I’ve been meaning to post these for a while, examples of augmenting sound in the playground…

“At first sight the Laughing Swing looks like a simple, regular swing. When you sit on it, it chuckles. As you swing, it laughs, and the higher you go, the harder it laughs. At the peak swinging it is laughing […]

4 years ago I saw a great 3d animation called Pipe Dream, part of a DVD of animations called Animusic. Music played by robots, in particular Pipe Dreams was played by very co-ordinated bouncing balls. I recommend you watch it here. The creators never claimed this to be real, but some prankster did.
Well […]

“Phase is a sound generation system, bringing sound immersion, haptic response movement and visual immersion into play. The proposed musical demonstration (an interactive installation for science and technology museums, theme parks…) has two goals: firstly, to enable users to discover and learn about sound space and music, thanks to their immersion in visual, sound, and […]

(concept image)
Usman Haque has been commissioned to create Evoke for the Illuminating York festival. You can see the work from on Fri 26 Oct until Sat 3 Nov, from 6-11pm. From the website…
“Evoke is a massive animated 80,000 lumen projection, which will light up the facade of York Minster. The facade is brought […]

Miniorgan.com is a site documenting Erics collection of rare and vintage musical electronic toys. There are 112 in this online library. Aside from the many synthesizers, I find these toys delightful to look at in terms of their intended interaction and the aesthetic.

Tomy Voice Corder (1972)
“BEST MUSICAL TOY OF THE WORLD!!! Play & […]

I hinted at it in the previous post, but Tenori-On, the fantastic instrument by Toshio Iwai and Yamaha, will be launching in the UK. This September, Yamaha will showcasing this brand new and visually stunning interactive live performance instrument through a selection of carefully selected record shops across the country.
Tenori-On has been at many […]

With all of these new interfaces for musical expression that have been around now, I started taking a peak at the scores the players use in their performance. Whilst I am not personally involved in research in this area, I thought it might be interesting to someone out there who is (plus I’ve not […]

As mentioned in a previous post, the documentation of my work at Moving Brands is now online.
An audio responsive installation for the launch of Muon, new speakers from Kef and Ross Lovegrove. Launched at the National Museum of Science and Technology (Leonardo da Vinci), during Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Created in Processing for a […]

If you are in Milan for the Salone del Mobile, be sure to put a visit to this on your schedule…
The launch of Muon, an incredible two-metre tall speaker system, in one of the most fascinating locations in Milan, the Sala del Cenacolo. This exhibition is the extraordinary result of the convergence of two masters. […]

If you go down to the South Bank in London this summer, outside the Royal Festival Hall is a wonderful installation titled PLAY.Orchestra.
56 plastic cubes and 3 Hotspots are laid out on a full size orchestra stage, each cube containing a light and speaker. Sit down on the cube or stand in the hotspot to […]

Semitransparent Design is a company based in Japan, a talented bunch of artists and designers, consisting of members Ryoji Tanaka, Toshiyuki Sugai, Yusuke Shibata and Hiroshi Sato. I first became aware of their work when I wrote about Motion Wall from Nanika (read post). Semitransparent created Snow Wishes for the same interactive interiors […]

[Update] here are some photos of the first event.

I am off to Liverpool to take part in the first event in the Future of Sound tour. Owen LLoyd and myself are collaborating on an interactive spatial soundscape, and today I will show the first stage prototype of this. More details about this project in […]

[updated] here is a video

(photos above by John Adrian)
On Friday night I went to the opening of Volume at the V&A Museum, part of the Playstation Season of Culture. Here are my photos.
Created by United Visual Artists and one point six (production company set up by Robert Del Naja [alias 3D] of Massive Attack and […]

Simon Elvins, a graduate from MA Communication Art & Design at the RCA, has created a number of interesting works dealing with print as an interactive interface for sound.

Notation : “This is part of an ongoing exploration into sound, print and notation, and looks at ways of linking sound to the printed page. Using a […]

Fur, creators of the Painstation and Furminator (among others) have just released information on their project Earworm Assault Devices. From the website:
“Sound is unavoidable (the ear can’t be shut like the eye) and evolutionary hardwired into our cognition apparatus, it can reach into the subconscious and arouse emotions. A well made sound can get stuck […]

SoniColumn, created by Jin-Yo Mok, is an extension of The MusicBox Project. In the first project, users could compose a sound using a mouse and grid-like score. In SolniColumn you turn each note on by running your hand over it and around the column.
SoniColumn is an interactive sound installation that can be played by a […]

Onetonnemusic informs us that Toshio Iwai now has a Tenori-On development blog : tenorion.blogspot.com. Hurrah.

