You can complain about music events and festivals as they are, dream about what you’d imagine an event could be – or you can go and make it happen. And since the latter category fits friends-of-the-site Chris Gilroy and Lara Grant, it’s well worth an endorsement for this weekend’s In/Out Festival. (For their part, both Chris and Lara have been regulars at our Handmade Music NYC series; Chris as an electronic audiovisualist, and Lara as a textile-and-sound-melding felted signal processing guru.)

If you’re in New York, hope you can make it or even help cover it for CDM. If you’re not – like, for instance, if you’ve recently moved to Berlin – we’ve got some videos here to give you a taste of this particular assemblage of musical makers.

The lineup looks rich and varied on the performance side, coupling emerging artists with known names, all in genre-bending, adventurous sound:

Daedelus, Christopher Willits, Ander, Bit Shifter, tehn (Brian Crabtree), Portable Sunsets, Nick Demopolous’ Smomid, Comandante Zero, Noizmakr, Programs, Sarah Danke: Switched, Ivan Franco

There’s also a great selection of workshops:

• Heatit°C prototyping workshop, which uses a heat-reactive postcard for an analog circuit alongside “thermochromic and conductive inks and batteries, switches and conductive thread,” all made with a Craft Robo for producing 2D and 3D templates. (Wait… wha? Someone definitely go and cover that.)
• How to make a contact mic
• Kinect and movement using free software (Pd) – with Sofy Yuditskaya, who writes about Kinect and other 3D hacking today on Create Digital Motion
• Max for Live with Christopher Willits
• Comandante Zero on integrating live acoustic and digital instruments into performance
• Alternative musical instrument discussion

And here I’ve assembled some of my favorite videos of the artists and past In/Out events:

Stephen McLeod turns an egg-cooking session into a live, improvisatory tune – fried breakfast you can dance to:

There is a certain sense of magic or alchemy in the way a good cook or a good musician can transform raw ingredients into something beautiful. I feel like there is a kinship between these two disciplines, and this series of videos and performances is a meditation on that intersection.

While I prepare for you a meal, I use microphones and a computer to process the sounds. These sounds combine to form an automatic composition, determined by the recipe and improvised on the spot.

A meditative musical creation by tehn, aka Brian Crabtree, creator of the monome, was a highlight for me in 2009. (I played visuals live, using my photography and software I built in Processing. Side note: the bio pic is Brian appearing at one of our first Handmade Music NYC installments, put on with friends at Etsy.com who are now based here in Berlin. Strange, the arc of time and space.)

Here’s protofuse, aka Julien Bayle (French artist also known for his Max development work and protofuse controller), playing Brooklyn’s Issue Project Room with Chris Gilroy on visuals.

Festival co-organizer Chris Gilroy jams at one of our Handmade Music NYC parties from earlier this year.

“Switch” by Sarah Dahnke (here with meredith Blouin) is a far-out dance confrontation, in which bodies augment one another with sound.

And to close out this set with a groove, here’s Switzerland-based artist Ander playing a truly futuristic-looking controller Station, which appears to be ready to operate the Death Star.

Incredibly, all this music runs US$20 a day, or $30 for a limited-edition two-day pass, with workshops priced at $10-15 or free.

In/Out runs at The Knitting Factory and Death by Audio in Brooklyn.

http://www.inoutfest.org/tickets

If you’re in the LA area, I’m teaching a reasonably beginner-friendly workshop in making musical tools with visual interfaces, using entirely free software (Processing and Pd, on Mac, Windows, Linux, and if you like, Android). It’s this coming Thursday night, September 8 – the perfect way to get back to school! (For me, too…)

I’ll also be sharing some resources as I put them together for that workshop, so wherever you are, keep an eye on CDM soon.

The workshop is US$60, but you’ll leave with the skills you need to make your own music tools and audiovisual creations free, as well as the ability to use JACK to route those straight into hosts like Ableton Live.

We’ll follow up Thursday night’s workshop with a free Pd community patching circle on Sunday (for making patches; it’s a get-together, not a class).

Also, I’ll be at the TRASH_AUDIO-sponsored Synth Meet Saturday afternoon. Hope to see you folks in Southern California at one of these events there.

