www.x-tet.com

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.

PhD Thesis is Online

norbert — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:58:04 +0000

Amergent Music: behavior and becoming in technoetic & media arts was accepted by my examiners at the University of Plymouth, UK.

I owe much thanks to all of my supervisors (Roy Ascott, John Matthias & Brian Eno), as well as to my colleagues in the Planetary Collegium and at Indiana University, Bloomington.

If you want the thesis and all of the supporting media files (3.7GB), download the version at UPlymouth’s PEARL system. Otherwise, the text is available as a PDF from this website, and many supporting files are linked from the Thesis Online Documentation page.

After you’ve read the thesis (all or part of it), please come back to this site and leave a comment. I am very curious to hear what others think about what I’ve written, and I welcome compliments and criticism alike.

‘Pac-Man Pop Music’ Chapter Available as PDF

norbert — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:21:30 +0000

My chapter ‘The Composition-Instrument: emergence, improvisation and interaction in games and new media’ appeared in the book From Pac-Man to Pop Music: interactive audio in games and new media, edited by Karen Collins in 2007.

This chapter is now available by permission of the Publishers of ‘The Composition-Instrument: emergence, improvisation and interaction in games and new media’, in From Pac-Man to Pop Music: interactive audio in games and new media, ed. K Collins, (Aldershot etc.: Ashgate, 2007), pp. 103-123.Copyright © 2007.

Download the PDF

Citation:
Herber, N 2007, ‘The Composition-Instrument: emergence, improvisation and interaction in games and new media’, in From Pac-Man to Pop Music: interactive audio in games and new media, ed. K Collins, Ashgate, Hampshire; Burlington, VT.

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.

Technoetic Arts 7.1

norbert — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:12:11 +0000

(originally published July 2009)

I wrote a paper “Dérive en Mille Sons” for the 2009 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts. It has just been re-published as “Dérive entre Mille Sons: a psychogeographic approach to mobile music and mediated interaction” in Technoetic Arts: a journal of speculative research. Much thanks to journal editor Roy Ascott, publishers Intellect, and Guillaume Ansart for his help with a more precise title translation.

Abstract: Dérive entre Mille Sons (Drifting in a Thousand Sounds) is a musical work that uses mobile media technology to artistically examine the relationship between music and the listener. Contemporary media technologies, be they at work, home or in your pocket, emphasize playback. These devices are designed to facilitate the storage and retrieval of pre-made media assets. This work leverages the processing capabilities that rest dormant within these technologies. Drawing from the writings of Guy Debord and the situationist/surrealist practice of the dérive, ‘drifting’ becomes a metaphor for instrumental performance in which the openness and emergence of interactivity is articulated through sound, as music.

Technoetic Arts requires a subscription. Check to see if your library has online access or print copies of the journal. My original Spark paper is available online.

MP3 sample of a Dérive recorded in July 2010

Sanding

norbert — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:06:12 +0000

I’m currently experimenting with some guitar recordings I made with an EBow. The music is produced with two long drones that are fed through a variety of signal processes. Of these, the most important is the NeuroGranular Sampler designed by John Matthias and Nick Ryan for use in their larger piece The Fragmented Orchestra created with Jane Grant.

The NeuroGranular Sampler simulates the process of neuronal spiking and, “…reproduces the spiking and bursting behavior of known types of cortical neurons. The neurogranular sampler works by taking short segments (or sound grains) from sound files and triggering them when any of the neurons fire” (MUSE).

I find that the sound grains “fly off of” the drone recordings like sawdust stripped from a piece of wood by sandpaper. The sonic sawdust can be routed to filters, delays, and a battery of other effects to produce incredibly interesting and varied textures and melodies. There are currently no specific directions for the project, but stay tuned.

Listen to Sanding rough edit

Can Games Be Art?

norbert — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:44:24 +0000

EXCERPT: Norbert Herber, a Lecturer in the IU Telecommunications Department who has worked as a sound designer and composer for video games, finds Ebert’s criticism outdated.

“I think (Ebert) is hung up on this romantic idea of art. His conception of art is still in the 19th century, and if he were to update that, he might consider his experiences as a chess player to be somewhat of an art experience.”

“You can’t say the music is art, the visuals are art, but the story is not, or any mix like that, because the experience of playing the game that comes out of the participation is something that you as a player are directly responsible for.”

Full article by Brad Sanders: http://idsnews.com/news/weekend/story.aspx?id=77655

First-, Second-, & Third-order Cybernetics for Music and Mediated Interaction

norbert — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:23:06 +0000

Implicitly or explicitly, Cybernetics plays a role in works of Experimental, Ambient, and Generative music. This talk will introduce Amergent music, a genre that draws from these musical traditions and creates a third-order cybernetic stipulation in works of technoetic and media art. Drawing on the work of Maturana & Varela and Martin Heidegger, Amergent music establishes a new relationship between listeners, generative systems, and the musically mediated environment that is created in the course of interaction, play, and presence. Some recent projects, including Londontown and Dérive Entre Mille Sons, will be used as examples of this approach in the music of virtual worlds and mobile device applications.

This talk was given:
Thursday, Oct 07 / 2010
12-1 pm
IDAH Conference Room, Wells Library E170D

Download the slide deck.