sonic surrounds

Grid Index

Author: Carsten Nicolai
Language: English

Release: May 2009
Price: € 39,90 / $ 60,00 / £ 35,00
Format: 18,5 x 23 cm
Features: 320 pages, full colour, hardcover, incl. CD-ROM
ISBN: 978-3-89955-241-6

Grid Index is the first comprehensive visual lexicon of patterns and grid systems. Based upon years of research, artist and musician Carsten Nicolai has discovered and unlocked the visual code for visual systems into a systematic equation of grids and patterns. The accompanying CD contains all of the grids and patterns featured in the publication from the simplest grids made up entirely of squares to the most complex irregular ones with infinitely unpredictable patterns of growth, as editable vector graphic data files. Use it to map out the underlying grids of any image or form and to create recurring geometrical grids in graphic design - an essential reference for designers, visual artists, architects, researchers and mathematicians.

(en français au-dessous l’image)

The project I’m working on, SoundDelta will be presented during an open studio residency at CentQuatre, Paris from 29th March to 5th April, 2009.  Entry free, with registration by email on: infos <at> remu <dot> fr

The project implements an audio augmented reality, for a sonic environment that supports large audiences and individualised binaural spatialisation.  It is used in artistic applications by Le Collectif MU. The first installation, with sounds by composer François-Eudes Chanfrault will be presented in May and June 2009 at Maison des Métallos, as part of the Futur en Seine (Festival of the Digital City).

Le collectif MU, la société REMU et le CENTQUATRE vous invitent à la présentation du dispositif Sound Delta

au CENTQUATRE (Atelier 6)
104 rue d’Aubervilliers
5 rue Curial 75019 Paris
Métro Stalingrad, Crimée ou Riquet

Dimanche 29 Mars : Ouverture publique pendant les réglages entre 15h et 17h
Vendredi 03 Avril : Ouverture réservée aux partenaires techniques et culturels
Samedi 04 Avril : Ouverture publique de 14h à 20h
Dimanche 05 Avril : Ouverture publique de 12h à 16h

Gratuit sur inscription (jauge limitée) infos <at> remu <dot> fr

Le projet Sound Delta propose un dispositif de réalité audio augmentée et spatialisée développé par la société REMU (membre de Cap Digital), TELECOM ParisTech, le CNRS-LIMSI (Orsay), et l’Université Paris 13 (L2TI). Ce programme R&D est soutenu par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche. Il propose un environnement de création sonore pour une restitution massive et individualisée. Les applications artistiques sont produites par MU avec le soutien du CNC- DICREAM : une première installation du compositeur François-Eudes Chanfrault est prévue à la Maison des Métallos dans le cadre de Futur(s) en Seine (mai-juin 2009).

From Peter Mcilwain, via the ACMA mailing list, comes the following news of the Nodal composing tool.

Nodal has been released for OSX and now Windows. Its free and has attracted some interest in the computer music community. For those unfamiliar with Nodal: Nodal is a generative software application for composing music. The software is produced at the Centre for Electronic Media Art (CEMA), Monash University, Australia. It uses a novel method for the notation and playing of MIDI based music. This method is based around the concept of a user-defined graph. The graph consists of nodes (musical events) and edges (connections between events). The composer interactively defines the graph, which is then traversed by any number of virtual players that play the musical events as they encounter them on the graph. The time taken by a player to travel from one node to another is based on the length of the edges that connect the nodes.

BillaBoop is an awesome project by Amaury Hazan (also involved in the iPhone RjDj generative music project).

BillaBoop is a real-time audio driven drum controller which allows the user to control up to 3 drum instruments. The user can control any drum synth with the voice (beat box), or any object or musical instrument.

In other words, you can play a soft-synth on your computer by percussive playing with real physical objects - a pen on a jar or your fingers on a desk….  Watch the video below to see this in action.

What’s more, BillaBoop uses Machine Learning to enable the system to learn by demonstration.

I will definitely be trying this out when I get some more time on my hands.  I’ve always wanted to be able to capture little rhythms from tapping my fingers or playing the objects on my desk as I procrastinate or even listen to some other music on headphones….

BillaBoop is indicative of the present idea in the zeitgeist of audio control by sound analysis. Another fantastic sounding new example is Ableton Live 8’s groove features that can extract a groove from any audio or midi - and apply it to different audio. Two other examples of audio analysis controllers were seen recently on Johnny Chung Lee’s Procrastineering blog : Sensitive Object and Scratch Input.  Finally, another older favourite of mine: sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! (also see the great explanatory video on youtube).

The following press release was just emailed out by Gail Priest…

Very shortly the book Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia will be hitting the streets.

Written by artists, producers and participants in alternative music-making, and including a companion CD, Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia explores the development of forms, ideas and scenes from the 1970s to the present.

It brings together a wide range of musical experimentation, from post-punk, noise, appropriation, electronic dance and listening music, to free improv, computer process music, experimental radio, instrument building and audiovisual fusions. More soon…

To accompany the book, a website www.experimentalmusicaustralia.net has been created to bring together information about experimental music and sound in Australia. There are 3 features that invite your input:

National Calendar: a web-based calendar (it’s a little bit ugly, but it’s free), to bring together listings from across the country. So if you have a gig, festival, exhibition, conference etc that you’d like listed you can send through information. If you produce multiple events or series you can have editing access.

Artist Directory: Hopefully a comprehensive map of people working in experimental music and sound across Australia. If you would like to be included, download the form, fill it in, and email back, or contact for further information.

Resource List: This is a mega links list starting with information drawn from the book on all things experimental music from gigs, organisations, online journals and a bibliography. Already an unwieldy monster, feel free to send through additions/suggestions.

For all of the above email: info <at-sign-here> experimentalmusicaustralia.net

I’ll email more when the book is ready for our hot little hands, but in the meantime help make the website a valuable resource!

thanks

Gail Priest

NB: The website www.experimentalmusicaustralia.net is an unfunded, independent activity undertaken to accompany the book Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia.

Out November 2008

Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia published by UNSW Press

RRP $29.95
ordering information
For a limited time there is a
20% pre-order discount

Written by:
Julian Knowles
Ian Andrews with John Blades
Cat Hope
Shannon O’Neill
Bo Daley
Alistair Riddell
Jim Denley
Virginia Madsen
Sean Bridgeman
Gail Priest

edited by Gail Priest

The printed publication Experimental Music: audio explorations in Australia was funded by the Australia Council Music Board as part of a series of publications.