I C::ntr::l Nature v. 3 excerpts – augmented bass guitar improvisation 2009 from Marco Donnarumma aka TheSAD on Vimeo.

When I started thesaddj.com – around 4 years ago – I thought I could show my work, music, thoughts and inspirations through a single blog thus I entered officially the world wide web community with this website.
Layouts, colors and ideas has changed often in this space and so did I.
Thesaddj.com is now for some people – at least – an interesting place where to find good readings or reports about happenings, culture and human experiences connected to the new media world and free open source community and I wish to say thanks to this people for reading more or less costantly my blog.

Now that I finally realized my wish, I will also manage a brand new layout for thesaddj.com, trying above all to improve the readers experience in order to make finally this website a REAL on-line magazine. I plan to slightly change the “editorial policy” and along with the usual reports I will begin to write more freely about art, music and technology and more in general what interest or inspire me of the real world surrounding us. Well, don’t forget to check my new personal homepage below!

Here you go:

Just came back from a three days in-depth workshop at Pierluigi da Palestrina Conservatory in Cagliari, Italy. This time the course focused on dataflow practices for Live Media.
The course has been organized by Spaziomusica Association during the annual festival Music in Touch, which every year creates new connections among traditional musical composition and new technologies featuring concerts and installation projects by established composers and new media professionals.
The atmosphere in Cagliari was cozy and warm. We could enjoy an early spring, a shiny sun and almost 20 degrees.

Participants were MA students of the Electronic Music, Music and New Technology and Electroacoustic Music courses. They were extremely interested in Pure Data and dataflow techniques, although for most of them it was the first direct approach with a graphical programming environment. After a brief audiovisual review of some interesting works ranging from live performances to experimental videos, we started with the basic of Pd, building simple processes in order to give a clear idea of real-time data processing.
Then I slightly forced them to get their hands dirty with some real-time video processing and few common idioms for audio synthesis and manipulation. I used the term “forced” because I did not give them any ready patch, but explaining step-by-step simple processes we built together useful examples.

Their responsiveness was awesome and with my great satisfaction we went through the main topics of the course pretty fast. In the end we also had time to have a chat about network data exchange, i.e. OSC, wi-fi server and client communication protocols, and later on few participants were already having fun exchanging data through the conservatory network or talking to a Monome.

In the end I made a brief talk explaining the most typical setup for live audiovisual performance and how to implement all the techniques we just learned into an actual audiovisual concert; single player with a musical instrument controlling MIDI and/or OSC hardware, two players exchanging audio and video data over a network and a quintet including different instruments, a server machine receiving and organizing data coming from few clients, creating feedback interactions among each player of the group.

On the first night I also had the chance to attend to an amazing concert of a traditional choir from Sardinia. Apart from the breathtaking location – S. Saturnino’s church – the experience of listening to a live performance of this kind is something unbelievable. The strength of their five voices, the incredible harmony they were able to create was something I can’t describe. Perhaps I felt the same feelings when for the first time I had the chance to listen an organ playing in a cathedral. Your body physically “feels” the sound, the acoustic energy in all its force.

I have to say I really enjoyed my time in Cagliari, probably I was missing a beautiful sky and a “normal” temperature, but for sure the wonderful hospitality of few friends played the most important role. Thus I have to say thank you to the Signorafranca guys and Riccardo, and Fabrizio Caglia for the excellent organization of the course. Hope to come back soon to Sardinia and maybe see some works of my students…

]]> http://www.thesaddj.com/pure-data-for-live-media-workshop-cagliari-conservatory/feed/ 0 http://www.thesaddj.com/live-performers-meeting-2010-rome/ http://www.thesaddj.com/live-performers-meeting-2010-rome/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:13:30 +0000 Marco Donnarumma http://www.thesaddj.com/?p=1324

Vague Terrain

I’m delighted to announce I just enjoyed as blog contributor the community at the web based digital arts publication Vague Terrain. My aim is to present and possibly discuss works, events, festivals related to FLOSS practice within the new media artistic environment.

You can check my first entry here and a kind introduction to myself written by Greg J. Smith here. I would be glad to know what you are doing out there and potentially write about it, so don’t hesitate to get in touch and introduce your work.

Vague Terrain also manages a monthly journal issues which has been recently programmed by many interesting guest curators such as Kim Cascone, Paul Prudence, CONT3XT.NET and Carrie Gates.

original img by noisybox.net

I’m spending these last days preparing the material for the upcoming workshop in Brescia, Italy on 21-22  / 5-6 November.
Together with the dear friend Husk we conceived a intensive workshop about real-time audiovisual processing in Pure Data to be held during the event Agit Media – organized by Ualuba.org. Agit Media is promoted by Centro A&T (Arte & Tecnologie) with partnership of LABA Academy of Fine Arts, Brescia and curated by Davide Anni.

The second part of the workshop held by Husk on 4-5 November will follow a similar structure focused on the video libraries of Pd and the manipulation of video streams.

