THESADDJ.COM new media art and open source culture » FLOSS

Scotts Pure Data Users Group, come join us!

Marco Donnarumma — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:52:15 +0000

I’m really glad to invite you to join us at the Scotts Pure Data Users Group.
Following the workshop we held at Electron Club, we just set up a mailing list for future discussion, activities and events related to Pure Data in the Glasgow/Edinburgh/Dundee/Aberdeen area.
At the moment we plan to establish a regular Pd Users MeetUp at the Electron Club, Glasgow.

We just started and we warmly welcome you to join us and share your ideas or propose initiatives.
You can subscribe to the Scotts Pd Users List at http://lists.electronclub.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pdusers.

Useful Resource the Open Video Alliance Wiki

Marco Donnarumma — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:11:29 +0000

Thanks to my friend Fernando Fonseca I just found out this useful wiki. It is a comprehensive collection of free and open source tools, full-featured applications for video editing, production and real-time processing.
Check the database here.

A10Lab – Live Media and FLOSS Workshop, London

Marco Donnarumma — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:01:31 +0000

A10 Lab presents

Live Media and FLOSS* Extended Production Seminary
with Marco Donnarumma

*Free/Libre Open Source Software

Monday 26th – Friday 30th July
17:30-22:30 daily

@ C4CC, 16 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NG

80 pp
The workshop is limited to 20 participants.
Please register by sending an email to info [at] a10lab [dot] com with the subject heading “Live Media and FLOSS workshop”.

Full information here http://www.crealab.info/digitalab/?p=393

In-depth Theoretical and practical audiovisual live performance seminary using FLOSS.
Pure Data audiovisual real-time processing, tricks and tips to create your own performance tool.

Description

The seminary consists of four parts. During the introduction the participants acquire a basic theoretical knowledge about Live Media. The introduction is extended through a review of selected audiovisual
works in order to explore and analyse the potential of the audiovisual research.

Therefore participants are introduced to the concept of FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software), they familiarize with few FLOSS software as they understand its practical and theoretical keystones.

In the second part participants learn the meaning of real-time audio-video data processing reviewing the most common production tools. Eventually they deal with the process of an audiovisual performance pre-production using FLOSS: from brainstorming and concept design, through planning of the audiovisual
format, to the collection of support materials such as texts, tutorials, and the drawing of sketches representing the logic structure of data processing.

The third part focus on Pure Data graphical programming environment.
Participants learn to communicate with Pd and how to surf through the audio and visual processing libraries. They build basic processing structures and discover tricks and tips to create their own
performance tool.

For the last part the work group is split in smaller groups. Through practical individual exercises participants acquire the technical know-how about the creation/collection of moving images and sonic
events within the Pure Data graphical programming environment, thus they develop an original software, following the standard realisation steps: beta-testing; analysis of errors and its correction; and final testing during a collective jam performance.

Aim

The seminary seeks to give the participants who don’t have previous experience in programming and Live Media practice the needed theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to feel comfortable
within the FLOSS creation environment. The classes’ aim is to make the participants able to understand and assimilate the diverse passages of the creation process of software ad-hoc in order to be independent during the planning and development of a FLOSS project (musical, audiovisual, multi-media or theatre pieces) using the audiovisual language.

Who’s it for

Musicians, producers, live visualists, film-makers, programmers, sound designers or passionates of digital arts or electronic music and experimentation who want to enhance and extend their skills and tools will find this seminary inspirational and fundamental for the further development of their works and creative ideas, free from the limitations of user-friendly and proprietary software.

No previous programming experience is needed.

What to bring

Participants are invited to bring their laptops and encouraged to bring musical instruments, cameras, photo cameras, webcam, microphones, sensors, MIDI devices and fresh, unusual ideas!

Primary personal website and portfolio:
http://marcodonnarumma.com/

Personal blog dedicated to new media art, digital freedom and music:
http://www.thesaddj.com/

C::NTR::L
Interactive environment for audiovisual performance with physical computing:
http://cntrl.sourceforge.net/

Sense/Stage – low cost, open source wireless sensor infrastructure live performance interactive rt environments

Marco Donnarumma — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:24:13 +0000

Chronotopia Detail | Christopher Salter | 2009

Surfing through Linux Audio Conference LAC 2010 schedule, I just found this really interesting paper by Marije Baalman, Christopher Salter, Harry Smoak, Vincent De Belleval, Brett Bergmann, Joseph Malloch, Joseph Thibodeau, Marcelo M. Wanderley from Montreal, Canada.
The paper is titled Sense/Stage – low cost, open source wireless sensor and data sharing infrastructure for live performance and interactive realtime environments .

If you’re interested in real-time interactive environments for live performance you should definitely read the paper and watch on-line the video of the presentation.
Good work!

