(Video stills from previous workshops in Bergen and Belfast)

Pikselache, Ptarmigan and Koelse have cooperated to present the Neanderthal Electronics workshop at Ptarmigan in Helsinki, 13-15 March 2010. On the last evening, Monday 15 March, the workshop participants will present their new instruments. I’ll also be playing a solo set for the Macumbista Mini along with sets by members of the Association of experimental electronics / kokeellisen elektroniikan seura (Koelse).

Ptarmigan is located at Nilsiänkatu 10, in the Vallila area of Helsinki. The workshop begins at noon each day and goes late. The concert will be at 20:00 on Monday 15 March. There might be a couple places left for this, contact info (at) ptarmigan.fi to check.

Info for the participants

Each participant is encouraged to find their own unique container, enclosure or interface to put their circuit inside of. An ideal enclosure is one which is both visually interesting and has some functional or performative aspects. You will have the chance to add sensors, switches, buttons and knobs to your enclosure, or perhaps some other, unforeseen method of control. Past workshops have seen synthesizers made from film cans, coconuts, children’s toys, super 8 cameras, cigar boxes, knaackebrod, books and hand-sewn masks. The choice is yours, but please try to locate one (or more) objects before the start of the workshop.

A few links to get your minds moving:

Neanderthal Electronics videos
Yoshi Akai
Gijs Gieskes
Arius Blaze
Ben Houston
Ciat-Lonbarde

For the promising young socialite…

I will actually be in HEL the week before as well, doing a David Tudor’s Rainforest-inspired Pure Data/physical computing workshop at the Media Lab Helsinki. Feel free to get in touch if you want to meet someplace where the drinks don’t cost EUR 10 and I don’t have to spend an equal amount to “check my coat”…

Photos by Andrea Fincato, from a lecture on TONEWHEELS at the University in Padova. Later that evening I performed TONEWHEELS for the Nu-Fest. Hopefully I’ll get some photos of the audience going bananas at that one in the next few days… Thanks to Mauro Martinuz for putting the whole trip together, and for the unbelievable enthusiasm of the students at the lecture in particular!

I stayed up until 4am the night before my flight to Venice (not the wisest idea, to be sure) re-making the Macumbista Mini to include my new Voltage Controlled Slope/Analog Logic module alongside a Polivoks filter and output mixer (not unlike one of the Serge M-Class panels). The new configuration had it’s live debut in Padova, displaying incredible feedback/chaos possibilties which I’ll try to document soon with photos and sounds as well.

Hypnotized by the unfolding synchronicities of [The User]‘s Coincidence Engine One: Universal People’s Republic Time, at the Transmediale Festival 2010 (Collegium Hungaricum Berlin). Inspired by György Ligeti’s Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes, the work features hundreds of cheap plastic clocks, each with its own imperfect little heart. Seconds come like a light rain, and minutes like brief hailstorms. Photo by Elena Kaludova.

This piece reminds me of another, Ligeti-inspired work which I helped Helsinki-based composer Libero Mureddi realize using Pure Data in 2006. Déploration pour la mort de G. L. is a rhythmical canon with 88 voices for Disklavier. Each key plays a constant tempo, the lowest being 40 bpm, with a 0.3 bpm increase per key, starting from low A.

The effect of this piece on the player piano is that dynamic ripples and reflections are created up and down the keyboard as keys move in and out of phase with each other. I think Libero was as startled as I was when we “performed” it for the first time during the Pd workshop!

Video by Egle Oddo.

Now Playing

Lars von Trier–Antichirst[2009 film] (fucking wow!)

The 2010 Bent Festival will take place at The Tank April 22-24, 2010…

…and I’m invited. I’ll be performing my TONEWHEELS set as well as giving a workshop to teach people how to build their own opto-electronic synthesizers.

FEATURING ::vtol::, Action Potential:Interact, Adachi Tomomi, Alpha-Bit, Brendan O’Connell, Derek Holzer/TONEWHEELS, Dr. Bleep and Handmade Music Austin, Dr. Rek, Eric Archer, Gannon, homeless of the sea and sky, Iain Sharp, Joe Mariglio + Steven Litt, KBD, LCDD, Paulo R. C. Barros, Philip White, Phillip Stearns, Stefan Jankus, Threep, Travis Thatcher…and others…

I’m in the process of hooking up other workshops, lectures and performances in Buffalo, Syracuse, New York City, Providence and Boston over the dates 14 April – 1 May. Please get in touch if interested or if you can help out (particularly with a room in NYC over 19-28 April!!!) Further dates will be posted here when confirmed.

Nizo Super 8 Analogue Noise Machine from Matt Kemp on Vimeo.

Matt Kemp was in my Neanderthal Electronics workshop at WORM in Rotterdam last summer, and worked on one of the most original case/interface designs of the whole thing. Inspired by Eric Archer’s Sound Cameras and a Nizo Super 8 camera found at the flea market, Matt got busy making a light-controlled sound machine. Matt writes:

It has a few simple analogue circuits including two oscillators, a high pass filter and a band switch, mounted where the original camera controls were. There’s also a light sensitive resistor mounted behind the lens, so the sound changes as you move the camera or zoom into objects. I just have to make a replacement nameplate for it now, I’m thinking Noizo 801..

Thanks for posting this Matt!

Now Playing

francisco lópez–machines[2010 experimedia]
pussygutt–gathering strengths[2010 olde english spelling bee]
tolerance–divin[1981 vanity]
yellow swans–going places[2010 type]
zbigniew karkowski-choice of points for the application of force[2000 ytterbium]

Financial circumstances compel me to re-list this mic, which I previously decided to keep. It’s a Sennheiser MK40 Cardioid Condenser Microphone + mic clip + nice wooden case. Click to enlarge the photos.

SOLD!!!