what will happen to us when we’re famous? Will we lose it like Amy Winehouse? Antionio predicts:
Antonio will crumble under pressure from the ladies and become a porn star.
Juju will go into politics, campaigning for animals.
Shelly will become a talk show host for the culture show.
Chris will go into boxing, venting pressures from his computers. He’ll will grow a twirly moustache like an old fashioned pugalist.
Jorge will be a famous singer in Colombia. Women, children and teenagers will throw their knickers at him. He’ll do ocassional BiLE reunions. They will be the most awesome gigs ever.
Norah’s love for pandas will lead her to write a famous blog or become like Jeanine Girafalo.
I will become a fashionisto in NYC, wearing a baret, smoking a cigarette out of a long holder and own a toy poodle.
I think I kind of object to this…..
Antonio makes no apologies and plays the cards as he seems them.
Shelly predict that 4 of us will end up living in squats until we’re 75, hoping somebody eventually pays us for a gig.
Category: Uncategorised
Do you believe in the rapture?
I’m looking for people who believe that the world is going to end soon, or people who pray it ends soon. If you think the rapture is around the corner or that we’re nearing the end times, I would really like to talk to you!
I would like to interview you talking about your beliefs. This can be in person, by phone or by skype. I’d like to record this interview, so I can use it as material in a musical piece that I’m writing. This piece will be played in England. Most of the people who hear it will have not previously heard the rapture described by a believer.
In order to make the music, your words will be put into a collage that makes musical sense. This does require some cutting, but I will preserve your meaning. I want to accurately convey your views, your beliefs and your hopes for the future.
This is for a 13 minute section of a longer piece of music performed by people with laptop computers. The entire thing will be an hour long. I’m calling it a “laptopera,” but it does not actually contain singing. The title of the piece will be The Death of Stockhausen. Your section does not yet have a title, but will probably include the word “Apocalypse.” The section will also include people with New Age beliefs surrounding 2012, but will make sure to differentiate their views from yours. (If you want to say anything about how the New Agers are right or wrong, I’d also like the hear that).
If you want to help, please leave a comment! Or, would you mind praying that somebody does want to help?
Concert Review: RCM LOrk
Last night, I went to see the Royal College of Music Laptop Orchestra perform in their institution’s main hall. I found out about the concert at the last minute because a friend spotted it on twitter. Until yesterday, I didn’t even know there was a LOrk in in London!
The audience was quite small and out numbered by the performers. There were 6 people on stage and one guy working at a mixing desk, who got up to play piano for one of the pieces. The programme was quite short, with 5 pieces on it. They started with Drone by Dan Trueman, which was the first ever LOrk composition, according to the printed programme. They walked in from the back, carrying laptops and playing from the internal speakers. The tilt of the laptop changes the sound. They then walked around the space, making this drone. It worked well as an introduction and had a good performative element, but I find this piece disturbing in general because it pains me slightly whenever I see anyone shake a laptop. This kind of treatment leads disks to die. Somebody should port this piece to PD and run it via RjDj on an iPhone.
The next piece they played was Something Completely Different by Charles Mauleverer. It was quite short and was made up of clips from Monty Python. Somebody from the ensemble explained that they were playing YouTube videos directly and using the number keys to skip around in the videos and stutter and glitch in that way. This piece was played through two large monitors on the stage. Because all the clips are in the vocal range, using only two speakers made it a bit muddy. Also, the lack of processing the sounds in any meaningful way could become an issue, but the piece was quite short and therefore mostly avoided the limitations of it’s simple implementation.
Then, alas, there was a few minutes pause for technical issues and a member of the group stood up and gave a short talk about what was going on in the pieces played so far.
After they got everything going again, they played Synchronicity by Ellis Pecen, which was very well done. The players were given already processed sounds of a guitar and were playing and possibly modifying those further. The programme notes said it used instrumental sounds “process[ed] to such a degree that it would be difficult to discern the original instrument and the listener would … perceive” the source materials only as “a source of sound.” As such it was acousmatic in it’s construction and it’s ideals but the result was a nice drone/ambient piece. After a few minutes, the sound guy got up and joined the ensemble to play some ambient piano sounds. The result was a piece outside of the normal LOrk genre (as fas as one can be said to exist) and was extremely musical.