Arduino gets lighter and flexible

Marco Donnarumma — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:06:48 +0000

Arduino gets flexible, yes, indeed. Just read this news through Dorbot ALBA mailing list, so I thought to share the few info I found through this article on MAKE magazine.
What you see in the picture is an experimentation of an Arduino-compatible board on flexible printed circuit (FPC) material, developed in this same moment by the folks at Seeed Studio.

The material insulating the circuit is very similar to the traditional one, except for his flexibility. This means you would be able to bend and change the shape of your Arduino board.
You can view a complete list of feature at Seeed Studio website.
This is not a final product, folks are working on the production of few prototypes to give out to some lucky, want-absolutely-to-try-that guys who will propose interesting usage of the new hardware… well, it doesn’t look so hard anymore.

Pure Data Intro Workshop, 15-16th July, Electron Club, Glasgow

Marco Donnarumma — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:34:42 +0000

__PURE DATA WORKSHOP__

Thursday 15th and Friday 16th July 2010, 3pm-7pm

Electron Club
CCA – Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD

Electron Club presents an introduction to Pure Data, a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing.

Pure Data is the third major branch of the family of patcher programming languages known as Max originally developed by Miller Puckette and company at IRCAM. Pd is free multi-platform software.

This two day workshop will bring participants through the basic idioms of dataflow, real-time audio and visual processing and networking. It is lead by Edinburgh based new media artists Marco Donnarumma and Ioann Maria.

What:

Participants will learn how to communicate with Pd and surf through the audio and visual processing objects libraries. Together we’ll build basic processing audio and video structures and discover tricks and tips to create our own performance tool.

No previous programming experience is needed.

A sample of the workshop program can be viewed online at:

http://marcodonnarumma.com/teaching/pd-aka-pure-data-intro/

Who for:

Musicians, producers, live visualists, film-makers, programmers, sound designers or passionates of digital arts or electronic music and experimentation who wants to enhance and extend their skills and tools will find this workshop inspirational for the further development of their works and creative ideas, free from the limitations of user-friendly and proprietary software.

When & Where:

Thursday 15th and Friday 16th July 2010, 3pm-7pm
Electron Club
CCA – Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD

How:

The workshops are free, but participation is limited to 20 people. To register a place, please send an email giving some info on your interests and current knowledge of Pure Data to:

pd [at] electronclub [dot] org

Participants should bring their laptops with Pure Data installed.
The most recent Pure Data stable release can be found online at:

http://puredata.info/downloads

We also encourage people to bring sensors, USB game controllers, cameras, photo cameras, webcams, microphones, sensors, MIDI Devices.
We’ll learn by experimenting!

Instructors:

Marco Donnarumma is an independent new media artist, teacher, composer and performer. The understanding and the deconstruction of the semantic relation models among nature, man and technology is the main focus in his artistic research. The aim of his work is to highlight the communicativeness of human action through the use of self-designed responsive systems and physical computing technologies. His audiovisual real-time performances, interactive participative installations and electroacoustic compositions have been exhibited and performed in 19 countries across South America, Europe and Asia. He is a MA Professor of Sound Design for Sensitive Environment with FLOSS at LABA – Brescia Academy of Fine Arts, Italy. He is a researcher at FLxER.net and member of the board of directors of Live Performers Meeting, an international gathering of new media artists.

http://marcodonnarumma.com

Ioann Maria – new media artist, instructor, filmmaker, live video performer.
An active member of FLxER team and Dorkbot Alba -people doing strange things of electricity-, an organizer of LPM Live Performers Meeting – the world’s biggest annual meeting dedicated to live video performance. With her wide background in multimedia arts, she now works with new media technologies and interactive arts, exploring new possibilities in creative artistic-scientific demonstration. In her recent solo and collaborative projects she investigates the issues of physical computing and human-computer interaction. Being passionate about numbers, she’s particularly interested in linking the pure mathematical understanding with the beautiful sensation of experiencing sound and image in the new coherent audio-visual artistic expression.

http://ioannmaria.com

__ELECTRON CLUB__

The Electron Club is a voluntary run space where people interested in things like free open source software, circuit bending, hardware hacking, computer recycling, streaming, audio and video editing, green technologies, and amateur radio can meet, use equipment, and share and disseminate their skills and ideas.
All are welcome.

http://www.electronclub.org

Open Source Hardware User Group meeting #3

Marco Donnarumma — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 11:06:54 +0000

via Openlab list

:: Open Source Hardware User Group meeting #3 ::
:: Thursday 1st July 2010, London SW1 ::

For the third Open Source Hardware User Group meeting we’ll be asking the question “what factors contribute to the success of an open source hardware project?”, and using Arduino and derivatives LilyPad Arduino and the concurrency.cc board as the basis for the discussion.

