Loud Objects, NYC-based circuit sorcerers, present a wacky way to learn hardware audio programming. The WWW-Enabled Noise Toy invites anyone with a web browser to write their own audio code, program it remotely onto a Noise Toy, and play it live via webcam. In the spirit of “try it yourself” software demos, the website provides a simple environment for experimenting with low-level microchip-generated audio. Load code from the Loud Objects’ own library of performance algorithms, hone your own noise techniques, and add your work to the online archive to share it with other microchip coders and create an open source noise community.

BIOGRAPHY

Graduates of Columbia University, Kunal Gupta, Tristan Perich and Katie Shima have been performing as Loud Objects since 2005. Their performances, focused on sound from programmed microchips, have ranged from live circuit constructions on overhead projectors and slide projectors, to soldering atop a 24-light bulb fluorescent podium, and later with modified fluorescent light guitars.

Loud Objects have performed in the USA and internationally at numerous festivals on four continents, including Sonar (Spain), Transitio_MX (Mexico), Piksel (Norway), Evolution (UK), Bent Festival and Blip Festival (NYC), Electric Eclectics (Canada), Screen Music 2 (Italy), Art and Music with the Overhead Projector (Germany), Festival of Endless Gratitude (Denmark), NIME (Brooklyn). Their varied performances range from solo acts to shifting duets with vocalists, drummers, susophonists, tuba quintets, laptop musicians, singers, painting machines, manatees, and recently as movie soundtracks.

As teachers, they have hosted workshops where attendees learn to build and program sound- generating circuits. They have explored teaching as performance, explaining their motions as they solder their circuit live, fielding questions above the noise. They have spoken and given workshops at Maker Faire (California), Handmade Music Night (Brooklyn), Le Cagibi (Canada), Museum of Science (Arkansas), Columbia University (NYC).

As artists, Loud Objects blanket walls with small speakers and microchips. Instead of pushing buttons, the audience is encouraged to rewire the actual circuit with soldering irons, hanging as part of the installation. These installations have been in shows including Art and the Overhead (Sweden), Piksel (Norway) and Art and Music with the Overhead Projector (Denmark).

“Anything Can Happen”

In this episode of Sound Builders, we travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, to meet with Reed Ghazala, the founder and father of circuit bending. Reed takes us into his workshop where we get a glimpse into his world of circuit bending, exploring the history and evolution of this art. Reed bends our minds by walking us through the struggles and triumphs he endured while establishing the art of circuit bending.

“The wires fall upon the circuit like the paint on Pollack’s canvas,” he says, rhapsodically.

We tinker with several of Reed’s machines, manipulating sound and opening our minds to this fascinating art form. He works on a project for Motherboard while explaining the method to this music madness, his process, his teachings, as well as the different inventions he has created over the years.

See more Sound Builders episodes – and enter to win their contest for $1,000 – and don’t miss their documentary on New York’s circuit bending Bent Festival: http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/6/1/sound-builders-in-1967-this-guy-invented-circuit-bending

Circuit benders of all experience and skill levels are invited to take part in the Make Music New York Circuit Bending Mass Appeal concert. The concert will consist of a 30 minute interpretive chance-determined composition written by local artist, Phillip Stearns. Audience members will throw dice corresponding to groupings of performers and a simple graphic to be interpreted musically by that group. Performers are asked to meet at the stage area no later than 5:30 pm to receive score interpretation instructions and to help with setup. Performers are also asked to provide their own amplification, cables, and microphones where possible.

There will be a 12 channel mixer available on stage for pre-mixing of signals. To sign up as a performer, please contact Phillip Stearns at poppedbubblewrap [at] gmail.com. For those interested in performing, but lack a circuit bent instrument, Eyebeam (540 W 21st St. New York, NY 10011) is hosting a workshop lead by Phillip Stearns from 1-5pm before the concert. Simply show up between 1-3pm with $10 fee for materials, but be sure to get there early as supplies are limited!

Piksel has invited sound artist and instrument maker, Audun Eriksen to host a circuit bending workshop in Bergen. The 5 day workshop aims to give the participants the opportunity of learning how to short-circuit existing audio toys and instruments to reveal new soundscapes.

No previous experience within electronics needed. No need to fully understand how it works. If it sounds good and doesn’t smell burnt, it’s ok. Almost anything goes — a vital part of CB is trial and error. More here.

