^3
I’m pretty proud of the lastest machine I’ve added to the abstractmachine arsenal. It’s a musical sequencer integrated into a Rubik’s Cube®. You can play it online, or you can hire me to plug in a physicalised version, with real live Cubes generating the musical sequences. I’m trying to find someone to bite for the later, which might have already taken place, with an installation next summer for a music festival (I’ll keep you posted).
Like most of my interactive/musical instrument work, I’m working against the idea that a musician has to create music digitally — algorithmically — while sitting behind a laptop. The listeners should be given some hook to attach them to what the musician is doing: at least a videoprojection if we must generate behind a screen. What are they doing back there, playing iTunes? I’m also poking fun at the over-programmed nature of many of the current electronic tools that pass for high-tech instruments. For, trying to “program” a Rubik’s Cube, as anyone knows, is not an easy matter. So while one might be freed of the obscur interface (everyone understands a Rubik’s Cube), each permutation screws up permutations on the other faces, making the musical progression a true art to master.
There’s also a performance aspect to 3. Music is a live medium, and has been modular and algorithmic for centuries; the digital field should reflect this and allow for musicians to perform digital algorithms with their hands, just as they do with the guitar. Obviously, I’m speaking under the influence of Michel Waisvisz‘ Hands when I talk like this.
Basically, each face is an independant sequencer, with variable speeds (note: the sequencer was designed to keep each of the faces in sync, notably for electronic dance music). Each face of the cube uses a different instrument to play notes generated according to the colors on that face. The darkened square on each face indicates the currently playing note. The cubes are permutated by dragging one of the edge cubes and rotating it around one of the center axes. Each face is identified by its center square. Center squares never change color and are pratical for keeping track of activity. Dragging with the mouse from the center square rotates the entire cube.
3 loads with default instruments chosen from the MIDI instrument library. These synthesized instruments can be changed on each face by clicking on its current number and entering a new value between 0 and 127, followed by the enter key. The volume of each instrument/face can be adjusted independantly. The tempo for each face can be adjusted independantly. Each color represents a specific note to played by one of the six instruments/faces. Each face can have its own pitch value for each color.
Specific permutations can be memorized in a key, then recalled at any time by simply pressing that key on the keyboard. For example: by clicking on the on-screen ‘A’ button, the current permutations are recorded into the ‘A’ key; subsequently, whenever the ‘A’ key on your keyboard is pressed, the cubes immediately return to this memorized state. In the off-line version of 3, current key memorizations, as well as volume, tempo and note configurations, can be saved to disk. This allows a DJ to have a full set memorized, then work off that set. It’s cheating, I know (the whole point is it’s gotta be tough, right?), but you’ve gotta be pratical too.
As with Trane, 3 uses MIDI to generate the music on each face. Music can be generated by the computer using its internal synthesizer, or connected to an external MIDI synthesizer, sampler, or sound module. The MIDI output can also be rerouted within the computer via MIDI to other music software. This allows musicians and DJ’s to expand 3 and plug it into an infinite variety of electronic sound generators. Just open up the 3 window, and your midi devices should show up.
[…] Read the blog post from the creator […]
Pingback by Rubiks Cube Musical instrument | Phidelity Blog — 5 October, 2007 @ 08:11 am
your sequencer doesn’t work under Firefox on Ubuntu Linux. What plug-in is that supposed to use?
Comment by eric barbour — 12 October, 2007 @ 19:49 pm
Yeah, you’re right, no Linux support, and that totally sucks. It was built in Shockwave (Director) which doesn’t work on Linux. Even worse, it doesn’t really work on Macs either because modern Macs are Intel which doesn’t even have a Shockwave player for it yet. You can fiddle with your browser (cf. “Rosetta” mode) to make it work but it’s still a kludge. So basically you’re stuck with Windows if you want decent support. This is an older work and had I built it today, I would never have built it in Director. My mistake.
Current plans are to build a new, more serious version, but starting from a better designed physical device rather than the other way around. I have no idea what platform that will run on though because I’m more interested in the device itself than the software. In the past, the cube has generated midi. I will probably maintain that for standard output and totally bypass the computer.
