Pete's Sonic Art Research

2 Projected Augmented Reality Projects

2009-12-07T11:02:00.001Z

Two videos of Augmented Reality (AR) projection projects. I'd seen Johnny Lee's projects (top video) before, but Marco Tempest's video is interesting because it shows how the technology can be taken to the street (bottom video).
Spotted on: Create Digital Motion

Chris Corsano and Profound Sound Trio

2009-11-26T21:54:00.001Z

Couple of videos from gigs in the last two weeks at SARC. Chris Corsano, and the Profound Sound Trio...

Novation Launchpad Patches

2009-11-26T12:30:00.001Z

A couple of patches by Sebastian Tomczak (LittleScale) show how Novation's Launchpad can be used for other purposes. I'm looking forward to getting one to try these out!

little-scale: Novation Launchpad: Waveform Editor

little-scale: Novation Launchpad: Linear Sequencer

Hawtin's Traktor Setup

2009-11-23T21:28:00.001Z

Richie Hawtin' Traktor setup

via ResidentAdvisor

Interesting video of how Richie Hawtin sets up a four-deck mix. This is relevant to the mapping problem in tangible interface research, and how to use physical controls without ending up with a complex mess.

paper, animation, sound

2009-11-23T12:38:00.001Z

Really nice animation where each frame has been printed out on paper. I like the way that the virtual graphics have been made more tangible. Hopefully it won't be long until e-ink looks this good!
Made by Benjamin Ducroz (....>>>ducroz.com)
Spotted on: CreativeApplications.Net

Tangible Interface Vimeo Collection

2009-11-03T23:07:00.001Z

Good collection of tangible user interfaces on Vimeo...

DataTiles

2009-11-03T22:34:00.001Z

Just been writing up on the DataTiles in the background section of my thesis, and realised I'd never seen them in action. A quick search found this video. A very modular tangible interface with lots of possible design possibilities.

Laser Cave

2009-09-17T21:58:00.001+01:00

Wow. Tangible interfaces need to be able to light up objects like this!
Video by Emmett Feldman / Suryummy.
Spotted on Create Digital Motion.

Tangible Tadpole

2009-09-11T19:18:00.001+01:00

Although a simple musical instrument, this has a really interesting tangible method of shaping the sound. The 'Otamatone' is made by Maywa Denki. See the video for a thorough explanation!

Spotted on the Create Digital Music blog.

Paper and Pen Instrument

2009-09-07T21:41:00.001+01:00

Nice video by Charlie North that combines some of the main elements of my PhD - Sketching, Interaction Design, Tangible Interfaces and Music. I particularly like the way that the scrunching up of the paper relates to the low-pass filter... would be great to see a fully functional version of this type of interface!
Spotted on: Create Digital Music

Metal Drone Instrument

2009-09-04T23:28:00.001+01:00

Nice video on a very physical musical interface. We were aiming for this kind of thing when we designed the DAMPER (also known as the Edgetrimmer).
via: Make: Online : Tristan Shone's Dub and Drone Machines

BeatBearing Outside ISEA

2009-08-26T09:47:00.001+01:00

Short performance on the BeatBearing today in a container Outside ISEA, accompanying Robin Price's installation. Installation will run from 1pm-2pm. Performance will likely happen for about ten minutes towards the end.

Interesting temporal interaction

2009-08-11T22:42:00.001+01:00

This seems an interesting way to manipulate temporal media, it would be great to see something like this implemented with a tangible interface. I imagine the result would be similar to the wobbly time-lines in Donnie Darko that show the future movement of people and objects... I guess.

More info here:
http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/dragon

Laser Tangibles

2009-08-04T14:03:00.001+01:00

Wow. Anyone fancy building this into the BeatBearing mkII?
[via synthtopia]

Virtual Gravity

2009-07-19T20:48:00.001+01:00

virtual gravity - the physical weight of data from Sillenet on Vimeo.

It's been over a month since the last post due to concentrating on the thesis write-up, so I thought I'd get back into the swing of things with a few quick posts. Here's an interesting project by Silke Hilsing that uses 'virtual gravity' to weigh two data sets. Would be great to see this system used in a musical context. [via Creative Applications]. More info can be seen on the project blog: http://www.silkehilsing.de/diplomblog/

Robin Price's "Journey Through a Burning Brain"

2009-05-26T17:58:00.003+01:00

The video above documents Robin Price's "Journey Through a Burning Brain" installation, as shown at the TWO thousand + NINE symposium held in SARC last week. The simple exterior appearance of an old TV and oversized remote control hides a complex two-laptop system that harvests YouTube video's based around a keyword, before segmenting the videos and rearranging them with a Euclidean rhythm generator, finally spitting out the visuals through a Rutt Etra video synth. Using the remote, you can select different videos which in turn influences which videos are being downloaded in real-time during the installation. For more info visit the original post by Robin.

video of first BeatBearing MAKE project

2009-05-21T09:54:00.005+01:00

This is the first video I've seen of a completed MAKEzine BeatBearing. Many thanks to 'awolfe63' for putting this up. Another BeatBearing build is being documented in this blog: http://jsavaglio.wordpress.com/.If anyone has any other BeatBearing videos (including unfinished projects) please send me the link!
Also, if anyone is looking for tips, or has some of their own to share, then please have a look in the forum: www.beatbearing.co.uk/make.html

Calling all Makers!

