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Blog archive for April 2005

Jamoma WIKI

April 2, 2005

I’ve set up a WIKI for the Jamoma framework.

Tracker

April 9, 2005

Last Wednesday was the premiere of the project “Tracker” in collaboration with the recorder player Frode Thorsen and the dancer Gitte Bastiansen. The project is a further development from previous projects Hacker and Cracker.

For Tracker I’m doing extensive live processing of the sound signal from Frode. Gitte has flex sensors attatched to various parts of her body. The DIEM Digital Dance system provides wireless transmission of sensor data so that Gitte is able to influence the sound processing.

We’ve been doing major changes to the concept. Very little material is left from the Hacker tour 2 years ago while material from Cracker has been further developed. All in all I feel that this project is a lot more abstract and less narrative than Hacker. Dance playes a much more prominent role and the production is much richer and more interesting in terms of artistic content.

We’re currently touring schools in the Hadeland region easter Norway doing two concerts a day for kids aged 6-13. All in all we’ll be doing 19 concerts. It has taken us a few shows to really get going but during the last performance yesterday I felt that we had the full attention of the audience as good as the best performances 2 years ago. And we still have a lot of potential for further development.

Below os the program description (in Norwegian).

Tracker

Samspill og improvisasjon avhenger av at man kan lytte til hverandre og respondere på hva de andre gjør. I denne konserten brukes også data for å fange opp og overvåke hva de andre gjør og kunne vri det i nye og uventede retninger.

Vi møter en blokkfløytespiller en lydkunstner med datamaskin og en danser. På hver sin måte er de interessert i å på virke hverandre. Det blir et lekent samspill der de både irriterer hverandre og der de også må lære seg å ha respekt for hverandre.

Blokkfløyta er et sentralt instrument. De fleste kjenner blokkfløyta. Den er kjent og kjær brukt og misbrukt og mange ganger utskjelt. Blokkfløyta er blant de eldste instrumentene som er i bruk. Vi blir presentert for ulike blokkfløyter spilleteknikker og musikk fra flere stilarter.

Men fløyta er ikke alene. Ved datamaskinen sitter en person og leker med lydene blokkfløyta lager og skaper nye verdener og stemninger. Danseren har sensorer festet til kroppen. Sensorene sender kontrollsignaler til datamaskinen. Slik kan dansen bestemme hvilke toner datamaskinen får spille. Eller datamaskinen hvilken pipe det skal danses til. Så spørs det om resultatet blir en evig maktkamp om hvem som skal ha mest å si eller om lydkunstneren fløytespilleren og danseren finner en måte å spille sammen på som alle er fornøyd med.

Programmet vil preges av lek improvisasjon og utforsking. Musikken vil kanskje være uvant med nye lyder og nye instrumenter og gamle instrumenter som låter litt annerledes enn vi er vant til. Det er viktig at både elever og lærere er innstilt på nye uvante klanger og opplevelser.

Trond Lossius og Frode Thorsen har komponert ny musikk spesielt for denne konserten. Bestillingsverket ble støttet av Rikskonsertene og Norsk kulturråd. Gitte Bastiansen har laget koreografien.

Master thesis

April 9, 2005

Elisabeth Leinslie at Avdeling for teatervitenskap at the University of Oslo has written a master thesis analysing “Konsert for Grønland” by Verdensteatret. The thesis is available as pdf-files. Below is the abstract in Norwegian.

Oppgaven undersøker hvilke estetiske og dramaturgiske strategier og strukturer som anvendes i dagens performance-teater og hvilke dramaturgiske tenkemåter som kan ligge til grunn for verkene. Diskursen angående dramaturgiske prinsipper/strategier kontra modeller/strukturer er gjennomgående i hele oppgaven. Oppgaven har en pragmatisk og verknær tilnærming til feltet.
Performance-teater er en kunstform med svært varierende verkspraksis. For å gjøre materialet mer håndterbart i en vitenskapelig sammenheng tas det derfor her utgangspunkt i et verk: Verdensteatrets siste produksjon Konsert For Grønland.
Etter først å redegjøre for performance-teatrets historiske røtter angående estetikk dramaturgi og generelle kunstneriske tenkemåter tar oppgaven for seg de forskjellige nivåene av dramaturgisk forståelse forskertradisjonen innen teatervitenskap har å tilby. Her presenteres noen sentrale forskere innen feltet og det ses på hvilke likhetstrekk og forskjeller som finnes i deres teorier. Videre belyser oppgaven noen sentrale sider ved Derridas dekonstruksjon – i den hensikt å lese ut en dekonstruktiv poetikk.
Dette teoretiske materialet ligger som et grunnlag for selve analysearbeidet hvor det gis en kompleks estetisk-dramaturgisk analyse av verket. Med utgangspunkt i dekonstruksjonen og analysen blir det så sett på hvordan dette teoretiske materialet kan føre oss videre – inn i en allerede eksisterende dramaturgisk modell som kan fungere for Konsert For Grønland. Forklaringsmodellen som presenteres er hentet fra poststrukturalismen nærmere bestemt Gilles Deleuze og Félix Guattaris rhizomatiske struktur.

