during my 11 days at STEIM i did a working prototype of the second incarnation of my “speakingObject” (no better title still). it’s basically a vocal synthesizer controlled by two buttons and a three axis accelerometer. it works without a computer. the two wires are just power and sound out. the finished object will work on batteries and include an amp plus speaker so there will be no wires at all.

here’s a short video demonstrating the status quo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJgzaw1_-0I

it’s basically software for a “parallax propeller” microcontroller that polls the accelerometer and maps the data into parameters for the vocal tract synthesis.

thanks a lot to everybody at STEIM for the possibility of being there and being able to work and discuss my ideas. i think it’s the only place where i could get that kind of response and knowledge.

jörg piringer

http://joerg.piringer.net

Sun Run Sun has been an in depth exploration into various navigation techniques and our relationship to sound in the environment. When navigating we try to locate ourselves by referring to an external source – traditionally a map, recently a GPS device – but ironically a serious sense of dislocation is becoming a common experience. Sun Run Sun was an attempt to look into ways of re-locating and re-negotiating our sense of where we are specifically through the use of sound. By using sound I hoped to encourage an experience of space that is more immediate and less referential than image. It also took me to navigation by animals that use sound, such as underwater mammals and bats. Although the project involved a considerable amount of technical development the primary aim was to create transformative experiences through sound.

Sun Run Sun was a direct continuation of the previous residency project called Taking Soundings (2007). The Artist in Residence at the Netherlands Media Art Institute / Montevideo in Amsterdam provided the opportunity to collaborate with STEIM on producing a sound installation, performances and develop special instruments called the Satellite Sounders. During the winter of 2007/8 I gathered the technical team of Sukandar Kartadinata, Jorgen Brinkman and Damian Stewart to help me build the Satellite Sounders, hand held instruments that take data from the navigation satellites orbiting overhead and turn it directly in electronic sounds whilst the player/navigator walks. All the detailed information on process, sounds, presentations and technologies is documented on the project blog http://sunrunsun.nimk.nl

At STEIM I specifically worked on building the six Satellite Sounders with Sukandar and Jorgen in the lab. They are built using the tiny Gumstix boards running Linux with patches in Pure Data which include a NMEA data parser for the GPS (written by Damian) and a sound generating patch. I tried various different sound to data mappings and tried out the prototypes – visit the sounds section of the project blog.

Sun Run Sun premiered in April 2008 at NIMK/Montevideo in Amsterdam, and has been shown in different formats at STEIM, TAG Den Haag, Mediamatic Amsterdam, V2_ Rotterdam, Temporary Museum Amsterdam, Art|Sci Centre UCLA, Integretron Joshua Tree California, NIME2008 & Contemporary Art Museum Genova, ISEA2008 Singapore, and up-coming at Picnic 2008 Amsterdam, Re:visie 2008 Netherlands Film Festival Utrecht. It has been reviewed in Neural and Eyeball Korea and an interview published in TagMag5.

The Orientation Workshop was incredibly eye-opening and inspiring. I came to STEIM to learn more about ways to combine the technical understanding of an electronics designer, the sensitivity and imagination of a musician, and the awareness of gesture-sound relationships of a contemporary percussionist. The workshop was packed with talks, lessons and performances from the STEIM artists/engineers. I was enlightened with STEIM’s philosophies on the role of new technology in music and art, and I became much more aware of current and past work in the electro-instrumental movement.

I was given a studio with a good audio and computer set-up, and started playing with STEIM’s tools, JunXion and LiSa. Rather then simply doing exercises to see all the capabilities of these tools, I figured the best and most fun way to learn would be to conceptualize a simple ‘musical instrument’ and then try to realize it with these given tools.