Friday, 19th May 2006, 11am-11pm
Saturday, 20th May 2006, 11am-8.30pm
The Science Museum’s Dana Centre, 165 Queens Gate, London SW7 5HE
The full programme has now been announced.
I am looking forward to ‘Interactive Music for the Masses‘, a keynote lecture from Josh Randall (think Guitar Hero).
“Josh Randall will discuss his experience at Harmonix Music, from the company’s origins […]

[update - project build photos]
Showing at the Cybersonica 06 Sonic Art Exhibition, created by Seulki Kang & Kenichi Okada (under the name atoyfactory).

EtchASound is an installation inspired by the world famous toy Etch-A-Sketch. By interacting with EtchASound audiences can have the unique experience of drawing with their own voice.
First the user creates a 2 dimensional […]

[update - here is a video]
A commission for the Cybersonica 06 Sonic Art Exhibition. If you are into your sound based game environments, you should get to the exhibition and check it out.

Fijuu2 was created by Julian Oliver (Selectparks) and Steven Pickles. Fijuuu uses a realtime 3D engine allowing players to dynamically manipulate 3D instruments […]

My reason for irregular postings on Pixelsumo has been due to curating and coordinating the Cybersonica 06 Sonic Art exhibition. After a huge amount of work by the team, I can now happily say that the exhibition is now open and we have 12 truly great pieces installed in the gallery space. I […]

iScratch by Shosei Oishi (a student of IAMAS Japan) is software which enables you to scratch audio files like analog record using iPod’s touch wheel. Shosei re-wrote the pre-installed open source audio play program of Pozilla to be able to scratch audio files, and works using Linux.
I got to try this at the Takeaway […]

Otto (Greek for Ear) is a device that makes hidden sounds audible. This is achieved via a thin polymer piezoelectric contact that senses weak vibrations and plays them as a sound through an integrated speaker. OTTO can be positioned on almost any surface through a combination of suction and magnets. By placing several units on […]

Back in April 05, I posted an interface in progress by Brian Crabtree. Now 1 year on, they are going into production. Good job Monome, I know you’ve been hard at work. I also hear the software may become open source soon.
Video in action | Process of construction | FAQ about ordering

Previously I have investigated game controllers as musical instruments / inputs (here and here), and creating music with video games here. I am really interested in the re-appropriation of gaming technology and environments for creative exploration in sound.
Harmonix, creators of successful music video games such as Amplitude and Frequency, have released Guitar Hero stateside, […]

Cybersonica 06
International festival of music, sound, art and technology.
As part of Cybersonica 06, there will be a two-week exhibition of sonic artworks. These works will explore new forms of interactivity, moving away from the keyboard and mouse and into the physical realm.
We are now accepting submissions of existing sonic art works from artists wishing to […]

[update - video added below]
Reporting on Friday Late: Transvision.

This is an installation that I was involved in the development of at AllofUs. Created for the 18th century Norfolk House Music Room, Plink Plonk used mechanical music boxes as playful delicate input devices, producing their own sound output (the tune ‘You are my sunshine’). A visual […]

I have been a longtime fan of Soundtoys.net, from watching the tour starting in Bristol (photos), to talking at the symposium at Cybermusic last year (photos) and now contributing some new work to the community.
Now there is a new soundtoys website, with a popular tagging method for artists and works, plus a back-end API that […]

Six String Sonics is the (work in progress I believe) creation of Gil Kuno. This project sets out to reinvent the guitar. “Instead of stringing one guitar with 6 strings, we have created 6 single string guitars which will be played by 6 people. Since there will be 6 hands manning the strings, the […]

Soundgarten by Michael Wolf is a tangible interface that enables children to record, modify and arrange sound samples in a playful way. Designed as a toy, the garden has 19 plug holes that can fit sounds in the form of mushroom objects. Children can use the pre-defined environmental or musical sounds, or use […]

My last Squidsoup related post of the day :)

Back in 2004 I travelled up to Bristol to see their latest project, Come Closer. Upon arrival I was told to put on a baseball cap, carry pouch and anaglyph 3D glasses before being led into a dark room. The baseball cap contained electronics needed for […]

An oldie but a goodie. Altzero is what Squidsoup call ‘navigable spatial music’. These series of works inspired me to work on Echo Chamber last year.
Altzero is a collaborative multi-user web based audiovisual virtual space. altzero is an attempt to elucidate the inner workings of electronic music: as a listener can see each component of […]

Doodle, by Squidsoup, is a work-in-progress exploring the possibilities of intuitive and direct drawing in 3D virtual space. Built to use a Flock of Birds motion tracking (from Ascension Technologies), they have also made a (limited) demo using a conventional mouse. The 3D version allows for creation of drawn 3D shapes (spirals, swirls, faces, handwriting […]

Created by (at the time) Royal College of Art student Rolf Knudsen, Random Acts of Music are two prototype projects that cross the borders of product design and musical interaction.