Open Sound Control

April 9, 2005

The Open Sound Control protocol for networked communication of real-time musical information has it’s own web site. There’s a lot of papers from a conference in 2004.

Using Jamoma

April 9, 2005

I’m using Jamoma in it’s current incarnation as a framework for the Max patches for Tracker. Having tried it for a few days the benefits are clear. One of the week points of Cracker was that all transitions took to long. A practical reason for this was that any transition implied changing a lot of settings in patches for various processing algoritmhs. Using the mouse I could only change one at a time and this meant that abrupt changes was very hard to do.

This has improved enormously using Jamoma. On top of Jamoma I’ve made patches reading a cue script in text format adopting the syntax of Jade. Some features are still left to implement in particular a WAIT command so that execusion of commands can be delayed for a specified time.

Another benefit is that it’s much less demanding running the patch during concerts and I’m able to be much more aware of what’s happening elsewhere in the room not the least getting an idea of how the music/sound and dance integrate.

Tracker_screenshot

Here’s a screenshot of the patch and below is an excerpt from the cue script used to handle it. Hopefully it gives a certain idea of how cues are handled using Jamoma.


//———————————
// INIT: Initialisation
EVENT INIT
// Module matrise
matrise frode_2_grain_midi 0.000
matrise tablas_2_grain_midi 0.000
matrise sinus_2_grain_midi 0.000
matrise grain_2_harm_midi 0.000
matrise grain_2_out_midi 0.000
matrise frode_2_harm_midi 0.000
matrise tablas_2_out_midi 0.000
// Module stress
stress speed 1.000
stress mute 1
stress bypass 0
stress sr 0
stress defeat_meters 0
stress gain_midi 0.000
stress LFO_freq 4.000
// Module spillmusikk
spillmusikk mute 1
spillmusikk bypass 0
spillmusikk sr 0
spillmusikk defeat_meters 0
spillmusikk gain_midi 0
spillmusikk speed 0.000
spillmusikk cue 1
spillmusikk loop 1
// Module letemusikk
letemusikk mute 1
letemusikk bypass 0
letemusikk gain -120.000
letemusikk sr 0
letemusikk defeat_meters 0
letemusikk loop 1
letemusikk pan 64
letemusikk sensitivity 0.102
letemusikk decay 0.950
letemusikk cues 0
// Module seige
seige mute 1
seige bypass 0
seige gain -76.200
seige sr 0
seige defeat_meters 0
seige gain_1_midi 120.000
seige gain_2_midi 120.000
seige setting 0
// Module frodeloop
frodeloop mute 1
frodeloop bypass 0
frodeloop sr 0
frodeloop defeat_meters 0
frodeloop gain_midi 0.000
// Module tablas
tablas mute 1
tablas bypass 0
tablas sr 0
tablas defeat_meters 0
tablas gain_midi 0
tablas morph 0
// Module graindelay
graindelay mute 1
graindelay bypass 0
graindelay sr 0
graindelay defeat_meters 0
graindelay gain_midi 0.000
graindelay delay_window 74.000
graindelay delay_left 250.000
graindelay delay_right 750.000
graindelay delay_feedback 0.000
// Module delayctrl
delayctrl state vcl
// Module harmonizer
harmonizer mute 1
harmonizer bypass 0
harmonizer gain -120.000
harmonizer sr 0
harmonizer defeat_meters 0
harmonizer gain_1_midi 0.000
harmonizer pan_1 20.000
harmonizer delay_1 1736.000
harmonizer trans_1 5.920
harmonizer gain_2_midi 0.000
harmonizer pan_2 40.000
harmonizer delay_2 3450.000
harmonizer trans_2 0.240
harmonizer gain_3_midi 0.000
harmonizer pan_3 85.000
harmonizer delay_3 1736.000
harmonizer trans_3 -0.020
harmonizer gain_4_midi 0.000
harmonizer pan_4 110.000
harmonizer delay_4 3450.000
harmonizer trans_4 0.060
harmonizer gain_dry_midi 110.000
// Module vignett
vignett mute 1
vignett bypass 0
vignett sr 0
vignett defeat_meters 0
vignett gain_midi 0.000
vignett rate 0.000
vignett phase 0.330
vignett freqfact 0.500
vignett trigger 0
EVENT Vignett_1
// Module vignett
vignett mute 0
vignett gain -6
vignett rate 0.000
vignett phase 0.330
vignett freqfact 0.500
vignett trigger 0
// Module graindelay
graindelay mute 0
graindelay gain_midi 148.000 1000
// Module matrise
matrise frode_2_grain_midi 127.000 500
matrise grain_2_out_midi 127.000 500
EVENT Frode_begynner
// Module vignett
vignett gain -90.000
vignett mute 1
EVENT Den_Seige_Inn
// Module seige
seige mute 0
seige gain_midi 120 4000
seige gain_1_midi 120.000
seige gain_2_midi 120.000
seige setting 0
EVENT Tidsmaskin_1
// Module frodeloop
frodeloop mute 0
frodeloop gain_midi 120
// Module delayctrl
delayctrl state 3sec
// Module seige
seige gain_midi 0.000 25000
EVENT Flimmer
// Module frodeloop
frodeloop gain_midi 0 10000
EVENT GitteStyrer
// Module delayctrl
delayctrl state gitte
// Module seige
seige mute 1
EVENT Tablas
// Module frodeloop (drone)
frodeloop mute 1
frodeloop gain -120
// Module seige
seige mute 1
seige gain -120.000
// Module tablas
tablas mute 0
tablas gain 0
tablas morph 0.043

