Okay, easy on the Clinton jokes, kids, but just a day after we learn an online fashion ‘zine is making music by recording clothing, we see that a team at NYU is taking the next step: using zippers as musical controllers. (Safe for work — they didn’t get that carried away.) The neatest part of the installation is that you use physical zippers to zip and unzip the jackets and pants of people in video images projected on the wall. Now, how musical is this? Well, that’s up for debate. Maybe shoelaces next time? (I can finally learn to tie my shoes right.)

Zipper Orchestra by Joo Youn Paek with Gabe Barcia-Colombo and Leif Mangelsen, project page; via We Make Money Not Art

Now, making the zipper on your pants a MIDI controller while you’re wearing them? That sounds like the next technological leap to me. Just make sure you’re wearing rugged underwear, or that could hurt, and . . . how did I wind up on this topic?

NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program is a hotbed of exploring digital media, partly because — well — they actually focus on it in their degree, and make performance central. Nothing tests technology quite like taking your work live and making it convincing to an audience. And that’s exactly what those crazy ITP grad students are doing next weekend April 29, as they take over New York’s hip, experimental club Tonic. Upstairs will be performance, downstairs will be installations, and you can expect a strong emphasis on alternative musical instruments and experimental digital music-making tech. The work comes out of classes like “New Interfaces for Musical Expression” and “Live Image Processing for Performance” by faculty members Jamie Allen, Gideon D’Arcangelo and Luke Dubois. Last year was a big hit; this year should be no different. (Thanks, Jamie! Hope to see you there.)

TOOL Event, 4/29, NYC (and check out some great tidbits on alternative notation and performance planning, plus lots of deli.cio.us links, on the ITP New Interfaces for Musical Expression blog)

For the world beyond New York, it’s worth pointing out that NYU’s often art-focused, performance-based, experimental program has given its alumni powerful tools when they develop their careers. It’d be great to see more institutions recognize that the supposedly “soft” fields of art and performance can be just as powerful as traditional science and engineering approaches when developing technology. It’s a possible role model for any of you in academia trying to get colleagues to “cross the quad.”

Just came back from the ITP show at New York University and had a blast. (Ah, yesterday. Remember when we still had a transit system in this town? Good times.) I know we have some readers over there, so, NYU students, faculty, and ITP visitors, drop me a line. Let me know about your work and any impressions of the show — music/sound-related or otherwise. Rest of the world, I’ll have a write-up of some of the student projects later this week.

Spencer Kiser, another whiz kid from NYU’s ITP program, gives CDM our first look at his SpinCycle. It’s a new take on the turntable: instead of tracking grooves on a disc, the device reads colors and produces sounds (and hypnotic colors). Check out Spencer’s flickr gallery for pics for now, but he promises more documentation and video soon.

Another reason I’m jealous of Spencer: he made the Vancouver conference on new musical instrument interfaces. Check out what looks like an interactive washboard-computer interface! More on all this soon . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend the 2005 IMC Expo at NYC’s Chelsea Art Museum, a showcase of new interactive sound/visual installation works. The show featured everything from “volumetric” LCD light cubes to sci-fi-style interactive displays to installation toys. For an overview of the new works:

[wpg2]archived/imc/[/wpg2]

Catalog of Works: Studio IMC has its own gallery with work descriptions for additional background.

Many of the works were best described in early-prototype phase, but it was nonetheless lots of fun playing with motion tracking, cameras, and of course the toy piano video organ! Don’t miss last week’s report on Cybersonica for more interactive creations from the other side of the pond.

If you’ve dreamed of navigating through virtual reality worlds with just your hands, a la the movie Minority Report

, you’ll like the prototype of CINE (Collaborative Immersive Network Environment) by Miro Kirov, Houston Riley, and James Tunick with advisors Jean-Marc Gauthier and Frank Migliorelli (yes, it’s those crazy NYU ITP folks again!) Full-body gestures let you navigate in 3D.

I tried out CINE at the Studio IMC Expo. It’s certainly fun to play with, though keep in mind in prototype phase it has a ways to go before it lives up to some of its lofty design goals. There are possibilities for music and sound, too, though: the up-front interface is apparently Max/MSP. So if you’re looking to mix the Holodeck with musical performance, there may be promise.

See CDM’s IMC Expo report for more shots of this and other showcased creations.

Here’s my kind of elective: grad students at NYU’s ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) will be presenting new musical instruments they’ve invented tonight (Wednesday) at Tonic, 8:00 PM. Any NYC-based CDM readers going to make it?

CALLING CDM READERS FROM ITP: Yes, I know you read. So can someone please email me and let me know how late the show is running tonight? I may be able to get my computer music class at Hunter College out early so we can come down and see y’all. Among other things, I want to see that ping-pong instrument I’m hearing about. Anyone taking pictures, I could use your help, too.

Mocean
is an interactive installation that uses a tank of water as an
interface for sound. Dip your hands in the tank, and the installation
whistles and hums. The water doesn't create the sound directly;
instead, an array of antique organ pipes resonate above the tank,
triggered by a video camera that analyzes pictures of the water.
(Complex but interesting solution!) Mocean was created by Maia
Marinelli, Jared Lamenzo, and Liubo Borissov (in NYU's Interactive
Telecommunications Program or ITP); I found out about it as I'm in a residency now with Liubo at Dance Theater Workshop here in New York.

I hope others try water-based experiments, too; I saw something
similar at a 42nd-street space called The Tank. Watching the video,
while the sound is eerie and lovely, I think I'm more taken by how
expressive the water itself is. Other sensor solutions might make other
liquid interfaces create new musical sounds.