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Boston New Years Conceptual Computer Looping



>From yesterday's Boston Globe:

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     Apocalypse Now: Y2K Pops

     Techno artists William Tremblay and Rob Gonsalves hit their conceptual
mother lode when First Night production director Gina Mullen urged them to
come up with a proposal for the millennial shindig.
     After all, says Tremblay, "this was going to be the big one."
     Cogitating about what to propose, they cast a wary eye at our era's
version of apocalypse: Y2K.
     "This time last year, there was a spate of news stories about how the
world would end. Elevators would plummet, things like that," says Tremblay.
"We felt it was highly overrated, and a bald-faced marketing strategy to
get everybody to buy a new PC."
     In fact, says Gonsalves, "The average Joe at home using Word and Excel
won't run into any problems. Most applications don't care what the date 
is."
     Tremblay and Gonsalves decided to test the doomsayers' theory - while
still making merry. They've collected 101 older computers, dating from 1987
to 1992, most of which are not Y2K compliant. Each has been programmed to
sound like a particular musical instrument; together, all 100 will sound
like an orchestra. Each will also project a visual element corresponding to
the musical  note it plays. Starting at 1 p.m. at the Hynes Convention
Center and going until 1 a.m., Y2K Pops will play a loop of 15 songs under
the guidance of a robot, called the "semi-conductor."
     At midnight, any number of the computers may come down with the
millennial bug. Gonsalves and Tremblay plan to monitor all the hardware and
software, and to see what hits the double-zero wall and what passes through
it when 1999 gives way to 2000. Boom or bust, it ought to be a good show.
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We now return to our regularly-scheduled topic, furry kangaroo loopers...