Full details of the workshop – and please do feel free to post / disseminate / share with people in the area:

Image and Music: Make Your Own Musical Tools, Free, with Processing and Pd
PETER KIRN (createdigitalmusic.com)

Thursday, September 8
7-10pm
Update – due to interest, we’ve scheduled a Saturday 6-9p class, as well
US$60 (discounts for members)
Limited space

Sign up in the CrashSpace store

Make your own instrument, sequencer, or effect, then give it a visual interface – not just fake knobs and buttons, but via any picture you desire. Now you can, with two integrated tools, entirely for free. Learn how:

Using Processing, the artist-friendly rapid code “sketching” environment, and Pure Data (Pd), the visual patching tool, we’ll discover how to create custom music creations entirely in free software. Starting with simple projects, you’ll learn how to get up and running to create your own tools, see some of the basics of how to make visual interfaces in Processing and construct musical tools with Pd, as well as how to route audio from these into software you already use like Ableton Live.

Via the new free libpd library for Processing, developed by Peter Kirn and Peter Brinkmann, you can use Pd patches right inside Processing. You create your musical creations – sequencers, drum machines, synths, effects, and so on – using the graphical environment Pd, which uses patch cords to represent the flow of signal through your sonic rigs. (A library of useful building blocks means you can construct all kinds of powerful tools even without much Pd knowledge.) Then, in Processing, you can create graphical interfaces via lightweight code, which can even run on your desktop or even mobile phones and tablets powered by Android. We’ll experiment with some simple two-dimensional and three-dimensional generative graphics for visualizing and playing our instruments, and some useful tools (a synth, a drum machine, a pattern maker, an effect you can use with a mic).

What you’ll need to know: Some basic knowledge of either Pd or Processing – ideally a little of both – is recommended, but not required. If you haven’t worked with them before, you’ll get a crash course in how they work and some sample code and patches. If you have, you’ll learn how to use them in some new ways and pick up some additional tips.

What you’ll need to bring: Definitely bring your computer so you can follow along! This is a hands-on workshop! Mac or Linux recommended. Windows users will be able to at least use Pd and Processing via OSC, and we hope a libpd for Processing build is ready (volunteers accustomed to building Windows software welcome!) We’ll install the software, but if you want to install Pd and Processing ahead of time, go for it.

If you’ve got any questions about the workshop, feel free to ask in comments and I’ll answer.

Sunday, September 11, noon – whenever
Patching Circle, for Pd, Max, AudioMulch, and other patchers
Free, open community patching – bring your project

And Saturday afternoon and Sunday night, while I’m not directly involved, the Synth Meet

Hope to see you at the workshop, in particular!

See you in Los Angeles…

CrashSpace
10526 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, CA
(right on the 3, 33, and 733 buses)

View Larger Map

Seattle’s Decibel Festival has announced a packed lineup of artists, events, and workshops for its 2010 edition.

With growing events across the continent of North America, maybe it’s time to stop claiming the “only” event of the year is Mutek. (Nothing against the spectacular city of Montreal intended in that statement.) Flying Lotus, confirmed today, now leads the lineup of artists set for the Decibel Festival, and it reads like a lot of people’s wish list of artists. There are plenty of regulars at these sort of events (and some duplication, like the fact that Monolake and Robert Henke or Sepalcure is Praveen and Machinedrum), but then, maybe that’s part of the point: we have regular convergences of a wide slice of electronic musical output.

Artists:

