iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 24/02/2025

Wonderful films curated by Jane de Almeida for the LA Filmforum "Indexicality in Astronomy" screening last night, followed by live/zoom chat with James Tralie and Eames Demetrios. (And to whomever put Tomita on before the screening: nice touch. :) www.filmforumexperimentations.org/events/image...

Norman Klein and Eames Demetrios are seated on a stage behind a laptop, which is dialed in to a zoom call with Jane de Almeida and James Tralie projected on a screen in the background.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 17/02/2025

Litany of protection (excerpt), made from the words that will get your research flagged at the “new and improved” National Science Foundation, per the Washington Post. There’s a link in the replies if you want to run it on your device.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 06/02/2025

I’ve been making these little fidget songs lately. Just little phrases that jump out at me. It’s kind of comforting to tap them out. I’ll make you one for your phone if you want, drop a phrase in reply or DM.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 06/01/2025

Following that up with a rendezvous at the Academy Museum with filming models from CE3K (so rare to see these exhibited!) was another unexpected wow.

A closeup of a filming model from Close Encounters of the Third Kind — a dark gray orb covered in greebly details.

A film still of a UFO from Close Encounters.

Another film still of the same craft from Close Encounters hovering over the Sky Harbor set.

Photo of three UFO filming models from Close Encounters, three gray orbs with various detailing visible.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 06/01/2025

Got my own shots of the Vancouver Lookout UFO over the holiday — hadn’t put it together that I was going to be there in person when I reposted that shot a few weeks earlier, so was a very pleasant surprise when I turned a corner and it was right in front of me!

A photo through a rainy car windshield of the Vancouver Lookout lit up for the holidays like a UFO in the mist.

A nighttime photo of the Vancouver Lookout lit up for the holidays like a UFO over the rainy streets.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 04/12/2024

Had a wonderful time revisiting past digital humanities work with NYU Cinema Studies + DH students yesterday — the occasion made happier still since digging thru my archives uncovered this high FPS clip of The Knotted Line in action, haven't seen it running like this in a while! knottedline.com

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 30/11/2024

Couldn't get the whole piece working unfortunately, but nevertheless was very happy to see Ruffle bring this bit of Flash magic from The Virtual Window Interactive back to life... More about the piece here: erikloyer.com/index.php/pr...

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 27/11/2024

Some of the oldest media in my personal archive. One-bit screen captures from Betamax videotape made on a Macintosh 512Ke in Santa Rosa, California between 7:30 pm and 7:39 pm on October 25, 1986.

A 1-bit screen capture from 2001: A Space Odyssey, showing the Discovery traveling through space.

A 1-bit screen capture from 2001: A Space Odyssey, showing the descending lunar lander.

A 1-bit screen capture from 2001: A Space Odyssey, showing the curved pie-shaped panels of the moon base opening.

A 1-bit screen capture from 2001: A Space Odyssey, showing a pod pursuing the body of an astronaut.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 27/11/2024

Surely no danger gettin’ in a stranger's UFO... 🛸 Love me many an MST song, but this season's tunes are phenomenal...

A screenshot from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 showing Jonah with a guitar and the bots in silhouette watching a cheesy spaceship model on the surface of a plane, gangway extended.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 26/11/2024

Crashing into the edge of the moon on a DEC GT40. Light pen input and vector display 😍

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 24/11/2024

Took longer than I expected, but finally got the Conundrum Luna score ported into FMOD. Excited to refine and expand without having to scratch-build as much. #conundrumluna

A screenshot of an FMOD project, showing numerous tracks and regions.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 19/11/2024

And, a real Space Shuttle overflying real South Los Angeles.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 19/11/2024

Virtual Space Shuttle overflying virtual South Los Angeles. (The map is an historic one, showing the TMZ or “thirty mile zone” considered local to Hollywood, allowing studios to film at reduced costs as an incentive to keep production close to Los Angeles.)

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 18/11/2024

Quartet of images from Ahree Lee’s Bojagi (Memories to Light) — this piece knocked me out today at UC Riverside Arts’ Digital Capture exhibit. Learn more and see it for yourself here: www.ahreelee.com/work/bojagi

A darkened movie theater showing a kaleidoscopic image of a home movie.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 17/11/2024

Editors of 1970s sci-fi mags had opinions… (from Star Warp, April 1978, which I picked up at the excellent More Fun Comics in New Orleans)

A photo of an article excerpt that reads “Everytime that I hear of another probe into space, I'm happy, just as happy as I am to hear about the latest computer, or a faster car, or a weirder rock album. Technology is swell, and if we have to mutate to keep up with our technology, so much the better.”

The cover of the April 1978 issue of Star Warp, showing two giant robots fighting each other.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 16/11/2024

Recently visited the location of the CE3K mothership landing set in Mobile, Alabama — wish I had had more time to visit the other locations…

An aerial view of two hangars at an airfield, circled with a red line.