Using Shark to optimize Max patches

April 10, 2005

Tim Place is currently using Shark to optimize loadtime of Jade. If Shark can be used to optimize Max patches (both loading and running) it will be tremendously useful to get the most processing out of the computer at hand.

Sound card damaged

April 13, 2005
Motu_lament

I came back from tour yesterday in the evening taking a SAS flight from Oslo to Bergen. Today I discovered that my MOTU828mkII sound card has been broken in spite of being mounted in a very solid North flight case. I don’t know how the SAS crew managed to do it they must have been deliberately jumping on the flight case and throwing it around.

When I called them today they of course do not feel any responsibility and say that as loing as it’s not the case itself that’s broken they won’t cover it and i’ll have to turn to my travel insurance. No apolopy no question how it was packed out of consern for how it might have happened and what could have been done to avoid it no “I’m sorry”.

Working alone together

April 14, 2005

Ellen Røed is describing a common way of collaboration in her projects as working alone together.

Basic Stamp newbee

April 15, 2005

I’m currently assisting my collegue Hanna Hilt on a museum exhibition she’s designing. Whe’s going to use a number of buttons to trigger various sounds. I figured that I’d take the opportunity to learn a bit about Basic Stamp. I just realised that the first thing I should do is to get a led light flashing.

I’ll be using the Basic Stamp as a sensor interface for comunicating to and from Max.

Just what I needed

April 16, 2005

Excellent! Here’s a description of how to send on/off switch data thru MIDI into Max/MSP using a Basic Stamp IIsx microcontroller.

Quiet Club images

April 18, 2005

There’s several images from the 2004 light and sound installation Quiet Club by Brian Eno available here. It’s interesting to see how much the colors and ways of working with light and shadows on objects have in in common with Dream House.

“I want to make places that feel like music. I want to make things thta are like music for the eyes. I want to extend music out into space into the three dimensions of space and into color”

Brean Eno

Desktop Manager

April 19, 2005

Desktop Manager appears to be a handy little GNU GPL utility for getting several desktops on Mac OS 10.300 (Panther) the same way as in Linux.

måtte ha den bare måtte ha den…

April 21, 2005

I was lunching with Erlend Hammer yesterday. I had asked him to get a copy of the catalogue of Dia:Beacon during his recent stay in NY. I wasn’t sure if I could afford it last autumn but I had to get hold of it somehow. And I just have to get back there at some stage in the not to far future.

Holmgang

April 22, 2005

Ellen Røed former collegue of me at BEK and now at KHIB and her boyfriend Patrik Entian is currently having an exhibition named Holmgang in Stavanger combining paintings and electronic media.

In a very positive review Trond Borgen is pointing towards the Fluxus movement as a po0int of reference for their work. I believe this holds true for a lot of electronic arts but even more so in this exhibition with it’s good sense of humour.

Another source of inspiration for the exhibition was a camouflage coloured jacket that Linus the son of Ellen and Patrik inherited from my youngest kid a year ago.

Music by Knut Wiggen 1972-75

April 22, 2005

Ringve Museum in Trondheim in collaboration with TEKS hosts a very interesting concert coming Tuesday. Knut Wiggen in the sixties and early seventies was a pioneer of electronic music in Norway and deeply involved in the formation of EMS in Stockholm. The concert will present music created in the period 1972-75.

