Music: undefined

Some word of The Chaos Engine this week, after a little while on the sidelines; but first two performances occurring this coming week…

First of all is miniWofS 2010, the first of two planned miniWofS running alongside the larger Week of Speakers event later this year. This time I’ll be putting on an experimental piece which I haven’t titled just yet, but what I can say is that I plan to make use of some live emergency services radio, streaming via iPod, and some live video of just outside the university. That is running on Wednesday March 10th from 7pm in the Creative Arts Building atrium.

Second is inclusive improv at Interlace running at Goldsmiths College, London, on Saturday 13th at 7pm. There will be a small group of us laptop performers with instruments too, and we’ll be playing a set alongside some others… full details here: http://incalcando.com/interlace/.

So it’s on to The Chaos Engine. Spurred into action by the upcoming SAW symposium presentation (see last week’s post) I have be procuring the components for the prototype model, with the first element now in place. This is for the playback of the fixed audio track, using a Vinculum VMusic2 MP3 playback module, necessary as the Arduino can’t playback full frequency-range audio natively. Below is a photo of the configuration, which works fine so far!

I have ordered the next components, including the radio – the AR1010 FM Receiver Breakout Board available from SparkFun Electronics. This should allow serial control of the radio frequency, so let’s see how it goes! And on with the writing of the paper also.

Bouncing back from the crisis described in my last post, this week I was greeted with an email confirming the acceptance of a paper I submitted to the Sonic Artists in Wales Electroacoustic Symposium to be held in Cardiff at the end of March. This was a huge surprise to me, as I assumed the acceptances had been sent out before that, with myself not being amongst them.

So as a shot in the arm to my research overall I have started the writing of this paper, knowing full well I have less than a month to get it done, the title: ‘Integration of live broadcast radio into automated live electronic works’. For the 20 minute presentation I am planning to discuss the implementations of the pieces in my ‘radio suite’: Synth Radio, The Chaos Engine and Travelling, framing this with a brief background of the uses of live broadcast radio in pieces to date.

Time to continue with that now I think…

As you can guess from the title it hasn’t been the best week in PhD-land. Whilst writing the thesis contextualisation I have questioned my passion for the topic as it stands – that is the investigation of distributable open outcome works – and have lamented that the works I have completed up to this point will be of peripheral relevance to the project. Most fundamentally I have come to realise that the studio is no longer my creative domain, and it probably hasn’t been for several years – the studio doesn’t inspire me at all actually, and the thought of relying on that inspiration for an iPhone album really fazed me.

The crisis has been acted upon however: I had a relaxed meeting with Monty about these matters over the weekend and he is happy for me to alter my direction in order to investigate the pieces I have already created. Also suggested was that nullTV digital, the follow up to nullTV analog, could become the big piece to culminate the project. This is a good idea, considering I’ve already invested a certain amount of time, energy and money in it.

Last week I mentioned RjDj, a new platform for creating interactive and open outcome music for iPhone and iPod touch (and hopefully in the future a few more mobile devices), and the discovery that it is in fact a version of Pd adapted to run on said devices. This week I have investigated further, and these are my findings.

First of all, what is Pd? Pd, short for Pure Data, is an application very much in the vein of Max/MSP – this isn’t at all surprising as it is the work of Miller Puckette, the man originally responsible for Max (the original version without audio). What makes Pd different? It is open source, available on more computing platforms and its engine is available for adaption into new uses – it is this last aspect which has allowed Pd to be packaged into an iPhone app (it also probably  spawned the apparently failed attempt to run Pd in a web browser-based plugin).

So, what is RjDj like to setup? Well, once all the necessary components are installed and set up it is surprisingly easy to get Pd patches on to the iPhone as RjDj ’scenes’ – RjDj terminology for a track. It requires a few steps in preparation: Pd vanilla, the RjDj composer pack (which includes sample scenes, externals for Pd and the RjDj servers required for data transfer) and an iPhone with OS3 or above and the RjDj iPhone app (available for free on the iTunes store).

In Pd (which, despite working like Max, is strangely alien in use) the programmer can start with a template RjDj scene, and must use ’soundinput’ and ’soundoutput’ objects in place of adc~ and dac~ respectively. Abstractions are included to get at the iPhone’s internal sensor data, so adding in accelerometer data is simple. The scene also carries media used by any patch and the iPhone.

And finally, what of the user experience? It has a little way to go before it’s as smooth running as one would expect iPhone apps to be. Changing views whilst a scene is playing interrupts the audio playback, and I couldn’t for the life of me get the microphone to work in those scenes that support it. The supposed fix is to blow on the iPhone’s microphone whilst RjDj is booting but this didn’t work for me. Last of all, audio runs at 22050Hz, so it’s not CD-quality. Otherwise RjDj is in very good shape to provide an easy way into programming fluid music on the iPhone.

I have a couple of pieces I’m going to try out in RjDj, so I’ll report on these in the near future.

February sees me start working on my thesis proper, starting with contextualisation. Also this week I was presenter at the fortnightly music department composer’s colloquium, which went pretty well – after which PhD starter Julian Brooks passed on the information that the RjDj software (mentioned in my last post of 2009) is based on Pd. So it is. So that’s another thing to work on.

Finally, here is the final cut of the main in tones: organ/radio/television/internet video.

