2# Scripting The User: Brandon Cramm

CCA Podcast

Studio Lunches was an autonomous podcast project by Chris MacInnes, supported by CCA. Its goal was to open up artists’ practices within Glasgow through conversation, exploring the diverse, obscure and intriguing interests that reside at the heart of this. A Crypt of Living Timbre (idiom) 1. A phrase used to describe something as having a confusing or contradictory nature, due to it’s state as living or non-living. 2. A presence of life or liveliness in something that otherwise appears dead. 3. A presence of death or decay in something that otherwise appears living. 4. A trope used to allude to or acknowledge the presence of something of a mysterious, obstructed or unclear nature. It is used either literally as the name of a location, in conversation, or by form of symbolism. This episode is a chat with Brandon Cramm around his video installation, A Crypt of Living Timbre. The work explores the ways in which desktop and user environments influence interaction and expression, creating uncanny spaces where the living and the apparently ‘dead’ become almost indistinguishable. Taking net artist Olia Lialina’s essay, Rich User Experience, UX and Desktopization of War as a starting point we weave our way through the scripting of our online lives. Discussing online Shogi tournaments, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, UX design and the uncanniness of the digital world, we try to understand the crypt of living timbre we inhabit as users and netizens. Audio featured: A Crypt of Living Timbre by Brandon Cramm