to decide whether the evidence is fundamental to the trial. "Police will hold an investigation about this - it is in their own interest," he added. Political priority The trial centres on a raid carried out on the night of 21 July 2001. Nearly 300 officers, most dressed in full riot gear, forced their way into the Diaz school, which was being used as a base by anti-globalisation protesters. Dozens of people were injured in the raid, as police also smashed windows and destroyed computers. The two Molotov cocktails found inside the school were originally cited as evidence that the protesters were planning violence. But reports soon emerged that the bombs were planted in the school by police themselves. Prime Minister Prodi has made the swift conclusion of the trial a priority, and has promised to investigate the conduct of the police. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/6278311.stm Published: 2007/01/19 14:33:17 GMT © BBC 2011

July 2008

Italy officials convicted over G8 An Italian court has found 15 officials guilty of mistreating protesters following violent protests at the G8 meeting in the city of Genoa in 2001. A judge handed down prison sentences ranging from five months to five years to the accused - who include police, prison officials and two doctors. Another 30 defendants were cleared of charges including assault. Protesters said they were beaten after being strip-searched by police. The prosecution said they were tortured. All of those convicted are expected to appeal against the guilty verdicts. The BBC's David Willey in Rome says it is unlikely that any of those sentenced will actually serve time in prison because their offences will have expired under Italy's statute of limitations before the appeal process is completed. However, the Italian government will be forced to pay out millions of pounds to those who were victims of police brutality during their detention. Organised brutality The 2001 meeting of the G8 in the northern Italian city of Genoa was one of the most violent in the group's history. Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on the city. Street-battles between demonstrators and police left one protester dead and hundreds of others injured. Police were accused of organised brutality after launching an unauthorised raid on a high school where protesters were camping during the summit. Scores of people were arrested during the raid and taken to a temporary prison camp outside Genoa, at Bolzaneto. Among them were protesters from Italy, Britain, Poland and Ireland. Prosecutors said those arrested were beaten, made to sing fascist songs, and that some women were stripped naked, had their heads shaved and were threatened with rape. Doctor jailed The commander of the camp, Biagio Gugliotta, was sentenced to five years - the heaviest penalty handed out on Monday. The chief doctor at the Bolzaneto camp, Giacomo Toccafondi, was given a 14-month sentence. He was accused of failing to inform authorities after some of the detainees were sprayed with asphyxiating gas. Most of the others convicted were police officers. One of the prosecutors in the case, Patrizia Petruziello, said that 40 protesters who were arrested suffered "four out of five" of the European Court's criteria for "inhuman and degrading treatment". The trial has lasted nearly three years. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/7506609.stm Published: 2008/07/15 10:32:06 GMT © BBC 2011

Nov 2008

Top Italy G8 riot police cleared The most senior police officials charged in connection with the handling of riots at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, in 2001 have been cleared. A court in the northern Italian city sentenced 13 officers to prison and acquitted another 16. There were cries of "shame" from the public as the acquittal of the police chief was announced. The clashes were some of the worst in the summit's history. One protester died and hundreds of people were hurt. School operation This was the last of three major trials arising out of the rioting. Charges ranged from beating protesters to planting evidence and conducting arbitrary searches. The BBC's David Willey in Rome says many of the police officers on trial are still in service and some have even been promoted. Two of them are currently holding high-ranking posts in Italy's anti-terrorism unit and in the secret service. The prosecution had asked for sentences totalling more than 109 years but the sum was 35 years and seven months. A key focus of the trial was a police charge into a school where protesters were staging an alternative summit. Vittorio Agnoletto, a summit protest organiser and now an MEP, told Reuters news agency: "Today is one of the saddest days in the post-war history of the republic. "From now on police chiefs who allow their men to smash the heads and the backs of people sleeping peacefully can be sure of impunity and the guarantee of a fine career." But interior ministry undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano said the verdict showed the Italian police force was "healthy and deserves everybody's gratitude". Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/7728583.stm Published: 2008/11/14 00:21:50 GMT © BBC 2011

