Here’s an interesting art / performance project byMaywa Denki. Based on the simple remotely-triggered servo action of “knockers” (not in the sleezy sense)–which are direct percussive controllers that can be used to pound on various things including boxes, pipes, and guitar strings. In the above video, these knocker modules are employed to make a switch-based drum-machine-like instrument that you assign a sequence of remote knockers to, and then control the playback speed manually with a crank. It has the surreal effect of being a very nerdy guitar, with the thrashing accomplished via said crank.

Seeing as performative elements are key in this particular project, the “Wings” project shown about a bit past half way is more showy than useful, with the musician sporting spreading mechanical “wings” with knocker modules that hit hollow wooden balls that can be played via controllers on the fingers.

The video is particularly amusing in its Devo-esque tongue-in-cheek humor during the actual demonstrations, as well as the inclusion of vintage educational filmstrip dings to demarcate a new instrument being showcased. While having a direct, realtime controller of percussive sounds created remotely may be interesting for its novelty / humor value, so much more can be done in the field of musical interfaces that this sort of thing just begs to be improved upon. However, the vision and sheer performative nature of these instruments is inspiring to all who focus on creating innovative interfaces for music creation.

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Just out of beta, Splice is a burgeoning community of music producers and DJs that goes beyond the capabilities of a general networking site like Myspace or Facebook. It’s an online niche community with all kinds of Web 2.0 buzz-concepts including social networking, user-generated content, user-rated data, collaboration, online applications, AJAX and digital media.

After you join and create a profile, things start to diverge from a normal social networking site when it asks you to upload samples or record a sound directly on the site. There’s no place to upload your own music, and they warn that they’ll delete any pre-mixed tracks if they find them. Then you go browsing around the Sounds section and add samples you like to your case. Next, it’s over to the online sequencer application where you drop in the sounds you’ve found and get creative. When you’re done, you save your song and it shows up in your profile and under Songs.

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The Sound Ball is a soccer ball that makes different sorts of sounds based on whether it’s thrown, kicked or spun. Check out this video of widely different audiences interacting with it. There’s a particularly amusing clip of a kid with soccer skills bouncing it around and catching it with his knees.

The SoundBall is a foam ball with a motion sensor inside, which communicates wirelessly with a computer, so that sounds and music can be created through dance and/or play. The project was developed in pursuit of Aleksei’s interest in new interfaces that interpret physical motion sonically, giving dancers and other performers the opportunity to interact musically in real time with traditional instrumentalists.

CNet speculated that it’s an Arduino or Parallax board inside the ball and sending data via bluetooth to Cycling ‘74 Max/MSP running on a computer somewhere.

It’s a concept piece by Aleksei stevens, a Brooklyn, NY-based composer, lapto jockey, and professor of digital audio and performance. Check out his Mypace page where you can here his music: Aleskei Stevens’ Myspace page. [via]

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If you’re fortunate enough to have a pool, I bet you’ve probably got a few of those “friends” who just love spending more quality time with your in-ground than on enjoying your personal companionship. And going through cooler after cooler of your favorite lager is probably not earning them any more points in your book, either. So next time they don’t seem to get the hint, covertly launch this two-foot long Remote Controlled Robotic Shark and see if you don’t give those freeloaders enough of the heebie-jeebies to decide to towel off and make an exit sooner rather than later.

The only drawback is you’ve only got 15 minutes of prowl time before you have to recharge, so you better hope those friends are lacking in the creeped-out stamina department.

Mini Robo-Jaws can be yours for a mere $99 at Hammacher Schlemmer

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So I did a more thorough recap of our Demo Swap at Sonotheque in Chicago last week over at Create Digital Music, but here’s a brief overview of a few of the more notable demo disks that came home with me.

I also posted the first part of my DJ set at the end of the night. Unfortunately the laptop crashed when I unplugged the soundcard and I lost my playlist, so there are going to be quite a few gaps in the set list. Oh well.

• DJ Psyops: Ventriloquism: Dance rock & trendy techno. Featuring tracks like Bloc Party’s “Banquet” and LCD Soundsystem’s “Tribulations”
• Press, aka Robin Smith: chill, ambient electro
• Memory Selector ft. Michael Una & Cameron Moore: dreamy instrumental indie rock with nice melodies and analog electronics
• Heaven Seventies– catchy pop / rock with electronic elements. Their demo also had mp3s and a video clip on the CD which was a nice touch. And, as we had expected collaborations to come out of the event, I remixed one of the tracks off of said demo.
• Bill Van Loo & J. Schnable: A series of discs featuring dub / downtempo IDM http://chromedecay.org/,
• Droopy: Fingerblast. rave-style DnB

It’s by no means comprehensive list; I still have a few more to get through. Enjoy a bit of underground electronic music from Chicago.

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I DJed at the end of the night after spending all of the rest of the time schmoozing. It’s missing a track since my laptop crashed when I unplugged it at the end and it didn’t save the playlist. Here’s some photos from the night and a more in-depth recap will follow soon.

Demo Swap DJ Set [1/2] 190 VBR MP3

1. Plaid: “Zeal”
2. Test shot starfish: “Sort of”
3. Jeff Mills: “The Bells”
4. LCD Soundsystem: “Someone Great”
5. ??
6. Akufen: “Wet Floors”
7. Akufen: “Heaven Can Wait”

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The final part of the downtempo / IDM set I played at Celebrity in Chicago.

16. String Theory: “Ambulette” [BUY]
17. Posthuman: “Wonderful Eyes”
18. 101010 & Mr. Projectile: “Wild Orchids”
19. ?? (Can you ID this track? Hit the contact button and let me know!)
10. Modeselektor: “I Love You” [Hello Mom!]

DOWNLOAD: Celebrity Mix Part 3 [192kbs]

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Here’s a perfect tie for any guy who loves gaming, especially retro-gaming. Behold, the Space Invaders tie, which, at first glance appears to simply have a geometric repeating pattern in red. A closer look reveals that the little houndstooth-esque checks are actual bitmap aliens–it’s subtle but very cool.

Did you know that the feature that made Space Invaders so challenging–the creatures speed up as more of them get destroyed–was originally an accident? Since there were less aliens to render on screen, the program would animate their speeds as it had more resources.

[VIA]

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