LIVERPOOL will host the Open Source City Micro- Festival:: a micro-festival of open source practice in the production of media art and music :: June 20th to 22nd 2008 :: 40-42 Slater St, Liverpool L1 4BX.

folly and SoundNetwork are kicking off the Summer with an exciting collaboration bringing a micro-festival of art and music to Liverpool, as part of the European Capital of Culture.

Liverpool has a strong history of doing innovative things with electricity, from the birth of the power grid (Sebastian Ferranti) to the early computer games industry (Psygnosis, Ocean, and ZTT). Liverpool also has a formidable musical legacy inevitably centered around the pop phenomenon of The Beatles but which spans every musical genre from classical to electro. Continue reading

pure:dyne News - Who is pure:dyne for? pure:dyne is for everyone! pure:dyne has been adopted by artists, schools, media arts centers and their local communities as a common, complete GNU / Linux platform for Free / Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) art production and education. pure:dyne is used by communities across Europe and the world for recording and manipulating sound, making live visuals, creating interactive media in installations, and more.

Through pure:dyne for everyone, pure:dyne will reach out to more people - noobs, artists, local users - in a year-long programme of system development, documentation, user support and special public events with partnering media arts centers across the UK. Continue reading

TOSMI training in open source, multimedia instruments at InterSpace. The 2008 training will cover the fields of 3D CGI, post-production, animation and special effects, media content for the web, web TV and e-marketing. The training is mainly based on open source software and provides skills in innovative and efficient tools and distribution channels allowing for achieving quality production and/or education process at low expenses. Therefore we believe the sessions can be of advantage to professionals, managers and trainers in the audiovisual production and marketing. Continue reading

“If relational aesthetics and open source were always commercial, can the musical score provide a way of thinking through different relationships between creativity and code? The return to improvisation in ‘livecoding’ draws parallels with experimental practices developed by maverick musicians, programmers and educators from Sun Ra, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Scratch Orchestra to Seymour Papert. Simon Yuill argues that these ‘distributive practices’ are worth extending today.

In recent years the foregrounding of ‘collaboration’ in artistic practice has acquired an aura of inherent benevolence and emancipation, as though the very act of working with others in itself ensures some form of resistance or alternative to conventions of cultural production, and confers positive moral value. Continue reading

The Digital Artists Handbook [see Working with Sound] is an up to date, reliable and accessible source of information that introduces you to different tools, resources and ways of working related to digital art.

The goal of the Handbook is to be a signpost, a source of practical information and content that bridges the gap between new users and the platforms and resources that are available, but not always very accessible. The Handbook will be slowly filled with articles written by invited artists and specialists, talking about their tools and ways of working. Some articles are introductions to tools, others are descriptions of methodologies, concepts and technologies. Continue reading

TOPLAP (Temporary | Transnational | Terrestrial | Transdimensional) Organisation for the (Promotion | Proliferation | Permanence | Purity) of Live (Algorithm | Audio | Art | Artistic) Programming - TOPLAP exists to promote the writing and modifying of rules while they are followed. This includes the writing of software while it is being executed, allowing programmers to improvise music and visuals live before an audience as well as conduct exploratory research with live source code. Continue reading

Aside from it’s wii-like accelerametor ( movement gestures as data for controlling software ), the iPhone’s touchscreen interface and hard-drive with internal operating system, makes it a potentially awesome device for manipulating software. Say hello then, to the i3L MIDI BRIDGE for the iPhone by artificialeyes.tv, software developed to work with their upcoming 3D software 3L (‘thrill’). Software that translates the sliding and pressing on the touchscreen into midi information, which is sent wirelessly to a small piece of software on the desktop, which in turn can be routed to the software application of your choice. In my case below, this was VDMX. Is it fun to use? Hell yeah!

Though they developed it to work on their upcoming app, full credit to artificialeyes.tv for releasing it as freeware to work with any software. More details and download over at artificialeyes.tv. [posted on Skynoise]

6th International Linux Audio Conference (LAC2008) :: Cologne (Germany) :: February 28 - March 2, 2008 :: Call for Papers, Music and Installations :: Deadline for Installations: October 19, 2007 :: Deadline for Paper and Music: December 1, 2007.

The Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, is proud to host the 2008 issue of this event, where once a year programmers and artists, musicians, composers and practitioners gather to discuss and explore new and important developments in making music and sounds with Linux and Open Source software. The Linux Audio Conference is both a meeting of developers writing audio software for Linux as it is a music festival, where artists from all over the world show how free software can create fresh and exciting new sounds. Continue reading

Linux Audio and Live Impro by Ixi Software and GOTO10 Workshop :: Teachers: Enrike Hurtado, Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk :: July 18-20, 2007 :: 11:00 - 17:00 :: Arteleku, San Sebastian, Basque country, Spain :: FREE.

A three day course exploring free and open source software available for live improvisation purposes such as real-time audio effects, controllers, audio and midi processing, as well as the creative possibilities of Pure Data in a live setup. The workshop is an introduction to GNU/Linux and audio for instrumentalists. Continue reading

Mediamatic Workshop: Pure Data | The Video Version - Making practical video- and sound structures with the visual programming language PureData :: September 3-7, 2007 :: INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION: Deborah Meibergen or Klaas Kuitenbrouwer can give you more information at + 31 (0)20 6389901. Registration is possible online :: LOCATION: Mediamatic is located in the centre of Amsterdam, Oosterdokskade 5, fifth floor, 1011 AD Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Pure Data (or PD) is a visual programming language for the creation of interactive computer music, video and multimedia works. It has become a pioneering application in the contemporary art field. This workshop is an opportunity for video makers, musicians, artists and designers to learn how to process and organize image, sounds and video and how to use the networking possibilities of Pure Data. Continue reading