Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Artificiel

Artificiel is a group from Montreal I discovered recently (thanks Mouna!) who puts on some pretty awesome shows using objects like rubik's cubes and light bulbs.

I like how the focus is on the performance objects, versus on the humans manipulating the objects. This is how I think I'd be most comfortable performing, as I'm not much of a ham for the stage. Or for anything else, I don't think. Comfort aside, I'd love to be able to pull off such an elegant and engaging performance.

Check out the Cubing performance:

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Wireless LED Glow

I can make an LED glow wirelessly!

xbee_glow
Originally uploaded by 0x000000


okay, here's what it involves: 2 XBee radios, 2 microcontrollers (I used arduino minis), 2 power sources, 2 variable resistors, and a couple LEDS to control (i'll call these analogue LEDs from here on out). I tried to keep my wires on my board tidy, as wires generate their own radio waves which can create interference with the radio signals your xbees are trying to send out. I didn't do the absolute best job with the tx/rx wires, but it didn't seem to cause any transmission problems, so I let it slide.

Basically, this exercise controls the brightness of an LED on one board (the analogue LED), from another board, via values generated from a potentiometer and sent out wirelessly through an xbee radio. So we go pot 1 --> microcontroller1 --> xbee 1 --> xbee2 --> microcontroller 2 --> analogue LED 2. And this of course, works going the other way as well. Each board can control the brightness of the other's analogue LEDs.

One little pitfall that derailed me for a moment, was having the analogue LED on an analog i/o pin vs a digital i/o PWM pin. While it was tied to an analog i/o pin, i wasn't able to turn it on at all. Make sure the analogue LED is on a digital i/o PWM pin, which you then analogWrite to in order to get it to glow.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Inspiration

If I had to pick one track that most closely resembled what I wanted to sound like at the end of NIME, it might be Múm, Sunday Night Just Keeps On Rolling.

I'm interested in layers and texture... and the process of building (them up and down), juxtaposition and weaving. A bit like knitting a soundscape.

Friday, September 14, 2007

People Using Musik

For the last week, I tried to be more aware of how myself and those around me were using music to get through their days. Music has always been a crutch i've willingly leaned on to get me through all kinds of situations. Some of those being (click linked titles to hear mp3s):

Setting up my new apartment. Moving and setting up new digs can be pretty stressful. Listened to: The Shop Assistants
Reading. Listened to: a compilation I made for a friend, consisting of Fleetwood Mac (yeah!), Pet Shop Boys, and the Church, etc.
Daydreaming on the subway. Listened to: New-Wave compilation (Thomas Dolby: Europa)
Afterparty at my house! Listened to: shoegaze
Remembering my trip to Berlin. Listened to: Swayzak
Falling asleep. Listened to: Cocteau Twins
To distract me from A in order to contemplate about B. Listened to: Love and Rockets
Seeking design inspiration: Chris and Cosey

Other people I observed were plugged into music on the subway (listening to ??? Often times, I overhear metal in particular blaring out of someone's headphones. Quite alot), hanging out on their steps in the evening warmth (playing hip hop), and driving down the street (playing LOUD hip hop).

H&M always some kind of techno pounding its walls and its shoppers. I have to say, it really does get me in the mood to buy a ton of clothing.

Restaurants used music too of course, to set moods or assign personalities to themselves. Or to identify with the majority of their clients (Enid's in Greenpoint is always playing Modest Mouse or Pavement, in tune with the indie clientele). Although this is similar to the restaurant assigning itself a personality. It's a which came first kind of question.

Back To School!

It's so great to be back. This semester is going to be the best one yet! I am currently enrolled in: New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Collaborative Mesh Networking, Computers For The Rest of You, and Expressing Information. I'm particularly interested in focussing on NIME and sound design in general this year. So here we go!