Spirala by David Rees, the next piece on the programme, was supposed to have a projected element, but the projector crashed just as the piece was about to start. The piece was apparently built in flash and involved the players turning some sort of crank, by drawing circles on their trackpads. the sounds it made (and perhaps the mental image of crank-turning) lead me to think of a jack in the box. The programme says the piece is online, but I’m getting a 404 on it, alas.
The last piece was Sisal Red by Tim Yates. It relied on network communication, making groups of three laptops into “distributed instruments.” The piece didn’t seem to match it’s programme notes, however, as there only seemed to be four people actually playing laptops. One of the players was on a keyboard controller and another one was playing the gong with a beater and a microphone as if it were Mikrophonie by Stockhausen. This piece used 4 channels of sound, with the two monitors on stage and the two behind the audience. It seemed to fill up the hall as if were were swimming in sound. I’m not sure what sounds were computer generated and what were from the gong or other sources, but I had the impression that the gong sound was swaying around us and was a very strong part of the piece. It certainly harkened back to the practice of putting instruments with electronics and also seemed to be an expansion of the normal LOrk genre. The result was very musical.
According to the programme, this is the only LOrk situated at a conservatory rather than a university. The players were all post graduates, which is also a break with the normal American practice of undergraduate ensembles. All of the pieces except the first one were written by ensemble members. As is the case with most other LOrks, the composer also supplied the “instrument,” so all the players were running particular programmes as specified by (or written by) the composer. Aside from the first piece, there were no gestural controllers present.
I think putting a LOrk into a conservatory is an especially good idea. This will create LOrks that will concentrate heavily on performance practice. In their piece Something Completely Different, they completely de-emphasised the technology and created something that was almost purely performative. However, they obviously still embrace the technical, not only through their choice of medium, but in pieces such as Spirala which required the composer to code in flash.
I was really impressed by the concert overall and especially their musicality and hope they get larger audiences at their future gigs, as they certainly deserve them.
By the way, if you’re in a LOrk and have not done so already, there is a mailing list for LOrks, Laptop Bands, Laptop Ensembles and any group computer performance: LiGroCoP, which you should join. Please use it to announce your gigs! Also, BiLE will be using it to make announcements regarding our Network Music Festival, which will happen early next year and will have some open calls.
Some Ideas
The music of 40 years ago is more innovative, challenging and interesting than almost anything produced in the last decade. Like all of life, we have forgotten ideas and become focussed on technology. The future, as we see it is an indefinite sameness differing only by having shinier new gadgets.
Increasingly, the trend in electronic music performance is to see the player as an extension of the machine. Or tools are lifeless, sterile and largely pre-determined and thus so are we. We are becoming automatons in music and in life. Young composers, instead of challenging this narrowing of horizons are conforming to it. We are hopelessly square.
In order to look forwards, we must first look backwards, to a time when people believed change was possible.
Any social model maps relatively easily to a music model. Self-actualised individuals, to take an example, are improvisors who do not listen to each other. Humans as agency-lacking machines are drones, together performing the same musical task, like an orchestra, but robbed of diversity and subtlety. If the model does not work musically, it will not work socially and vice versa. The state of our music is the state of our imagination, the state of our soul and the state of our future.
A better world is possible, and we can begin to compose it.
Why I Identify as Transgender
There’s been a spate of blog posts recently about how the word “transgender” is dead and we all need to decamp to a new term. And then there are posts arguing to opposite point. I’m not going to bother linking to any of them, but I am going to offer my 2p.
