Soundwalk 2011 – October 1st
Coming up on Saturday October 1st in Long Beach, CA: Soundwalk 2011
“SoundWalk is an ear-oriented art event produced annually by the Long Beach artist group, FLOOD. The evening operates under the concept of a five-hour audioscopic experience as provided by sound art located in various indoor and outdoor spaces situated in Downtown Long Beach. The artwork combines, in multiple ways, a wide range of media as well as other interplayful sensory elements. There are sculptures, environments, installations, both interactive and passive, as well as scheduled performances.” —source: http://soundwalk.org/
For Any Number of Brass Instruments: 2011-2012 (For Radu Malfatti) will be included amongst the 42 different installations and artworks. Scores will be available at the information desk for the event. The composition is text-based, easy to read, and anyone can participate, even if you do not have an instrument. If you do play a brass instrument, please bring it and join in the year-long performance. You may perform this composition wherever you are and whenever you wish, so long as it’s before New Years 2012.
Proto-chiptune 100% Solar Powered @ Maker Faire
Maker Faire 2011 in NYC is chock full of some amazing projects. The sheer quantity and variety of makers showcasing work is staggering. To see everything is definitely more than a two day affair. This year I was invited to present a self-built solar powered music making system for 3rd Ward, where I currently teach the art of making DIY Synthesizers and small scale solar charging systems.
This solar music making station (Protochiptune Project) is powered by a Voltaic Systems 15 Watt panel connected to a 7.5Ah 12V Seal Lead Acid Battery. A 10A solar charge controller does all the power management to drive the music synthesizer’s three 5 Watt amplifiers. The microchips used are from the 4000 series CMOS digital logic family, including such chips as: hex inverting buffer (40106), 12-bit binary counter (4040), 8-to-1 selector switch (4051), quad 2-input AND gate (4081), and divide by n counter (4018). These chips are used together to produce a range of pitches and rhythms that can be sequenced or programmed by moving jumper cables on the breadboard, making a mini patchable modular synth.
At Maker Faire, kids were really attracted to the crazy jams coming out of this thing. Those who were bold enough were allowed to move some of the jumpers around on the board and make up their own musical patterns.
