Gray Area’s epic board member and extraordinary digital artist, Aaron Koblin launches The new Arcade Fire ‘music video’ as an HTML5 project. http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ (prepare to close all other programs and browser windows and sit back and enjoy!!!)
]]>The Wilderness Downtown Chrome Experiment Overview http://www.chromeexperiments.com/arcadefire/
Choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering… this Chrome Experiment has them all. “The Wilderness Downtown” is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire’s song “We Used To Wait” and was built entirely with the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas.
Instructors: Joshua Noble Author of “Programming Interactivity”
Dates: September 25 & 26, 2010
Time: 12 – 6pm on all dates
Description: A workshop to learn how to create physically interactive applications using Arduino and openFrameworks. We’ll explore how openFrameworks and C++ work and how they can communicate with Arduino applications and devices. Students will learn some of the basics of how the Arduino and openFrameworks platforms work, learn to how to connect the two, and then get started working with two of them to start making applications that can react to physical input and the make physical feedback using buttons, knobs, servos, LEDs, and computer vision.
Students will learn not only the basics of openFrameworks and Arduino, but also understand how to use simple electronic components, Serial communication, and computer vision to create interactive art or design. I intend to have this course be both an introduction to these tools and to the theory of making interactive art and design, so we’ll talk some both about techniques and about how implement those techniques. By the end of the class everyone should feel more or less comfortable experimenting with both hardware and code and have a sense of what resources to use and how to take their next steps. Plus, we’ll have a lot of fun.
The class is a 12-hour weekend intensive cost is $20 per instruction hour. $240 for non-GAFFTA members and $216 for members. The course requires an additional materials fee of $50 for an Arduino Kit or if you can provide your own Arduino kit.
Arduino Kit Requirements:
Arduino board
USB Cable
Breadboard
5 x Resistors
2 x Buttons
1 x Potentiometer
1 x Trossen Servo Kit or 1 x Servo motor
Laptops are required for the course. If you do not have one please let us know when you register.
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Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm-9pm
October 19
October 21
October 26
October 28
Instructors: Fernando-Lopez Lezcano (http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~nando) and Bjoern Erlach
Description: This 4 day workshop will use the SuperCollider programming language to demonstrate spatializing audio with a practical emphasis on Ambisonics. There will be a survey of spatialization techniques and technologies including: Ambisonics, Amplitude panning, VBAP, Reverberation, Wave Field Synthesis, and HRTF. Hands on lab sessions in SuperCollider will include: installing and configuring SC, SC basics: making and controlling sound, connecting controllers, panning, encoding and decoding in Ambisonics. We’ll end with a listening session of workshop student projects. The workshop space itself will be set up with multi-channel sound.
This workshop is for musicians, composers, researchers, sound artists, and programmers who would like to gain a greater understanding of modern spatial techniques implemented in a state of the art music programming environment. While experience with SuperCollider is a huge advantage, we’ll start with installation and go from there, albeit quickly. Participants should have at least some familiarity with programming. This workshop was designed for Mac and Linux users.
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Dates: November 2 & 4, 2010
Time: 6-9pm on all days
Instructors: Chris Chafe (http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~cc) and Carr Wilkerson
Description: This workshop is intended as a practical introduction to network music performance. Both technical and musical topics will be discussed, including: history of the field, Internet technologies for low-latency audio streaming, transcontinental high-quality network performance, performance issues like delay and presence, installations and synthesis in the network, future and potential as a compositional medium, programming techniques and software survey. We will discuss how to fine-tune the network and software specifically for musical purposes. The correlation of physical and acoustical distance in this medium and what it implies for musical performance/composition will be analyzed. We expect participants to leave with an embodied sense of network performance and ready to apply it in their art. This workshop was designed for Mac and Linux users (unfortunately some applications are not available on Windows).
This workshop is intended for musicians, composers, programmers and technologists interested in performing with distant musicians, designing systems for the medium or composing with the network in mind. No music theory or technical skills background necessary, the workshop will put emphasis on the participants’ particular interests and goals.