First of all, I’ve noticed that almost all of these posts about whether the word “transgender” is good or bad are coming from trans women, but none that I’ve noticed have come from trans men. The trans women who are against the term transgender seem to call themselves “transsexual” instead. I suspect that the reason for this is a desire to separate themselves from cross dressers and specifically from fetishists. Some straight men get a sexual kick from dressing like women. There is no parallel situation for trans men. While a surprising number of drag kings are straight, there is no visibile community and no stereotype of straight women dressing up like men for illicit fetish sexy fun time (alas).
It’s quite reasonable to want to de-link your gender identity from being seen as a fetish. However, I don’t think emphasising the term “transsexual” is the way to do this. First of all, it has the word “sex” in it. This makes a lot of people uncomfortable. This makes me uncomfortable. I almost never identify as TS. I don’t want to describe myself in a way that invokes sex or genitals.
I also really don’t want to invoke medical intervention, when disclosing conversationally or whatever, and especially not in a human rights campaign. Now, of course trans people should have rights to transition-related healthcare. But our other rights should in no way be linked to that. I don’t want my job or housing rights to have anything to do with what surgeries I’ve had or am planning to have. Indeed, this can, itself, create a human rights issue, in which some governments require sterilisation as a prerequisite to proper gender recognition and/or civil rights protections. That’s deeply problematic.
Furthermore, there are problems related to privilege. This is much less an issue in the UK, as the NHS does offer appropriate healthcare to trans people. But in the US and developing countries, medical transition can be economically out of reach for a lot of trans people. Thus, any limitation to those who are medically transitioning is a hugely problematic assertion of class privilege.
The rights of people who don’t want to medically transition are also hugely important. I spent many years as an obviously gender non-conforming person and I didn’t want to face discrimination then any more than I do now. People who are full or part time cross dressers or whatever, still deserve to have full rights to access education, housing and employment and enjoy the same full civil rights as cis people. The same issues that effect people with no plan to medically transition also effect people who are planning on medically transitioning and haven’t started yet and people who may not be passing all the time. Again, linking rights to medical procedures seems deeply dubious and may pressure people into having interventions that they don’t want or need and leaves out people who cannot afford the costs associated with those procedures.
And did I mention that a word with “sex” right in the middle of it makes people feel uncomfortable? No centrist political candidate in the US is ever going to give a speech about how we need to protect the rights of transsexuals. They may be persuaded to give a speech protecting the rights of transgender people, but they’re not going to want to say the word “sex” in this context. And, if we don’t want to be lumped in with fetishists, we don’t want to say the word “sex” either.
Those who think that we can get more rights by sacrificing those who don’t medically transition need some serious help with the concept of solidarity. It’s sort of amusing that some of the same people complain whenever trans protections are stripped out of laws that were originally conceived to protect all LGBT people.
So I’m sticking with the word transgender. People who hear it know what it means (or can figure it out quickly enough. It’s a word I’m comfortable with. It implies solidarity. People can, of course, self-identify however they want and that’s fine, but I think it’s too soon to say the word “transgender” is done.
The head of St Vitalis of Assisi
Alas, I’ve missed the auction of the head of St Vitalis of Assisi, which I guess is just as well as it was expected to go for at least £700. Still, I kind of feel like my entire life as an RC might have been heading for that purchase. I’ve gone on saint-head related pilgrimages and generally have a fascination with relics….
As I see it, the major problem with having a first class relic like this one is where to put it. St Vitalis is the patron saint of STIs and it doesn’t seem fair to keep such an obviously useful saint to oneself. The owner of the head really ought to build a chapel for it. As I don’t have any kind of space for such a construction, the head would be doubly beyond my means.
Indeed, as I live in a two room flat that’s already a bit overly full of stuff, storing the head until I could build a chapel would present a major problem.
I really don’t want a holy relic on display in my bedroom. A skull of any saint looking down on my bed would be a bit of a mood killer. I can’t decide if this particular saint would be better worse than other saints. On the one hand, he is kind of appropriate, if you don’t mind his dead, judging eye sockets. But on the other hand, do I want to send the message to overnight visitors that supernatural help is required in addition to the normal precautions?