2009-03-29T17:46:00.007+01:00

The MAKE magazine article showing how to build your own BeatBearing is now out digitally and on the news racks. You can have a look at a digital preview here. Here's the blurb:

"MAKE Volume 17 goes really old school with the Lost Knowledge issue, featuring projects and articles covering the steampunk scene, makers creating their own alternative Victorian world through modified computers, phones, cars, costumes, and other fantastic creations. Projects will include an elegant Wimshurst Influence Machine, an electrostatic generator built entirely from Home Depot parts, a "Florentine Flask" siphon coffee brewer, and a tea cup-powered Stirling Engine. The section will also cover watchmaking, letterpress, the early multimedia art of William Blake, and other wondrous and lost (or fading) pre-20th century technologies."

If you or anyone you know ends up making a BeatBearing it would be great to see some photos of the results. I'm trying to gather together as many examples as possible to use as design cases for my PhD thesis. This is a chance for your project to immortalised and documented in the same thesis as the original BeatBearing, so please get in contact with me at: pete [at] petecube [dot] com.
An alternate method is to add your project to the relevant section of the BeatBearing forum. This forum may also be useful for finding tips and revisions to the design. Please post in the forum first before directly emailing me with questions, as this will benefit all other makers with the same problem!

Radio Interviews

2009-03-15T23:10:00.000Z

A couple of new radio interviews with me talking about the BeatBearing:

"Morning Ireland" on RTE. This interview also includes my PhD supervisor Sile O'Modhrain and SARC colleague Mark McKeague. Mark talks about his Twitter radio project - I'll include the video below. Thanks to Eimear Lowe for doing the interview. You can download/listen to the interview here: [mp3] or [stream]
"Phantom Daily" on Dublin's Phantom 105.2 fm. In this interview I get to waffle on about the Tenori-on, acid house and free jazz amongst other things BeatBearing related. Thanks to Róisín O'Dea and Simon Maher for the interview. You can listen/download the interview from here: [mp3]

p.s. More info on Mark's Twitter Radio in this BBC story

www.beatbearing.co.uk

2009-03-03T22:42:00.001Z

Have set up a project site for the BeatBearing:

www.beatbearing.co.uk

The main feature is a forum for sharing tips on making your own BeatBearing. The aim is to add more content over the next month including links to academic papers, similar projects, and hopefully details of other peoples BeatBearing projects now that MAKEzine vol.17 is out!

Physical Sketching Slides

2009-02-26T23:08:00.000Z

I've given this talk a few times now. It started with an introduction to physical sketching for a workshop on stylistic interaction at the Tweak festival in Limerick, and then has been modified slightly for presentation to MA students in SARC. This is the most recent version, and contains a short exercise at the end for using physical sketching in the explorative design stage of a novel musical instrument.

The talk is based upon Bill Buxton's book "Sketching User Experiences".

The BeatBearing is used as a design example, to help illustrate the difference between sketching and prototyping in the design process.

David Merrill's Siftables

2009-02-26T10:24:00.003Z

Spotted David Merrill's Siftables project in the New Scientist yesterday, then came across this talk he gave at TED. I like the idea of using the Siftables as a music controller/instrument, but I think too much functionality is being packed into each device. Perhaps the music-Siftables will get really interesting when each block is smaller and cheaper, so that you could use a few hundred of them at the same time.
Below is a video of just the music application:
Siftables Music Sequencer from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.

Kugeliger Klangcomputer

2009-01-29T16:43:00.005Z

I had a telephone interview last week with Deutschlandfunk, a German national radio station, for their science and technology program. There is an accompanying online article, and there is also an mp3 of the interview. Google translate comes in handy for a translated version of the article.
I like the translation of BeatBearing to "Kugeliger Klangcomputer" or "spherical sound-computer". It's definitely got a good onomatopoeic ring to it.
Thanks goes to Frank Groteluschen for the interview.

Gus' BeatBearing Interview

2009-02-09T12:10:00.003Z

Here's the interview of me talking about the BeatBearing project recorded, directed, and edited by Gus Sutherland. The interview was made as coursework for Gus' film MA at Queens University Belfast. The interview was made just before Christmas, and preceded (and perhaps indirectly triggered) the recent publicity of the BeatBearing.

BeatBearing on BBC newsline

2009-01-29T10:30:00.006Z

The BeatBearing appeared on BBC newsline (Northern Ireland) on Tuesday. The online article contains a streamable clip of the extended feature, or you can download it from here:
Download small version - 6MB (same video as above)
Download large version - 40MB

Thanks to Chris Page (shown above) for organising, filming and editing the interview!