There will be presentations on:

- Current Cost Bridge – an Arduino based, hackable consumer device

The Current Cost Bridge was developed using the open-source Arduino platform. The reason for using Arduino, was to speed up the development process of the bridge, allowing for fast prototyping and producing a hackable device.

http://www.currentcost.com/product-bridge.html

- Concurrency.cc – parallel programming for makers and artists

The concurrency.cc project describes itself as “a group of educators and researchers exploring the development of tools that make parallel programming more accessible to more people. Our hope is that concurrency.cc will serve the community of developers surrounding parallel and concurrent languages on the Arduino and other low-cost embedded platforms.”

http://concurrency.cc/

- LilyPad – an Arduino based platform for wearables and e-textiles

The LilyPad Arduino is a microcontroller, plus a set of sewable electronic components designed so they can be put together to create interactive wearables or textiles based artworks. There is quite a range of components such as LEDS, sensors, buzzer, accelerometer and more that can be connected with conductive thread. The board is based on the ATmega168V/328Vand was designed and developed by Leah Buechley and SparkFun Electronics.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/LilyPad/index.html

To register:

http://oshugsuccess.eventbrite.com/

For more info and for video from previous events:

http://oshug.org

Piksel SummerCamp Call for Participation

Marco Donnarumma — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:15:26 +0000

Skjerjehamn | Piksel SummerCamp

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this, but I warmly suggest to plan 6 days with the Pikseler’s in Norway.

via Piksel list

Piksel Summer Camp is an international gathering of artists, developers and creators working with free and open technologies, taking place at the idyllic island of Skjerjehamn outside Bergen, Norway. The program will consist of presentations, workshops and performative events proposed and organized by the participants themselves, before and during the Summer Camp.
A particular focus is set on hands-on exploration, discussion and development of tools and applications for open video editing technologies.

The call for participation is now open.
!!!! Deadline – JULY 01. 2010 !!!!

Please use our online form to register:
http://www.piksel.no/pulse/summercamp/reg10

MORE: http://www.piksel.no/pulse/summercamp

Openlab Interview on Vague Terrain online Journal

Marco Donnarumma — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:40:36 +0000

Openlab Night | Fave Dave Alex | Live coding

Just cross posting the interview with Openlab I recently curated for Vague Terrain online journal.
Tags: london and Openlab, open source distribution, tech activism, models of social organization.

Call for performers using FLOSS and recycled technology

Marco Donnarumma — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:16:37 +0000

via Pd-list:

We’re looking for audio and audio-visual artists to perform at a couple of small live sonic art events at Access Space this year. We’re particularly interested in artists who use FLOSS audio and video tools under Linux with recycled technology, and who are resident in and around South Yorkshire, UK.
Unusual approaches to diffusion and sound generation e.g. using recycled computer speakers, are welcome!

Our first event will be on the Friday 23rd of July, the second on 29th of October, and run 6pm-8.30pm.

If you are interested in the first event please email an example of your work no larger than 7 Mb or a link to a media file, a description of your proposed performance and any technical requirements to jake [at] access-space [dot] org by 21st of June 2010.
For the second event please contact us by the 31st of July 2010.

Access Space is an unusual venue for events of this kind as it is an open access media lab during the day and the technology available is all donated or recycled.

About Access Space:
Based in Sheffield city centre, Access Space is the UK’s longest running open access media lab. We have been using Open Source Software and recycled computers to develop creativity, community, skills and resourcefulness for over ten years.
We’re a place for skill sharing, artistic endeavour, creative expression and collective knowledge. Access Space has also recently announced plans for a DIY FabLab.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Linux Open Source Sound project: http://loss.access-space.org/
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

We’re looking for audio and audio-visual artists to perform at a couple of
small live sonic art events at Access Space this year. We’re particularly
interested in artists who use FLOSS audio and video tools under Linux with
recycled technology, and who are resident in and around South Yorkshire, UK.

Unusual approaches to diffusion and sound generation e.g. using recycled
computer speakers, are welcome!

Our first event will be on the Friday 23rd of July, the second on 29th of
October, and run 6pm-8.30pm.

If you are interested in the first event please email an example of your
work no larger than 7 Mb or a link to a media file, a description of your
proposed performance and any technical requirements to
jake@access-space.orgby 21st of June 2010.
For the second event please contact us by the 31st of July 2010.

Access Space is an unusual venue for events of this kind as it is an open
access media lab during the day and the technology available is all donated
or recycled.

