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Blog archive for December 2004

Effective freq. range: 700 – 3800 Hz…..

December 1, 2004

Me and Asbjørn has started fabulating on doing a project using horn loudspeakers. I’ve been fascinated by this kind of loudspeakers all the way since listening to the radio broadcast while walking down Nevsky Prospect in 1991.000 In 2001 I shot some video of a horn loudspeaker left obsolete on the beach in Odessa.

Verdensteatret til Bergen

December 1, 2004

V E R D E N S T E A T R E T
www.verdensteatret.com

VISER
KONSERT FOR GRØNLAND

I BERGEN

LØRDAG 4 OG SØNDAG 5 DESEMBER KL. 20.00
STED: TEATERGARASJEN. NØSTEGATEN 54
BILL. BESTILL.: www.billettservice.no
TELEFON BESTILLING: 815 33 133 (Man -fre. 8.000 – 18.000 Lør. 8.000 – 16.00)

Presenteres av
DETOX BERGEN
BIT TEATERGARASJEN
BEK BERGEN SENTER FOR ELEKTRONISK KUNST.

KONSERT FOR GRØNLAND” er en audiovisuell komposisjon der rusten mekanikk møter ny teknologi på vrangsiden av et “videoskyggeteater” på Grønland.
Fokus for “Konsert for Grønland” er en reise Verdensteatret gjorde til Grønland i August 2003.000 Mye av det visuelle og audielle materiale som benyttes i Konsert for Grønland ble samlet under dette oppholdet samt reiser til Island Færøyene Bergen og Beograd i løpet av perioden august til november -03.

Grønland har under denne prosessen brent seg dypt inn i oss. Det til tider ambivalente inntrykket under deler av oppholdet har snudd seg til en dyp fascinasjon. De underbevisste erfaringene og erindringene fra oppholdet bearbeidet av våre drømmer og vå r upå litelige hukommelse har resultert i disse audiovisuelle transformasjonene.

De involverte i “Konsert for Grønland”:
ASLE NILSEN LISBETH J. BODDKON LINDBÄCK PIOTR PAJCHEL PETTER STEEN ALI DJABBARY PER FLINK BASSE CORINNE CAMPOS ØYVIND B. LYSE LARS ØYNO MORTEN PETTERSEN TROND LOSSIUS BERGMUND W. SKASLIEN KENNETH LANGÅ S CHRISTIAN BLOM RUNE MADSEN.

Konsert for Grønland er støttet av Norsk Kulturråd Bergen Kommune Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere og Fond for Lyd og Bilde.

Commision for the Holber International Memorial Prize Seremony

December 4, 2004

The Holberg International Memorial Prize for outstanding scholarly work in the areas of arts and humanities social sciences law or theology 2004 was awarded to Professor Julia Kristeva Director of the Institute for the Study of Texts and Documents at the University of Paris VII. HRH Crown Prince Haakon presented the Holberg Prize for 2004 to the winner on 3 December 2004 in the Håkon’s Hall in Bergen.

For the seremony mezzo-soprano Agnethe Christensen and myself was commisioned to provide a musical performance based on “Ex te lux oritur – or – Carmen Gratulatorium” the oldest script of secular music preserved in Norway. " Carmen Gratulatorium" was written for the marriage of Norwegian King Eirik Magnusson and the Scotish princess Margaret Alexanderdatte celebrated at Håkon’s Hall in 1281.

The commision combined the acoustic sounds of voice bell and cantele with live electronic sound processing providing a sparse coloring of the soundscape. Duration: approx. 10 min.

Here’s an article on the seremony from the web based newspaper for the University of Bergen.

FFT resources

December 6, 2004

Peter Elsea has written a tutorial on FFT in Max.

via the MaxMSP list

Web page updates

December 6, 2004

The last two weeks has been very busy with a total of 5 different projects being presented to the audience. Some of them has required a lot of work some less and some none. Still very hectic. Today I’ve updated the news section of my web page for activities in November and December.

NY revisited

December 8, 2004

Today the students participatint at the New York excursion earlier on this fall met to discuss the experience. All students were supposed to write a brief report discussing one or more art works. Two of the students presented their report. Afterwards Erlend Hammer master student at the Section of Art History at the University of Bergen talked about the Dream House installation.

At the bus this morning I tried to decide what my personal higlights from the trip were. It came down to these:

VT reviews

December 8, 2004

“Konsert for Grønland” received positive reviews in Dagbladet Dec 4th and Bergens Tidende Dec 5th. Unfortunately I’m not able to find any of the reviews online.

ruccas.org rand()%

December 8, 2004

ruccas.org has been relaunched as a Wiki for unconventional computer and electronic artists. This includes artists working with generative and algorithmic techniques databending and circuitbending net art robotics et cetera. It also includes information about such topics as well.