• Pd and its Community
• Pd works review
• Pd Language
• Audio objects and idioms
• Sonic Laboratory
• Principles of audio video interaction 1
• Collective briefing
• Collaborative software development

5-6 November (Video – Luca Carrubba)

• Video Libraries introduction
• Video Review
• Video reproduction and basic manipulations
• Video Effects
• Generating visuals and advanced processing
• Principles of audio video interaction 2
• Collective Briefing
• Communication protocols
• Sofware production Laboratory

Looking forward to meet some of you there!

I was really glad to get to know about my selection since Netaudio festival is the bulwark of free CC-licensed music, so it represents kind of _must_ for me.
Here you are the statement of this Berliner edition – via Netaudio website:

From the 8th to the 11th of October 2009, Netaudio Berlin will be gathering the international netaudio community for a four-day music and conference festival in Berlin, under the title “East meets West”. 2009 will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. We recall pictures of hands reaching out to pull people from both sides up onto the Berlin wall. The event will take place at Maria, a venue situated immediately on the former Berlin ‘death strip’ once dividing the city and the world into eastern and western hemispheres.

In recent years a netaudio landscape has emerged in the countries of Eastern Europe. Speakers, artists and netlabel managers from Eastern and Western Europe as well as from the USA are invited to find out more about the needs and possibilities, challenges and chances of netaudio under the various cultural frameworks and to discuss new opportunities for networking and collaboration across borders and cultures.

• Netaudio Fair
• Showcases
• Lectures
• Workshops
• Discussions
• Films

… and a night program too broad to be described in this article. Plenty of artists and genres – electronic, drum’n'bass, dubstep, hip hop, techno. Be sure to check the full program here. The live visuals will be curated by my dear friends Visual Berlin, don’t miss it!

After the performances (including also Byetone who was performing at my same time, I would have loved to attend) everybody has moved to the Link for the last club night of the festival. Nice time in there supporting old good friends Vj Hash and Sapo during their vj set, and around 5am everybody has jumped in the car driving back home.

Once again Sunday has come and I’ve taken the last tour around the city, sitting in a park and enjoying the last rays of sun – because in Milan the rain was waiting for me.
I end the report with this picture: a public park in Bologna dedicated to the 11st September 2001.
I’ve the maximum respect for that event (and also a lot of doubts and anxiety), but could you tell me why in Italy we should dedicate a park to this date???
Sorry but i cannot agree with that.

She chose my track  ‘Entering…’ as soundtrack for this work. The audio track is included in my first album ‘Home’ released back in 2007 by italian historical netlabel Sinewaves.it.

So feel free to enjoy http://www.thesaddj.com/newsletter/sept09/index.html

Thanks!

Festival:http://www.robotfestival.it/2009
tickets: http://www.robotfestival.it/2009/ingressi/

More infos: www.pdcon.org

I definetely love spending days in Germany at experimental music events ’cause i always see things that i’m sure i won’t be able to see anywhere else. Don’t know if it’s all about my “mith” of Germany, but i can assure the”experimental” matter there has really a deep sense and clear imprint. Maybe it’s all about originality and the way to express it…

Coming next we had the DuoB – free, improvisational jazz duet from United States. They provided a huge concert, impossible to describe it, but just imagine 1.5 hour of free improvisation on drums (played in every way you can imagine) and double-bass, supported by impervious and theatrical readings by Pedro Cofrè from Chile.

We didn’t have the time to recover our mind from the intuitional free reading/jazz of DuoB, and Christine Sehnaoui started her solo performance/radical improvisation at saxophone. She’s one of the most professional improvisers i’ve ever seen playing live, i highly suggest to check her work. Great presence on stage and awesome confidence with her instrument.

On the second day of the event, after having a beautiful breakfast with the other artists, we reached again the venue for another session. This time Ezramo opened the night… It has been a lovely experience, from subtle mystic moments to ethnic derivations and electroacoustic breackdowns.

The work is completely produced and performed with the self-designed software ‘C::NTR::L 1.2 Beta’ - PureData based software for real-time audiovisual improvvisation which exploits physical computing technology.
The software is free for download and use, check this page.

As a free open source software, the developer’s community is vast and independent, and is characterized by having a rich and eterogeneous profile formed by researchers, developers and designers with a strong interaction and internal productivity.

There are several projects that use Pd in the area of robotics, psychoacoustic, new physical interfaces and open-hardware, artificial intelligence and pattern recognition signal, artistic and commercial projects, among others. In the Brazilian edition, we want also to improve the Brazilian community of developers, which has grown over the past two years becoming part of the international scene.”

C::NTR::L AV augmented bass guitar improvisation from TheSAD on Vimeo.

Pd Con: http://blog.pdcon.org
Pure Data: http://puredata.info
‘I C::ntr::l Nature’: http://www.thesaddj.com/icontrolnature

Unfortunately, subscriptions for this workshop  are reserved to the University’s professors, anyway i hope to get you involved soon posting some tasty pictures.

