Digital Music Camp for Ages 14-18 with Gisburg Smialek :: Harvestworks, 596 Broadway Suite 602 NYC 10012 (at Houston Street) :: 212-431-1130 :: August 6 - 17; 1:30-4:30pm :: Contact: Carol Parkinson 212-431.1130 x 12

This camp is a hand-on introduction to a range of computer skills for musicians. Students will spend 10 days in the recording studio - writing lyrics, performing or directing, recording, editing, mixing and producing a musical composition. All students will participate in the producing team and experience various jobs, from microphone placement, controlling the faders on the mixdown and/or burning the cd’s. They will receive instruction in the following software: Protools and Garageband. Continue reading

Jen Boyd spends her free time collecting microscopic recordings of trees, plants, and other audible organic matter; and creating layered compositions in real-time with the use of a portable mixer. She captures natural sounds as they unfold. Working with contact microphones and a flash recorder, Boyd constructs stereo soundscapes to give depth to the delicate sounds of trees and plants alike. She has a BFA in music technology from CalArts and is currently working on her masters in electronic music at Mills College. While at Mills, Boyd plans to explore the depths of natural sound and their presentation as art in the form of live performance and sound installations. Jen is currently exploring various means of releasing her recorded works of natural sounds and plans to continue to build an archive of phonographies and contact recordings.

Boyd will perform at ctrl+alt+repeat [summer 2007], an evening of experimental electronics and new music :: August 5, 2007; 4:00 pm [$7-10 donation] :: Dangerous Curve, 1020 E. Fourth Place, Los Angeles, CA :: 213.617.8483 :: Directions. Continue reading

Wish You Were Here (2007) — by Colin Asquith, Terry Nauheim, and Jennifer Schmidt — is a collaborative sound installation that will be on exhibit at SIGGRAPH from August 5-9, at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA .

A site for interactivity and reception, Wish You Were Here is a collective soundscape of audio greeting cards meant to be experienced within the hands of participants through physical and aural sampling. Our sounds are of field recordings, fragmented and manipulated to reinterpret the conventional notion of a sentiment in the model of a greeting card. Re-contextualizing recorded material within this format places limits—including time, compression, and availability—while initiating an accessible, portable, and participatory narrative. Continue reading

A/V PLAY! by N_DREW (aka Andrew Bucksbarg): A handheld, mobile audio-improvisual, participatory extravaganza… :: August 4 - August 26 :: Reception and Performances August 4, 2007 7-10 PM :: Sea and Space Explorations, 4755 York Blvd, LA, CA :: Gallery is open Saturdays 1-5 PM and by appointment :: 323-445-4015 ::info[at]seaandspace.org.

A/V PLAY! explores sights and sounds with handheld electronic audio-visual objects and digital cinematic installations centering on works that require participation for their activation. A/V PLAY! investigates the frontier of play through process, concept and use. A/V PLAY! delves into the artist’s practice … from hacked and custom electronics, circuit bending, audio-visual noise and rhythms, and VJing to mobile performance using iPod Shuffles, as well as other interactive cinematic work. Continue reading

9 Beet Stretch is Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th symphony stretched to 24 hours, with no pitch distortions. Executed in various versions with either the Snd or the Common Lisp Music software, both made by Bill Schottstaedt, 9 Beet Stretch was made by Leif Inge at Notam, Oslo. Sincere thanks to Anders Vinjar, Kjetil Matheussen and Bjarne Kvinnsland at Notam, and Jeff Hunt at Table of the Elements.

9 Beet Stretch, available online in cooperation with Raudio, is a 24 hours / 7 days a week webcast. Or catch 10 minutes here. Give it time to become audible.

There is a version for 9 Beet Stretch for each recording available of Beethovens 9th symphony.

Julie Freeman’s pioneering 2005 work of digital art, The Lake, deserves revisiting. Installed at the Tingrith Fishery over the summer of 2005, the work uses hydrophones, custom software and advanced technology to track the electronically tagged fish in the circular Fringe Lake and translate their movement into an audio visual experience.

Visitors of all ages are invited to come and listen to the fish composing their own soundscape while watching an animated representation of what’s really happening under the water. Listen to the fish:

Premiere of Labyrinthitis by Jacob Kirkegaard :: September 2, 2007 (times to be announced) :: Part of the Art and Biomedicine: Beyond the Body conference :: University of Copenhagen, Nørregade 10, DK-1017 København K, Denmark :: afn[at]adm.ku.dk :: +45 35 32 26 25.

The Medical Museion has invited the sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard to create a new work, which will focus on the problematic arising in Art and Biomedicine: Beyond the body. Kirkegaard has turned his listening ear inwards – to his own ear – and by using specially developed listening equipment, he has captured the micro activity which the hair cells of the ear broadcasts. Listen to some of his music here.

Al-jazari, by Dave Griffiths, presents a novel approach to live coded music. Using his bespoke game engine, Fluxus (which is written in Scheme) Griffiths uses the isometric tile based game model, populated with robots as a live Generative ’score’. Continue reading

Video Mash Up with Marlon Barrios Solano - A Harvestworks Digi Camp for Ages 9 and up :: Contact: Carol Parkinson 212-431-1130 x 12 :: Where: Harvestworks, 596 Broadway Suite 602 NYC 10012 (at Houston Street) :: 212-431-1130 :: Dates: August 6 - August 17 Monday - Friday Time: 10am - 1pm.

Video mashups is a new and experimental art form where videos from multiple sources are edited together into a new video. To date, many of these video mashups have been parodies, but even music mashups are being integrated with them to make combined audio-visual media mashups. The creation of “mashups” implies the capacity to meaningfully and creatively sample and remix media content. The video mashup has come of age thanks to the likes of YouTube, Rocketboom and others. Continue reading

The Sound of One Hand Waving by Erica Naone: Musicians can now control sound effects for electric instruments by waving a hand [from Technology Review].

A new device allows musicians to control sound effects with a wave of the hand. While electric guitarists typically control distortion effects with an array of foot pedals, the HotHand device, made by Source Audio, translates their gestures into the wah, phaser, and flanger effects that are popular for electric sound. A musician can wear the device as a ring, affix it to his or her head or torso, or allow someone else–such as the band’s vocalist–to use it to control effects. A wireless option leaves the wearer free to roam the stage.” As one reader has already remarked: Donald Swearingen and Pamela Z have been doing this since the 90s; and Laetitia Sonami has been waving her glove with amazing results for longer than that. But this device is new. Continue reading