Dear humans,

at the start of 2006 this became a site where I would experiment with mobile video. I placed a bunch of old Severed Heads videos here which were formatted for Play Station Portable and iPod video. They were place holders for the time when other more appropriate clips were made.

During the year, it became obvious that video was fragmenting in many interesting ways and YouTube has emerged as the most potent venue for that kind of archival video. YouTube has truly vile quality but that doesn't seem to have discouraged viewers. So I've started to move all the Severed Heads archival video there. Never mind that most people are there to see an online version of America's Funniest Home Videos - there's always going to be 90 percent crap in any medium.

But research into mobile video continues and I have a first candidate in Barbarapod.mov which is supplied with the new Severed Heads album Under Gail Succubus. This clip is much too big to download. If you pop disc 2 into a computer you should see the file listed and you are encouraged to copy it to a 5th Gen iPod to see how it works. Barbarapod is a first shot at a video which:

• Is made specifically so that you don't have to watch it all the time.
• Has a naturalistic theme which should contrast with the environment in which you might view it, e.g. aeroplanes, trains.
• Is sized to be attractive on a little screen that may be seen out of the corner of your eye.

(It should be more naturalistic but I was doubling up by making it work for a live show... I won't need to do that again.) For a number of reasons that I'll detail later, I've determined that natural landscapes are the most appropriate video for these devices. It's just a matter of finding an interesting variation on the theme. Technology leads me in two directions:

• The Sony PSP is highly programmable with a comparatively large video display, yet it suffers from poor storage space - I've started on a project called 'Flower Clock' which is based around a small set of data that is manipulated over time. It involves a seemingly static image that is manipulated as a decorative timepiece.
• The Apple iPod is not programmable (not by users anyway) with a small display, yet it has plenty of storage - I've got an idea called 'Rock Pool' that should work for this device. It's just a little rock pool in which many pleasant and interesting details can be noticed by repeated viewing.

Both are hard to explain, so I will try to post demonstrations as best I can.

So there is plenty of action going on behind the scenes here.
But like all good things it might come after what seems like a quiet period. - Tom.