One of the projects on the ruccas site is rand()% an automated net radio station that streams real-time generative music.

Elektropoesia (2004)

December 9, 2004

Audio-visual installation by Trond Lossius and Kurt Ralske at Electrohype, Malmö konsthall, 2004-05

Elektropoesia investigates relationships between sound and video, creating a combined artistic expression with both layers being of equal importance.

3 new fellowships in 2005 after all?

December 10, 2004

The gouvernment proposed only one new fellowship in the arts in 2005.000 It now seems that the Comitee for church education and research at the parkliament now proposes to extend this to three:

Komiteen vil understreke betydningen av stipendprogrammet for kunstutdanning og de positive ringvirkninger dette programmet har hatt for utviklingen av disse skolene. Videre vil komiteen på pekte at det kun er avsatt en stipendiat. Komiteen ber Regjeringen utvide ordningen med to nye stipendiater innen rammen i 2005.

PNEK 2005 and beyond

December 10, 2004

The conditions for the electronic art in the Nordic countries was an important topic for the recent Electrohype conference. The current situation is very diffent between the various contries.

The Danish organization Artificial took three different angles of documentation of the Electrohype biennial and conference:

ELECTROHYPE BIENNIAL 2004 – IMAGES FROM THE EXHIBITION

IS SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK?
Soeren Pold’s presentation at the Electrohype conference in Malmoe generated a lot of discussion. Soeren is among other things the founder of the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre at the University of Aarhus and one of the organizers of Read_me 2004.000 Here is what he said.

A MATTER OF TAKING UP THE CHALLENGE
On occasion of the Electrohype Biennial and Conference in Malmoe Sweden Artificial gives a few opinions on the status of the field of electronic and computer based art forms in Denmark.

Jeremy Welsh gave a presentation of development in Norway in the nineties with particular emphasis on development in the art education. Continuing from there I gave a presentation of development in the last five years. I particularly emphasised the report by the Norwegian Art Council “Skjønnheten og utstyret” from 1999 suggesting a future strategy for improving conditions. Two different approaches were suggested: building one large national center or creating a network of smaller centers situated in different regions of Norway. The report recommended the networked model.

This formed an important background for the establishment of BEK in Bergen in 2000 and TEKS in Trondheim 2002.000 Together with Atelier Nord and NoTAM both situated in Oslo they formed the Production Network for Electronic Arts (PNEK). For the initial period BEK TEKS and PNEK has all got fundings from the Norwegian Art Council. By the end of 2003 BEK had to secure other ways of funding in order to continue and in the end succeded in getting yearly national fundings.

In 2005 The Art Council will subsidise PNEK for 6 months only. PNEK is currently working to secure future fundings. TEKS will be in a similar situation by the end of 2005.

In my opinion the network model has been a very succesful one. Today you see artists from all over Norway collaborating and sharing knowledge. There’s a strong momentum now and considerable international networking and exchange. The electronic art scene is one of the most exciting movements in Norwegian contemporary arts right now and also fuel a lot of cross-diciplinary collaborations. In order to maintain this in the future a continuation of PNEK and TEKS is imperative.

We got some very positive signals from The Family Administration and Cultural Comitee of the Norwegian Parliament when discussing strategy for cultural politics towards 2014.000 The gouverment did not propose support for PNEK in the proposed national Budget for 2005 but there are some really positive signals coming from the parliament recently. The final decision will happen sometime later this month.

Produksjonsnettverket for Elektronisk Kunst (PNEK)


Komiteens medlemmer fra Arbeiderpartiet og Sosialistisk Venstreparti viser til at Produksjonsnettverket for Elektronisk Kunst er et fireårig prosjekt finansiert under Norsk kulturråd som begynte 2001 og som går ut våren 2005.000 PNEKs oppgave er å være en samlende ressurs for produksjon av elektronisk kunst i Norge og virksomheten består i å koordinere ulike prosjekter og utveksle tekniske ressurser og faglig kompetanse på tvers av geografi og fagfelt.


Komiteens medlemmer fra Arbeiderpartiet Sosialistisk Venstreparti og Senterpartiet ønsker at prosjektet skal videreføres og foreslår at det bevilges 1 mill. kroner til dette.


