As previously mentioned, the performance schedule was ”to be announced”. It turns out we will be performing at 11h30 and at 17h for the two days of the festival.
We will performing the 8=8=Lesjoueursde_cartes again, this time at the Scopitone festival in Nantes, France (don’t mind the horrid website design, they are actually really nice people). Unfortunately we will be performing in the afternoon (*update: performances at 11h30 and 17h on both days), rather than in the evening with the truly hep cats such as Coldcut, Matmos, or Birdy Nam Nam. I guess we’re still not sexy enough to play in the big sandbox.
Here is the official 8=8 press kit, along with some photos Colette Stanley took of the concert last October in Marseille:
// 8=8=Concert=Performance=Demo
8=8 is a group of 4 programmers = 4 composers = 4 VJs = 4 musicians = 4 artists. All four bring their own programming, visual and musical sensibilities to a collective instrument, the Abstract Machine Hypertable. By moving one’s hands over the surface of the Hypertable, images and sounds are generated, creating a unique opportunity for musical improvisation. 8=8 uses the Hypertable to perform singular programs/instruments in a concert=performance=demo context.
// 8=8=Program
All programs are generated by the members of 8=8. There is no distinction between performer = musician = artist = programmer. All members have been exploring computer programming as an artistic medium for several years, notably through collaborative research at the Atelier Hypermedia.
// 8=8=Instrument
Although the Hypertable was originally designed as an interface for algorithmic cinema, 8=8 quickly discovered its musical potential as an instrument. Each program is essentially an entire visual and musical software/instrument in and of itself. Some of the programs allow for direct manipulation of pre-recorded samples, other instruments generate sounds on-the-fly, while still others combine these two notions with the idea of composition taking place in real-time, on the surface of the table, and in front of the public. Some compositions=programs=instruments are visually baroque, others on the contary are minimalist. All work off the principle that image+interaction pilots the sound generation.
// 8=8=Big_Daddy
While the performers are free to improvise within each of the programs, there is also a Central Processing Unit, known in 8=8 speak as Big Daddy. Big Daddy’s role is to organize the flow of the concert itself. It switches the table from its public installation mode (see below) into its concert/performance mode, and controls the sequence of programs. There are over 10 programs currently installed in the 8=8 arsenal, and as more programs can be added before each concert, Big Daddy’s role is equally to keep things organised and working smoothly. Big Daddy is, in effect, 8=8′s stage manager.
// 8=8=Rock+Roll
Nothing could be less exciting than watching a solemn performer sitting on an empty stage behind a laptop. Although interesting attempts have been made recently to jazz up the experience — we’re thinking of recent performances by Golan Levin & Zachary Lieberman, or the excellent TopLap — ultimately 8=8 has found that the entire configuration of Raised Stage + Subservient Public has to be thrown out in order to create a more intimate and engaging relationship with the public. The public actually sits around the table, with the performers, or stands up looking down on the table (the table is only 30 cm high for this reason). Interesting configurations can also be envisioned, for example in situations where the public can look down from a balcony, depending of course on the local architecture.
// 8=8=Public
Before the concert, Big_Daddy informs the public of the time remaining before the concert with a countdown timer displayed on the surface of the table. All concerts start on-time, accurate down to the second. A small interactive program runs on the surface of the table as well, allowing visitors to explore — in a minimal/limited fashion — the technology that will run the concert. Although the original intent of this program was primarily pedagogical (= this is how the system works), as it turns out the public really takes to this little program. Consequently, two modes can be imagined for the Abstract Machine Hypertable: A) as reactive installation, B) as a concert platform. As such, several performances can be organized, with the interactive/public mode converting over to concert/performance mode at a pre-determined time. These decisions are of course dependent on local opportunities and the variable temperament of the 8=8 group.
Locus Sonus, the Aix-en-Provence School of Art’s post-graduate arts study program on art & audio, is now accepting submissions for the 2006-2007 session. The deadline for submissions is July 16, 2006. More information can be found at the Locus Sonus website: link.