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Dates: November 13 & 14, 2010
Time:12 – 6pm all days
Instructor: Bruno Ruviaro (http://www.brunoruviaro.com)
Composing and recycling music: how far can sampling lead you? Can you be original through plagiarism?
Description: This is an exploratory workshop on composition of experimental electronic music. Specifically, the goal of this weekend intensive workshop is to give students a basic practical understanding of select tools and techniques for the composition of sample-based electroacoustic music. Sampling will be discussed in its widest possible musical definition (including how it may change the nature of musical creativity and how it relates to politics).
The workshop is of an experimental nature: departing from your own musical background, you will be encouraged to creatively question underlying musical assumptions and to explore original (!) ways of composing music through the use of existing music. This workshop is intended for: beginners to intermediate level students. You don’t have to have any prior experience with the software mentioned above. No music theory background necessary. This workshop is designed for Mac or Linux users (unfortunately some applications are not available on Windows).
Workshop structure: The schedule will consist of short lectures followed by lab sessions. Participants will work on their own laptops to complete hands-on assignments and exercises. By the end of the workshop you will have a basic practical understanding of the fundamental operations of Audacity (sound editor), Ardour (digital audio workstation), and Pd and/or MaxMSP (graphical programming languages), with particular emphasis on the technique of concatenative synthesis (CataRT and timbreID). You will use these programs to compose a very short miniature which will be presented in class at the end of the weekend. An e-mail with software installation links and instructions will be sent to students in advance, having applications installed and tested will leave more time for creativity!
DAY 1
Lecture/Lab 1: Audacity
- Basic operations
- Collage and montage techniques
- Working with multiple tracks
- Effects
Lecture/Lab 2: Ardour
- Intro to Ardour & JACK
- Overview of the interface
- Edit window and mixer window
- Starting a session
- Creating tracks or busses
- Importing audio
- Working with regions
Lecture/Lab 3: More Ardour
- Basic recording operations
- Volume automation
- Using plug-ins
- Understanding routing
DAY 2
Lecture/Lab 4: MaxMSP and Pd
- Introduction to MaxMSP and Pd
- Simple granulation patch
- Concatenative synthesis
- Catork: a CataRT skin/interface for composition and performance
- Recording the results
Lecture/Lab 5: Connecting all the dots
- Composing with borrowed samples: common issues
- Choosing and editing samples
- Transforming and “recycling” your samples via concatenative synthesis
- Performing/improvising with your samples
- Composing your miniature in Ardour
By autonomously navigating the water’s surface, Seaswarm proposes a new system for ocean-skimming and oil removal. Seaswarm uses a photovoltaic powered conveyor belt made of a thin nanowire mesh to propel itself and collect oil. The nanomaterial, patented at MIT, can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil. The flexible conveyor belt softly rolls over the ocean’s surface, absorbing oil while deflecting water because of its hydrophobic properties.
Seaswarm is intended to work as a fleet, or “swarm” of vehicles, which communicate their location through GPS and WiFi in order to create an organized system for collection that can work continuously without human support. Because they are smaller than commercial skimmers attached to large fishing vessels, they are able to navigate hard to reach places like estuaries and coast lines. Seaswarm works by detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward until it has removed the oil from a single site before joining other vehicles that are still cleaning. Oil is “digested” locally so that Seaswarm does not need to make repeated trips back to shore, which would dramatically slow collection time.
The fleet uses cutting edge nanotechnology to solve current environmental problems while envisioning long-term solutions for the future. With a new design strategy we can revive and preserve the quality of our oceans.
More info here: http://senseable.mit.edu/seaswarm
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Now giving up your weeknights can’t stop you from delving into the world of visual tech delights! Gray Area Foundation for the Arts is now offering a weekend intensive of the popular Creative Coding workshop.