A photo of two hangars from behind a chain link fence.

A photo of a book about the making of Close Encounters, with a picture of the two hangars outlined in red.

A black and white photo of the mothership set from Close Encounters during filming.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 15/11/2024

Was in Mobile, AL recently looking up my mom’s family history and was reminded that much of Close Encounters was filmed there. We didn’t have much time, but managed to get a glance at the hangars where the mothership landing set was built. Two motherships in one city, you could say :)

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 25/10/2024

Exhibiting Forgiveness is in theaters now and well worth seeking out. Powerful, beautiful drama from a writer/director/painter who puts all three talents to stunning use, and some wonderful performances to boot. www.exhibitingforgivenessfilm.com

A movie poster for Exhibiting Forgiveness, featuring a young Black couple sitting with their backs to a painting of a silhouette of a boy pushing a lawnmower.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 01/10/2024

VR play with the Eagle and Moonbase Alpha from Space: 1999. If I hold up the right ship I can feel it triggering impressions as I turn it this way and that, but since I don’t have childhood memories of Space: 1999, it’s the clever post-lunar design language that has the greatest impact.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 23/09/2024

The STELLAR GOURD, the first spaceship seen in Conundrum Luna, is not a peopled vessel at all, but a medium for communication. The craft carries a gift from its extraterrestrial authors: a reality-bending instrument called a conundrum, in the shape of the Moon. #conundrumluna #shiptember #scifi

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 02/09/2024

Disappointed not to find any scribblings from Mike, Bill, and Kevin in the margins… when can we get @rifftrax.bsky.social for books?

Hand holding a copy of the paperback novelization of “Kingdom of the Spiders,” with text on the cover that reads “Now a major motion picture from Dimension Pictures starring William Shatner”

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 08/08/2024

Recently picked up a collection of classic Starlog mags. Love these artifacts of fandoms past…

A newsprint classified ad for the Veronica Cartwright fan club, “DEDICATED TO THE ACTRESS FROM ALIEN, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS & THE BIRDS.”

A newsprint classified ad announcing David Prowse’s availability for conventions, with a phone number.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 29/07/2024

Went the shameless nostalgia route at the used bookstore yesterday — the Blish adaptations in particular were a staple of my library-going as a kid. #vintage #scifi

Three vintage sci-fi paperbacks sit on a desk: Star Trek 4 (Blish), Best Science Fiction for 1972, and Analogue magazine from June 1972.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 27/07/2024

FMOD, where have you been all my life?! Started rebuilding the music for Conundrum Luna as a test and it's already addressing some of the thornier issues I ran into... #gamedev #indiedev

A screenshot of the FMOD studio interface, showing three audio tracks in a window titled "Conundrum Luna".

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 23/07/2024

I thoroughly enjoyed performing “Conundrum Luna” for the first time, live in VR, at the ELO (Un)linked 2024 conference over the weekend. Great company, great audience, and some lovely synchronicity — it was both the 55th anniversary of the moon landing and Earthseed Day. More to come soon.

The underwater ruins of an ancient structure are lit from behind by an enormous half-submerged moon.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 16/02/2024

Hey! I’ll be sharing new VR work next week at UCLA (and the reasons why I wanted to turn the moon into a drum). Come by if you’re in the area, would love to see you there!

A flier for a talk called “Instruments for Digital Storytelling,” to be held at 4:00p on Tuesday February 20 in Kaplan Hall room 211 at UCLA.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 15/10/2023

Recently contributed visuals of a fragment of the LA Aqueduct to a climate grief ritual created by Raya Ward (rayais.online). Rendered on a 5x clock so that the sun rose during the ceremony. By the end, the participants’ real time and the simulated time of the scene had synchronized.

A decaying fragment of pipe in a field of scrub brush at dawn.

A decaying fragment of pipe in a field of scrub brush at sunrise, with orange and pink clouds.

A decaying fragment of pipe in a field of scrub brush at dawn, with gray and pink clouds.

A decaying fragment of pipe in a field of scrub brush on an overcast morning.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 25/09/2023

This week’s Recentering will be verrrry relaxing. Flight Simulator. We’ll take off from Bishop and head south through the Owens River Valley towards LA. Learn more about the Recentering series: opertoon.com/blog/recente... Join the live stream at 7PM PT Tuesday: www.youtube.com/@ErikLoyer/s...

Two square images nested inside a third, each of a rural landscape lit by afternoon sun.

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Erik Loyer @erikloyer.com · 24/09/2023

Feeling pretty confident that I was the only kid in Santa Rosa who dressed up as “big suit David Byrne” for Halloween 1984.

A black and white of photo of David Byrne in an oversized suit.

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