The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year they invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

Each year, The Tank invites benders from across the country and around the globe to perform concerts with their circuit bent instruments, to teach workshops to adults and children alike, and to generally descend on our fair city for a week of sharing and showing off their skills. This year the festival is being expanded to include not only New York, but Los Angeles and Minneapolis as well.

The Bent Festival 2010 will feature: ::vtol::, Action Potential:Interact, Adachi Tomomi, Alpha-Bit, Brendan O’Connell, Derek Holzer/TONEWHEELS, Dr. Bleep and Handmade Music Austin, Dr. Rek, Eric Archer, Gannon, homeless of the sea and sky, Iain Sharp, Joe Mariglio + Steven Litt, KBD, LCDD, Paulo R. C. Barros, Philip White, Phillip Stearns, Stefan Jankus, Threep, Travis Thatcher.and others.

The installation artists will come to their respective spaces with a plan and their materials, but will create their entire bent artistic works live over the course of the week. The artists will work during festival hours only, providing the public a complete look at their artistic process. Each artist will be happy to take time to discuss their work and in some cases have you get involved with their projects.

In addition to the installations, the festival will also have public work/play areas where audience members can try their hand at bending toys provided (or bring your own!). Expert benders, including but not limited to our installations artists, will be on-hand throughout the week to help you get started in this amazingly easy and fun process. All workshops are free and open to the public.

Each night of the festival there will be a number of international acts performing music that involves circuit bent instruments, custom-made electronics and/or battery-powered electronic devices. The music will range from electronics-based indie-pop acts to abstract, experimental soundscapes.

Live interactive visuals and circuit bent sound alterations by wizards of the Electronic Production and Design department of Berklee College of Music: Neil Leonard, Jason Adams, Evan Sutton, Joel Darling, Ricardo Kondo, Jin Ku Kim, Seiya Matsumiya, Michael Korch, Nicolas Marinelarena

GASP is one block from the Brookline Hills stop on the MBTA ‘D’ Riverside line. Directions/Info: here.

24/25 October :: Found Sound Stories :: Janek Schaefer, award winning composer and sound artist, introduces a weekend of field recording, performance and the physical manipulation of found sounds using an array of recording devices, turntables and Minidisc. A laptop-free zone in which to record and imagine an active audio narrative, leading to improvised performance. Results of the weekend will be recorded and may become part of a broadcast on Resonance FM.

7/8 November :: Using Sensors For Installation & Performance :: Nic Sandiland is a multi-media artist working with installation, performance and film. A weekend combining practical instruction with creative input. Students will learn to manipulate digital audio and video in a real time environment using infra-red, ultrasound and distance sensors coupled with the Arduino micro-controller.

28/29 November :: Circuit Bending :: Professor Asmo teaches the Circuit Bending: Atari Punk Console weekend. The task for the weekend is to build the Baby 5 Atari Fuzz Console. It’s a modification of Forrest M Mims III ’s stepped tone generator with the addition of a 5 step sequencer, fuzz circuit and preamp. Click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoGwFN6GytA to view a video of the prototype.

You can download a PDF document with details of the season from the front page of http://www.digitalmediacentre.org.

Discounted accommodation is available locally from £38 inc. breakfast. Please ask for details when booking your ticket at the SHP Box Office.
Booking :: Box Office open 9.30am-9.00pm. Telephone: 01344 484123 or via the South Hill Park web site http://www.southhillpark.org.uk

For further information, please contact Martin Franklin 01344 416261 — email: martin@digitalmediacentre.org — or see: http://www.digitalmediacentre.org

Beat de-constructions, circuit bent sound alterations and algorithmically generated video by wizards of the Music Synthesis Department at Berklee College of Music. Plus Neil Leonard/David Clark Duo. In collaboration with BEE Records.

Works by: Pierce Warnecke, David Clark, Edward Loveall, Aaron Cherof, Andrew Johanson, and Neil Leonard

PIERCE WARNECKE is a musician, programmer and visual artist whose focus is split between interrelated media (work) and electronic music and video (play). He works as a multimedia programmer, creating unique solutions for interactive mulitmedia installations. His work focuses on the audio-video relationship, intra/interactivity and data recycling. Past projects have dealt with video analysis software, alternate controllers, multi-point sound diffusion, machine/lighting control or modulation routing systems for artists such as Groupe Dunes (www.groupedunes.net) and XLR project (www.xlrproject.net).