Flying Lotus : Modeselektor feat. Pfadfinderei : Carl Craig : Fennesz : Beats Antique : Monolake : Plastician : Murcof : VibeSquaD : Pantha Du Prince : Theo Parrish : Moritz Von Oswald Trio : Scuba : Ben Frost : Mary Anne Hobbs : Cassy : Starkey : Dinky : Eskmo : Mount Kimbie : Dan Bell : Headhunter aka Addison Groove : Kevin Saunderson : Catz ‘n Dogz : Bluetech presents Satori Social : Untold : Trus’me : Vladislav Delay : Ikonika : Distance : Oneohtrix Point Never : 12th Planet : Soul Clap : Alex B : Clubroot : Gold Panda : Robert Henke : NastyNasty : FaltyDL : Low Limit of Lazer Sword : Mark Van Hoen : Lusine : Tim Green : Mux Mool : Emancipator : Truckasauras : Luke Hess : Lorn : LawnChair Generals : Samiyam : Deepchild : Kyle Hall : Grouper : Sepalcure : Pezzner : Tanner Ross : Noveller : Monty Luke : Machinedrum : Eric Orr : Lawrence English : Shlohmo : Praveen : Rafael Anton Irisarri : sanso-xtro : Phutureprimitive : Disco Nihilist : Ean Golden : Splatinum : Michael Manahan : Incyde : Phidelity : Kid Hops : Kris Moon : audiopixel : Demo : Ben Tactic : Nordic Soul : PrEssHa : SunTzu Sound : Tracer Visuals : Ill Cosby : Introcut : Monkeytek : Ctrl_Alt_Dlt : Recess : The Perfect Cyn : Ramiro : Ryan Organ : Jimmy Hoffa : Lincolnup : Aksion : Press : Scott Sunn : Dash EXP : Sappho : Dirty : Lioncub : Surpass : Struggle : Grym : Just One : Zachariah Walker : TZR : Jeromy Nail : Adlib : Lukki : Jon AD : Energy Flash : Looptid : Menami : Deepvibez : Pixelflip : Kid Simple : Jagga Culture + more TBA

Some interesting-looking events in the works, as well:

*WORKSHOPS* (Wednesday through Friday)
DJ Tech Tools’ Midi Fighter : hosted by Ean Golden
Serato’s Scratch Live : special guest instructor TBA
Ableton’s Live : hosted by Dave Pezzner
Native Instrument’s Traktor Pro : special guest instructor TBA
Putting social networking and online promotions to work as an artist

*PANEL DISCUSSIONS* (Wednesday through Friday)
“Women in electronic music”
“Marketing your music in the digital age”

*LECTURES* (Thursday & Friday)
“The Age of Abundance” hosted by Robert Henke aka Monolake
“The Ill Methodology” hosted by Ill Gates

http://www.dbfestival.com/

Just watch for vampires; I saw a documentary recently — oddly packed for such films — that suggested there are a whole lot in the area. Also, confusingly, it was named after a programming IDE.

I’m in Sweden that week (seriously, and not as part of a covert project with Propellerhead), but I’d love to have someone cover the week.

Handmade Music returns August 29 to New York City – now in Manhattan at the new Culturefix space on the Lower East Side. Beginners, this is your chance to learn about electronics and sound making, with a newcomer-friendly workshop on making a photo-theremin – and yes, you’ll even learn to solder. (Like knitting, you’ll find it gets easy fast and can even be relaxing.) Entry fee includes all parts cost, and you leave with a fun creation.

If you have work you want to show or a performance to propose, be sure to see the call for works at the end of the post.

HANDMADE MUSIC
Culturefix, 9 Clinton St., New York, NY 10002
Sunday, August 29
Workshop 4-6p
Event 7-9:30p
Hosted by createdigitalmusic.com with Etsy.com, Make Magazine, and XLR8R Magazine

Equal parts science fair and music party, Handmade Music is a gathering at which musicians and the musi-curious explore new sound worlds. Assembled from the growing, global grassroots DIY scene, makers and hackers present new inventions and technology. Instead of just consuming, these are the people making the code, instruments, and noise-making contraptions that make the music. They’re building a musical future that’s open, creative, and hackable. Inventors bring their new creations for an open show-and-tell, join performances and jams, and make much noise.

4pm – 6pm
WORKSHOP: Make your own Photo-Theremin (Beginner-friendly!)
$10 (includes parts)
Never soldered before? Dozed off in Physics class when they were explaining electricity? Here’s your second chance. Create a noise-making two-transistor synthesizer of your very own, controlled by modulating light. Based on an original circuit by electronics legend Forrest M. Mims III, the man who de-mystified electronics in books for Radio Shack and others, and adapted by designer Eric Archer for Handmade Music Austin, this simple circuit is the perfect introduction to making sound with electricity. It’s quick to assemble, but lots of fun. Learn basic soldering, then make your own kit. And be sure to come back in the evening with your creation to join the world’s first known Photo-Theremin Chorus.

You must pre-register for this event.
Registrations close August 20! (Parts are being fabricated in advance!)
http://phototheremin.eventbrite.com/

7pm – 9:30 pm
HANDMADE MUSIC – Open Party
FREE

Meet and mingle with inventors, musicians, and artists. Discover chip and mobile music played live wirelessly at the bar by New York’s Pulsewave community. Hear music and sound made with free software on Android mobile phones. Check out open sound inventions in the gallery and surprise performances hosted by createdigitalmusic.com, DIY musical crafts from Etsy.com, the latest inventions and kits from Make Magazine, and a world-exclusive debut performance of a new, hackable synthesizer called the MeeBlip.

