A special presentation of Stefan Smulovitz and Viviane Houle from Canada, and a lecture on a lecture on the live performance tool, Kenaxis :: August 7, 6:30pm :: Admission: FREE at HARVESTWORKS, 596 Broadway, Suite 602 (at Houston St), New York :: Tel: 212-431-1130 (Subway: F/V Broadway/Lafayette, 6 Bleeker, W/R Prince).

Join Vancouver, BC based duo Stefan Smulovitz (laptop) and Viviane Houle (vocals) for a short performance followed by a lecture on Kenaxis. The performance will demonstrate the versatility and power of Kenaxis Software as a live performance tool. Stefan and Viviane have played extensively as a duet including performances at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Sound Soundwave>Series, San Francisco, and the International PuSH International Performing Arts Festival. Continue reading

The Sound of One Hand Waving by Erica Naone: Musicians can now control sound effects for electric instruments by waving a hand [from Technology Review].

A new device allows musicians to control sound effects with a wave of the hand. While electric guitarists typically control distortion effects with an array of foot pedals, the HotHand device, made by Source Audio, translates their gestures into the wah, phaser, and flanger effects that are popular for electric sound. A musician can wear the device as a ring, affix it to his or her head or torso, or allow someone else–such as the band’s vocalist–to use it to control effects. A wireless option leaves the wearer free to roam the stage.” As one reader has already remarked: Donald Swearingen and Pamela Z have been doing this since the 90s; and Laetitia Sonami has been waving her glove with amazing results for longer than that. But this device is new. Continue reading

CyberTracker: The most efficient method of field data collection - CyberTracker software can be used on smart phones and handheld computers to record observations of any level of complexity. It allows anyone, regardless of their field of interest, to customize a series of screen interfaces specifically adapted to their own data collection needs. CyberTracker’s unique design allows users to display icons, text or both, which makes data collection faster. It also allows field data collection by non-literate users and school children.

“African researchers have developed a software for PDAs that turns the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert into digital wildlife trackers. Most of the Bushmen cannot read or write, but they can see what is alive in front of them — and the icons on their PDAs. Continue reading

For my inaugural post to this blog, I’d like to write about something I’ve been thinking about lately, and hopefully begin a discussion on it. Namely, what to make of geotagged audio samples and recordings. In case you’re not familiar with the term, geotagging is the practice of assigning geographic coordinates to a piece of media like a recording or photo as a form of metadata. In one incarnation, such as on the Freesound project, geotagged samples are layered over Google maps, allowing one to zoom in on any spot on the planet and potentially find samples tagged to specific geographic locations. As numerous startups and one very large corporation (beginning with a ‘G’ and ending with ‘oogle’) have realized, the commercial potential of geotagging is huge. But we hear less about its scientific potential and, of importance here, its aesthetic potential. Continue reading

Printing with conductive inks can make paper posters respond to touch, Tom Simonite reports in the NewScientist.com news service. According to Simiote, Swedish researchers believe that “boring billboards can be turned into interactive displays by using conductive inks to print touch sensors and speakers onto paper.”

“The first generation of paper was for display, like books,” says Mikael Gulliksson, a researcher at Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden, “the second for packaging, and the third for hygiene - we are investigating what the fourth might be.” Continue reading

Roulette: Amit Pitaru [Read Helen Thorington’s Interview with Amit] :: June 16, 2007; 8:30 pm :: 20 Greene St. (between Canal and Grand) 2 blocks west of Broadway :: $15 at the Door :: Harvestworks, DTW members, students, seniors: $10 :: Roulette & Location One, members free :: Reservations: 212.219.8242.

Amit Pitaru is a musician and installation artist who uses traditional elements as well as software and electronics in his work. When performing on his software instruments, Amit utilizes simple and familiar gestures in order to introduce the audience to his unconventional compositions; in one piece he may visibly use a pen to simultaneously notate and produce his sounds, and in another he’ll play a custom-made Playstation game to progress through a scripted composition. Continue reading

Experimental Music Instruments is a group of engineers, composers and sound artists who promote the design of non-traditional instruments in order to provide the amateur player with a meaningful and pleasant performance experience. EMI Project offers non-professional musicians the possibility of experimenting with the musical activity, where pleasure is achieved by playing around with reliable music artifacts, exploring unusual sound structures.

With the use of open design tools like Arduino and Pure Data we are able to hack almost everything and turn it into a musical instrument. The open source environments that are used in EMI project give us an opportunity to develop instruments that map physical interaction to sound within a digital environment.

NIME 2007 - Arduino Workshop @ The Interactive Telecommunications Program :: with Tom Igoe, and David A. Mellis :: Sunday, June 10th; 11AM-4PM :: 721 Broadway, Floor 4 :: Cost: $90 ($30 Workshop + $60 Hardware Kit) :: Registration.

NIME 2007, in association with the Interactive Telecommunications Program, announces a special workshop session on the open-source Arduino hardware development environment. The workshop will be held by ITP Assistant Arts Professor Tom Igoe, and David A. Mellis of Synthesis Studios. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn the Arduino tool set from two of its key developers! Numbers are limited, so sign up soon. Continue reading

The Music Animation Machine: Music moves, and can be understood just by listening. But a conventional musical score stands still, and can be understood only after years of training. The Music Animation Machine bridges this gap, with a score that moves — and can be understood just by watching. This animated score (which can be viewed on videotape or on your computer screen) contains much of the information in a conventional score, but shows it in a way that can be understood intuitively by anyone, including children. How? Continue reading

Tate Modern: Free in the Turbine Hall :: Mathieu Briand SYS*011. Mie>AbE/SoS\ SYS*010, aka the Spiral + More:: May 25, 17.00–18.00 pm and May 26, 10.00 am -18.00 pm.

SYS*011. Mie>AbE/SoS\ SYS*010, aka the Spiral is a sculptural sound installation and performance space created by the French artist Mathieu Briand (b1972). It comprises five turntables, one etching machine to burn new vinyl records, a matrix of four vinyl records on which sounds from machines and other samples have been etched into locked groove loops by the artist, two mixing desks and the possibility of plugging in up to seven additional instruments, laptops and other hardware. Mathieu Briand’s Spiral intends to create an alternative space within the museum structure. He envisions this installation as a “Temporary Autonomous Zone” (Hakim Bey) that would disrupt the traditional structure of the museum by deconstructing its hierarchies and altering its rules for a certain period of time. Continue reading