Ems

Knut Wiggen at EMS 1968.000 Standing from left: Lars-Gunnar Bodin Bengt Hambraeus Bent Lorentzen Gunnar Bucht og Bengt Emil Johnson. Foto: Stig A. Nilsson [from the Ultima catalogue 2003]


Hvordan så vårt elektronmusikklandskap ut for førti år siden?

-Ringves konsertsal forvandles til et gigantisk lytterom!


Historiske klanger fra elektromusikkens barndom. På tirsdag framføres Knut Wiggens unike datakomponerte elektromusikk fra 1972-75. Musikken var en sensasjon når den kom som et av de tidligste forsøkene med datastyrt komposisjon i flerkanal surroundsystem alt produsert i det den gangen ultramoderne EMS-studioet i Stockholm. Vi forflytter oss til en tid dominert av “mono-lyd” da slike tredimensionale klanger var nyskapende provoserende og spennende. Musikken har i dag fremdeles noe å si oss til tross for at denne type musikkteknologi har blitt allmengods.


Musikkjournalisten Tilman Hartenstein NRK presenterer musikken gjennom en samtale med Wiggen.
Pioneren Knut Wiggen i dag 77 år og med røtter fra Buvika utenfor Trondheim var en frontfigur innen nordisk eksperimentell musikk på 1960- og 70-tallet. Han var en av initiativtagerne til den unike Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) i Stockholm. Der utviklet han ett eget dataspråk for komposisjon av elektronisk musikk forut for sin tid. Han har også alltid hatt sterke meninger innen filosofi og estetikk.
De fem komposisjonene er de eneste gjenstående verkene fra EMS-tiden laget med Wiggens eget dataspråk. De framføres nå for første gang i Trondheim.


Tirsdag 26.000 april kl 19.000 Ringve museums konsertsal
Billetter: 100 – / 80 -
Velkommen til en spenningsstyrt aften!


I samarbeid med Trondheim Elektroniske Kunstsenter (TEKS)

Touring again

April 27, 2005

This week me Frode Thorsen and Gitte Bastiansen is touring again. Monday to Friday we’ll be doing a total of 10 school concerts. The performance keep evolving from one day to the next. We’re not doing a lot of major changes it’s rather timing precision how vaious parts overlap start end and develop into something new. A lot of it is really about timing daring to keep stuff going for longer time spans before moving on.

I’m pretty busy duriong the show but from what I see of reactions and attention from the kids the performance seems to be very well received. It’s not as light-hearted playful and downright entertaining as Hacker was two years ago but I feel that it’s a lot better in terms of artistic content and density. It’s not an easy-going show and if we don’t do the performances well I imagine that the kidfs easily could loose attention and interest. That has not happened so far though.

Responces after the shows are very different from what we experienced two years ago. Basck then the older boys would tend to gather around me after the show to look at and talk about the laptop mixer cables etc. I also always got a lot of attention for the cool mouse. If they only knew that it was the cheapest one you could get in Norway at the time. The small girls typically would try to talk to Gitte.

This time they don’t seem to be able or willing to break the show down into pieces in the same way. Maybe they have grown more custom to techie stuff in the last two years or maybe the expression to a larger degree become an integrated whole.

When some of the pupils starts asking about what I’m doing the difference between sexes in terms of technical interest seems to have diminished somewhat. There are still more boys than girls asking about how I’m doing my stuff but it’s not as biased as it used to be. At some schools I’ve had a big crowd of girls asking.

Beta

April 27, 2005

Ellen has started bloging on the development of Beta 2 and 3 two one night stunts to happen in Bergen and Oslo respectively later this year. She’s using CoreBlog as well. If she only had enabled trackbacks she would get one now…

Telenor rip-off

April 27, 2005

For the duration of the tour we’re staying at a conference hotel at Jevnaker. It’s excelent place to stay apart form one minor issue: They don’t provide free wireless network. For some strange reason the main Norwegian telecom Telenor has tricked a lot of hotels around Norway into providing their wireless internet solution. Unless you’re a certain kind of buisiness customer of Telenor they are charging you NOK 140 – (approx. 20 US$) for 4 hours access. You can extend to twelve hours for NOK 200 – (that’s about 30 US$). Completely ridicoluous. At home a months subscription costs me 300 -.

How can you possibly run a conference and business hotell in 2005 and not provide wireless for free?

Barn kommer ikke i reprise

April 28, 2005

(Childs do not come with a repeat button)

Poster at one of the schools we were visiting today.

Documenting Tracker

April 28, 2005

Today the producer of Tracker Helge Øye did video filming of the two shows. We used Soundman binaural mics for sound and I also tapped the mixer signal to DAT.

One more project to edit documentation for. I wonder when I’ll get the time to do it…