Special guest: Drone Lab creator and renowned synth designer, artist, circuit bender, and musician Pete Edwards of Casperelectronics

Full lineup will be announced, but unplanned guests tend to appear.

View Larger Map

http://handmademusic.noisepages.com/

Call for Works

We’ve already got some work coming in for this installment, but we’d love people to share more. Handmade Music is a chance to share what you’re doing with like-minded artists and creators, and to exchange knowledge and skills. Projects are welcome at all levels of completion.

If you can’t make this event but want to be considered for future events, fill out the form

Please note: this is a free, shared, community event; we’re not offering compensation at this time.

Call for Works Form [Google Docs link]

Also embedded below…

For computers, digital tech means the ability to turn anything into numbers. For humans, it means a chance to translate between gestures, ideas, sounds, and images. We can interface with musical, visual creations intuitively and collaboratively – now with ubiquitous, cheap touch and electronics. Two events take on that idea on the two coasts of the US; if you’re nearby, hopefully you can drop by, and if not, we’ll have plenty to share.

Multi-user Art, Networked OSC Workshops in NYC

Here in New York, mobile touch is put to the test in a gallery show in Brooklyn, with two workshops that can help you make your own work. Multi-User Art (image, top) uses the open platform mrmr and OSC protocol to allow visitors with mobile devices to manipulate installations. Step up, and a layout of controls is automatically pushed to your device, so you can push buttons, slide faders, draw, and otherwise control what you see — even with multiple users at a time. (For now, we’re stuck with the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad only, but I’m working on Android and browser-based ports for anyone interested.)

The artwork includes installations by myself, by mrmr creator Eric Redlinger, Superdraw artist Joshue Ott, and, using mirrors and light in place of projection, Chris Jordan. They range from three-dimensional, collaborative drawing to reflected light to moonscapes. The opening is free on Friday night:

But what if you want to learn to harness some of these same tools in your own work? We have two workshops Saturday, too.

Friday, 4/9: Opening, free – 7p; see exhibition information

Saturday, 4/10
11a-12p, free, Eric Redlinger presents an introduction to mrmr, a demonstration of how to use an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad for control via OSC.

1p-4p, Joshue Ott and I will teach an in-depth workshop on using OSC for networked communication with free tools, focusing on Processing and Pure Data. We’ll talk about how Zeroconf (implemented by Apple as Bonjour) can create zero-configuration, automatic connections – no IP numbers to type. We’ll look at how you can use OSC to make software and hardware communicate across networks, for sound and visuals. And we’ll talk about how you can use tools like mrmr on mobile devices. $75. Class information, signup required!

All information:
Devotion Gallery, Brooklyn

Physical Controls with Arduino, Max, Pd in LA

Touch controls a bit too insubstantial for you? Prefer the tactile feel of a physical encoder in your hand? We’ve got you covered there, too.

Kevin Nelson writes us to share some new events he’s setting up at LA’s new CrashSpace hackerspace. (About time LA got a new, proper hack spot!)

There’s a free workshop Wednesday, using Max (though translating to other environments like Pd shouldn’t be hard), plus a more advanced intensive in May. Details:

First, I’m going to be giving a high-level talk this Wednesday, April 7 at 8pm on using a Monome to control things in the real world by integrating an Arduino with Max/MSP. The talk is free for members of the space, with a $10 suggested donation for non-members.

Flamethrowers! Arduinos! Monomes! This Wednesday, April 7th [CrashSpace]

Second, I’ll be teaching a course on building user interfaces with the Arduino and dataflow languages (I’m trying to make the emphasis on pd because it’s open source, but depending on the audience, Max and Max for Live might slip in there too). The curriculum and description haven’t been posted yet, but should be done and up by the end of the week.