I think he could also be distracting in the living room. Alas, I don’t even have room for him in my living room. It’s already stuffed to the gills with rather too much furniture, two tubas, a bass amp and a synthesiser. I have no idea where I could even find space for a head.
He may have died in 1370, but the kitchen seems unhygenic even for a very old and holy skull. And the bathroom is humid, which might lead to corruption of the sort saints are supposed to be spared. A mouldy relic would not be very nice.
This leaves the toilet, which in some ways is the ideal space. I have unoccupied space on top of the cistern, where he could gaze down upon possibly afflicted areas as guests wee. It also gives the faithful a private place where they can take a moment to determine if the saint’s prayers might be helpful before invoking them, and/or possibly calling their local GUM clinic. On the other hand, it does seem somewhat disrespectful to the saint to perch his head in a loo.
(American readers of the linked BBC article should note that in British English, an “outhouse” is a kind of a shed. In American English, an outhouse is a privy. So moving from an outbuilding to a toilet would be a reduction in his circumstances.)
Alas, I’ve been unable to discover ho bought the head, how much they paid or what their plans are. Do I want to know? I’m not sure.
Backstage at a BiLE gig
We played yesterday in Wolverhampton and I thought it went rather well. While we’re playing, we have a chat window open, so we can do some communication with each other. This is what went on in chat during our last piece:
Norah> :( Les> reme Les> why is norah sad? Shelly> :(? Norah> someone crashed? Antonio> Antonio crashed Norah> oh :( Shelly> ack Les> bummer jorge> ohh sheeet Antonio> next? Norah> Les note! chris> my wiimote is boken chris> ok ill start Antonio> cool chris> ready? Les> i am now Norah> bang Shelly> huh? firebell starts? jorge> yes chris> im clock jorge> purrfect Les> go? Shelly> ack brb. start without me Antonio> go go go Shelly> bk Shelly> ...test... Norah> hi Les> we need a better beater for that bell Shelly> jorge can i have the spoon? Les> eye contact!! Shelly> chirs can u pass the small bell this way? Les> sounding good, norah Shelly> sounding GREAT! Norah> thanks Antonio> everything is crashing for me :( Shelly> norah, ur patch sounds really coo1 Norah> it's being very magical today! Shelly> GRANULATINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG BILE! Norah> WOW Norah> excellent transition guys Shelly> i dont know what time it is by the way Les> 10 Norah> 10:58 Norah> let's start winding down? Les> 10:15? Norah> 11:17 Les> 10:35 Les> nice Shelly> NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Antonio> :) Norah> that was super! Antonio> is ther eone more? chris> sh*t that was amazing! jorge> super!! Antonio> !!! Shelly> nope! Antonio> super fun times Shelly> suppersuppersupper Antonio> what's next?
My Journey through NIME creation, research and industry (by Sergi Jordà)
He got into computer music in the 80’s and was really in to George Lewis and the League of Automatic Composers. In 1989 he made PITEL machine listening and improvisation. in Max
He collaborated with an artist to make dancing pig-meat sculptures that dance and listen to people. Robots made of pork. they showed this project in food markets. This is horrible and wonderful.
In 1984, his collaborator decided to be in the robot. So they set up a situation where an audience could torture a guy in a robotic exoskeleton. Actuators would poke at him and pull at him. The part attached to the mouth made him suffer a bit. The audience always asked for the mouth interface. This taught him stuff about audience interactive. Lesson 1: It’s not a good idea to let audience torture people.
In 1987-88, they did an opera with robots and another exoskeleton. The system was too big and difficult to control. This looks like it was amazing. He’s describing it as a “terrible experience.”
In 1995, he did a piece for Disk Klavier. He did a real-time feedback system w/ a sequencer, a piano module, and fx box, to an amp, to a mic, to a pitch converter to the sequencer. He did this 4 times to make a 4-track MIDI score. This gave him a great piece that took maybe a half hour to realise. Simple things can have wonderful results. He has a metaphor of a truck vs a moped. A system that knows too much has too much intertia and are difficult to drive. Something smaller, like a moped is more versatile.