MIND-CHANGING BOOKS: BRIAN ENO’S TOP 18

December 13, 2004
  • Brain of the Firm – Stafford Beer. The most approachable book about the self-organising nature of complex systems.
  • Silence – John Cage. Music as philosophy (with lots of Zen wit).
  • The Evolution of Cooperation – Robert Axelrod. How time changes relationship: a
    message of hope.
  • The Clock of the Long Now – Stewart Brand. Why we need to think long.
  • Managing the Commons – Garrett Hardin and John Baden. Structural observations
    about shared resources.
  • A New Kind of Science – Stephen Wolfram. Controversial and exciting new approach to
    the genesis of complex systems.
  • Grooming Gossip and the Evolution of Language – Robin Dunbar. The origins and
    limits of human community.
  • The Mystery of Capital – Hernando de Soto. Why capitalism can’t be planted just
    anywhere.
  • Labyrinths – Jorge Luis Borges. The ultimate “what if?” book.
  • Africa: A Biography of the Continent – John Reader. The story of Africa beginning 4
    million BC.
  • Animal Architecture – Karl von Frisch. One of the best “beauty of nature” books
    academic jaw-dropper.
  • Contingency Irony and Solidarity – Richard Rorty. A great work of modern
    pragmatism: the antidote to Derrida.
  • Peter the Great – Robert K. Massie. Superb biography of a giant located somewhere
    between Ghengis Khan Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Stalin.
  • Roll Jordan Roll: The World Slaves Built – Eugene D. Genovese. The unexpected
    richness and lasting importance of slave culture in America.
  • Folk Song Style and Culture – Alan Lomax. An extraordinary theory that singing style
    is indicative of social structure by the pioneer collector of world music.
  • The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins. Even if you think you know what this is about
    it’s worth reading. The atheist’s defence.
  • Democracy in America – Alexis de Tocqueville. He guessed at the best of it warned
    of the worst of it and was right on both counts.
  • Guns Germs and Steel – Jared Diamond. Compelling account of the physical factors
    shaping world history.

For information about any of these books visit Amazon.com at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/moredarkthanshar

www.zemblamagazine.com

via darkshark

loudspeakers

December 15, 2004

…if my voice doesn’t carry it won’t be my fault it will be the fault of these loudspeakers…

Mohandas K Gandhi

Sensuous knowledge 2005

December 15, 2004

The seminar Sensuous knowledge 2005 is scheduled for November 9-11 2005.



Sensuous knowledge is initiated by KHIB and focuses on artist based research and developemt.

DIGIT

December 15, 2004

Susanna has set up D|GIT a blog for digital arts and design at KHIB. So far it’s her and me contributing hopefully more will join in along the way. A couple of days ago she posted the URL for Craig Reynolds work on boids.

Final Cut ressources

December 15, 2004

Ellen just mailed me the link to Ken Stone’s site with lots and lots of resources on Final Cut and video editing.

Jean Piché

December 15, 2004

Jean Piché Canadian composer/video artist and author of Cecilia has recently updated his web pages with thorough documentation of a lot of his works.

gadgets gadgets

December 16, 2004

Alexander Refsum Jensenius has pointed me toward the gluiph:

The gluiph is a single-board computer that was conceived as a platform for integrated electronic musical instruments. The gluiph aims to provide new instruments as well as existing ones with a stronger identity by untethering them from the often lab-like stage setups built around general purpose computers. The gluiph’s key additions to the standard core (CPU storage etc.) are a flexible sensor subsystem and multi-channel audio I/O. The gluiph in contrast to other stand-alone approaches retains a higher degree of flexibility by supporting popular music programming languages with Miller Puckette’s pd being the current focus.

At his weblog Tim Place is linking to uCApps a resource for free MIDI do it yourself projects.

…different from the one you are in now… (2004)

December 16, 2004

A reading of sound from works by Alvin Lucier, caused by layering of sound played back in multiple tabs of a web browser.

Historical computational art works

December 20, 2004

In a similar move to the Electrohype “Digitale pionerer” exhibition the NY art gallery bitforms is currently displaying historic computational works dated from the 50s through the 70s.

via Wired

Yamaha acquire Steinberg

December 21, 2004

More info here.

Open Source software for Mac

December 27, 2004

A couple of new releases in the last few days:

NeoOffice/J is an OSX native version of the OpenOffice.org office suit. NeoOffice/J went beta just before Christmas.

Gimp.app is a self contained application bundle of GIMP the
GNU Image Manipulation Program for OS X. Gimp.app requires Apple’s X11.

I haven’t had X11 installed after upgrading to 10.3. One of the nice improvements I noticed is that updates to X11 are now handled by the Appel Menu Software Update.

FontanaMixer

December 27, 2004

FontanaMixer is a generative sound environment by Karlheinz Essl based on John Cage’s conceptual piece “Fontana Mix” (1958).

“In 2004 I received a commission by the festival WIEN MODERN for creating a new realization of this piece. After starting using the graphical procedures as they where described in the score I realised that I would not come any further: It would have taken me months to finish the piece if I had measured thousands of parameter values. Instead of the graphical random generator that John Cage supplies with his piece I used realtime random generators of my Realtime Composition Library in a computer program written in Max/MSP. By sticking to the concept of Cage I created a version which duration is not limited but infinite and which would always create new and unforseeable structures.”

A stereo version with 4 sound sources is available for Mac OS X as freeware.

Elektrofisk

December 27, 2004

Elektrofisk is a web site dedicated to electronic music in Norway.