Classes will be held 12pm-6pm :
Saturday — October 16th
Sunday — October 17th
Registration:
Instructor: Chandler McWilliams
Creative Coding: An Introduction to Processing is an introductory-level workshop that explores the creative potential behind Processing, a free and revolutionary programming environment that enables users to create interactive, dynamic, computer-based tools, projects, and art. Over one weekend, participants will explore creative programming in a project-based, collaborative learning environment. They will cover Processing-specific syntax, as well general programming concepts. Creative Coding is intended for absolute beginners. No prior programming experience is necessary, although students with prior programming experience are still welcome to attend.
Processing is a programming language and environment built for the media arts and design communities. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, and researchers for learning, prototyping, and production. More information on Processing can be found at www.processing.org
Lab: Each meeting will consist of a lecture and lab, with an emphasis on hands on programming
Lesson 1: Introduction
-The Processing Environment
-Drawing to the Screen
-Variables
-Arithmetic
-Conditional Statements
Lesson 2: Interactivity I
-Mouse and Keyboard Input
-Control Blocks (for, while, etc.)
-Arrays
Lesson 3: Interactivity II
-Event-driven Programs
-Image Processing (Accessing the Pixel Buffer)
-Arrays and Objects
Lesson 4: Advanced Topics
-Objects
-Text
-Sound
-Loading Files
-Timers
-Libraries
We are repeating the course this weekend with instructor Chandler McWilliams who teaches Design + Media at UCLA: Enroll here
]]>by Laura Khalil • August 17th, 2010
Gray Area Foundation for the Arts offers a variety of classes to hone your DIY skills. Whether you’re looking to program, take in some pilates or yoga or even build circuits into clothing (think light up’ clothes), there’s something for everyone.
On a seedy street within the heart of the Tenderloin lies one of San Francisco’s newest arts and culture non-profits. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) officially opened its doors in October 2009 and has since been involved in a variety of community projects that bring together and promote collaboration between art, design, sound, and technology.
I recently paid a visit to GAFFTA to take a class in a programming language called Processing. The language was developed in 2001 with the goal of helping artists and designers use computers to generate art, analyze data, create visuals as well as design sound and interactive experiences. Designed to make programming digital art approachable and accessible, Processing is an excellent first choice for new programmers looking to get their feet wet.
Not only is it easy to learn, but after one class you can see your designs come to life. Check out this example (and the image above) of what Processing can do:
While my creations were not nearly as sophisticated as those shown above, I was able to create some really neat designs that have sparked my imagination. If you’re interested in learning more about Processing, GAFFTA is offering a weekend intensive class this weekend, August 21st and 22nd.
GAFFTA offers a variety of classes to hone your DIY skills. Whether you’re looking to program, take in some pilates or yoga or even build circuits into clothing (think ‘light up’ clothes), there’s something for everyone. Check out their calendar for the most updated list of classes and exhibits at GAFFTA.
MIT graduate Christine Outram was the force behind the Copenhagen Hybrid bike wheel. She is speaking at GAFFTA tonight for the SENSEable Cities Speaker Series
If you can’t make it tonight- Check out the video of Peter Hirshberg’s interview with Christine. They discuss what inspired the project and her experience in sharing the project with the mayors of the world.
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With Daniel Bisig/Martin Neukom/Jan Schacher, Jason Kahn, Yves Netzhammer/Bernd Schurer, Felix Profos and Jeroen Strijbos/Rob van Rijswijk.
11 September – 19 November 2010, Gray Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco
Opening reception: 11 September 2010, 7:00 pm
Exhibition Description
From the rooms we imagine when we hear our noisy neighbors across the wall to the echoes that bounce off mountain cliffs, sound and space combine to create mental landscapes that become important parts of our environment. As developments in media technology make these virtual spaces and soundscapes ever more present in our lives—think video games, GPS applications, and audio surround—they are increasingly the subject of cultural theory study. Rarely have these concepts been explored in media art exhibitions, however.
Now, swissnex San Francisco and Gray Area Foundation for the Arts are pleased to announce the U.S. debut of Milieux Sonores: Sound and Imaginary Space, curated by Marcus Maeder and the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts. Join us at the Gray Area Foundation for the opening reception on Saturday, September 11, 2010, from 7:00pm to Midnight.