Pierce releases music and video on BEE records in Lyon with duo Nth Synthesis, and alone under his own name. His audio/video/installation projects have been a part of international festivals, including Sguardi Sonori 2008 (Italy), Boston CyberArts Festival (US), American Composers Forum, Sonic Circuits (US), Optica (ES), Nuits Blanches (FR), Ososphere (FR), IMAF Osnabrueck (GER), and Mal au Pixel (FR).

DAVID CLARK grew up playing music in the rich musical environment of Philadelphia. He studied with classical with Henry Scott of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Jazz with Richard Davis, Rufus Reid, Michael Moore, and Eddie Gomez. He finished out the decade as the resident Jazz instructor at the International School for the Double Bass in Cincinnati during which time he was twice recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Grant.

He has appeared with Mose Allison, Nat Adderly, John Abercrombie, George Adams, Gary Bartz, Lois Bellson, George Benson, Jerry Bergonzie, Joanne Brackeen, Randy Brecker, Donald Brown, Gary Burton, Cyrus Chestnut, Sonny Fortune, Slide Hampton, Donald Harrison, Billy Hart, Jimmy Heath, Lee Konitz, Howard Levy, Dave Liebman, Clark Terry, Shiela Jordan, Bill Pierce, John Scofield, Gunther Schuller, Bennie Wallace, Claudio Roditi, Danilo Perez, Mick Goodrick, Ellis Marsalis, Lyle Mays, Danny Richmond, Rosemary Clooney, James Williams, the Boston Pops under both John Williams and Keith Lockhart, The American Jazz Philharmonic, The British Rock and Roll Symphony, Emily Remmler, Orange then Blue, Strange but Trio, Tierney Sutton, Phil Woods, Atilla Zoller and many others.

Clark is a Professor at the Berklee College of Music where he teaches bass and Jazz Improvisation and travels internationally for the school as a clinician and a performer with the Berklee All-Stars.

NEIL LEONARD works as a sound artist, composer and saxophonist. His ensemble has featured Marshall Allen, Bruce Barth, Don Byron, Robin Eubanks, Uri Caine and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Leonard performed and recorded with Boston Ballet, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Orlando ‘Cachaito’ Lopez, John Medeski, Butch Morris, Phill Niblock, Dave Samuels, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Steve Swallow, Evan Ziporyn.

Leonard’s Dreaming of an Island, (for orchestra, electronics and live-video) was premiered by Kirk Trevor and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Leonard’s composition Totems was premiered at Carnegie Hall by Byron and Caine. His Echoes and Footsteps was featured by the Tel Aviv Biennial for New Music, Issue Project Room (NYC) and the Auditorium di Roma. Leonard’s collaborative work with visual artist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons was featured by the 49th Venice Biennial, Museum of Modern Art (NYC). Leonard composed the music for Relatives, by Tony Oursler and Constance DeJong featured by the Whitney Biennial. Leonard compositions were featured by festivals in Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Senegal, Spain, Sweden.

Leonard is co-owner of Gallery Artist Studio Project in Boston. Leonard is a Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He taught sound installation at the University of Padova and the C. Pollini Conservatory, Italy.

GASP attempts to create a space for artistic exchange where artists will explore and propose new possibilities for contemporary practices, a site for collaboration between disciplines and fields in the contemporary cultural landscape.

The Sonic Arts at GASP performance/installation series has featured: Phill Niblock, Pamela Z, Amnon Wolman, Ron Kuivila, io casino, Stephen Lehman, Jessica Feldman, Erdem Helvacioglu, Callithumpian Consort, Interensemble, Allan Chase/Bruno Raberg, Gary Chang, Richard Boulanger, Anthony Baldino, Pierce Warnecke, DREV, Mem1, Bruxism (Anne Rhodes/Carl Testa), Landon Rose, Jonathan Chen, Julia Campbell, Joe Sexton, the Jitter class @ Berklee (Joe Branciforte, Daniel Patterson, Zachary Kramer, Ben ‘Encanti’ Cantil, Carson Whitley, Alex Molina), Max Ables, members of the Wesleyan University graduate composition seminar … and many more.

“The third edition of the Electronic Art and Video Festival, Transitio_MX 03 attempts to acknowledge differences in a transparent and straightforward context. We aim to offer an event that is representative of current trends in new media art and video, and to show how artists use that technology in their creative pursuits.