2009

Genoa killing 'was self-defence' By Duncan Kennedy BBC News, Rome An Italian police officer who shot dead an anti-globalisation protester in 2001 acted in self-defence, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. Mario Placanica was one of thousands of security force members who fought with demonstrators at the G8 summit. But the court ruled the Italian government failed to carry out a full investigation of the incident. It awarded the family of Carlo Giuliani, who died, 40,000 euros (nearly $60,000; £35,000) in damages. The G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001 was the scene of some of the most violent protests in recent years. Thousands of police were involved in clashes with demonstrators from various anti-globalisation groups. 'No excessive force' In the most serious incident, 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani was killed after being shot in the face by Mario Placanica, a police officer who was in a four-wheel drive. Mr Giuliani was attempting to throw a fire extinguisher into the four-wheel drive at the time. The vehicle than reversed over his body. The European Court of Human Rights, sitting in Strasbourg, has now ruled that the officer did not use excessive force. But the court did order the family of the dead man to receive 40,000 euros in damages from the Italian state because it had failed to open an inquiry into the planning and management of the policing operation at the summit. Mr Placanica was investigated for alleged murder but was later cleared. Dozens of other officers on duty have also faced a variety of trials accused of brutality against the demonstrators during and after the street protests. A number of low-ranking officers were found guilty, but are unlikely to face jail because of a combination of an amnesty that has been put in place and Italy's statute of limitations. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/8221227.stm Published: 2009/08/25 18:00:12 GMT © BBC 2011

2010

20 May 2010 Last updated at 16:20 Italy backs convicted Genoa G8 police Italian officials say they have full confidence in policemen convicted by an appeals court over violence at the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. The officers, who were sentenced to up to five years in prison, are to remain in their posts pending a final appeal. In an original trial in November 2008, 13 officers were convicted, while 16 - including the most senior officers - were acquitted. The case concerns a raid in which dozens of protesters were injured. "These men continue to have the full confidence of the security services and the interior ministry," said Alfredo Mantovano, the interior ministry's under-secretary. He said he was confident that the Court of Cassation - Italy's highest court - would "dispel every shadow from the outstanding professionals of the security forces who find themselves in this situation". Late-night raid Among those who had their acquittals overturned on Tuesday were Francesco Gratteri, the former head of an anti-crime unit, and Vincenzo Canterini, the former head of Rome's rapid-reaction force. Gratteri was sentenced to four years in jail and Canterini to five. Also convicted was Spartaco Mortola, the former head of Genoa's anti-terrorism squad, who received a sentence of three years and eight months. A total of 25 people were convicted, and the 13 convicted in 2008 were given higher sentences, Ansa news agency reported. The 2001 G8 summit was marred by widespread violence between anti-globalisation protesters and the police, and several trials have been held. The late-night raid for which the police officers were convicted, took place at the Armando Diaz school, in which anti-globalisation demonstrators had been sheltering. In a separate incident one day before, a 23-year-old protester, Carlo Giuliani, was shot dead by a policeman.

Life in a Blender - YouTube Version

2011-08-14T03:53:00.002+01:00

At last I've managed to get a version of this video onto YouTube. The original is in HD but there are upload problems with that. Still, this versions is alright. Koyinaqatsuit! (music: Hergest Bells)

Life in a Blender - Internet Archive Version

2011-08-13T23:43:00.001+01:00

I've been having terrible difficulties getting a version of my latest video to upload to YouTube. I'll keep trying. However I've had success getting another version of it onto the Internet Archive. Here it is:

"LIFE IN A BLENDER"

The video clips come from the Open University and are under a Share Alike licence. I put them together in a style originated by Godfrey Reggio. "Life in a Blender" probably translates into the Hopi language as "coyinacatsuit" or something. The music is the title track from my album "Hergest Bells" which I made as an experiment in Mike Oldfield-ism.