I mention it here, because I occasionally intervene in Locus Sonus affairs, as my interests and those of my students often overlap with the Atelier Son. I often collaborate explicitly and implicitly with Peter Sinclair who is one of the co-founders of the project. The other co-founder is Jérôme Joy, who has been doing interesting online work for years, and was one of my rare protectors while in residence at the overtly hostile Villa Arson. I have also in the past sat in on the scientific council and participated in their think-tank sessions, so I’m more or less a part of this crazy thing which is turning out to be an interesting experiment on how research could be conducted within an art school without following the university research model. That said, we are associated with the French national scientific research agency (http://www.cnrs.org/) via the Université de Provence. It should also be made clear that while there is a lot of Pure Data explored in this post-graduate program, it is not as code-oriented at the Atelier Hypermedia, and is oriented more specifically at exploring two fundamental fields: sound/network & sound/space. My work is clearly more image-centric, despite all the noisy interfaces — hence the one-foot-in-one-foot-out participation.
If you’re interested, check out the Locus Sonus website. Make sure your French is up to par (a requirement, obviously).
I just saw this post by Marius Watz over at Code & Form about Daniel Dihardja‘s still-beta MIDI library for Processing, entitled jm-Etude. Basically, it’s an internal sequencer for Processing.
This is really good news for me. Most of my machines for the abstractmachine project use MIDI via this commerically idiotic little xtra for Director. I do it this way because I need to be able to compose musical phrases, and not just play musical notes. I tried many years ago to build rhythmic structures via Director, but the timing just wasn’t there. If you’re working with samples, you might be able to get away with it, or with some abstract sound synthesis, but not when it comes to note-for-note interactive composition; i.e. if you don’t have a sequencer, you can forget the gabber machine gun. I wanted to keep the abstractmachine project in a more accessible language than C (Processing wasn’t available back in 2001) as pretty much all of my code gets recycled by a student in some form or another. So I ended up with Director and the aforementioned xtra that is now killing me.
For some examples of what I’m talking about, you can try out Trane or Cubed, and for a more entertaining example you can check out this 8=8 video:
We just couldn’t do shit like that without an easily programmable MIDI sequencer running in the background. But hope is now there to finally pry us from the last pitiful grip on the Director platform, and that in maybe a year’s time I can rewrite these machines for a more foreward-compatible platform (merci open source! merci Processing!).
Sorry to all my English-language readers, but I’m just about to leave for a presentation in Marseille and I promised to list a series of websites dealing with art + video games, or better said artistic explorations of video games and gaming culture. This list comes from a larger list I compiled for a multimedia festival looking to catch up on what’s going on in this scene.
Voici donc la liste pour la présentation de ce soir, de jeux video et quelques réappropriations artistiques de ce champ. Il s’agit de pièces historiquement importants pour la plupart, cherchez donc à mettre dans le contexte de l’année où elles auraient été crées. Il ne s’agit pas non plus de pièces uniquement fonctionnels, comme dans le premier cas:
Puis, des étudiants de L’école d’art d’Aix-en-Provence:
There are obviously many more artists who should be mentioned. But this is just to get the evening started… ;-)
This is just a quick post to thank the indefatigable Régine Débatty for giving me a chance to rant against the French and exploitive media art festivals over at we-make-money-not-art. I probably said a few things that will come back to haunt me, but what the hell. At least I was able to discuss a little where I’m going with my current research, and to make yet another plug for Processing and explain why it is good for art schools (as if you haven’t heard by now).
[Link]
I will be speaking again at the Friche bel de Mai, this time about my work in relation to video games, their langage, their culture, and their influence.
It all started when I made a selection for the festival Arborescence of artistic reappropriations of video games. These ranged from more recent works such as Unreal Art to older significant works such as JODI’s Untitled Game. Mixed in there were other classics, such as Painstation, C-Level, Pong Mechanik and Super Mario Clouds. Somehow this selection got back to the people at the Friche Bel de Mai who were looking for someone with some knowledge about video games. But instead of talking about that subject (which I don’t really have the time to prepare), we ended up with the proposal to simply present the gaming aspect of the abstractmachine project. I will of course post the previously mentioned list on this blog once I’ve cleaned them up, and in time for the talk. I am also hoping to have an early prototype of « Plot », my machine for making Gameboy fun.