Milieux Sonores, which premiered in Zurich in 2009, was designed to create imaginary spaces that could be shown in actual places as exhibition architecture. Participants, who included artists, composers, and sound designers often working in teams, were issued the following challenge: Build an imaginary space. The resulting five installations make use of cutting-edge audio technology developed at ICST Zurich to propose very diverse solutions. At Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, they all become part of a dark, mine-like space defined by sharp black shapes jutting out from gallery walls. Listen for yourself through November 19th, 2010.
With support from Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. Stay tuned for upcoming related events.
Flow Space
Daniel Bisig,Martin Neukom and Jan Schacher
Flow Space is an audiovisual space set in a Platonic body, a regular geometrical space. Surround-sound, video projection and interaction create an immersive media experience. A touch-sensitive interface offers an intuitive, contemplative interaction with swarms of sounds. A choice of different executions is provided, each with its own performance, sound and visual representation. Ambisonics surround technology is used for three-dimensional sound projection and spatialization. Flow Space is the fruit of three research projects of the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology at the music department of the Zurich University of the Arts: The Interactive Swarm Orchestra (ISO) project, the Immersive Swarm Spaces (ISS) and the Musical Gesture project. The Interactive Swarm Orchestra (ISO) is a research project which involves the use of swarm algorithms for sound synthesis, sound spatialization and interactive composition: Sound events are modelled and controlled in synthesis, spatialization and movement in accordance with the principles of biological swarm movement. The ISO as well as the ISS project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). The Musical Gesture project researches the basic physiological and psychological principles of gesture-controlled musical performances. It also involves the development and application of technologies used within the context of music composition, performance and interactive installations. The touch-sensitive interface of Flow Space is an example of a gesture-based digital instrument directly accessible to laypeople.
SoundSpots
Rob van Rijswijk and Jeroen Strijbos
At first glance, Rob van Rijswijk and Jeroen Strijbos’s SoundSpots resemble oversized Plexiglas lamps. Only when one stands directly below one of the „lamps“ does it reveal its auditory secrets: the listener is submerged in a sound-bath of “musical eruptions”. The sound installation entitled SoundSpots was developed in 2007 by Dutch composers Rob van Rijswijk and Jeroen Strijbos. It consists of traditional and parabolic speakers focused on a single point to create a walk-through sound environment, i.e. a spatially distributed composition. As visitors move around the installation, they experience their own version of Rijswijk and Strijbos’s work: The base sound generated by the normal loudspeakers mounted in the space mixes with that of the SoundSpot below which the listener is standing.
Four Adjoining Rooms
Felix Profos
The installation Four adjoining rooms consists of a room in complete darkness, in which the only discernible elements are a seat, headphones, a navigation trackball and projected visual navigation. The work itself consists of four imaginary adjoining acoustic spaces. Composer Felix Profos writes: “Being alone in an empty room surrounded by adjoining spaces, from which muffled sounds can be heard: a fascinating situation, in which listening – without being able to make out exactly what is going on in the adjoining spaces – comes into its element. The most nondescript sounds are charged with meaning and begin to shine, and the remotest events become related to one another. I have long yearned to have this condition within reach, perpetual and undisturbed. The project Four adjoining rooms is an attempt to achieve this goal. However, compared with the condition as described, the advantage of this project is that here, time does not slip irretrievably through our fingers: we are free to stop at any given point in time and listen for as long as we like; we can observe this environment from up close or further away – from a temporal point of view – and can return to it at a later point in time. Consequently, certain elements may recur twice or even three times, although this is often difficult to determine given the inconspicuous nature of the events. And so we move across a threshold between an unspoilt nature of events and music, so to speak“.