About Access Space:
Based in Sheffield city centre, Access Space is the UK’s longest running
open access media lab. We have been using Open Source Software and recycled
computers to develop creativity, community, skills and resourcefulness for
over ten years.
We’re a place for skill sharing, artistic endeavour, creative expression and
collective knowledge. Access Space has also recently announced plans for a
DIY FabLab.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Linux Open Source Sound project: http://loss.access-space.org/
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Live Performers Meeting 2010 First Pics Online

Marco Donnarumma — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:56:26 +0000

We would like to thank all of you for participating in LPM 2010, also this year your contribution has been fundamental to the excellent success of the meeting.
We are collecting videos and pictures of the event to start working on the next LPM 2011 edition. Some pics are online now!

http://www.liveperformersmeeting.net/2010/en/gallery/

I C::ntr::l Nature 3.0 @ Mapping festival 2010

Marco Donnarumma — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:45:20 +0000

MAPPING Festival
in collaboration with Live Performers Meeting
present:

I C::ntr::l Nature 3.0
7 May – 01:00 > 02:00
Spoutnik / Usine

Third and final version of the audiovisual live concert by Marco Donnarumma aka TheSAD premiered in 2009 at Némo Festival and performed at Pure Data Convention in Brasil, amongst other venues.

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

Besides FLxER Team, with Gianluca Del Gobbo, Ioann Maria and Marco Donnarumma, will hold a two days flash vjing workshop, introducing the latest version of FLxER, free flash-based software for vjing and multimedia live mixing.

Performance info:
http://marcodonnarumma.com/works/i-cntrl-nature/
http://www.mappingfestival.ch/2010/

Workshop info:
http://marcodonnarumma.com/teaching/flxer-flash-vjing/
http://flxer.net

Hope to see you there!

Golden Shield Music

Marco Donnarumma — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:57:15 +0000

Originally posted on Vague Terrain

According to Wikipedia the Golden Shield, sometimes referred to as the “Great Firewall of China” is a censorship and surveillance project operated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) division of the Communist government of China. The project started in 1998 and began operations in November of 2003. It involves the massive use of web technologies such as IP (Internet Protocol address, a computer’s network address) blocking, DNS filtering and redirection, URL filtering, Packet filtering, Connection reset to censor specific contents—mostly, but not only, political or historical subjects—through web search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Msn (Google has of course recently bypassed the Golden Shield – users landing on google.cn are automatically redirected to uncensored Google Hong Kong google.com.hk). Since such serious censorship is ignored by many, a clever and immediate way to improve the visibility of this issue is to explore it through art.

Golden Shield Music collects the IP address of the twelve sites that are most screened by the Golden Shield to create an automated MIDI polyphonic synthesizer. Following a few basic rules, IP addresses are translated in notes formed by several voices. Resulting notes are ordered by the amount of pages the Golden Shield obscured for each IP address. This process yields the so-called “Golden Shield music”, a generative composition for eight audio channels that sits somewhere between net.art and sound art. Data organizes the musical notation, establishing an abstract relationship between Internet information and musical algorithms which sounds harmonious and “handcrafted”.

Detailed information about the piece (and an audio excerpt) are available here. This software will be released soon under a GPL license for public use and modification.

If you happen to be in ReykjavÌk on May 20-22, you are welcome to join us at Pikslaverk Festival 2010. The piece will be played through a multi-channel setup and I will present a talk about the project – provided the volcano is merciful. [editor's note: related schedule here]

3.0 audio visual excerpt of I C::ntr::l Nature

Marco Donnarumma — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:02:31 +0000

Some time ago I published this new, brief excerpt of the final version of the audiovisual concert I C::ntr::l Nature. See the video below.

The performance is based on the self-designed software C::NTR::L, developed in the Pure Data graphical environment and available for download here. Performance was recorded live at roBOT Festival September 2009 in Bologna, Italy, camera by Carlotta Piccinini - Visual_Lab.

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

Thesaddj.com is changing…

Marco Donnarumma — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:47:02 +0000

Just a quick note. If you landed on this website looking for my personal works or biography, you won’t find those pages here anymore. They have been updated and moved in my new on-line portfolio at http://marcodonnarumma.com.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but readers of thesaddj.com blog has increased, thus I decided to create a separate website for my artistic research. Thesaddj.com will maintain only the blogging activity always focusing on free, open source culture, art works, events and news.

New virtual existence and on-line portfolio

Marco Donnarumma — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:36:01 +0000

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.

That’s how I discovered that having a safe place where to share your thoughts and experience makes really feel good.
Today most of the people who visit this website think it is an on-line magazine or a net-label and although this made me somehow glad of an unexpected result, I felt the need to create a new virtual place for my personal research and works… namely a more boring place where I could exhibit an officially boring portfolio and other similar stuff.

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:

http://marcodonnarumma.com/

Any feedback is welcome, enjoy your visit and expect more news soon.

