PuréeData is a web-browser interface for a single shared sound environment that allows live, collaborative patching for anyone, anywhere. Visitors interact with a shared PureData audio synthesis patch and listen to the results as an MP3 stream, with no software to install or set up. The project is open-source, and all are encouraged to modify, improve and set up their own PuréeData servers.

PuréeData is a 2011 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for its Turbulence website. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation.

BIOGRAPHIES

Ted Hayes is a poet-inventor: conceiving objects and experiences that explore the sublime and the enigmatic through recombination and deconstruction. He is a proponent of what he has dubbed “Research Art,” or art-as-science experiment, and actively investigates the themes, technologies and ramifications of autonomy, emergence, semiotics, pattern recognition, and neural networks. Ted’s works range from a group of language-inventing robots to a mythological city-founding ritual for soprano and string quartet, is a graduate of NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. His operating principle is, in a word, poetry: to pique with enigma and confound with beauty.

Piksel is an international event for artists and developers working with Free/Libre and Open Source technologies in artistic practice. Part workshop, part festival, it is organized in Bergen, Norway,and involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas, coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of free technologies & art.

OPEN CALL for PROJECTS :: For the exhibition and other parts of the programme we currently seek projects in the following categories:

1. Installations: Projects to be included in the exhibitions. The works must be realised by the use of free and open source technologies.

2. Audiovisual performance: Live art realised by the use of free software and/or open/DIY hardware.

3. Presentations: Innovative DIY/open hardware and audiovisual software tools or software art released under a free/open licence. (Also includes presentations of artistic projects realised using free/open technologies.)

4. Workshops: Hands on workshops utilising free software and/or open/DIY hardware for artistic use.

5. Urban Interventions: Pikselert NovemberNatt is a specially curated project involving visual interventions in selected parts of the Bergen urban environment. We look for surface projections or media facade projects using video mapping
or similar techniques to recontextualize the urban landscape. All parts of the projects must be realised using free and open source technologies.

Deadline - august 15. 2011 :: Please use the online submit form at: http://piksel.no/ocs

or send documentation material - preferably as a URL to online documentation with images/video to piksel11 (AT) piksel.no

Piksel11 is organized in cooperation with Galleri 3,14, Bergen Kunsthall/Landmark, USF and HackBergen. Supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Hordaland County Council, KORO and others.

more info: www.piksel.no

We are looking for people who are interested to propose and host a project at this event. All projects should use some sort of technology, be situated in the field of media art, and focus on an open and inclusive approach. We are especially interested in projects that either conceive new tools for making art or make use of existing open source/open technology solutions (such as openFrameworks, Arduino, Processing, PD) to create new pieces or performances. Whilst allowing people to access its underlying technology but also engage in a critical reflection on its political, sociological, or art historical contexts.

Each project host can specify his/her own timeline and use of the space for that weekend as well as the expected outcome.

We are happy to receive your short proposal (250 words with a suggested time line), no matter how obscure it might be, by the 22nd of May.

Location: Apiary Studios <http://www.apiarystudios.org>, 458 Hackney Road, E2 9EG London

Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] from mark shepard on Vimeo.

Given the ubiquity of mobile devices and wireless networks, and their proliferation throughout increasingly diverse and sometimes unexpected urban sites, what opportunities - and dilemmas - emerge for the design of public space in contemporary cities?

The Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] Toolkit is an open source software platform for cultivating public “sound gardens” within contemporary cities. It draws on the culture of urban community gardening to posit a participatory environment where new spatial practices for social interaction within technologically mediated environments can be explored and evaluated. Addressing the impact of mobile audio devices like the iPod, the project examines gradations of privacy and publicity within contemporary public space.

The Toolkit enables anyone living within dense 802.11 wireless (WiFi) “hot zones” to install a “sound garden” for public use. Using a WiFi enabled mobile device (PDA, laptop, mobile phone), participants “plant” sounds within a positional audio environment. These plantings are mapped onto the coordinates of a physical location by a 3D audio engine common to gaming environments - overlaying a publicly constructed soundscape
onto a specific urban space. Wearing headphones connected to a WiFi enabled device, participants drift though virtual sound gardens as they move throughout the city.