Corroded Master and SilverLage (Speculativism Remix)

2011-08-12T19:08:00.000+01:00

A mini collaboration I did with Corroded Master and SilverLage:

Speculativism – Corroded Master and SilverLage (Speculativism Remix)

Scenes from My Life - 3

2011-08-12T12:14:00.000+01:00

More bits of personal history and memories. A worn out old Mensa card, an old copy of the HSA (Hunt Sabs) Tactics Booklet, an old copy of "No 2" which was an animal rights special interest group within Mensa in the 1990s, an AFA (Anti-Fascist Action) group sticker, a couple of site crew laminates from the Glastonbury Festival in 1987 and 1990 when I worked in the Theatre Area and Lost Animals Area respectively and my degree certificate from Plymouth University. Under that a photo of a murdered fox, also from the HSA Tactics booklet.

Scenes from My Life - 2

2011-08-12T11:20:00.002+01:00

Scenes from My Life - 1

2011-08-12T10:57:00.001+01:00

I case I die or something I decided to get some of my personal history snapshots uploaded. These pictures come from various things I've done over the years, such as interactive drama for groups of schoolkids, looking after cows, goats and sheep on an animal sanctuary, working with groups of adults who have learning disabilities and various training and studies.

Why I don't like Bill Hicks

2011-08-10T07:34:00.001+01:00

When I worked in a supermarket, cleaning the in-store bakery, sometimes the bakers would come in a little earlier than usual and begin work. They would often put on a tape of the late Bill Hicks' stand up comedy routine.

I don't like Bill Hicks. He used do a thing in his act where he tried to make it seem as though creativity comes from drug taking.

Hearing Bill Hicks act makes me angry because, as an intensely creative person myself, I know that my energy, talent and ideas are my own and they don't come from some drug or chemical.

Some creative people like Charlie Parker or Jimi Hendrix have suffered from drug addiction as an occupational hazard but Hicks used to make it sound as if these musicians derived their talent and ideas from the drugs. In reality the drugs destroyed these people's talent, rather than having created it. Frank Zappa lived longer because he didn't use drugs.

Bill Hicks would stand there telling us that if we listen to a track by someone who took drugs we were all hypocrites. Daft idea! As if the drug were giving the musician the ability to make the music!

Sorry to rant about this but Hicks always sets off a bee in my bonnet and there's a history to why it does:

In the 1980s I lived in the town of Glastonbury in the South West of England. During those years the Glastonbury Festival was attracting more and more drug usage to the area and dope dealers tried to take over the house where I lived (at 7a The High Street, Glastonbury, upstairs from Gothic Image shop). They came in and sat on the communal stairs and smoked dope, filling the air with the smoke. I used to have to cover my mouth and nose with layers of scarves and hold my breath in order to get past them on the stairs. I needed to get to and from my rented room and I needed to cook food in the communal kitchen. Life became very difficult with the dope dealers sitting around there every day and laughing their heads off at me as I went past holding my breath and covering my nose. I threw windows open and let fresh air in.

Eventually I took a joint out of a dope dealer's hand and flushed the drug down the toilet. That wiped the smile off his face and stopped him laughing - though he hit me with a knuckle duster and cut my forehead.

Another time two dope dealers came into the house and attacked me, one held me down on the floor while the other one kicked me in the head.

Another time one of them pushed me down the stairs and I went nose first into the bannisters.

Let me emphasise that these attacks were made on me because I was a non-drug person, as opposed to an anti-drug person. I was never anti-drugs, only pro- freedom of choice to abstain. But the paranoia of these people was such that they saw no distinction between the two.

Throughout all of these events the dope dealers had the option of going into a private room to smoke their drugs. A room where they would offend no-one and there would be no problem. They stubbornly insisted on staying in the communal areas of the building because they thought that "Everybody must get stoned". In other words, they were fascists.

These dealers used to dress up like new-age hippies but if they didn't like you they showed their true face - which was low grade mafia-esque punk.

