www.x-tet.com » Generative music

Baby Reindeer

norbert — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:31:55 +0000

“Baby Reindeer” is a generative music app for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The “baby reindeer” is actually a toy—the Fisher-Price “Ocean Wonders Soothe and Glow Seahorse.” It was a gift to my son, who cuddled with it at night and enjoyed the mix of classical melodies and ocean sounds. When my daughter saw it for the first time she squealed with delight, saying, “Oh look! It’s a baby reindeer!” It was soft. It lit up when you squeezed its belly. Everyone was fond of the “baby reindeer.” I was fascinated with the way that, as its batteries ran down, the melodies and ocean sounds would detune and garble. Short, micro-recordings of these sounds comprise many of the parts heard in this music.

In 1996 Brian Eno invented the term generative music to describe a sound experience that is unique upon every listening. Simple compositional rules unfold to make each ‘performance’ distinct within a range of possibilities. This app uses the processing capabilities of your device to play continuous music that drifts within a mood and is unlikely to be repeated.

MP3 rough sketch of “Baby Reindeer” (initial rough sketch from April ’11)

Sound Art at Waveforms

norbert — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:00:55 +0000

The gradual accumulation of additional layers or matter (Norbert Herber & Rowland Ricketts, 2011) can be seen & heard as part of Waveforms, “an exhibition of interdisciplinary art works showcasing sound as the principle component. This exhibition explores, through an examination of creative and artistic practices, the interface of sound and new media technologies. The works in the exhibit include a number of trans-disciplinary interactions and collaborations that include sound in the context of visual and spatial artistic practices, including sound sculpture, installations, and performance works.”

Other artists include Carrie Bodle, Jacob C. Hammes, Tesia Kosmalski, Lou Mallozzi, Shannon McMullen/Fabian Winkler, Stephanie Rowden, and Jesse Seay.

Waveforms will open to the public with a reception Friday, October 21, 6:00 – 8:00pm and be on view through Friday, November 18, 2011. An “illustrated conversation” (symposium) will be held Friday, October 21 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm followed by a performance by Chicago sound artist Lou Mallozzi from 4:00 – 6:00pm. For full details, see the Grunwald Gallery of Art.

Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio

norbert — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:54:47 +0000

Call for Papers: The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio

Deadline for Proposals: 1 April 2011

The Oxford Handbook of Interactive Audio is under contract at Oxford University Press.

Through a collection of chapters on interactivity in music and sound, the book is meant to offer a new set of analytical tools for the growing field of interactive audio. A series of related questions drive the book: What makes interactive audio different from non-interactive audio? Where does interacting with audio fit into our understanding of sound and music in media? Where is interactive audio heading in the future? And how do we begin to approach interactive audio from a theoretical perspective?

It is our belief that interacting with sound is fundamentally different from just listening to sound. The physical agency and control of interactivity adds a level of engagement and involvement with sound that alters the way we experience sound in games, interfaces, products, toys, environments (virtual and real) and art. There are considerable consequences of interactivity when it comes not only to audience, but also to practice, distribution, tools, and copyright law.

We encourage proposals that raise questions and explore new theories about how scholars and practitioners can approach interactive sound. A handbook chapter should make new and original arguments in a new piece composed specifically for the handbook. It may be a survey what you believe to be the essential issues and questions in the field and offer a contemporary critical analysis of these.

Potential topic areas include (but are not limited to):

Composition theory and practice (including improvisation, music-based games, virtual worlds, mobile music)
Sound design theory and practice (including sounds, interface, branding, web, sound art, interactive spaces, virtual worlds, toys, pinball)
Voice interaction
Mixing, implementation of interactive audio
Playback and distribution systems
Interactive audio tools (composition, synthesis, note tracking, etc.)
Distribution, copyright and legal issues

Submission details: Chapter proposals of about 500 words and short bio (name, affiliation) in English to be submitted by April 1, 2011 to the editors at one of the email addresses below. Please address any questions or queries to the editors at one of the email addresses below.

Decisions will be made by June 1, 2011. Upon acceptance, full guidelines will be furnished. Completed chapters of about 6000 words are to be submitted by June 1, 2012.

Editors: Karen Collins (collinsk@uwaterloo.ca), Bill Kapralos (bill.kapralos@uoit.ca) and Holly Tessler (h.tessler@neu.edu)

Retired research blog: Amergent Music

norbert — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:50:29 +0000

Writings on music and interaction for digital art, entertainment, and communications. I earned my PhD through the Planetary Collegium at the University of Plymouth, England. www.x-tet.com/blog (formerly blog.x-tet.com) was used to document progress towards my thesis/dissertation in reading, writing, music, art, and media projects.