The transmediale Open Web Award is a new platform for radical, creative and innovative art works and projects that: are on the web and about the web; that use open source, free, libre or other non-proprietary technology (may they be soft- or hardware); and that incite participation

They can be critical, celebratory or both. Projects should have the potential to demonstrate and/or objectively critique the potential of open web issues, and those employing the creative use of HTML5 and other developing ‘open’ technologies will be given specific consideration. The point is to play with both the idea and materiality of the (open) web in ways that spark new thinking and practice.

The winner(s) of the Open Web Award 2011 will receive a total prize of 5000 EURO, and be given the opportunity to have supported status on Drumbeat http://drumbeat.org. Beyond the specific Open Web Award criteria, the same rules, conditions and application procedures apply as the transmediale Award 2011 http://www.transmediale.de/en/awards2011.

The Deadline for Entries for the transmediale Open Web Award 2011 is July 31, 2010 (2400 CEST / UST+2)

Please read the Conditions of Entry before applying. Submit your work to the Awards competition using the online form. In order to do so you must register by creating your own personal and unique user account or, if you have registered in the past, login to transmediale.

This workshop is an introduction to the world of the analog sensors (light, infrared, ultrasonic, accelerometer) that are used to control audio, video, midi applications and interactive installations. The “minitronics” board will be used to communicate with the computer because it’s cheap, plug&play, multi-platform and it doesn’t require any extra knowledge to use.

On the first day we will construct a “basic” sensor controller with a pair of light sensors and a pair of potentiometers. On the second day, I will explain the different interfacing possibilities with different softwares and also provide and explain some puredata patches that are ready to “work”. (all platforms)

For more info: here | here.

Interactive Sound Workshop is an opportunity for anyone to learn how to process and organize sound using Pure Data and Arduino, open source environments used by artists and musicians working and experimenting with interactivity, sound, graphics, video and beyond. It is aimed for local artists / people interested in sound. Previous experience of Pure Data or Arduino is not required, laptop is preferred.

Content of the Interactive Sound Workshop:

Introduction to Pure Data and graphical programming
Basics in Pure Data sound synthesis
Introducing Arduino, a simple open hardware design and a standard programming language
Introducing basic sensors and how to connect them into Arduino
Pure Data and Arduino communication and integration
Creating simple prototypes of interactive sound applications

Examples of works that have been done with arduino: here :: pure data: here

Jukka Hautamäki finished his studies at the Arts Academy of Turku University of applied science in 2005. He works with sound, digital image, video and electronics. His primary form of expression is media installation. He is one of the founders of Kokomys, a group of artists who works with experimental electronics and sound in Turku, Finland.

How to apply: When applying, describe shortly your background, interests and computer skills. Contact info: jukhau [at] gmail.com

[image: Ardour, a new musical workstation]

This week they’ve looked at those available for the Linux operating system and come up with 29. Here’s a quote from the site:

Last week we looked at why Linux deserves some consideration when choosing an operating system for your digital recording studio. But even the worthiest operating system is useless without useable apps. Fortunately, there is a long list of excellent music applications available for Linux. …

We’ll leave out the programs not directly about making music – programs like guitar tuners, streaming systems, notation software and guitar tab apps – but we will look at some of the plug-ins and effects systems that are available. And we’ll leave out the applications that have better alternatives. My original list had over 50 programs.

Sweep is an audio editor and live playback tool. It aims to be easy to use, support many codecs and audio formats, and support LADSPA effects plug-ins (see below).

For more, go to: http://blog.audiojungle.net/resources/29-music-making-apps-for-linux/ If you’re a Linux user and musician, this is a must!

Renowned Australian virtual artists John McCormick and Adam Nash today announced the formation of SquareTangle, a virtual/art/performance company, as a milestone in their Australia Council Inter-Arts Connections Residency at Hidden Cove Solutions.