From the inspiration of STEIM and the city of Amsterdam, I thought to extend the metaphor of a traditional 12″ vinyl record as a source of music. It has the cultural significance as a storage medium for music which can be played back on a turntable, but I wanted to make the record itself an instrument from which one can perform or “play” music. First I considered various ways that a musician can interact with the record. The musician can shake, tilt left/right, tilt forward/backward, bend, spin, strike/press on the table, etc… all of which can be done with varying speeds, degrees of displacement, and in combination. I then thought about how these gestures can be intuitively be related (directly or abstractly) to a response in the sound, affecting different characteristics of the music. For the sounds, I used very short samples of a song I found on the STEIM lab computer, and manipulated many parameters of their playback characteristics with a high degree of nuance. Using various sensors (X-Y Tilt, Pressure, Wii 3-D Accelerometer), the JunXion HW Interface, JunXion and LiSa I was able to develop a rapid prototype to experiment with the feel of playing the record and listening to the sounds. I spent a lot of time practicing this instrument and followed my physical movements and ears to make adjustments to the gesture-sound relationships. At the end of the workshop, I performed short improvisations for Daniel Schorno and Taku Mizuka Lippit. They also played with the record themselves and gave me interesting technical and artistic feedback.

I also did a small experiment with a pressure sensor to create a short-term memory button that remembers its interaction with the user. In contrast to a traditional button where the sound begins as soon as the user presses the button, this “Post-Touch” button waits after the initial press and triggers the sound immediately AFTER the user releases the button. Before triggering the sound, the button remembers how long it was depressed, how hard/soft it was pressed, as well as any variation in the pressure. Upon release, the sound begins and then creates a sound envelope defined by press-release time window and pressure information. The user defines the envelope before the actual sound, and then activates the sound by releasing the button.

Everyone I met at STEIM was passionate about electro-instrumental music and they were all very excited to answer questions and share their knowledge. From my time at STEIM, I developed many new ideas and I look forward to contributing more to the electro-instrumental community.

Thank you STEIM.

Levy Lorenzo (US)

During my stay at STEIM from 11th to 17th of august I did research on gamecontrollers. I was looking for a way of controlling LiSa while playing the flute plus beeing able to stand while using controllers. In this case I found the dancemat quite interesting for me. It has 8 buttons, a y- and x – axis, but it’s too big, you have to make too big movements and the material is not very solid.

For controlling volume and pitch I will use the sensors of a wii nunchuk, that will be fixed somewhere at my hand or wrist. The ideal position I still have to figure out. The two buttons of the nunchuk can be fixed on my index so I’m able to press them while playing the flute.

The future plan for my second residence week in November is, to deconstruct a wireless joystick, using the buttons and put them on a small board, so that I’m able to press them easily while standing. Another goal will be to make the controller on the hand a little bit more solid than it is now.

During my stay I also got very useful lessons about JunXion and LiSa from Frank Baldé, Robert van Heumen and Daniel Schorno.

Thanks a lot to STEIM and the people of STEIM for their help. I’m looking forward to come back.

Sabine Vogel
www.sabvog.de

My residency at STEIM from July 24-August 12, 2008 was focused on continuing to develop my recently redesigned mutantrumpet, which uses the Junxion board and software as its interface.  The previous version of the mutantrumpet had been designed at STEIM in the early 1990’s.  I was also interested in developing a more complex approach to my use of LiSa, which I have been working with for nearly a decade.

Frank Balde and Jorgen Brinkman were both available to work with me extensively while I was there.  Frank demonstrated his approach to programming in the Junxion software environment, offering new possibilities for complex responses to control data that I had not even considered.  He also answered my specific questions about features in Junxion, including the use of timers, display states, and a binary keyboard setup from the switches on the mutantrumpet.  Frank and I also spent a lot of time discussing the aesthetics and practical considerations of interactive performance, as well as where the field is headed.  He demonstrated some of his work with the IPhone as well as the Wii controller, both which point to amazing new possibilities.  Jorgen assisted me in refining the physical switches and continuous controllers to make them more robust.  Frank showed me how to further perfect the controllers using tables in both Junxion and LiSa and snapshots in LiSa. (more…)