In 1987 a murder occurred in the building. A man in the flat next door to me murdered his girlfriend while they were both out of their heads on drugs. When he woke up and realised what he'd done he came and told me about it and asked me to take him to the police to surrender himself.

So I've seen how drugs destroy people's lives and communities. Nevertheless I continue to believe in the individual's right to choose. My choice is to abstain from drugs or alcohol. Other people must make their own choices. If they choose to take drugs that's fine, as long as they don't force those drugs onto anyone against that person's will. The trouble is, they do try force it.

Anyway that's why I get angry when I hear recordings of Bill Hicks crap about giving the credit to drugs for all the music and creativity. I've been a creative person my whole life. I can assure you it doesn't come from drugs or alcohol. It comes from free thinking.

Waiting for an apology from police - probably waiting until doomsday..

2011-08-10T06:58:00.001+01:00

I was assaulted two years ago by plain clothes police officers who hit me in the back, pushed me to the ground and handcuffed me. They admitted it was a case of mistaken identity but failed to apologise. It is now more than two years later. I have still received no apology from the police. Here is a re-posting of the incident from 2009:

I work for the local city council in a minimum wage job. A few months ago, as I was on my way home from work I was beaten up and pinned to the ground by two men.

I'm an old man with grey hair. I get up early in the morning and cycle to work. I then do a physically exhausting job for eight and a half hours and then make my weary way home.

I was walking along, very, very tired, dressed in yellow waterproof city council issue high visibility clothing and wheeling my bicycle along by my side. Suddenly the first of the two men hit me from behind and began pushing me. Then the second man came up from in front of me and gripped me tightly, pinning my arms. The two men sandwiched me between them, the one behind pushing me violently forward while the one in front pushed me violently backward. Then they both pushed me down to the ground on top of my fallen bicycle. They didn't speak.

I shouted at the top of my voice to witnesses all along the street. I shouted over and over again for someone to dial 999 and call the police. The two men held me down to the ground, one of them sitting on me. One of the two men frantically shouted at the other one 'Shut him up! Shut him up! Can't you shut him up?' When it became clear that they couldn't shut me up and that witnesses were beginning to gather one of the two men owned up with the words 'We ARE the police.'

By this time a police vehicle was approaching. I asked the plainclothes man to provide some means of identification. He brought something out of his pocket, possibly a wallet or a card of some kind, waved it in front of my face and then put it back in his pocket. I asked to be allowed to actually read what was on it, to see if it was an ID or not. The officer refused with the words 'Nope, that's all you're getting'.

I was then handcuffed. I was cautioned that I did not have to say anything. At no time was I informed that I was being arrested. I was then searched. My backpack was searched 3 times, by 3 different officers, while still attached to my back and while I was handcuffed, so that I was not able to observe the conduct of the searches. I was asked if could describe the contents of the backpack, to which I replied that, since the 3 searches had all taken place behind my back and outside of my field of vision I had no way of knowing what was now in the bag. The 3 officers who had searched the bag had had every opportunity to take out of or put into the bag any item they wished and I would not have been able to see.

I was then told by a uniformed officer repeatedly to 'relax'. I reminded the officer who said this that it was an extremely stupid word to use when speaking to a member of the public who was in the process of being assaulted by police officers. Obviously to 'relax' in such a situation would be both impossible and undesirable. I was made to stand there handcuffed for a long time and then eventually released without charge. The plainclothes officers who committed the assault made no apology. One of them eventually identified himself while the other one declined.

Towards the end of the ordeal I overheard one of the police officers say to his colleague that the chap they actually wanted wasn't me at all but a man in a white anorak who had just been spotted again, further along the street.

Let's Kill Hitler Parody

2011-08-09T09:34:00.000+01:00

This is the funniest YouTube video I've seen recently. I hope the Doctor Who episode will be this good:

It is my birthday. Here are some thoughts...