They have released the first results of this productive collaborative residency, in the form of a plug-in that allows the FMOD sound designer to be used within the Unity game development environment. FMOD is an Australian made library and toolkit for the creation and playback of interactive audio, widely used in the international games industry. Unity is a multiplatform game development tool. This plug-in allows sound designers to use the FMOD Designer tool to create sophisticated interactive audio designs that will work in Unity. Unity can be used to create multi-user 3D “worlds” on the Internet. SquareTangle are releasing the plug-in open source under the MIT License that allows anybody to use and modify the plug-in for any purpose whatsoever. “We are very pleased to release this plug-in to the community. Open Source is a key strategy in the development of digital art because it harnesses the power of the community, sharing code and knowledge to develop innovative solutions quickly in response to relevant problems. Hopefully this plug-in will allow more Sound Artists and Composers to engage with 3D virtual space as a serious medium for art,” Nash said.

McCormick and Nash formed SquareTangle when they started their Artists’ Residency at Hidden Cove Solutions in July 2009 after being awarded a Connections Residency by the Inter-Arts Office of the Australia Council for the Arts.

Hidden Cove Solutions are a Melbourne-based telecommunications company with A-list clients. The aim of the residency is for the artists to work with the company’s programmers to produce a software system that easily allows artists to work with a range of data sources and convert that data into the kind of audiovisual data that can be used in digital art, such as video projections, generative sound art and mutli-user virtual environments (MUVEs). “Currently, if an artist wishes to work with a data source and modulate that into some sort of audiovisual presentation, they need to build the system from the ground up. Often artists do not have the programming skills or access to a programmer that would allow them to do that, and projects can get fatally distracted by that process. Ideally, our open source solution will make it much easier for artists, and others, to capture and manipulate data sources, allowing them to concentrate fully on the considerations of art.” Nash said. Another chief project of the SquareTangle residency is to use their system to develop an immersive, interactive audiovisual performance that will be housed in a portable 10-metre dome with full-dome projection of 3D virtual environments and surround sound. The projected virtual environment will respond to the presence of people inside the dome, allowing an unprecedented level of interaction between audience, performer and virtual environment.

SquareTangle are working with Hidden Cove programmer, Charles Kong, to develop a reliable full-dome projection system using an off-the-shelf data projector and inexpensive acrylic hemispherical mirror. This is based on the work of West Australia-based mathematician Paul Bourke, who revolutionised the planetarium industry with his techniques for simple full-dome projection. SquareTangle have developed a technique for building simple inflatable domes from easily available materials, and they will be releasing these patterns and instructions open source on their website in the near future. SquareTangle plan to tour the immersive dome show from 2010, after fine- tuning their virtual techniques at a FutureLab residency at the famed Ars Electronica in Austria. The artists will be posting developments of the residency on their blog.

Adam Nash was one of the artists to receive the inaugural Australia Council Second Life Artist In Residence grant in 2007/2008, from which BabelSwarm was produced. He is internationally regarded as one of the most innovative artists working in the virtual arena, with works shown all over the world, including peak festivals ZERO1SJ, ISEA, SIGGRAPH and The Venice Biennale. He was shortlisted for the National Art Award in New Media in 2008. John McCormick is one of the pioneers of motion capture and telematic dance. He was a founding member of the legendary Company In Space and Dancehouse Melbourne.

For an interview with Adam Nash, gohere. Also see his NMR Commission, Trace Aureity.

Live coding is a new direction in electronic music and video, and is starting to get somewhere interesting. Live coders expose and rewire the innards of software while it generates improvised music and/or visuals. All code manipulation is projected for your pleasure.

Day of the Triffords from Andrew Sorensen on Vimeo.

Haskell hackery by yaxu of slub

Live coded VJing from fluxus creator Dave Griffiths, also of slub.

Live coding is inclusive and accessible to all. Many live coding environments can be downloaded and used for free, with documentation and examples to get you started and friendly on-line communities to help when you get problems. Popular live coding software includes supercollider, ChucK, impromptu and fluxus. Live patching is live coding with graph-based languages such as the venerable pure-data. It’s also possible to livecode with a gamepad, e.g. with the robot oriented Al-Jazari.

Source: TOPLAP.