For an increasing number of artists, data is becoming the raw material for creative work. Most of this has focused on visual media, but in the digital space, you can just as easily use sound. Sometimes the results are aesthetic only; sometimes they tell you something about the numbers being sonified. But either way, sound is a powerful medium.

“Weather Report” is a multi-touch instrument that makes music out of surface temperature data. The results feel a bit like US weather agency NOAA gone IDM. Fire up the multi-touch table, and you can “read” temperature data as sound. Co-creator Jordan Hochenbaum writes us:

I just wanted to turn you guys onto a multi touch interface I have been developing with a friend of mine here at California Institute of the Arts (his name is Owen Vallis). We had out first installation a couple weeks ago at Sea and Space Explorations gallery in Los Angeles and will be bringing it to Yuris Night Bay Area in April. The table is called “Brick,” and our first piece of software for it is called “Weather Report.” Were trying to use the table as a playable and meaningful musical instrument, so Weather Report uses Brick to sonify real-time U.S. surface temperature information into ambient and melodic mini-compositions. You can check out the website (we just put it up so it will constantly be updated shortly) for more information and photos, or check out our first youtube video @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45p_TPtQjR0

Are current plans for the table is making it more stable, and getting multi-touch finger tracking working nicely.

It was custom built and uses custom software written in Max/MSP/Jitter and Reaktor, as well as Reactivision (like the ReacTable).

Hope you like it so far! We are finding out new ways people like to interact with the table in order to refine how it is used, so the more people see and use it, the more usable and interesting we will be able to make it as a musical instrument.

brick: A Multi-Touch Sonification Instrument [Project blog]

CDM will be at Yuri’s Night, the global space party, in a very big way, so expect more!

We’ve all seen newspeople interviewing the “average guy on the street” with this sort of device affixed to the handle of their mic:

Ever wanted to add a veneer of professionalism to your otherwise ameteurish audio/video production? It’s easy! Here’s how:

Plastic, aluminum, wood … why not felt? Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain, co-creators of the open source Monome multimedia controller, have long had an interest in alternative, sustainable materials for music and multimedia. They recently shared some of those ideas at a felt + circuits workshop in Los Angeles. (You may have seen the felt calculator synth show up on Music thing.)

Brian explains to CDM what the workshop was about, with a glimpse of why felt and copper-etched circuits could be the future. I’ve left it lowercase, in keeping with Brian’s textual aesthetic. -PK

the felt+circuits workshop wouldn’t have happened without the enthusiasm and encouragement of mark allen of machine project. teaching workshops helps raise money for the space in addition to bringing together a community. machine continues to serve as a platform for the intersection of art, technology, craft, and social consciousness. it’s certainly our favorite place in los angeles. we were very happy to be there in residence this last spring.

the felt+circuits workshop was one of numerous events we scheduled, all which involved a great deal of process. this workshop in particular covers a wide range:

- make felt from the wool of happy, healthy sheep living on a picturesque farm in northern california. (these particular sheep were rambouillet)
- turn wool into felt with a little physical labor
- learn basic schematic entry and circuit layout
- discuss and collect candidates for natural dyeing (all plant-based, best if we could locate and harvest locally)
- experiment with various dyeing methods (boiling and fermenting)
- transfer film of circuits (as well as images of the student’s choice)
onto copper then etch
- drill, populate, and solder circuit, test on some willing USB port
- create the creature of choice, sewing felt into magical squeak-embedded shapes

Wish you could build your own music devices? Our friend Jason Kramer points to the Critter Board, a “hardware platform for creating self-contained electronic music devices.” The board looks great: it’s based on the 32-bit 58 MHz ARM microcontroller and programmed in C, like some other boards, but features a unique setup perfect for making musical toys: 21 I/O connections for adding knobs, sensors, LEDs, and the like, flash memory support for storing sounds, and a line out jack.

Of course, all of that is meaningless if you don’t already know how to build electronics projects. Fortunately, there’s a growing collection of very tasty tutorial examples for MIDI, synthesis, and audio:

Critter Board Tutorials

Best so far: a 4-voice FM synth in a cigar box. Jason writes:

just got mine today, I actually bought one of Owen’s one-off projects touted as a tutorial to demonstrate a possible application for them; the 4 Voice Cigar Box Synth. It sounds pretty amazing, but apparently it can do way more just make sounds.

The board itself is US$64.95, including the flash card socket, and can be programmed via any Mac, Windows, or Linux machine using the USB programmer. You can also buy the pre-built FM synth for US$190, but where’s the fun in that?

And more projects from these guys are on the way — stay tuned!

Speaking of which, for those of you who add visuals to your work, as well, whether it’s custom imagery or just a simple controller screen, try pairing this with the video version on CDMusic’s sister site:

Video Critter: Custom, DIY Video Synthesis [Create Digital Motion]