The basic idea of the course is to target musicians who have dabbled in electronics and give them the tools necessary to empower themselves to build their own interfaces and instruments. It’s a two day intensive (8+ hrs/day) on May 15 and 16. We’ll be covering basic electronics & sensors, Arduino programming, serial communication between Arduino and pd/Max, and basic pd patching for midi routing or sound generation. The course is $150 for CrashSpace members, and $250 for non-members, and both prices include an Arduino and selection of sensors & misc components for the project.

http://csarduinodataflow.eventbrite.com/

What’s the Best Way to Document?

What do you prefer for documentation of these courses, for those of you not in NY or LA who want to follow along at home? (And hey, I can’t be accused of being too specialized geography-wise — I’m teaching a similar course in Portugal this spring.)

I’ve (ahem) sometimes promised more documentation than I’ve actually delivered, but in the meantime, I have been gradually refining some examples in Processing, Pd, and the like, so I’m feeling less shy about sharing them.

Suggestions? The more specific, the more likely I am to implement them. What do you want to see? In what format? Any sites you’ve found useful for this sort of sharing?

The more we can share this sort of specific knowledge, the more we as a community can help each other build our skills.

What can you do with a button? What circuits can you bend? What software and hardware can you construct? Want to meet up with myself and fellow makers from the DIY music and visualist communities? I’m touring and looking for new works, we have one call for one-button objects that (if you can ship it) can come from anywhere in the world, plus upcoming events in New York, San Francisco, and — this month, Amsterdam at the planetary music tech hub that is STEIM.

STEIM + Handmade Music Amsterdam (Netherlands, February)

Handmade Music is beginning in Amsterdam. To kick things off, I’ll be visiting the legendary STEIM research center. The event will be open to anyone with inventions and self-built hardware and software you’d like to share. We’ll plug in and make a raucous noise. I’m really quite looking forward to meeting folks from this area.

When: Wednesday, February 17, 8p – ?
Where: Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam
Cost: FREE
STEIM Hotspot Lab Event Page

I’ll also do a short presentation of some work TBD; more on this next week.

If you’re attending and want to share what you’re bringing in advance or make sure you see me, use the CDM contact form.

One-Button Objects Call (SF + World, March)

What can you do with one button? In an age of ever-more-complex touch interfaces, we’d like to imagine what a single, tangible, hardware button can mean for a design. To celebrate the arrival of their Gamma game event in San Francisco, art game collective Kokoromi is teaming up with Create Digital Music and Create Digital Motion to launch a call for ONE-BUTTON OBJECTS.

So, sorry monome — too many buttons (unless you want to make a one-button monome, that is). The one-button game objects will incorporate a single-button-centered design and inspiration from the world of gaming into unique creations. Read up more on our sister site:

Call for Works: One-Button Game Objects
Then send your submissions for the gallery show in San Francisco to onebuttonobject@kokoromi.org
(see also Kokoromi
Receipt deadline: March 1

If you’re in the NYC or San Francisco, we’re looking to do some informal hackdays to play with buttons, HID interfaces, Arduino and microcontroller platforms, and the like — we just need a hackerspace to host us. And if you’d like to do that elsewhere in the world, let us know and we’ll promote it.

And of course, be sure to attend Friday, March 12 at the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts if you’re in the Bay Area or attending the Game Developer Conference.

Handmade Music Brooklyn Returns; Your Inventions, Live Artists Wanted (NYC, March)

Handmade Music in its hometown of New York is being rebooted. We’re launching new workshops, new hacking, and a new quarterly performance series at a proper performance venue, Galapagos.

That means we need you.

For the quarterly party, we’re continuing to look for people to bring in your own creations. If it runs on a netbook, if you have headphones you can bring, if it’s made out of wood and you can play it, if you can plug into a portable amp and make some noise, if it’s a circuit-bent toy with built-in speakers, it’s a welcome guest.

But we’re also looking for live artists in the greater New York area who incorporate DIY instruments, hardware, software (and even wearable interactive costumes, if you’ve got them) into your act. We’d like to hear who’s out there. We can’t invite everyone to play, but that’s all the more reason to hear about what people are doing.

If you have a project or act to consider, send them here:
Official 2010 Handmade Music NYC Call for Works

The first event is Monday, March 8. Doors open 7p, live acts start 8p.

In LA’s DubSpot Live 8 Sessions, I shared a panel with Daedalus, talking about design, live playing, the monome, and how limiting tools for performance can be powerful. Austin gets its own cast of presenters this weekend.

