Lost Formats Preservation Society

[imomus]

I'm enjoying Make House Music, a Flash piece by Mumbleboy with music by E*Rock and E*Vax. (Link from Days of Mumble.) This musical house -- you play it like a kind of irrational sequencer -- shows Mumbleboy and his collaborators on top form. The Whaaaa? Factor (why are gold coins coming out of the stag's nostrils? Why are leprechauns arriving from the fireplace?) reminds me of my first exposure to his work, back in 2000. It also brings back the sense of excitement and strangeness I got from the CD-ROMs I used to play with in the early 90s: Rodney Alan Greenblatt's Rodney's Wonder Window, Kuniyoshi Kaneko's Alice and Gento Matsumoto's Pop-Up Computer.




The music in Make House Music has a kiddy-quirky, analogy feel which reminds me of Buffalo Daughter, which reminds me of Takako Minekawa, which reminds me of her song Pop Up Squirrels (produced by Buffalo Daughter), which brings me back to Pop-Up Computer. It's all very 1998 Forever. (I mean that in a good way.)

The CD-ROM sometimes seems like a classic lost format, as dead -- and dead cool -- as the cassette tape. As an expressive medium, the ROM has been replaced by DVDs, computer games and Flash websites. Was it really only ten years ago that these odd, imaginative, childish disks were the pride of my household, slipped into their clunky carousel for the entertainment of every visiting friend, source of my cultural capital? (I even made one myself.)

Luckily, the pleasure of clicking through multimedia presentations remains. Check out, for instance, Kampung: 60 Photographs of Singapore Architecture , a nice guided tour of Singapore buildings by architect Jay Dokken. Be sure to click the speaker symbol for the audio commentary. (Link courtesy of Shift Blog.)

Comments

[typographitext.livejournal.com]

heehee. thanks for the links!

[mrslunch.livejournal.com]

Hmm, 1998 Forever. Yes, I find myself missing that era sometimes. It was sort of a golden age of modern cuteness.

Don't stop "Don't Stop"

[(Anonymous)]

Speaking of... is "Don't Stop" still available, in any way, shape, or form--at least the songs? I think for a while you were still making these to order... if we bug you enough, will you still? Even in an antique format?

Re: Don't stop "Don't Stop"

[imomus.livejournal.com]

When I get a computer capable of burning ROMs in an unproblematical way, I'll make both disks available again.

Re: Don't stop "Don't Stop"

[(Anonymous)]

That would be exceedingly kind and generous of you... in the meantime, if you ever post any of those "lost" songs on mp3, your fans would willingly lick your boots, or anything else you'd prefer.