WWW.FREEMUSICARCHIVE.ORG
I couldn’t decide whether to choose this, New York radio station WFMU’s blog or Ubu.com as my favourite place to discover unheard, weird and esoteric gems, but seeing as they’re all connected in some way I’ve plumped for the newly launched Free Music Archive (FMA). FMA is a library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. It works with organisations and individuals as curators to build archives of free music – extending public access broadcast to digital communities.
http://www.folksonomy.org.uk
I came across this site when it was started as a research project by Simon Perkins of Nottingham Trent University. It is an attempt to create a “structured repository of digital culture and creative practice”. It’s like a blog of academic references, including photographs, videos and documents. It’s free to add your own clippings and even if you’re just a lurker, adding this to your RSS reader will provide a rich source of content, research and ideas.
http://www.emilychang.com/ehub
If you want to know what the new developments are in web 2.0, then bookmark eHub – a resource of next generation web, mobile and social software. Set up by interaction designer Emily Chang, the blog now has a team of editors who contribute daily listings, features, reviews and interviews. It was here that I first heard about 37 Signals (check out their book ‘Getting Real’), Etsy and a thousand more interesting web apps.
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com
A blog that explores the intersection between art, design and technology, this is an unpretentious, if oddly designed, stream of quality reviews, previews and comment. I’m not quite sure how these people see so much but they claim to “Cover events around the globe, from nightclub-based installations in Tokyo to academic conferences in Madrid.” Run by Regine Debatty, the site has won two ‘Webbys’ (the international award for web excellence) so not exactly underground, but definitely one to visit. It’s another one of those blogs where you quickly find you’ve lost half your day.
http://www.gama-gateway.eu
This is a project to keep an eye on if you’re interested in new media art or in digital archiving. GAMA, the Gateway to Archives of Media Art, is a new European media archiving project which provides access to information on both well-known and emerging media artists. The media art content initially comes from eight European organisations and can be searched and browsed in a variety of ways, including visual search and guided tours. The portal includes text and visual information on more than 10,000 works. Still in its early stages, it will be interesting to see if it can meet its ambitions in the future, once the novelty wears off.
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