Comment by Douglas Edric Stanley — 12 October, 2007 @ 21:31 pm
Zeneszerkesztés Rubik kockán
Vannak ilyen őrült arcok mint pl. Douglas Edric Stanley, aki digitális művészetet tanít az Aix-en-Provance-i művészeti suliban. Az ő ötlete a Rubik kockára helyezett szekvenszer interfész, mely szöges ellentétben áll a modern elektroni…
Trackback by ADSR Multimédia — 13 October, 2007 @ 09:12 am
[…] Douglas Edric Stanley has developed ^3 (a.k.a. Cubed, a.k.a. 3), a musical sequencer integrated into a Rubik’s Cube®. […]
Pingback by ^3 - a musical sequencer integrated into a Rubik’s Cube — 15 October, 2007 @ 13:17 pm
[…] Music Tech For Squares Just what you want in a music controller, right? Well, if you feel you can handle some very early-home-computer-era psychedelic wallpaper, the you can play an online version of the controller over at the Abstract Machine Blog. […]
Pingback by Music Tech To Puzzle Over — 15 October, 2007 @ 17:09 pm
Toca música con un cubo Rubik
El último invento de Douglas Edric Stanley para su proyecto Abstract Machine es un secuenciador MIDI incrustado en un cubo Rubik. Al fin y al cabo, no todo el mundo sabe tocar un teclado, pero sí jugar con un cubo Rubik. Es posible incluso probarlo o…
Trackback by meneame.net — 24 October, 2007 @ 10:07 am
[…] American/Frenchman Douglas Edric Stanley is professor of digital arts at Aix-en-Provence school of art, where he gets to build things like this sequencer controlled by a rubiks cube and there’s a playable online version. This is Douglas’ point: Most electronic instruments have a more-or-less obscure interface (lots of knobs and buttons), which can be intimidating. However, once you know what the knobs do, they’re often very simple to use, with limited possibilities. With this thing, the interface is very immediate (everyone knows how to manipulate a rubiks cube) but it’s phenomenally difficult and complicated to actually play - because every move messes up another side. […]
Pingback by Play with Rubik´s Cube « Steelberry Clones - Electronic Music Lab — 24 October, 2007 @ 11:10 am
[…] Douglas Edric Stanley es profesor de artes digitales en la escuela de arte Aix-en-Provence. Su trabajo es construir cosas como un secuenciador MIDI con forma de cubo de Rubik. […]
Pingback by Pixoolo » Un secuenciador MIDI con forma de cubo de Rubik — 29 October, 2007 @ 16:41 pm
[…] American/Frenchman Douglas Edric Stanley is professor of digital arts at Aix-en-Provence school of art, where he gets to build things like this sequencer controlled by a rubiks cube and there’s a playable online version. This is Douglas’ point: Most electronic instruments have a more-or-less obscure interface (lots of knobs and buttons), which can be intimidating. However, once you know what the knobs do, they’re often very simple to use, with limited possibilities. With this thing, the interface is very immediate (everyone knows how to manipulate a rubiks cube) but it’s phenomenally difficult and complicated to actually play - because every move messes up another side. […]
Pingback by Muzyka » Blog Archive » Play with Rubik´s Cube — 30 October, 2007 @ 22:38 pm
[…] American/Frenchman Douglas Edric Stanley is professor of digital arts at Aix-en-Provence school of art, where he gets to build things like this sequencer controlled by a rubiks cube. It’s an installation thing, not very clearly illustrated in this video. More excitingly, there’s a playable online version (instructions here). This is Douglas’ point: Most electronic instruments have a more-or-less obscure interface (lots of knobs and buttons), which can be intimidating. However, once you know what the knobs do, they’re often very simple to use, with limited possibilities. With this thing, the interface is very immediate (everyone knows how to manipulate a rubiks cube) but it’s phenomenally difficult and complicated to actually play - because every move messes up another side. […]
Pingback by Yacero.com music blog » Blog Archive » Sequencer controlled by Rubik’s Cube - playable online — 13 November, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
Your blog is very beautiful!
Comment by 霍尼韦尔 — 13 March, 2008 @ 10:13 am