In one hour he made a “Lowtech QWERTYCaster” in 1996, which was a keyboard, a mouse and joystick attached together like a demented keytar.
In 1989, he did some real time synthesis controllable via the internet. It was an opera with electronic parts composer ny internet users. Formed a trio around this instrument called the FMOL Trio in 2001-2002 (their recordings are downloadable). He started doing workshops with kids and is showing a video of working with 5 year olds. They all learned the instrument and then did a concert. This is adorable. He put the different sections in different kinds of hats. The concert is full of electronic sounds and kid noises.
He learned that you have to make things that people like.
Then he got a real job in academia.
Why were so many new interfaces being invented, but nobody uses them?
In a traditional instrument, the performer has to do everything. In laptop music, the computer does everything and the performer only changes things. In live computer music, the control is shared between the performer and the instrument.
Visual feedback becomes very important. Laptop musicians care more about the screen than the mouse. This inspired the reactable, which he began in 2003
Goal: maximised bandwidth – get the most from the human and the most easily understandable communication from the computer to the human. He decided to go with a modular approach. Modular, tablebletop system. He wanted to make instruments that were fun to learn rather than hurty.
A round table has a non-leader position. Many people can play at once. You can become highly skilled at it.
When they started conceiving it, they were not thinking about technology. They developed a lot of tehcnologu like ReacTIVision, which is open source.
They posted some videos on youTube and got to be very popular. They started selling tables to museums. People liked it and the tables are not breaking down.
They started a company. Three work for the company and the presenter is still at the uni. They’ve done some mobile iApps.
The team quit going to NIME when the company started. They didn’t have things new to say. Reviewers didn’t think small steps were important.
Instruments need to be able to make bad sounds as well as good ones, or else it is just a toy.
The Snyderphonics Manta, a Novel USB Touch Controller
What is the Manta?
A USB touch controller for audio and video. Uses HID spec. Does capacitive sensing. 6-8ms latency (w some jitter). Portable and somewhat tough. Bus powered. It’s slightly like a monome….
Design features
It has a fixed layout because it’s a hardware device. It is discrete. 48 hexagonal pads which outputs how much surface area is covered. Slightly less than 8 bit. The sliders at the top have 12 bit resolution and are single touch.
the hexagon grid is inspired by just intonation lattices. Based on Erv Wilson and RH Bosanquet’s papers graphs
If every sensor is a note, you have 6 neighbours
It has LED feedback under the sensors (you can turn this off) inspired by monome.
The touch sensing is inspired by the Buchla 100-series controller.
Has velocity detection. Does this based on two consecutive samples.
Uses
Microtonal keyboard, live processing, etc
Future
Something called the manta mate will allow this to be used to control analog synthesisers
Latency improvement in sensor wireless transmission using IEEE 802.15.4
MO- Interlude Project Motivations
Multipurpose handheld unit w/ RF capabilities with network oriented protocol. With a custom messaging schema to reduce latency in a small size.
He’s showing a video of tiny grabbable objects with accelerometers in them. They have a nice aspect. You could use them like reactable elements that send out data, but the ones he’s showing are way more multipurpose.
The unit can be connected to accessories and is a radio controlled wireless device that can stream sensors and can pre-process their own data to cut down on bandwidth usage. They use Zigbee which is not as fast as wifi but low power.
They use off the shelf modules so they don’t need to mess with radio stuff directly. This does require some middleware. Digitizing is surprisingly slow. So they decided to do an all in one solution, using an embedded modem. This si 54 times faster! Plus it’s generic and scalable.
Given that this is IRCAM, I suspect that it’s expensive.
The accessories of the device declare themselves to the device and contain their own specs
The presenter wants to make this Open Source, but needs to get that through internal IRCAM politics and to “clean the code” which is a process that seems to sometimes drag on for people.