roglok.net

Back by popular demand (as featured on Rhizome), my flickering little demo of psychoactive GIF wallpapers. See the RGB Arrowz background implemented on my my myspace site.

“This is just the type of thing to push you over the edge to insanity after programming for 15 hours straight…” Georg Kaindl from arbi.trario.us

The Geekfont is a monospace font using pure CSS, no images. With stylesheets deactivated, you’ll see plain HTML text. The characterset is a bit limited (each sprite is just 6×3 squares), but the most important stuff is there. There are only 9 CSS classes but a lot of <span> tags wrapping the characters. Try it out and don’t forget to take a peek at the source code!

EVERYBODY LUV TEH GEEKFONT! :)

A selection of GIF-icons I made for an application that has sadly never been realised. Feel free to spread these on the web and use them on your homepage as I don’t want them to go mouldy on my harddrive. Some of them could be used as favicons.

I wrote a little essay about authenticity in contemporary creative production which was published in the great book Shake Your Tree #3 by cool guys Manuel Bürger, Sebastian Haslauer and Florian Bayer.

My take on the popular 555 timer based “Atari Punk Console”. I guess these jam-packed units are amongst the smallest APC’s that have been built so far. The black one went to Pierlo as a gift. This is a great way to get started with DIY audio electronics. Schematics for a 556 (2x 555 in one package) version can be found here.

I designed some fictive TV channel logos and a fake ringtone commercial screen for Denis Kundic’s short film “Supermoviechannel 7″.

The Gravel Box is an audio effect unit based on the HT8950 CMOS voice modulator chip. It’s a grainy sounding 8-bit frequency shifting circuit, perfect for destroying hifi audio material…

Audio demo

TR-606 drumloop fucked up with Gravel Box

Pictures

A series of five acrylic paintings depicting various tools used by astronauts during Extra Vehicular Activity (E.V.A.). I am fascinated by the profanity of these instruments: Despite their medical high-tech appearance, they would perfectly suit an earthly craftsman. The two Orlan gloves were used for the cover of Jacques Malchance’s LoopRevil album.

The Simplesizer is a DIY analog synthesizer project by Thomas from Anyware Instruments. Very classic features here: The sound sources consist of 2 hard syncable Oscillators (saw/pulse) with ring modulation and a noise generator. The filter is a 24dB lowpass design with basic envelope control. The routing matrix of the LFO (triangle/square/S&H) provides flexible modulation possibilities. The sound volume is shaped by a 4-stage ADSR envelope. There are various inputs for external parameter control as well as a jack for feeding signals through the filter.

I decided to make a desktop expander instead of a keyboard version. First a 3D mockup has been made in order to define the parts placement, shape and colour of the synth. The case consists of 2mm aluminum sheet that has been manually bowed, varnished and screenprinted. I’m very happy with the result and would like to thank Alexander Oehme for his help with crafting the hardware.

If you would like to build your own Simplesizer, check out the project page (german only).

Audio demo

Simplesizer Bassline, no external FX added

Pictures

This performance by Tilman Fälker and me pays hommage to the principles of pattern/loop based sequencers. The rails of a toy train were assembled in a circle and the joints were equipped with selfmade contact microphones. The noise caused by the passing train was then processed by a mixer and fed through guitar effect pedals such as delay, distortion and phasing units, creating a unique soundscape. The project was published in the book Lautsprecherei Re:Sound-Art-Design, where it is fully documented.