Bill Thompson likes the way technology and art Cross.
At a recent conference on the future of digital world art, the opening night group was asked to name a piece of digital art that impressed them.
Everyone stumbled and maybe not sure who did the "fun" work in this fast changing area to make the delegates feel at the Media Festival/festival, as far as they are concerned, numbers may not really matter.
My first thought was that the most interesting digital art work I met last year was definitely the new album of editors.
In this light, it was a great job this evening, in addition to Tom Smith's vocal cords and the vibration of the strings of Chris ebovitz guitar, everything about it is a product of digital technology, first in the studio, then distributed and played.
It certainly has the right to be called a digital art work, even if it is embedded in a business model that strives to adapt to the realities of the network economy.
A musician whose work is definitely
Sometimes provocative.
The number is Peter Gleeson, the cellist.
When he was performing at King's Square London on Monday night, I sat there fascinated, and he combined his work with that of Steve Ricky and Max Richter, along with Microsoft Research and the technology offered by others on the screen.
We enjoyed a world-wide telescope flight.
Over Iceland, then
His partner, Tim Regan of Microsoft, wore photos of SenseCam's lapse, when he delivered the material to the venue, eric Fisher drew some amazing maps by drawing the location data in the Flickr photos of the major cities and some amazing data visualization.
I love Peter's job, but I can't escape the consciousness that I had been online for nearly five years before he was born.
He has grown into a world full of digital technology potential, and his amazing confidence and convincing performances clearly show that he is alternating between the two Celtics, the Colin Owen acoustic cello, familiar to any string quartet, and the custom five-string Eric Jensen electric cello, a strange skeleton beast that plugs directly into his digital toolbox, provides the converted sound he uses in his music.
Later this week, I spent a charming hour at Matthew Applegate, who explored the field of chip music --
Music made with old computers
In a speech at the Cambridge kettle Yard Gallery, it was part of their celebration of John Cage's work.
Hybrid World Matthew describes his experience of using old computers at the National Computer Museum in Bletchley Park, as well as the fun of creating electronic music at the rhythm hand-provided
Start an old mechanical calculator.
Peter Gregson and Matthew Applegate's way of working simply does not recognize the boundaries between numbers and simulations, and they deny any claims that we are now living in the "digital" world.
Matthew uses soldering iron, and Peter uses the technical expertise of his instruments, and even if they incorporate digital technology into their creative process, it is still deeply located in the physical world.
What they show is that we are now living in a mixed world.
Recently, when I celebrated my 50 th birthday and had to decide what music to play, I faced the mixed world myself.
We'll have a bunch of 45-turn singles in the past days and invite people to choose what to play next, but my old single is in the cupboard and hasn't been touched for years.
I tried the idea of making one or two playlists, but that means planning ahead and assuming I can foresee a change in the tone of the party over time.
Shiny Toys. this is tricky.
I am always ready to get into the first album of conflict, but maturity tells me that others will feel different.
Therefore, I decided to follow the modern fashion of the government and return control to the people and give the party power --
The audience find their own solution to what to listen to and dance.
I plug the loudest speakers I can find into my desktop computer, launch iTunes, and select songs using the Remote app on my iPad.
In the evening, the iPad spreads around and anyone who wants to hear can choose what we listen.
In addition to some fairly painful transitions when people start playing songs too early, it works very well, anyone who is not sure what to put next can simply use the "genius" button to select a song similar to the one currently played.
Using the iPad as a control panel is fascinating, as the touch screen device provides a more intuitive and enjoyable way to participate in the content provided than any remote control, there are dozens of small buttons and blurry icons.
The Remote on the IPad is exactly the same as using iTunes on the desktop, and although it is a poorly designed software, it does a great job.
Of course, my creative use of digital technology involves only connecting pieces together and risking my expensive shiny toy that will eventually be broken or soaked by prosecco, peter Gregg and Matthew Applegate are both exploring the artistic and performance potential offered by new tools.
But I think we are all moving in the same direction and we will soon reach a stage where it doesn't make as much sense to talk about "digital art" as to talk about "new media.
Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator for the BBC World Service Program Digital Planet.
He is currently working with the BBC on his file project.