Pure Data for Live Media workshop Cagliari Conservatory

Marco Donnarumma — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:32:24 +0000

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…

Live Performers Meeting 2010, Rome

Marco Donnarumma — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:13:30 +0000

LPM 2010 – LIVE PERFORMERS MEETING
LIVE VIDEO PERFORMERS, VISUAL ARTISTS AND VJ MEETING
27 28 29 30 May – Rome

LPM – Live Performers Meeting: international meeting of live video performers, visual artists and vjs is back with a new 8th edition.

Rome 2009 edition, registered the presence of 362 artists from Italy, Portugal, France, Germany, Canada, Hungary, United Kingdom, Poland, Spain, Uruguay, Latvia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Mexico, Greece, Denmark, United States, Austria, Australia, Turkey. During four days, 289 performances, workshops and showcases gave life to the 900 square meters of Brancaleone, setup with 15 projectors and screens.

For the second consecutive year, LPM takes place in an exclusive location, the long-standing Brancaleone that with its structure, perfectly fit the growing needs of a meeting which year after year has definitely broadened its range of contents, artists and audience.

The new edition is coming soon, and we only miss your contribution!

For the LPM 2010 themes, along with further background infos, check the ‘concept’ page on the LPM homepage:

http://www.liveperformersmeeting.net/2010/en/concept/

LPM 2010 maintains the spirit of a meeting, which has been its main characteristic since the very first edition. It is conceived to be a place for comparison and exchange of informations and ideas, experimentation is one of the founding elements of its ideology. LPM is a non-profit organization, every gained fund is invested back to support the research and development of the live visual field.

Subscription to join LPM is FREE and is open since now until the 10th of April, 2010. For further details about subscription, check the “participate” webpage:

http://www.liveperformersmeeting.net/2010/en/participate/

Please check out the LPM website for further informations about this edition and to surf through the archive of previous editions: http://www.liveperformersmeeting.net

The LPM team is ready to answer your questions, and hope you can come to Rome and contribute: its going to be the best edition ever!

LPM is produced by Flyer Communication www.flyer.it, organized by www.flxer.net, www.linux-club.org, and FLV http://livevisuals.flyer.it, thanks to the corporation of our international partners.

MA Sound Design with Pure Data and more

Marco Donnarumma — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:20:00 +0000

Here I am, back in Italy for some time. Next week I’ll be teaching the first lesson of a course in Sound Design for sensitive environment at LABA, Brescia Academy of Fine Arts. The course is included in the study program of a Master of Art in New Media and New Technology for Art.
Along with the usual sound design techniques the course includes excursions in soundscape studies and sound art. Students use only free software for audio real-time processing and interactive sonification such as Pure Data graphical programming environment.
The LABA MA also includes courses held by Massimo Banzi (Tinker.it/Arduino), Otolab, Luca Carrubba.

When Davide Anni, department director at LABA, contacted me a while ago, I was positively surprised by his strong wish to bring free software inside the university program. His efforts did not start only recently, in fact the Academy already uses a free-software-based Wi-fi Internet connection, computers running Linux flavour are available to the students and events and workshop about FLOSS world take place on a regular basis, last event AgitMedia included a conference by Richard Stallman, Arduino and Pure Data workshop.

I imagine this is probably nothing new to my international readers, but I can confirm it represents a promising exception to the hyper-conservative rule of today Italian universities, especially in this time while Italy and its culture seems to be falling in an endless black hole.
I am looking forward to start this venture and I hope to publish patches, files and texts along the way, to document this experience… so watch this space.

Report PureData workshop AgitMedia Italy

Marco Donnarumma — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:01:01 +0000

I just came back from Brescia where I held a two-days PureData workshop. Our class featured 16 students from North Italy and for almost all of them was the first time they get their hands dirty with a graphical programming environment.
I introduced the Pd language, therefore we went through an introduction to sound creation with sonic dataflow processes.

The most interesting aspect of the workshop has been to open up the student’s minds to the unknown field of free creation. Some of them were already doing music and few experiments in sound with proprietary softwares, but none of them was actually aware of the potential of a free environment for sound design and music production and the completely different approach it requires.

Their reactions has been diverse, but in general most of them were pretty excited about the idea to be – so unexpectedly – free to practically draw on a canvas the ideas they had in their mind. One becomes aware that he doesn’t have to do what Ableton or Reason tell one can do, instead one can take over these closed paths and re-think from scratch his own concept of “creation”.

These two days were only the first half of the whole workshop we planned together with Husk (Italian Pd developer and hacktivist). On 5 and 6 December he’s going to introduce the Pd video libraries, i.e. GEM, PDP and Gridflow. In the end of the four days participants should have a basic, solid knowledge about Pd environment and hopefully some of them will bring forward the project they started during the course.