2011-08-09T00:38:00.000+01:00

It's my birthday today. I was born at sunrise on sunday the 9th of August 1953. I had the sun in Leo, the moon in Leo, Leo on the ascendant and it was sunrise on a Sunday! That's an awful lot of sun to have in one birth chart. In Chinese astrology it was the Year of the Snake.

I am now 58. I'm of the same generation as Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Tony Blair, Johnny Rotten and Adam Ant.

My favourite number is polyglot. My favourite colour is something different from whatever it was 5 minutes ago. When I die I wish to be cremated and have my ashes thrown into the eyes of bankers and politicians.

New Releases: Songs Wot I Actually Wrote & Apskaft Against Fascism

2011-08-08T21:37:00.002+01:00

A collection of Songs Wot I Actually Wrote:

Royalty free music for professional licensing

& Apskaft Against Fascism:
http://www.last.fm/music/various+artists/apskaft+against+fascism

http://www.last.fm/music/various+artists/apskaft+against+fascism

2011-08-05T14:30:00.000+01:00

I may have improved this track (?) :

Evil Twin with Bad Homburg (new version)

Evil Twin with Bad Homburg (old version)

The Apskaft against fascism album is coming soon!

2011-08-05T03:52:00.004+01:00

Your Racist Friend (TMBG cover)

2011-07-18T05:21:00.001+01:00

I recorded this for a forthcoming Apskaft album, although a different version will probably make it to the final cut.

YouTube has cut the end off the song - again! (correction: that was only temporary, the end is back now. Hmmph, must've been a processing glitch!)

Painting-P Dartmoor Landscape

2011-07-17T19:55:00.002+01:00

The latest in the series of "Alphabet Paintings".

Creative Commons 3.0 Peter-David Smith Attribution - Non-Commercial - No Derivatives

Margaret DuMont and Rock Music

2011-07-17T18:54:00.001+01:00

I've always liked Margaret DuMont from the Marx Brothers movies. I also like Fats Domino. Imagine how delighted I am to stumble across this forgotten gem of a 1950s rock and roll movie which stars Margaret DuMont and Fats Domino!

Shake, Rattle and Rock!

getting away from liberty with strings

2011-07-15T16:56:00.000+01:00

My new video, "getting away from liberty with strings":

Weaving Fate Puppets

2011-07-15T11:31:00.000+01:00

My latest video, "Weaving Fate Puppets":

Creative Commons 3.0 Peter-David Smith Attribution - Non-Commercial - No Derivatives

The Real Crying

2011-07-13T15:35:00.000+01:00

My latest animation:

Creative Commons 3.0 - Peter-David Smith 2011 - Attribution - Non-Commercial - No Derivatives

HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

2011-07-11T17:05:00.005+01:00

I worked for five years in a nightmare job at a supermarket. I was the nightshift cleaner, the person who makes the in-store bakery clean and hygienic before the bakers start work at 4 a.m.

I used to be there 5 nights a week, 8 hours a night, from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m., cleaning the bakery, the salad bar and the other food areas.

The reason I call it a "nightmare job" is because we had an argument which ran for five years. The same argument, night after night, for five years.

The reason for the argument was this: The staff on the shop floor wanted pop music played all night long through the loudspeaker system, so they hooked up the speakers to the local short playlist pop radio station. Repetitive jangling pop music with moronic lyrics played throughout the night, interspersed with advertisements every 15 minutes or so. After an hour of this I was ready to put an axe through the speakers. After five years of it I was ready to put an axe through anybody or anything.

Night after night we had the same argument. "Why did they need the horrible noise to be played in every bloody department?" I asked, "Why couldn't we be allowed to work in peace and quiet so we could hear ourselves think?"

The response was that they didn't want to think. They wanted to listen to the jangling noise.