Sadly, I can’t be in all places at once. If I could, I’d be in Austin – twice over – this weekend. Handmade Music session two hits with an all-new set of learning and noise-making. Whether new to electronics making or an old hand, there’s something to absorb from some of the best mad sound scientists in the world. And our friends at DubSpot are in town, too, with a big lineup of production, recording, and performance techniques centering on Ableton Live 8. And on top of all of that, the city is host to the brilliant art + sound East Austin Studio Tour – a fantastic idea coupling events, studio tours, and art exhibitions I hope we steal in cities like my home New York.

This is all of interest to a tiny fraction of a percent of our readers since it’s really relevant only if you’re in Austin, but therein lies my plea — if you are in Austin, we could use your help documenting this weekend’s events. Get in touch, and we should be able to hook you up with a free pass for the DubSpot event, plus — well, whatever I come up with to thank you for videoing and/or writing about Handmade Music.

First up, Handmade Music:

This sunday is Handmade Music Austin #2.

We’ll be building 4ms’ Autonomous Bassline Generator. The upper division class is filled but there should be some space in the beginner class. Even if there aren’t any seats available, there will be all kinds of things happening in the gallery space for EAST. You can play with the Thingamagoop 2, Eric Archer’s noisemakers, Andromeda Space Rocker kits as well as other handmade instuments.

Noon – Gallery space opens. Bleep Labs, Eric archer, and friends interactive exhibit.
4 pm – Free beginner class
6 pm – Upper division synth class $45 at door
6:30 – Free performances :
Red X Red M
Douglas Ferguson/Steve Marsh
TelepathiK Friend

Red X Red M
Douglas Ferguson/Steve Marsh
TelepathiK Friend

As always, see:

http://handmademusic.noisepages.com

DubSpot’s event includes two full days of programming covering production and performance. It’s about Ableton Live 8, but it’s also more broadly about how to make your tracks sound better, how to get them into the world, and how to be successful as an artist both in your releases and live. Austin includes many of the folks I’ve been hanging out with in NY and LA, plus favorites like Ableton veteran sound designer and Keyboard contributor Francis Preve. Christopher Willits will also take a first look at Max for Live and talk about how he uses Max/MSP to process his playing. And Saturday night is a FunkAid benefit with DJ OBaH, Ocote Soul Sounds, Akina Adderley & The Vintage Playboys, and Daetron Vargas.

I expect we can get a guest in if you cover the event for CDM.

http://www.dubspot.com/abletontour/austin.html

Autonomous bassline generators? Wireless, modular, infrared sync? Tiny drum machines networking together? Welcome to Texas, and the minds of Eric Archer, Bleep Labs, 4ms Pedals, the Church of the Friendly Ghost, and Andromeda Space Rockers.

One look at a floor full of blinking circuits, and most ladies and gentleman might assume they’ve stumbled upon some alien technology. “Imagine the things we could learn from this civilization – advancements far beyond our own,” as the stock line from sci fi goes. “Man and woman are not meant to learn such things. You’re meddling in things beyond your comprehension.”

In other words, you couldn’t build something like this, right?

Or could you?

In Austin, Texas, Eric, Dann, and Dr. Bleep are launching a new Handmade Music series, kicking it off with kits and classes so that anyone – including beginners – can start building stuff. For the 101 crowd, there’s a free beginner class even if you’ve never touched a soldering iron, so you can build your own analog drum. “I’m no n00b,” you say, “impress me.” Sure – the “upper division” gets to talk more advanced synth design and walks through the full-blown modular, networkable kit.

At the end of it all is an open jam and featured performance.

If you’re anywhere near Austin, Texas – or can find a bargain plane fare – you’ll want to clear your calendar for October 18!

Full Event Details, October 18 Handmade Music in Austin [Handmade Music @noisepages]

That’s just the first of more events to come, so stay glued to the Handmade Music site for events in Austin, New York, Portugal, Germany, and beyond.

“That’s right / you’re not from Texas / Texas wants you anyway.” For those of us in New York, Lisbon, Rio, Sydney, and Jakarta, there’s still hope. The kits will be online, and I”m looking at ways of putting together a full Handmade Music curriculum of projects online for all of us on the site we’re developing this fall, noisepages – ideas welcome.

I certainly didn’t expect to get deep into these geekier topics in high school while I was busily trying to fail Calculus and screw up science lab results in ways that baffled my teachers. But it’s a glorious age we live in, in which we get to assimilate alien technology as our own. Stay tuned.

