#tekku

Another bunch of characters I’ve had for a while now but never introduced:

Xian La aka Kazza

As a very young child Kazza was adopted by canthan humans and the couple renamed her into Xian La. She is supposed to inherit what they built through being successful merchants in Lion’s Arch.

Inventor Tekku

Sioa:

01. Full name: Sioa02. Best friend: So far none actually, she’s a true loner03. Sexuality: heterosexual04. Favorite color: bright green05. Relationship status: has a crush06. Ideal mate: She never really thought about a specific ideal07. Turn-ons: knowing what you want, a guy that isn’t goofy at all, talented guys08. Favorite food: meat09. Crushes: Nexx ( @eviru )10. Favorite music: metal, asuran music11. Biggest fear: Sioa? Fears? Pff!12. Biggest fantasy: She’s rather realistic about everything soo…it’s having her won workshop and that already happened13. Bad habits: talking back without a second thought14. Biggest regret: talking back at that one charr15. Best kept secrets: How she made her lightsabre work16. Last thought: Oh, that could be fun! <317. Worst romantic experience: that one asuran boy who was kinda cute, yeah…he turned out to be a real turn-off18. Biggest insecurity: “Was I too mean again?”19. Weapon of choice: sword and gun20. Role Model: Sioa is her own role model, looking up at someone is unnecessary, you gotta get shit done on your own!

Tekku:

01. Full name: Tekku02. Best friend: none03. Sexuality: bi maybe04. Favorite color: orange05. Relationship status: single06. Ideal mate: none, leave him alone07. Turn-ons: …08. Favorite food: despair chocolate cake09. Crushes: none10. Favorite music: loud stuff that makes you unable to think properly11. Biggest fear: What could be worse than his current state?12. Biggest fantasy: getting free of this hellish cycle of bad luck13. Bad habits: drowning his thoughts in alcohol14. Biggest regret: joining the whispers because he’s so friggin incapable of living in general15. Best kept secrets: how he actually stays alive, though he doesn’t even know himself16. Last thought: Yeah, fuck it, whatevs….17. Worst romantic experience: All of them18. Biggest insecurity: All about himself19. Weapon of choice: he never chose one20. Role Model: none

Sculptor Tim Linhart creates musical instruments from ice for performances in a giant igloo-like concert hall at Luleå, in northernmost Swedish Lapland.

From xylophone to cello, these beautiful instruments sound incredible and the listening environment is unique.

You can listen to the instruments here.

Or, take a look at this short video -

Koka Nikoladze is a sound artist and musician from Geogia, now living in Norway, who turns his hand to creating programmable music making machines from analog components.

This particular instrument sounds amazing and features both analog and electronic elements including an Arduino controller.

We hope to get Koka to come and play at a Tekku event in future and perhaps run a music box building workshop with us too.

You can learn more about Koka here.

cellF is an autonomous instrument made of a brain, composed of biological neural networks, and a body made of analog modular synthesisers. cellF uses actual neural networks bioengineered from the cells of its creator Guy Ben-Ary.

There is no programming nor are any computers involved. cellF exists and operates purely through the collaboration between biological matter and analog circuits. 

Watch cellF in action here:

Through Ben-Ary’s creation, the musician and instrument become one entity. 

cellF first performed a live set with Tokyo based drummer, Darren Moore . The drum sounds are fed into the neural network as electrical impulses. cellF then responds to these impulses by controlling the synthesisers, creating what Ben-Ary describes as, ‘an improvised posthuman sound performance’. Observes noted a very noticeable action, reaction and interaction between the human and the ‘other’ musician.

Ben-Ary’s external ‘brain’ has it’s own finite life cycle - while it is with us, it lives in a petri / MEA dish that houses a set of sensors. A surrond sound system of 16 speakers is placed around the room in relation to the sensors within the dish to deliver a spatial understanding to the audience relating to where in the 'brain' the sound has come from.

Guy has shown work at the Beijing National Art Museum, San Paulo Biennale and the Moscow Biennale. His work can also be seen in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 2009, his work Silent Barrage was awarded an Honorary Mention in Prix Ars Electronica (Austria) and also won first prize at VIDA, an international competition for Art and Artificial Life.

More about Guy Ben-Ary and cellF can be found here: http://guybenary.com/work/cellf/

David Tong is a Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. He studies the huge topic of Quantum Field Theory which affects many aspects of physics and mathematics. His work has covered quantum field theory related to string theory, supersymmetry, solitons, geometry, cosmology and condensed matter physics. You can read more about his research and publications here and find many of his lecture notes and teaching resources on various theoretical physics topics here.

According to our best current theories of physics, derived from the Standard Model, despite popular (mis)understanding, largely due to what we are taught in school, the fundamental building blocks of matter are not in fact particles, but continuous fluid like substances known as quantum fields. In the excellent lecture, David Tong offers a primer on the subject and explains what we know so far about these fields, and how they fit into our understanding of the Universe.

This video is part of the great work shared by the Royal Institution of Great Britain to showcase the very best in science. The Royal Institution is an independent charity dedicated to connecting people to the world of science.

We highly recommend spending time exploring the extensive video collection on the Royal Institution channel: http://richannel.org