Deprogram

Thanks to the organisers of Electrofringe and all who attended. We performed for the first time with a handmade scrim, so the visual feedback for the gestural instruments could be integrated into the projections. I was able to process video sources kindly provided by J D Young, who unfortunately  couldn’t make it to the show. We look forward to trying the new setup with everyone present soon.

The Electrofringe event page has posted photos of the event here.

Posted in Movement, Performance, Visuals

Electrofringe will be presenting two major performance events as part of This Is Not Art (TINA) in Newcastle from 3-6 October. The first is the showcase on Sunday 6 October, which Deprogram will be playing at from 12:50pm. Later there will be a closing night party from 6pm onwards. The full schedule is now available here.

Posted in Performance, Visuals

Posted in Performance, Visuals

We’ll be performing with Futureman during his month-long residency at El Rocco next Wednesday.

Posted in Performance, Visuals

Posted in Performance

While experimenting with a range of gesture to sound mappings, I’ve come across a little gem:

6to6 Mappr

It was initially designed as an educational tool and is quite simple to use. The only limitation is that you need to have a current version of Max/MSP. It works with a variety of sensors including the Kinect and Wii Remote. I’ve been using it to refine ideas for a movement-based vocal controller. Hopefully it can be built on to enable more variations and functionality.

Enactiv

I was quite excited by a program that offered artists a chance “to express themselves by ‘translating’ their sonic (instruments, singing, speech), visual and bodily/kinetic patterns or ‘narratives’ into parameters controlling audiovisual synthesis and processing modules.” However I haven’t managed to get it working yet. It requires a lot of externals that make the process of setting it up quite complicated, though I like the idea behind it.

So I’m back to recording the audio results of my experiments and seeing where that takes me. Here is a short snippet of the live piece I’m working on now:

Posted in Mapping, Movement

Tonight I’ll be playing some tracks on experimental music show, Ears Have Ears, on Sydney’s FBi radio. Hosted by Brooke Olsen, the show airs on Thursday nights from 9:00PM to 11.00PM and examines unexplored territories in sound and artists with an innovative bent. Caterpillar Hood and myself will help them celebrate their first birthday on the airwaves.

Previous playlists and info about the program can be found here:

Ears Have Ears

Posted in Recording

With the Space-Time Concerto Competition concert fast approaching, I’ve been working on fine-tuning the connections between audiovisual effects and physical movements. The work I’ve written for the event, Concentric Motion: Concerto for Voice, Piano and Gestural Controller, merges a gesturally controlled digital musical instrument with traditional orchestral instrumentation. As the soloist, I’ll be manipulating live piano, orchestral performance and vocals with my body. Accompanying video projections will provide feedback for the audience and myself. I want to use my natural movements to power the gestural interface as much as possible, rather than link specific actions to predictable sonic results.

As part of the projections, Deprogram video artist J D Young has created a subtly morphing grid-inspired backdrop to blend with the interactive visuals. A sample video can be viewed here.

Posted in Performance

Here is a short segment of a piano improvisation where the Kinect camera is picking up non-sound producing movements which then drive tempo changes and an effects send in Ableton Live through Max/MSP. The effects include a grain delay and looper, controlling piano, synthesiser parts and vocal samples. The audio visualisation on the right is created in custom software, Smokescreen.

Play

Posted in Movement, Performance, Visuals