Special thanks to Davide Anni and Anna Guzzi (Ualuba Association and LABA) for their awesome hospitality and their great efforts in making this workshop happen. Unfortunately most of the italian educational institutions still seems to be allarmingly blind towards open/free tools for artistic creation, even though they are nowadays commonly used by many artists in different fields of research. I hope someone “up there” will finally open his eyes from now on, setting italian students free to learn.

Piksel Festival 2009 Bergen

Marco Donnarumma — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:24:39 +0000

via Piksel mailing list:

Piksel09 :: f[re](e){op}[en]able

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Piksel09 :: festival
November 19-22 2009

Piksel09 :: exhibition
Nov. 20/09 – Jan. 10/10
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

We are also changing the world!

- the 7th annual Piksel festival for
- Electronic Art and Technological Freedom is on!
- in Bergen, Norway

—> Get inspired by Exhibitions
—> Get amazed by LIVEart performances
—> Get wiser through Seminars
—> Get sustained by Workshops

Biohacking, DIY Electronics, open hardware, free software, circuit
bending, process art, computer vision, multitouch, noise,
alternative interfaces, live animation, sound art, light installation,
LED art, code poetry, VGA hacking

Programme:

EXHIBITIONS @ Galleri 3,14, Lydgalleriet –
http://piksel.no/p09/_exhibition

David Elliott, Pall Thayer, Paul Klotz, Andreas Muxel, Martin Hesselmeier,
Susanna Katharina Hertrich, Marie-Julie Bourgeois, Michael Day, Arjan
Scherpenisse, Ben Woodeson, Angie Atmadjaja, Gijs Gieskes, Carlos Tricas,
Wolfgang Spahn, Thomas Gerwin, Ricardo Oliveira Nascimento,Ebru Kurbak,
Fabiana Shizue, Dream Addictive, Carmen González, Leslie García, Arnfinn
Killingtveit, Wendy Ann Mansilla, Jordi Puig

PRESENTATIONS @ Bergen Kunstmuseum/Stenersen –
http://piksel.no/p09/Presentations

ToonLoop, Virtual Entity, REBUNTU, The Art of Seduction OR Practical Jedi
Mindtricks OR Escaping the Matrix, Microcodes, Re-ware, Milkymist, Noise &
Capitalism, Open Source Software Tools for creativity, Pure Data Rhythm & Bass
Machine, Gate peepin’, The Hijmans van den Bergh building installation, OHANDA
– Open Hardware and Design Alliance, Flock, _oneliner, Respirator, Py-Cessing,
APODIO, Multi-Touch 360, Open Artistic Production

LIVE PERFORMANCES @ Landmark, Tårnsalen & NøsteBoden –
http://piksel.no/p09/live-events

Action Potential, KUNST UND MUSIK MIT DEM TAGESLICHTPROJEKTOR, Noise invaders,
DC12V ::Teatrino Elettrico::, Paper Cut Tales, Colour Projections, Mouth(s)’
lecture(s), Mattin, d.R.e.G.S., noish_VS_automata, Souffles I, He boxed
regularly and was strong and very brave and always a perfect gentleman,
Psychoid, MSST, Andy Bolus, The DIY drone synthesizer, Respirator, [i/o],
THENOISER VS ZERO POINT ENERGY

WORKSHOPS @ Nøstegate 42 & PikselHut –
http://piksel.no/p09/Workshops

W.O.M. – Workshop Osc Machine, LP Atari Punk Console, The DIY drone
synthesizer, Qeve – Free your visuals, Hackteria | bioelectronix for artists,
Navalha – handcrafted hardware/software audio performance interface, CHAOSLAB,
ToonLoop Live Animation Workshop, Enhancing Pure Data Interactivity with
Computer Vision (Open CV), Building simple analogue light-controlled
theremins, VGA Signals: an introduction

–

more info and complete programme:
http://piksel.no/p09
_______________________________________________________________

Piksel09 is supported by The Norwegian Art Council, Bergen Municipality,
Hordaland County Council, Nordic Culture Fund, Nordic Cultur Point, PNEK, BKK
and OCA.

OUTRO STREAM: FREE AS IN ART!
————————————————–
Piksel is an international event for artists and developers working with
Free/Libre and Open Source technologies in artistic practice.
Part workshop, part festival, it is organised in Bergen, Norway, and
involves participants from more than a dozen countries exchanging ideas,
coding, presenting art and software projects, doing workshops, performances
and discussions on the aesthetics and politics of FLOSS & art.
————————————————–

BLOG www.piksel.no
TECH www.piksel.org
WIKI www.piksel.no/pwiki
IRC #piksel (irc.freenode.net)
LISTS www.piksel.no/pwiki/MailingLists

Agit Media – Pure Data workshop real time audiovisual processing

Marco Donnarumma — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:03:39 +0000

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 event is structured with multiple happenings focused on digital creation with free and softwares: speech with Richard Stallman, Davide Tanzj, Melih Bilgil, Dvasgamerteam, an interactive intervention by Sapolab, plus our Pure Data and Arduino workshops (with Massimo Banzi).

