Untitled Sound Objects by Pe Lang and Zimoun is a series of works displayed as installation, performance and autonomous objects. Physical materials are made to generate sound by vibrating them using computer controlled motors, machines and robots.

One example of this (shown in the top two images above) is as follows:

Vibrating motors cause glass plates, on which various materials are placed, to oscillate. The vibrations move the materials and the frictions caused by this generate sounds, which are amplified via contact microphones and edited through DSP (Digital Signal Processing). Through a multiple channel speaker system amplified sounds are projected and reassembled into new sound architectures. Continue reading

CALL FOR WORKS: Futuristic Music Design Challenge - A live competition at Yuri’s Night Bay Area presented by createdigitalmusic.com :: Deadline: April 7, 11:59 PM EST (No exceptions!)

Online submission: Web entries accepted from around the world for the Web showcase. Limited entries will be chosen to compete live — To compete for the prizes, those entries must be present at Yuri’s Night Bay Area, Saturday, April 12. Submit DIY music performance projects – using custom software and/or hardware – for a live performance battle at the Yuri’s Night Bay Area party on April 12, sponsored by Yuri’s Night and createdigitalmusic.com. Compete for awards including a Yamaha Tenori-On grand prize. Continue reading

Colloquium: Mediated Musical Communities :: April 15, 2008; 4:00 pm :: Rm. 315 - Orwig Music Bldg. (corner of Hope Street and Young Orchard Avenue), Brown University.

Performativity, Ideologies of Liveness, and Listener-Consciousness in Electronic-Music Performance featuring Mark Butler: In DJ sets and laptop performances, an unprecedented level of technological mediation comes into conflict with the expected “liveness” of performance. As a result, musicians frequently express various techno-performative anxieties in explanations of their performance approaches. In particular, they are concerned that the audience experiences a performance, one that is imbued with a sense of live presence, rather than simply the playback of a recording or the clicking of a mouse. Continue reading

At the gallery and performance space Galapagos in Brooklyn last summer, I was fortunate to catch a show of electronically mediated music, art, installations, and short films. Among the participants was a musician and tinkerer named Jamie Allen whose set-up was a revelation in its simplicity.

His instrument was a wooden wine crate filled with custom-made circuitry and six joystick-like levers. Allen called his tool circuitMusic, and it emitted a throbbing, old-school sound — the sort of sound that’s often called “feedback laden” when in fact it was more like he was exploring the feedback, simultaneously navigating and lending shape to the noise. (There is additional coverage of the event, including photos, in an August 2007 disquiet.com entry.) Continue reading

Snowy Day at MGFest 2008 from Michael Una on Vimeo. Continue reading

Born in 1944, John Lifton studied architecture at University College London. He was one of the first people to become interested in the impact of information technologies on architecture. In 1968, the year he graduated, Lifton was involved in the creation of the international Computer Arts Society, and he exhibited in the landmark Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London. The following year he was a founder of the London New Arts Lab and the Institute for Research in Art and Technology, a base for experimental performance and mixed media work, where he set up the first free computer facility specifically for artists. Continue reading

“Standing in Shawn Decker’s sound installation A small migration is like being inside an exploded piano, or more precisely it is like standing inside the moment of explosion. The component parts of the work are suspended around me as though frozen in time. Still, yet full of potential movement; they generate a physical sense of imminence. At either end of the gallery large wooden frames support scaffolding bars rigged by chains from the ceiling. Piano wires are stretched across the gallery between the frames. At one end small striker motors are positioned alongside each wire; the installation responds to a series of computer-generated algorithms which trigger the motors that strike the wires.” - From A deep vibration: A small migration by Lizzie Muller Continue reading

Ingrid Bachmann (Canada) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the complicated relationship between the material and virtual realms. Bachmann uses redundant, as well as new technologies, to create generative and interactive artworks, many of which are site-specific.

Symphony for 54 Shoes is a kinetic artwork that involves 27 pairs of shoes collected from a variety of second hand and thrift stores. Each shoe has a toe and heel tap used in tap dancing attached to it. The shoes move or dance independently of each other. The mechanical motion of tapping is created using solenoids (tubular magnetic sensors) that move up and down when activated by a switch. Each switch, 52 in total, is controlled by a microcontroller and software that activates the sequence of the tapping of the shoes. Continue reading