Binaural panning and HRTF

December 28, 2004

One day of browsing/searching for theory on binaural spatialisation and ambisonics and technical ways of doing it mainly on the Mac OS X platform.

  • Tom Erbe has made Spectral Shapers a set of 4 real-time plugins from of some of the Soundhack functionalities. One of them is binaural a binaural panner. There’s a very positive review of the plugins at OS X Audio. An important limitation of binaural is that it is not able to work on vertical movements only 0 degree elevation at a 44100 sample rate. According to the manual future versions of binaural will contain multiple elevations and sample rates. binaural allow you to
    select between two binaural filter sets. filter one is
    derived from Bill Gardner and Keith Martin’s measurements
    of the KEMAR dummy head microphone at the MIT Media Lab. The diffuse- field equalized HRTFs are used in this plugin. Filter two is the original SoundHack binaural filter developed by Dr. Durand Begault.
  • Aristotel Digenis has made a number of plug-ins for ambisonic decoding. Most of them are Audio Unit plugins which make them impossible to use at current in MaxMSP. The VST version of the Binaural decoding is Windows XP only. Anyway these plug-ins are for decoding of ambisonic recordings and as such not relevant for what I’m going to work at right now. I’d like to get back to them later on though.
  • Along a similar line SoundField has released Surround Zone plug-in for Nuendo.
  • WaveSurround is a Mac/PC VST/MAS/AU/RTAS/DirectX plugin by Wave Arts using HRTF binaural processing.
  • SpinAudio has a number of products (mainly for Windows) using HRTF.
  • Gerzonic.net also offers a range of VST plug-ins (Mac and Win) for ambisonics. Some of them are freeware. bPanX is a port to OSX of Dave Malhams open source bPan plug-in. The sources for Malhams plug-ins are available as GNU Open Source here. Malham has also written an introduction to spatial hearing mechanisms and sound reproduction including basic equations for ambisonic encoding and decoding.
  • Speaking of Malham The Music Technology Group at The University of York has a home page for Ambisonics and related 3-D audio research.
  • spat part of the Ircam forum real-time composition group is an obvious candidate to check out. This seems to be the only native Max solution available at the moment. Spat binaural panning is based on the MIT KEMAR measurments.
  • Another possibility would be to use the csound~ object to access the Csound hrtfer opcode. Chapter 25 of the Csound book seems to cover auditory localization in depth and give an example of the use of the hrtfer opcode.
  • According to these posts on the Music-DSP mailing list phase offsets are more important than amplitude differences for determining spatial localisation and hence all-pass-filters can be used quite effectively instead of FIR filters.
  • Angelo Farino has done a lot of work on acoustics in closed space. Ramsete is a computer program (Windows only) for the simulation of the acoustics of closed spaces which can be used also outdoors. Aurora is a software tool (Windows freeware) for measuring filtering and convolving the Impulse Responses of theatres and other spaces. A large waveform collection is supplied to Aurora users including anechoic samples of music and speech experimental binaural impulse responses of more than 20 theatres and concert halls some B-format 4-channels impulse responses the complete set of binaural Head Related Transfer Functions of the Kemar dummy head as measured at MIT Medialab the HRTFs in the horizontal plane of the Sennheiser MKE2002set dummy head the HRTFs in the horizontal plane of the Bruel &amp Kjaer types 4100 and 4128 the HRTFs in the horizontal plane of the Ambassador dummy head and the HRTFs at various elevations of the Bruel &amp Kjaer type 4100D.

That’s it for now. Enough to start digging into…

Bidule

December 29, 2004

Bidule is a new modular patch-based audio processing software somewhat resembling the Max/Pd/jMax regime. At current one of the main areas of use is as a Rewire client in order to access AudioUnit plug-ins from programs that doesn’t support AudioUnit themselves.

Rax

December 29, 2004

Rax is a virtual rig of AudioUnit instruments and effects for live performance.

VST to AU adapter

December 29, 2004

FXpansion has created a VST to AudioUnit adapter. Is there a similar AudioUnit to VST adapter as well? I’d like to be able to use AudioUnit plugins in MaxMSP…

AudioUnit Manager

December 29, 2004

AudioUnit Manager is a utility that enables the user to specify subsets of AudioUnits to be loaded with particular hosts. AudioUnit Manager provides a simple way to organize AudioUnits into sets so users can load just the AudioUnits they need for a particular application. This can mean accelerated application launch times and exclusion of incompatible AudioUnits for some hosts (e.g. Pluggo and Final Cut).

AudioUnit Manager works much the same way that the Extensions Manager control panel or the Pluggo Plug-in Manager did back in OS9. The web page claims that AudioUnit Manager is “able to specify subsets of AudioUnits to be loaded with particular hosts”. This really means that it is scriptable so that you can create AppleScripts that change the plugin set before launching the desired application.