The Pure Data class is dedicated to professional musicians, videomakers or passionate with no previous experience in programming includes a 4-days in-depth exploration of the audio and video dataflow and processing for the creation of live media works.
On 21-22 November I will talk about Pd and its community, later I’ll introduce the audio objects and the most common idioms for sonic processing. Therefore together with the participants we will build up a collaborative sonic laboratory, creating simple processes ( i.e. real-time audio synthesis, custom processing strctures, sequencers and sample players) which will be then implemented in the structure of a couple of more complex softwares.

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.

Program:

21-22 November (Audio – Marco Donnarumma)

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

The feedback to the call for the workshop has been really great – we had to increase the number of participants to 20 – and at the moment only 8 places are still available. Subscription costs 30 euro for students and 60 euro for professionals, if you wish to catch the last positions available please write to info at ualuba.org.
More infos: Ualuba.org

Looking forward to meet some of you there!

Interview on Linux Audio Italy

Marco Donnarumma — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:08:06 +0000

I just released an interview for Linux Audio Italy podcast. I had a pleasant conversation with Becks – the mind behind the GNU blog and podcast - about my work and Pure Data, recent projects and the Pd Convention in Brasil. The interview will be broadcasted today at 21.00 (repeated on 13 Oct at 00.00), but you can download the whole podcast here http://gnufunk.org/node/44.

Unfortunately dialogues are only in italian, but you can always listen to some excellent open source music. For my italian readers… be sure to browse the numerous contents of the blog, you will find many interesting news about open source production and techniques.

Live Media Updates Sept09

Marco Donnarumma — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:34:14 +0000

I just created kind of online newsletter where to keep you updated about upcoming events and where to collect all the articles from the past months, if you feel like you lost something.

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

This page does not substitute the normal newsletter you receive once every two months, but is just a less invasive way to inform more people about what is going in the lab.

Thanks!

Aymeric Mansoux, Marloes de Valk – FLOSS+Art

Marco Donnarumma — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:33:35 +0000

Neural.it reviews on FLOSS+Art, a (free and open source) book which everyone interested in digital arts should read.

via: Neural.it

“Mute Publishing Ltd, ISBN 978-1906496180, UK, 2009, English
Advocacy of FLOSS model in culture is a nodal strategy for change, and is important to keep in mind what the two editors Aymeric Mansoux and Marloes de Valk state in the introduction: “software industry no longer sells software: it sells licenses.” Starting from here their proposed path through all the art-related issues of free software results as a rich end empowering experience.
The collection of essays is the most exhaustive ever published including the analysis of FLOSS and music, video, theatre, graphic design, typography, libraries, licenses, live coding, you name it. This dense book with twenty-four authors is really not an apology of FLOSS models for the sake of an ideological battle. On the contrary, for example, the needed open mind and will to switch operating system, plus the consequent investment of personal time, is not underestimated. But the amount of analysis, practices and stimuli emerging while reading is amazing as a whole new world discovery.
Among the others the book includes the seminal Transmediale award winner text “All Problems of Notation Will be solved by the Masses: Free Open Form Performance, Free/Libre Open Source Software and Distributive Practice” by Simon Yuill, that exemplary and critically analyze the FLOSS paradigm through history and philosophy enhancing its fundamental freedom of production quality.
So it’s a sort of manifesto, chorally written sometimes reflecting the same FLOSS defects (redundancy and enthusiasm) and its unmatchable virtues, but giving serious hope for its pervading potential in every art sector.”

Report Pure Data Workshop, Gotland University, Sweden

Marco Donnarumma — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:16:29 +0000

Here you are the photo report from the Pure Data workshop i held with Deftoo at Gotland University, Institute for Technology, Art and New Media in Sweden.

It has been an intensive experience, 10 participants, 2 days, 16 hours and a lot of lab sessions.

I had the pleasure to show the potential and the basic dataflow strategies of Pure Data to the professors of the wellknown swedish Game Development & Design department, infact the workshop was focused on real-time audiovisual processing for Game Development and Narrative Media.

Special thanks to Iwona Hrynczenko for organization and to UlfBen for additional pictures

Click here to see the photo gallery: http://www.thesaddj.com/pics/

PureData Workshop July Sweden

Marco Donnarumma — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:00:43 +0000

I’m finally going to the North, can’t wait!
I will be holding a Pure Data Workshop together with Deftoo at the Gotland University – Institute for Technology, Art and New Media – in Sweden.