FOUND

norbert — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:23:46 +0000

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 7PM @ 101E. 6th Street
Bloomington, Indiana
7PM – 1AM / All ages welcome
$5 / Beer and wine cash bar

A globally cool, local evening of art, design and creative industries celebrating sustainable practices.

FOUND is an extravaganza of sights, sounds and interactions with artists, designers, creatives, musicians, DJs, VJs and performers supporting sustainable practices in art, design, culture and commerce. Creative work and performances in FOUND use hand-built, programmed, open source, DIY, hacked/bent, found or recycled elements and consider sustainable practices.

“Practical Lessons in the Use of English”
by Norbert Herber & Eric Rensberger

An improvisation of words as sound; sounds and words as image. “Practical Lessons in the Use of English” was written by Mary F. Hyde in 1896.

Eric Rensberger has lived in Bloomington, Indiana since 1979. He is a local poet whose collected works may be found at www.ericrensbergerpoetry.net.

Norbert Herber is a musician and sound artist whose research and practice explores the relationship between people and sound within mediated environments.

Also featuring:
Analog Zebra and Snebtor, Younsuk Altieri, Andrew Brennan, Sara Brooks, Amy Burrell, The Canary Project, The Collaboration Room, Laurel Cornell, Terry Dame’s Electric Junkyard Gamelan, William Huster, N_DREW, Caleb Levell and Derek Hopf, Robert Lyon, Andrew Maurer, Edward Morris, Jordon Munson, Annie Murdock, Rob Off, Susannah Sayler, Leslie Sharpe, Mariana Tres, Rachel Weaver, Fabian Winkler

Find Found on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136939366670

Composition-Instrument Studies

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:46:30 +0000

A musical exploration of space, with reference to Henri Bergson, Guy Debord, Kevin Lynch, and Henri Lefebvre. These studies require the arrow keys of a standard computer keyboard and the Flash player.

Launch first study: Dérive
Launch second study: Mazes

This research has taken me to some unexpected and very interesting places. “Psychogeography” in the writings of Guy Debord (1955) and the idea of “city imageability” by Kevin Lynch (1960) have helped me come to the latent realization of a conceptual spatiality in the way I organize sounds in a musical work. My approach is to first conceptualize the core ideas of a project as different sounds. I then arrange these within a conceptual territory (similar to Henri Lefebvre’s socially produced space (1991)) that is then given over to exploration. Debord’s psychogeography, Lynch’s imageability, and Lefebvre’s social space are all constructions of consciousness. They may make reference to actual physical space, but they are immaterial. These spaces are only real to us as a means of facilitating communication and understanding. I am interested in making music that can be experienced in this way. By conceiving of a subject spatially I find the freedom to explore that subject in all its nuance and complexity. When rooted in sound, spatial concepts can acknowledge potentiality. Movement through space then becomes a kind of instrumental performance where the openness and emergence of true interactivity is articulated through sound, as music.

A(rt) Life 2.0

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:23:54 +0000

A(rt)Life 2.0 is an installation of music, sound, and projected animation. It uses a flocking behavior to reveal the possibilities of sound in Artificial Life systems. A(rt)Life 2.0 examines the relationship of music and emergence by exploring how self-organizing behavior can extend music endlessly in time.

Launch A(rt)Life 2.0 project site

A(rt) Life Study

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:22:54 +0000

A(rt)Life is a new project, initiated Summer 2005. This study uses the PSO algorithm and explores the connection between swarm dynamics and specific parameters of a music composition. Unlike my other PSO-related works this example is only available as an MP3.

Play max.s.o.mp3

AUTOMATIC BODY

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:21:54 +0000

Automatic Body, done in collaboration with Yacov Sharir, is an installation driven by swarm dynamics where individual behaviors are translated into sound and dance. The media has not been optimized for the web, so please excuse the sluggish playback.

Launch AUTOMATIC BODY

Particle Swarm Optimization [2]

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:20:54 +0000

Complexity via simplicity: This piece uses the particle swarm algorithm of Kennedy and Eberhart to make generative music. PSO[2] was premiered at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China in conjunction with “Consciousness Reframed 2004: Qi & Complexity.”

Launch PSO[2]