Showcasing amazing projects is a good thing. But we know that no creation emerges fully-formed. They start from nothing, with lots of mistakes along the way. You get help and ideas from other people. And you need time.

So this month’s Handmade Music in Brooklyn we’re declaring an Open Lab. Got a kit lying on your shelf, waiting to get made? Got a half-finished project that needs fixing? Just want to hang around some musical and visual DIYers and see what they’re up to? And just need a few hours to make some progress? That’s the idea.

Software projects, hardware projects, gear hacking, circuit bending, coding, patching in Reaktor or Pd or Max – it’s all welcome.

We also have a very special guest this month in the form of Morgan Packard, a talented multi-instrumentalist and computer musician (video at top, with live visuals by superDraw creator Joshue Ott). At 7:30p, Morgan will show off his free Ripple musical environment, built on the powerful open source SuperCollider code-for-sound platform. It’s a great chance to see what SuperCollider can do, how a scratch-built environment can open up musical possibilities, and what you can do with Ripple yourself.

Full details: Handmade Music Brooklyn: Open Lab, Featuring Morgan Packard’s Musical Code [handmademusic@noisepages]

Facebook Event Page

The whole event runs 6:00p-11:00p at 3rd Ward Brooklyn. As always, it’s completely free. Be sure to bring your projects and the tools you’ll need; we can provide power, a PA, space, and other folks to hang out with. And we can help give you an excuse to set aside a few hours of time.

We’ll also be taking notes on how the setup works, as we know this may be something other Handmade Music events want to try in your neck of the woods.

…and a bunch of bananas (footage from the Theremin Center, Moscow).

Via the Pd list, though, it seems that the next NK workshop will go somewhere else altogether: music with microorganisms. Really – you’ll need a USB microscope. It’s electronic music in a Petri dish.

I could try to explain, but I’ll leave it to the description by organizers Marc R. Dusseiller & Kaspar Koenig:

Overview–Experimental make-workshop with multilayered outcome for people interested in sound, DIY-biology, microscopy and interaction of living microorganisms. Knowledge in physical computing, video and sound processing, electronics and puredata is welcome, but not compulsory.

Description–In this workshop the experiments will take place in close-up view of microorganisms (e.g. water bears aka tardigrades, amoebae and collected organisms from urban environments), which appears to be a world by itself. Maybe due to the scaling and the amplification of a microscope, but maybe also due to all parameters of imagination that the microcosmos provokes. Growth and behaviour of these microscopic animals remind us of our own micro-macro-development. With the image and the movement of the organisms, the participants are encouraged to collect inspiration and bridge video and sound to what they experience with these small ?"animalcules?", as termed by their first observer Leeuwenhoek in 1677.

The participants will learn how to work with the usb-microscopes and hack webcams to be used as microscopes, observe the behaviour and motion of the waterbears and other microorganisms, find sounds from the lab equipment, hack into electronic devices to integrate into bioelectronic culture devices and build habitats for the animals. Also they will discover sounds from the different instrumentation and utilities of the laboratory. Recycle and compose arrangements for Lab-visual and
Lab-sound scapes and benefit from a cross fertilization between the whole (scientific) equipment (you can bring your own too!) and an artistic metaphorical language. The outcome can be a video with a microscopic soundtrack, a living object with singing waterbears, a performance with laboratory sounds, or an openLab Hackteria installation.

Material needed–The participant should bring their own laptop/computer, a webcam with an adjustable lens and some general lab stuff they have access to. Material available various labware, glassware, petri-dishes, usb-microscopes, microorganisms, soldering stations, electronic parts,
arduinos etc..

H a c k t e r i a & l a b h a c k i n g with Marc R. Dusseiller & Kaspar koenig

Saturday 30 May – Wednesday 3 June 2009, 12.00-18.00 daily

Location: NK / ElsenStr. 52 (2.Hof) Berlin, Germany

Telephone: +49 (0)176 20626386

Course Participation fee: 100 euros

Registration is required for this workshop and can only be done via

email to: enka_nkATgmxDOTde

Please register early to ensure a place. Places are limited to 16.

I know most of you can’t make it to Berlin, but perhaps this will spawn (breed?) other ideas.

Found via the Pd mailing list.