It will be an intensive workshop (mostly for who doesn’t have any previous experience in graphical programming) and it foresees a theoric introduction and much, much laboratory work.

The workshop will be focused on GEM (the most used Pd video library), Sonic Art, Audiovisualism, Human-Computer Interaction.
The aim will be to create intermediate knowledge about the production of contents and tools exploiting audiovisual real-time processing in an open-source enviroment, in order to apply this techniques and/or contents to Game Design, Narrative and Time-based Media.

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

Infos
Pure Data Workshops: ../workshops-training-courses-youth-projects/#live_av

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

Pure Data: http://puredata.info/

Pd-extended 0.41.4 released!

Marco Donnarumma — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:40:38 +0000

via: Pd Mailing list

Even if with a bit of delay, i’m glad to report this news.

<< image http://delcorp.org/abbadingo/

Its done and available for download. This release is focused on lots of usability enhancements and bug fixes. There are some new features in the core and in the many included libraries.

http://puredata.org/downloads/

Here’s the rough changelog:

- fixed strict-aliasing build problems with cyclone, iemlib, bsaylor, and sigpack
- added/fixed “Next Window” menu item and key binding (Cmd-` on Mac OS X)
- lots of usability fixes and improvements
- removed all external binaries from package, you can get them here:
http://puredata.info/docs/faq/how-do-i-download-the-flext-binaries-that-used-to-be-included-in-pd-extended
- changed to GPL v3
- fixed paths that used the same image for Gem examples
- fixed paths to example images in Gem help
- libdirs now load properly when using [import]/[declare] to load a
libdir outside of the sys_libdir (i.e. extra) into the canvas-local
namespace
- single [output~] that works everywhere
- improved Max Text file (.pat) importing and exporting and added
the ability to handle .mxt files, and binary .mxb and .help files
- added cyclone “maxmode” libraries to cyclone. To use them,
load the cyclone, library, then create [maxmode/cyclone] or
[maxmode/maxmode].
- updated VBAP from 0.9.9 to 1.0.3
- fixed bug in VBAP that cause CPU spike
- bug fixes and clean up of [hid]? externals
- (GNU/Linux) Free Desktop file associations and mime types for
Pd and Max/MSP files
- (GNU/Linux) fixed font size issue when using Tcl/Tk 8.5
- (GNU/Linux) fixed Help Browser when using Tcl/Tk 8.5
- (GNU/Linux) built against libv4l on Debian/testing,
Ubuntu/intrepid, Ubuntu/jaunty, and Fedora 9
- (Debian/Ubuntu) fixed /etc/init.d/pd script to be standards-compliant
- (Ubuntu) lpia builds for Ubuntu Netbook Remix
- (Mac OS X) reduced default audio buffers to 20ms
- (Mac OS X) fixed exit logic
- (Mac OS X) fixed issue with app builder. You can now create apps without replacing an existing one.
- (Mac OS X) upgraded to libquicktime 1.1.1 and ffmpeg 0.4.20071217
- (Windows) moocow/pdstring externals now included
- (Windows) increased default audio buffer for Window to 100ms since there are some really flaky audio cards in Windows land

KNOWN BUGS
———-

Check http://puredata.info/dev/bugtracker before reporting bugs,
and if you find an existing bug report on the same issue, please
add your information there.

- Tcl/Tk 8.5 support is a bit rough, and IEM GUI fonts aren’t quite right under 8.5
- Escape, Enter, and Ctrl/Cmd-W don’t close the Path and Startup preferences
- pdp_opengl is alpha and will definitely crash Pd
- loading pdp_opengl will crash Pd if X11 is not open before trying to load it
- (Mac OS X) Using Jack can cause extra CPU usage at idle
- (Windows) installer won’t replace existing installs

S-Block Festival – Advanced Music and Live Audiovisual Art

Marco Donnarumma — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:07:20 +0000

I’ve been invited to participate to the first edition of S-Block Festival - international festival of Advanced Music, Audiovisual Art and Performances - at Interventionsraum in the centre of Stuttgart, DE.

The festival will take place on 19-20 June and will showcase many different projects of experimental music, live videos and neo-theather, highlighting the soulful artistic local scene plus guest international artists.

I’ll perform ‘I C::ntr::l Nature’ solo audiovisual performance for augmented E-bass guitar - recently performed at NEMO festival in Paris and Ausklang Festival in Hamburg. The performance is powered by the self-designed software C::NTR::L (released as public beta version with GPL license infos here).

I’m glad to come back to Stuttgart with this project because last year i performed its first demo version exactly there in Stuttgart during the monthly Max.Experimentell event and it has been an hyper-stimulating experience for the further developments of the performance.

I highly recomend to join this event since it’s going to be a new important mirror of the most recent researches in Live and Mixed Media.