Perimeter X
Jason Kahn
Jason Kahn’s installation Perimeter X is the only work that is not directly in the exhibition itself but rather on the façade of Gaffta. Here, taut wires pick up electromagnetic and acoustic vibrations outdoors – specifically from the inner courtyard of the barrack grounds – and transform them into sounds. The modified signals from the acoustic environment around Gaffta are played back outdoors via various loudspeakers mounted in the same location: Thus, the sonic space of the street is enriched with its own transformed sounds. Jason Kahn writes: „The focus of my sound installations lies in our perception of space through sound. I see space as a sculpture shaped by sound. The emphasis is not so much on the sound that I bring into a space as on the space itself. My installations seek to heighten our perception of space. Today we often try to shut out the world around us: we are faced with simply too many sounds and too many images, resulting in an information overload. In my work, my aim is to empower visitors to perceive a given space, sensitizing them not only to its sound, but also to the general perception of the place.”
Presumed Wind Load
Yves Netzhammer & Bernd Schurer
Yves Netzhammer and Bernd Schurer have created an installation transcending synthetic virtual reality. It consists of a table set in a small room: the space inside the four open drawers has gained independence on an imaginary level; it has broken free and collected in four pillars formed by four black objects that project up to the ceiling. The pillars emit sounds, turning the four objects into acoustic inner space. This installation is the poetic expression of the achievement of independence for spatial relationships. Yves Netzhammer and Bernd Schurer write: “Tables are social instruments used to verify our proportions and distances. Through the components of the installation, the imaginary space switches latently between the inside and outside, with drawers represented by pillars and the communicating elements cushioned with pillows. The vertical projections, between the inner and outer surfaces, delineate an acoustic inner space. This supports the imaginary architectural space through an audio-collage. The symbolic use of sounds and the question as to how one space relates to another within a system are part of the process of creating a new world – heterotopia engaging in dialogue with the imaginary space and examining the experience of touching the various (spatial) objects.“
Narrative:
The concept of space has always served to define relations between things in our imagination, thus interpreting reality. According to Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida, space can be seen as a place that absorbs ideas and allows the expansion of our thinking to be grasped in linguistic terms. Without any doubt, reasons for a stronger emphasis on the spatial aspect in the arts as well as in science can be found in the increasingly important role spatially oriented media plays in our living environment. Whether it is the simulation of space used in almost every computer game, GPS navigation systems or space metaphors in the internet such as chat rooms: the large share of virtuality structured in analogy to space is defining of our discourse on the world.
Furthermore, through recent media technology, a veritable topos of media related experience and acting is taking on form, an ontology of the virtual is in the making. With cinema, DVDs and computer games the spatial design of sound and the sonic design of space has gained importance. Surround technologies allow to simulate complex acoustical spaces: the “virtual“ acoustic space has become a widely discussed subject. If we view the fields of media and sound art, of electronic music, of game and sound design from such a perspective, it is striking that especially in these disciplines, topological terms become parameters in artistic and medial work. Furthermore, sounds do not only exist in a spatial relationship to one another, they are on a level of imagination and creation part of a consciously generated sonic and spatial milieu.
If we understand artificially generated sound spaces as fields of imagination that are composed of sound milieus structured in space and time, they are nonetheless primarily composed of technically generated signals that trigger sensations. The producer’s as well as the artist’s and the recipient’s imagination through acoustic sensations creates a space for association which brings into relation our knowledge about the real world and the simulation of the possible. Under the influence of our perception’s expansion brought about by media technology, the conception of reality begins to change. Space simulations created by artists, be it in films, in installations or musical works, create – “hyper-natural“, surreal spaces of experience that are filled with strange sound objects, impossible or remote spaces, sounding artificial life forms – they create mental landscapes which become part of our environment. On this phenomenon, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari noted in the dawn of the computer age: “The real is not impossible, but it becomes more and more artificial.“
In the exhibition Milieux Sonores, we focus on artistic and musical designs of sound spaces, on working with sound and the visualization of imaginary space. Milieux Sonores presents five different artistic approaches, each of which either creates, in its own unique way, a world of sounds and a space for a framework of sounds or transforms and redefines space through sound. Two of the five works were developed at the music department of the Zurich University of the Arts, namely Four adjoining rooms by Felix Profos and Flow Space by Daniel Bisig, Martin Neukom and Jan Schacher from the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology.
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