I suggested various compromises. I suggested, for instance, switching to a station with a less repetitive playlist and no adverts, such as BBC Radio One, 1Xtra, Two, Three, Six or the Asian Network. I suggested cycling through these stations on different nights, for more variety. I suggested people might bring their own CDs from home. I suggested speech based radio such as the World Service. All of these compromise suggestions were met with intransigence and I was described as a "freak" because I have a university degree and enjoy using my brain instead of just listening to the music.

At one stage, when I was scrubbing the bakery floor, a middle aged woman who was meant to be shelf-filling on the shop floor used to come into the bakery, walk across my wet floor, and stand over me shouting abuse. "You're only a cleaner! You're nothing but a cleaner!" she said, "You don't get to have an opinion! You don't get to say what we listen to! You're STUPID! A stupid cleaner man! Stupid man, stupid man, stupid cleaner man!"

This verbal abuse went on nearly every night.

Of course, I complained to my cleaning supervisor about the abuse and the bullying but the supervisor just laughed and said "You're a big strong man Peter. How can you be bullied by a woman. You should be able to look after yourself!" I mean, what did he expect me to do? I think he and some others there were actually gloating over this conflict, hoping it would escalate for their entertainment.

Throughout those five years, when the radio was switched on each night and turned up to the moronic max, I would often think of "Harrison Bergeron" - the short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The extent of stupidity amongst people in that place often shocked me. One time in early 2008 I mentioned to someone there that I was hoping Obama would get the Democratic Party presidential nomination. I remarked that the situation was exciting because America seemed disillusioned with Republican politics and would would probably swing to the Democrats, which would mean the next president would be either Obama or Clinton.

I said I hoped it would be Obama.

Later it turned out that the person I'd been speaking to had never heard of Barack Obama and had thought I meant "Osama". The idiot then went around the supermarket spreading a rumour that I had "wanted Osama to be president"....

That's the level of ignorance and idiocy I had to put up with from these pop fans at the supermarket during those years.

Excerpt from HARRISON BERGERON
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.

On the television screen were ballerinas.

A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.

"Harrison Bergeron" is copyrighted by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961.

Full text: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html

Harrison Bergeron on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

A recent adaptation:

Another one of the adaptations (under the title "2081") :

Another adaptation:

http://youtu.be/XmEOI5zwFMM

Various adaptations described on the IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1282015/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068270/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113264/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223957/

fragments of the 1972 adaptation of "Between Time and Timbuktu":

Fragment One:

Fragment Two:

Kaydara

2011-07-10T02:18:00.000+01:00

I enjoyed this video more than the original Matrix movies.

KAYDARA official film by Kaydara-film

The Need to Stop Fascism in Europe Again

2011-06-29T17:33:00.000+01:00

Here are some videos I liked while looking for anti-fascist links. These videos provide some inspiration for the continuing struggle against fascism in Europe.

New Free Download Album: Further Experiments

2011-06-17T21:49:00.001+01:00

Further Experiments by Speculativism

Tracklist

		Track
1		Confusion Can Be Fun free download
2		Strange Doctor Weird free download
3		On the Way a Mystery free download
4		Chaos Splits - In Comes Structure free download
5		Zero Zero Zero free download
6		Time free download
7		Emit free download
8		Shopping List free download
9		The Surface free download
10		The Man in the Back free download
11		Pleasant Valley Saturday free download
12		The Orchestra of the Absurd free download
13		Doctor Mysterious free download
14		Come to Get Her free download
15		flag waving for the enemy free download
16		Happiness is a Warm Gnu free download
17		Strange Weird Traveller free download
18		Fantasia on While My Guitar Gently Weeps by George Harrison free download
19		Mysterious Traveller free download
20		Mutant Disco 5 free download
21		Requiem for Leif Ericson's Parrot free download

It Gets Better

2011-06-10T20:51:00.002+01:00

Israelis March for Palestinian State

2011-06-10T20:45:00.000+01:00

A YouTube Kevin Ayers Playlist

2011-05-07T00:52:00.001+01:00

Paintings A B C D E - Optimised for 3D Glasses

2011-04-28T00:28:00.000+01:00

These are the first 5 Paintings from the "alphabet series" of video paintings which I've been working on for the past few years. I began my YouTube video sharing with the idea of making videos which are like paintings. I brought to video the same sort of approach I employ as a painter, working into the surface over and over, changing details until it feels finished. So continuing with this process here are the first 5 alphabet paintings - now optimised for 3D Glasses.

