The UK Sony PlayStation site has posted Josh Randall’s keynote at the Cybersonica arts fest in London. Josh Randall, a sometimes CDM reader (still out there, Josh?), is Creative Director of Harmonix, the groundbreaking game shop that created Guitar Hero and other interactive music games like Amplitude, Frequency (pictured), and (soon) Guitar Hero II.

Interview with Josh Randall [Video, PlayStation.com]

Cybersonica Keynote Excerpts [Video, PlayStation.com]

Via: Interactive Music for the Masses [Pixelsumo, blog of Cybersonica curator Chris O'Shea]

Josh talks in the interview about the upcoming PS3, Cybersonica, and the possibility of other instruments. (Keytar Hero? Accordion Hero? Ukelele Hero? I’m game, Josh!) In his keynote video, he charts the history and past games of Harmonix, talks about the creation of Guitar Hero and the potential of music games, and looks to the future — not only Guitar Hero II, but the future of musical games in general.

Of course, the convergence of music and gaming remains a story that’s dear to our hearts here. That makes it all the more fantastic seeing Guitar Hero hit the big time. It could be just the beginning.

Schizoporotica is a music box that plays torn scraps of paper. The object itself is quite gorgeously decorated, and it looks like people had great fun tearing up the tickets that fed the installation:

Schizoporotica on Pixelsumo
“The melody shredder” on We Make Money Not Art
Project page from the Troika Design Studio that created it, complete with MIDI file samples (it’s been a long time since I saw a project documented with MIDI!)

Interchange by Wojceich Kosma is an application for PSP (built with open source / PSP-hacking tools), one of the PSP sound toys on offer at the show. What’s unique about it is that, in addition to controlling a sequencer on the PSP, you can control simultaneous 3D animations projected on the wall. PSP coding is very tricky indeed; I expect we’ll see more of this work as time goes on.

Interchange project page with pics
Interchange on Pixelsumo

Art blog We Make Money Not Art caught several projects that didn’t even make it onto curator Chris O’Shea’s blog:

Cybersonica roundup including details on a musical gate
Death Before Disko, the wonderfully impossible-to-describe art of Herwig Weiser
Digital shadow puppets by Philip Worthington

Process of making Etch-a-Sound [flickr set]
Etch-a-Sound at Cybersonica [flickr set]
Etch-a-Sound on Pixelsumo (blog of the Cybersonica curator, Chris O’Shea)
Project Page, atoyfactory

And the video:

Brilliant work, Seulki Kang and Kenichi Okada!

Fixed YouTube link after it moved; thanks, Chris! -Ed.

The best news is, thanks to the rapidly-expanding real-time 3D capabilities of consumer computers, this could be just the tip of an iceberg. A pulsating, glitchy, morphing iceberg. Further details at the project site. Thanks to Chris O’Shea, Cybersonica curator and sumo of pixels.

Curator Chris O’Shea tells me he’s getting lots of press, much of it from the UK gaming publications. That just demonstrates how this technology can bridge worlds: not only is the Guitar Hero creator there, but the common theme of many of the works is turning music and art into a game. And, dispensing with all the theoretical gobbledygook you could spout about “involving participants,” this stuff looks wicked fun. I’d love to see this kinds of shows happen in other parts of the world aside from London and New York (bet you would, too).

Sonic Arts Exhibition, Flickr Photoset by escolate

The Cybersonica conference, with new musical creations inspired by games (and in the form of games), as well as art installations and interactive performances, suggests that as gaming approaches music making, “serious” music makers are also engaging the ideas of gaming. Josh’s keynote (which I think is actually taking place in London as I write this), will address some of these topics. From the description:

He’ll discuss the role of creative expression within the game space, and how new interfaces and controllers are changing the way we interact with our music and TV’s. Music gaming is bringing more and more people together every day, so what is the social impact of these games? Let’s peer into the future of music gaming, and ponder what might be coming next.

Sounds good to me! If you’re in London, I hope you’re at this keynote and will let us know how it (and the rest of the conference) goes! If not, I hope to check in with Josh soon for some of his thoughts. Oh, and maybe I’ll even be able to sneak a peak at Guitar Hero 2.

Of course, not everyone is going to want to go buy a box, unbox a commercial game, and use it as is. Before Guitar Hero even came out, I suggested some people would want to hack the thing for their own purposes in Max/MSP. Sure enough, quite a few people did (most likely entirely independent of my writing; I won’t take credit for that!), and Cybersonica organizer Chris O’Shea did a great round-up of Guitar Hero hacks while we at Team CDM were busy wrangling with our servers. Go check it out, and if you have a gaming hack of your own, let us know about it! I’m going to hold out for non-guitar controllers, myself, but I love the idea.

More Cybersonica Coverage from CDM

It could be an isolated wonder, were it not for the entirely open source nature of the project. The code for Fijuu itself is open (though primarily as a model, as it’s built for this specific installation), and everything in it was creating with open source software, from Debian Linux to the phenomenal OGRE 3D engine that handles the 3D magic. Figuring out how music should translate to three dimensions, both in terms of visuals and interface, is no small problem. Open sourcing the results is essential if other artists are to take this idea and develop it further. In the meantime, Fijuu is incredibly gorgeous, which is why I’ve officially dubbed it “the hotness” on behalf of the CDM staff.

For more on Fijuu, see the official project page (with source), an interview with the creator in the Cybersonica video, and further discussion from Cybersonica’s curator, Chris O’Shea, at his blog, Pixelsumo.

The works selected . . . move beyond the ‘screen, keyboard, mouse scenario’ and respond to physical input, proximity, sound, kinetics, elapsed time and the surrounding environment.

Check out the preview videos, photos, and descriptions at Chris’ site. And if you’re in London, by all means, please go and see this! If you do go, take some notes and photos and send them my way. I know the organizers are hoping for some blog coverage, so let’s not let them down just because I’m across the pond!

Huggable musical orbs? A tabletop music game in which you throw around virtual MIDI balls? Digital windchimes? Installations of giant ears, spheres, and a washing machine you stick your head into?

Playing with sound like this must mean you’re at Cybersonica, London’s massive interactive music + sound technology expo. And CDM was there to — well, okay, I wasn’t there, sadly. Our online friends were, though; here are their full reports:

Chris O’Shea (pixelsumo) reports on digital wind chimes (and presented, too!)

The new MAzine blog, devoted to networked art, reports on giant ears, spheres, swarms, and more

The legendary Near Near Future’s Regine reports on orbs you can hug, virtual balls you can play with, washing machines you can stick your head in, and a keynote on why digital art in 2005 may be a lot like 1734.

Personally, I like playing with balls, be they virtual balls or giant huggable orbs. So, what’s with all these interactive tables? See my previous report on tracking the use of tabletop interfaces. If this one looks familiar, there’s a reason: it’s based on the previous Interactive Surround Sound Cube. I like the idea of tabletop interfaces: maybe soon we can incorporate pool/ping-pong and cupholders, too, features my factory-standard Mac tower lacks.