Circular Rythm (shown above) allows you to record and playback sounds in a sequence. Picking up the can/jar shaped objects puts it into record mode, […]

Frelia by Ali Momeni and Robin Mandel, is a sound installation that allows you to play sounds from the freesound project.
I got to try this piece at ICMC 2005, (photos). The great thing about it was that you had to perform a large action, which then translated into a small movement on the Wacom […]

rgb by Tomas Dvorak, Alessandro Capozzo and Matous Godik is a project that allows audience participation in the musical creation of a live performance.

The audience are given custom flashlights that allow them to shine red, green or blue light (or a combination of). Eyesweb is used to track the colours, then uses Open Sound […]

VIFE (Virtual Interface to Feel Emotions) by David and Iván Rodríguez (aka RBF-soft) is an installation that allows users to create a synaesthesia between electronic music and synthetic image. Using a sensor glove, they can control 3d-sonorous-forms and modify and transform their aspect, color and form. Created using Pure Data and GEM. I am waiting […]

WiSe box is a Multi-performer Wireless Sensors Digitizer. It allows you to transmit controller and sensor data over a wi-fi connection as Open Sound Control messages, ideal for dance gesture body sensors or musical instruments, plus its tiny in size. Unfortunately the price is 800 euro (plus tax and shipping).
Checkout the website, read the […]

Oroboro by Björn Hartmann and Jennifer Carlile is a novel collaborative controller which focuses on musical performance as social experience by exploring synchronized actions of two musicians operating a single instrument. Each performer uses two paddle mechanisms - one for hand orientation sensing and one for servo-motor actuated feedback.
Two musicians face each other and put […]

Just got back from Cybersonica festival in London. More festival reporting from Regine and Mazine.
At Cybersonica was Audio Sphere by Someth;ng, a kind of upside down musical wind chime that swayed back and forth.

Along the same lines is another project by Mauricio Melo titled Swayway Midi Chimes at New York University. (development blog)

Following on from my research into controllers as instruments I have been looking at artists and programmers that have turned existing game engines info performance and composition environments. If you know of any more, please post a comment and I will post them here.
Vladimir Todorovic over at tadar.game music uses the Unreal engine for this […]

Following on from this post, here is an update. Thanks for the emails and comments. Keep em coming.
Tom Verbruggen (toktek) of sonido gris and VJ MNK use game controllers in their performance. Thanks Remco.

StickMusic is an instrument comprised of two haptic devices, a joystick and a mouse, which control a phase vocoder in real time. […]

The untitled box / mlr, is a performance interface by brian crabtree. Before I mention anymore, check out this 7mb video (quicktime mp4) which will explain everything.
Personally, I am more interested in making things open source, let people build their own controllers and build upon your project as a community, in the same way as […]

I have been researching the use of consumer video game controllers to be used as peformance devices and musical instruments. By making such devices, many people are already used to playing with controllers, so it makes them instantly accessible. There are many examples out there, a few I have found listed below, but if you […]

Bristol based artist Luke Jerram created a project last year entitled Sky Orchestra. Sky Orchestra are developing music specifically for sleeping people which is delivered out of the sky. Hot air balloons, each with speakers attached, take off at dawn to fly across a city. Each balloon plays a different element of the musical score […]

Sonasphere - ‘a kinetically driven interactive music environment’ reminds me of the navigable soundscapes of Altzero, combined with the objects and connection types of ReacTable.
Sonasphere is a piece of software for Mac only by Nao Tokui and Karl Willis. The 3D space becomes a performance / composition environment, where each object is either a sound […]

Whilst doing my dissertation research on appropriated technology, I was introduced to gameboyzz orchestra use Gameboys and other low-tech devices to perform their music.
On the subject of using a Gameboy for sound, digital artist Toshio Iwai (mentioned in previous posts) has created Electroplankton for Nintendo DS.

The built in microphone and the touch screen gives the […]