Originally these videos were created in a lower resolution and became seriously pixilated. I enjoyed some of the pixilation effects as they are part of the construction of video itself, as an object. In these new versions, however, a higher resolution has been achieved.

This is all experimental work. Not to be thought of as in a final form yet.....

Beyond the Radio Waves from Earth

2011-04-28T00:20:00.000+01:00

New album:

Speculativism » Beyond the Radio Waves from Earth

Beyond the Radio Waves from Earth by Speculativism

Tracklist

		Track
1		001 free download
2		002 free download
3		003 free download
4		004 free download
5		005 free download
6		006 free download
7		007 free download
8		008 free download
9		009 free download
10		010 free download
11		011 free download
12		012 free download
13		013 free download
14		014 free download
15		015 free download
16		016 free download
17		017 free download
18		018 free download
19		019 free download
20		020 free download
21		021 free download
22		022 free download
23		023 free download
24		024 free download
25		025 free download
26		026 free download

2011-04-23T16:49:00.002+01:00

The Labyrinth Within the Maze Within the Labyrinth

Emerging from my weirdness laboratory I've devised two albums in April. The first one is called "The Labyrinth Within the Maze Within the Labyrinth" and is a collection of semi musical workings of strange ideas and visions. There are a few recurring themes from previous albums, reworked in new ways, and lots of entirely new tracks. The second album for April is coming soon and will be an archive of experiments I did recently with recorded spoken words and musical scales.

However, this one, "The Labyrinth Within the Maze Within the Labyrinth", has 16 tracks, free for you to listen or download under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence. Attribution - Non-Commercial - No Derivatives:

Speculativism » The Labyrinth Within the Maze Within the Labyrinth

The Labyrinth Within the Maze Within the Labyrinth by Speculativism

Tracklist

		Track
1		Work free download
2		The Rainbow and the Serpent free download
3		In Spite of the Noise there is a Peace Within free download
4		In the Hollow Earth free download
5		Tuatha Dé Danann at Hy Brasil free download
6		To Vada the Shamanic Eek free download
7		Dance Music for Jostling Commuters 1 free download
8		Dizzy Wizzy free download
9		Dance Music for Jostling Commuters 2 free download
10		Interzone free download
11		Dance Music for Jostling Commuters 3 free download
12		Lost Soul Train free download
13		Dance Music for Jostling Commuters 4 free download
14		Lung Mei free download
15		Parallel Planes free download
16		The Haunted Mansion free download

Old Old Science Fiction

2011-04-14T21:19:00.000+01:00

I've released 2 new tracks on: Old Old Science Fiction.

Track One:
Old Old Science Fiction

Track Two:
Space Lizards

Some of the Crimes which Still Carry a Death Penalty in the UK

2011-04-08T15:53:00.000+01:00

Crimes which Still Carry a Death Penalty in the UK:

1) Appearing, subjectively, to be "almost defiant" (see reference: Ian Tomlinson)

2) Looking a bit South American while travelling on an underground train (see reference: Jean Charles de Menezes)

3) Campaigning against Fascism (see reference: Blair Peach)

4) Whatever similar mistake Smiley Culture must have made (see reference: Smiley Culture)

2011-04-06T16:16:00.000+01:00

http://www.campaign4justice.com/

New Track on "Tracks with Vocals as Such"

2011-03-27T20:01:00.000+01:00

I added a new track to the "Tracks with Vocals as Such" album:

Speculativism – On the Way a Mystery (2:45)

On Tracks with vocals as such

Play direct from Speculativism (2:45)