Gotland University: http://mainweb.hgo.se/adm/about_en.nsf/

Pure Data: http://puredata.info/

Developed by Marco Donnarumma aka The !S.A.D! in PureData.

Extracts from Ex Klangst Schwartz Manifesto

“It was the moment. A transitional period when suddenly there were no rules worth respecting.”
Mark Cunningham – Mars – about the No Wave scene
2004 April

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Living our lives as observers inside of the society, crashing and raising again, we feel the same conditions surrounding us – no rules worth respecting.
We cannot draw the line between normality and paranoia, we cannot define the border between rationality and absurdity anymore. Loosing  respect to the uniqueness and beauty of the human being, trying to save ourselves.

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Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan is not meant to be classified as any genre type, does not mind to analize any common content, does not create and compose inside of the written rules.

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Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan does not compromise its feelings with gifts of technology, but express them freely playing with its own instruments, voices and images.

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Ex Klangst Schwartz Swan play augmented musical instruments transforming its natural sound in unexpected realm of sounds, noises and voices.

11st April 2009
Closing event of Nemo Festival at LeCube, Paris.
I C::ntr::l Nature live audiovisual solo performance for augmented bass guitar by The !S.A.D! aka Marco Donnarumma

Le Cube has earned a reputation as one of the most innovative places on the cultural scene by performing essential missions such as educating the public, providing access to the new multimedia creation applications and discovering and promoting talented young practitioners of the digital arts. Through its programme inviting us to discover new fields of artistic expression, Le Cube aims to help the public discover a field of contemporary creation that gives priority to openness and dynamism.

The Némo festival is back at the Forum des Images, where it began eleven years ago, and we have a very exciting line-up in store for you! There are now five sections to showcase the best of cutting edge cinematic forms and new media art.

The result was unexpectedly interesting and i decided to try to send some demos over UK and Germany without focusing only on dubstep professionals.
In the end after some months I got in touch with Dj Oslek (owner of the upcoming, futuristic Frijsfo Beats label UK – Dub, Garage, 2step) who showed interest for my music and since then i decided to give a name – Kuoyàh as above – to this new side of my work.

“As Kuoyàh, Marco shows us the fruits of his production work that has been influenced heavily by dubstep, garage, dub, and obviously his diverse musical background. This EP comprises some of Kuoyàh’s jittery, warped, cold dubstep beats, which quickly morph into hybrid style…
Fans of PointB, Pinch, Lewis Hunter, Ital Tek, Innasekt, Combat Recordings, Vex’d, Milanese should be interested to hear these tracks.”

http://www.myspace.com/kuoyah

http://soundcloud.com/kuoyah

PointB (live), Oslek (Frijsfo), Scrambled Ed (Life4land), Damo (Combat Recordings) + more TBC.

EDMX (also Rephlex/Breakin’)

Innasekt (also Red Volume/Sprengstoff/Rottun)

Sully (also Creative Space/Rottun/2ndDrop)

Chav&Dave

The line-up of the festival show an excellent quality. Many different approaches to experimental music made this festival a little but amazing showcase of arts.

Unfortunately i wasn’t able to make pictures of his show. He created a nice atmosphere with his hyper-delicate electronic music and a live score of an ancient black&white movie.

The SAD (nowave/visual/noise free audiovisual improvisation from Italy)

more infos: http://www.hoerbar-ev.de/en/

On 28th December i will be really glad to perform my work I C::ntr::l Nature (nowave/visual/noise audiovisual live improvisation) at Ausklang Festival at Hoerbar, Hamburg.
The artists invited:

• Felix Kubin (HH)
  (Futuristische Popmusik / Elektroakustik)
• Napalmed (Tschechien)
  (Jazz Noise Free Industrial Improvisation)
• The !S.A.D!
• Trautonia Capra (HH)
  (Elektronisches Kunstlied mit Theremin + Gesang)
• Asmus Tietchens (HH)
  (Elektronische Musik / Klangforschung)
• Bruno & Michelle are smiling (HH)
  (Bös-komischer High-Speed-Pop)

“The Hörbar is the central meeting point for consumers and producers of electronic, electroacoustic and industrial music in Hamburg, every Wednesday from 9 pm to 1 am in the rooms of the B-Movie in Hamburg St.Pauli. Every last Friday in a month there is a concert with different music projects, performance artists, lectures or/and films.

“Since 1995 the Hörbar organizes every year between Christmas and New Year’s Eve the ‘Jahresausklangfestival’ (German for “year’s last notes”). On two subsequent evenings six to eight artists and groups perform in the movie theater. Moreover labels releasing and distributing experimental music are invited to build up their stands and present and sell their products.”

more info: http://www.hoerbar-ev.de/?Ausklangfestival_2008:Weitere_Infos