While global space eliminates the geographical locations wherein these proposals take place by homogenizing them; technological appropriation is seen as a disagreement, and as such, artistic practices emerge as autonomous. How would our mindset allow us to recognize the facet of every appropriation? Which tendencies are generated through artistic practices taking place in technologically advanced countries, and which ones occur in those that are not? Where can critical thinking lead us in terms of planning, performance, production and exhibition of media art? Moreover, would this ultimately redefine such terms as “global” versus “local” where countries are interconnected through commercial, informational and technological links?

By conceiving a platform where disagreement serves as our standpoint, we want to set off a series of events whereby we can discuss the implications and scope of this viewpoint in a variety of contexts. Thus, when we refer to a certain region (Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe), we are not automatically thinking of the construction or remaking of identities, but rather, of a localized space that allows us to analyze the practices and paradoxes of globalization By juxtaposing these regions, we intend to question the uses of technology, the concepts dominating its discourses, and its artistic outcome. Specifically, our concern is to bring the issue of culture into a world context.

Autonomies of Disagreement express, on the one hand, the multiplicity of artistic forms and their relationship to politics. On the other, they help us understand that it is diversity what ultimately allows us to grasp, exercise and appreciate autonomy. Transitio_MX 03 intends to broaden the image of contemporary electronic art by not confining it to a specific thematic framework but rather presenting a wide range of critical perspectives. In considering disagreement as a desirable condition that tolerates autonomy and acknowledges difference, we trace a variety of routes that allow us to encounter zones of cultural interaction. Overall, this amounts to identifying convergences and building up dialogues.” — Karla Villegas, Artistic Director

COMPETITION

In order to support, acknowledge, and promote current research and production in new media art, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes through its Centro Multimedia of the Centro Nacional de las Artes calls the local and international artistic community to the Third New Media and Art Contest. The contest is open to any individual, group and association engaged in the production of artwork created with new media technologies, including video art, sound art, net-art, installation, composition, performance and related disciplines.

CATEGORIES

Residual topography: This category seeks to reveal the discourses pronounced by means of obsolete technology (electronic and digital) and those articulated when contrasting local technologies with high technology appropriations. It is open for installation; interactive, immersed or sound environments; robotic art; hardware hacking; circuit bending; physical computing; site intervention; or any other related disciplines. A single prize will be awarded worth $50,000 (Fifty thousand Mexican pesos). The Jury will decide the honorable mentions granted.

Unusual displacements: the scope of the moving images: In order to analyze the moving images technological reconfigurations (and/or its possibilities) and consider its unusual territories, this category is intended to welcome artworks that use moving images in any of its modalities, be it lineal presentation or interaction: single channel video, 16mm, live cinema, Vj´s, videogame, mobile video, interactive animation, augmented reality, or any other related disciplines. A single prize will be awarded worth $50,000 (Fifty thousand Mexican pesos). The Jury will decide the honorable mentions granted.

Dissident territories: the emergence of technology: In order to explore technological developments that differ from industrial ones, this category looks for research and technology development projects who seek for innovations in the use of digital tools and electronic circuits with expressive and experimental means: free hardware and software, bioethical technology, gadget development, applications, devices or any other related disciplines. A single prize will be awarded worth $50,000 (Fifty thousand Mexican pesos). The Jury will decide the honorable mentions granted.

Concealed order: viral construction of web contents: This category will welcome those works whose poetics distinguish or surpass conceptions regarding mobile interfaces and information networks. Those that bear important contributions on distribution, expression and collaboration will be more privileged: internet, bluetooth, GPS, radiofrequency, mobile telephony, infrareds or any other related disciplines. A single prize will be awarded worth $35,000 (Thirty five thousand Mexican pesos). The Jury will decide the honorable mentions granted.

All works must be submitted after this notification and no later than June 19th at 15:00 hrs.

Works postmarked after the application deadline will not be considered. The submission date will be considered only if artworks are sent thorough express mail, not through ordinary mail. Submissions must clearly indicate the category they belong to.
International submissions must be clearly labeled as “Material cultural sin valor commercial”.

During the opening minutes of their performance, The Loud Objects are surrounded by a bleak silence as they swiftly assemble an initial circuit, their activities starkly projected from their OHP work-surface. Gradually, as more components are added, Perich, Gupta and Shima gradually hack microchips into a swarm of percussive 1-bit noise. Since their debut performance as Columbia University undergraduates in 2005, The Loud Objects have toured Europe, Japan and USA, including performances at Piksel in Norway, Italy’s Screen Music 2, and NIME, Blip and Bent festival in the USA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1TZ0gMGmVU

The Loud Objects will be at the Beeline Festival in Cambridge, MA, April 5-19, 2009