We’re coming to the end of another week and another GEMdays festival, and it has been a quite inspirational experience, featuring (so far) four concerts and associated talks, a Max/MSP power-user symposium and workshops in circuit-bending and diffusion. Without a doubt the highlight for me was Friday’s concert by Phil Archer and Rodrigo Constanzo, which was inspirational both musically and from the perspective of work ethic – I realise now it’s time to stop thinking about things and actually do them.

GEMdays 2010 has also given nullTV analog its follow up airing, appearing outside the doors of Phipps Hall as an entry installation. This is where its portability came to the fore, allowing for a two minute pack away between nights (though many minutes of aerial placing did occur prior).

And on to a new month, where it’s time to sit down and actually do some writing towards the first chapter of my thesis. Also in the pipeline are  possible events at the Frome Festival (July), New York (March), Interlace at Goldsmiths (March), and I’m also waiting to see if my submission for the SSSP 2010 conference gets accepted.

Back to all the regular things after in tones: organ/radio/television/internet last weekend. One of my main points of focus has been editing the video footage collected at the event. So far I have compiled four minute-long videos summarising the event’s four pieces, and am at work on a ten-minute overview of the whole event, including interviews with the composers. These videos can be found at the specially set up in tones: o/r/t/i Vimeo channel (the longer video still requires some interview footage and should hopefully be finished over the next week). Also, I have updated the Music: undefined website with pages on in tones: organ/radio/television/internet and nullTV analog.

Following on from in tones it looks like the composers at Huddersfield that went to the Fylkingen Institute last November will be in concert again this summer at the Frome Festival, a gig set up through myself (a prior resident of Frome) with the aid of my mum (still resident). More details once confirmed.

Project-wise I have switched focus to the last in the trio of live radio pieces, after Synth Radio and The Chaos Engine, which I have provisionally entitled Travelling. It will be a 5.1 video piece featuring live broadcast radio, and is scheduled for premiere at the Holmfirth Film Festival in May this year.

And finally, it’s GEMdays this week! My participation will be largely on a technical level (though I am hoping nullTV analog might be wheeled out at some point) and I look forward to what will in the end be a tiring but worthwhile time.

Ah yes, the completion of a big project is always welcome, and for me this was especially so with in tones: organ/radio/television/internet, which took place yesterday afternoon at the University of Huddersfield, involving four pieces, two venues, one lab, one office, several robots, a dozen performers and an audience present in person and online!

Richard Glover’s in tones two took place in St. Paul’s Hall between 1-5pm, but unfortunately I was too busy setting up so see it – reports gave it a solid thumbs up. Then Phipps Hall, from 3-7pm, featured Claire M Singer’s RADIOROBOT, my own nullTV analog and Music for Online Performer by Richard Warp and Tim Mullen. Although our physical crowd was smaller we also had a virtual crowd, with a stream of the event going out on Livestream (which may be viewed at http://www.livestream.com/warpenator).

Overall myself and Claire (who was in attendance) were extremely happy with the end result of the Phipps Hall side, and are positive towards trying to secure a more permanent showing in the future. To this end I made sure to catch a lot of video of the event – including interviews with us composers – to make a short showcase video to interest potential venues. I’ll post a link to the video in a future post.

So next week it’s back to the real work – my PhD. So, for posterity, here are some pictures from in tones: organ/radio/television/internet (thanks for Scott Hewitt for the photos!):

Preparations continues for in tones: organ/radio/television/internet, which occurs this coming Saturday, January 16th at the University of Huddersfield. From 1-5pm, in St. Paul’s Hall, see a four  hour organ piece featuring changing sets of performers. And from 3-7pm it’s the triple installation in Phipps Hall, featuring the radio, television and Internet pieces of Claire M Singer, myself, and Richard Warp/Tim Mullen respectively. Entry is free.

And for a bit of fun here is a picture of my piece, nullTV analog, under construction a few days ago:

Happy new year! And to welcome in 2010 I have compiled a road map for the project this year, which I will write in part below.

The first major event is in tones: organ/radio/television/internet on Janaury 16th at the University of Huddersfield. This consists of two overlapping sub-events organised by myself and Richard Glover. Mine consists of the radio/television/internet portion, seeing installations by Claire M Singer and Richard Warp/Tim Mullen, as well as my own nullTV in action in Phipps Hall between 3pm-7pm.

After that I will focus on completing The Chaos Engine, my hardware open outcome pop song, and starting work on a couple of practice iPhone music applications – I have been getting up to speed programming on the platform with APress’s Beginning iPhone Development, which provides a good starting point for those already familiar with Objective-C and Cocoa programming.

Later in the year I’ll begin work on what should be my major project, an open outcome album for the iPhone. Also I plan to write a 5.1 video piece for the Holmfirth Film Festival should I end up being included in the roster.

Possibly one of the biggest happenings for me in 2010 would be a proposed trip to New York City as unofficial composer in residence at NYU – I am currently in the early organising phase for this trip, which may be 2-3 months in duration, and I’ll definitely write more on this in the future. If possible I may try and fit in trips to see Richard Warp in California and the Sort Of Records chaps in Pittsburgh.

And of course I will be starting the writing on my thesis this year, with Monty setting me a goal of 6000-8000 words for my main contextualisation chapter by Easter. Thorough readings of Eco, Adorno, Benjamin and others will occur, and this will be the biggest challenge for me.

So that’s plenty to do for the coming year. Let’s go…