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FreeCode/FreeJazz was a great way to spend a nice day in the park! Thanks to all those who came down! :)

Fierce has written a great overview of the evening and other events that happened at the Burningham space:

The evening saw the first live performance as a collective who were complimented by the sounds from Andy Sax (recorded with plan b) who improvised a live saxophone performance that included an injection of musical tweakery and an audio that responded to the atmosphere and vibe within the space.

This performance enabled non programmers to become absorbed in the audio and visual elements from a group of individuals who have collectively transcended their developing experimentations. The evening provoked a sense of intrigue and an exchange of dialogue between an audience that was exposed to the interactions and tools that are becoming instrumental for a new generation of artists.

And for those more visually inclined Minuek shot some footage throughout the night:

More code jamming to come soon!

On Tuesday 19th April 2011 I’ll be doing some visual jamming with other local patchers at FreeCode/FreeJazz in Birmingham

MAX/MSP, VVVV, PD, Quartz Composer: Node based creation tools for a new generation of artist. Long used by artists to trigger installation pieces in galleries, these pc based junction boxes have transcended their initial intentions for the musical tweaker. Now boasting slicker interfaces and control of the raw computer hardware these multimedia engines have become a medium in their own right, letting non programmers get to grips with the digital synthesis of noise and colour on a visual level. Becoming ubiquitous with audio visual tweakery these programs can be used for closely linking sound and vision at a low level, resulting in unique and often stunning form and rhythm.

Local artists Laternist, hellocatfood, Chromatouch and Minuek have been experimenting with these tools for long enough to start performing, and this will be the first live performance using these tools as a collective.

The night will start with the digital artists performing a short set each, jamming through the second act, then slowly merging with the jazz musicians, who will finish the event off whilst the artists continue with visuals into the dusk…

Let your attendance be known here on The Facebook. Expect lots of glitchyness from myself ;-)

There’s quite a lot of other cool events happening in the Burningham space until 21st April. Head over tothe Fierce website for lotsa more details!

What Revolution? is featured in the Showcase section of issue 1.2 of Libre Graphics Magazine. The theme for this issues is Use Cases and Affordances:

Our software tools, in their affordances and potential use cases, define for us, to a certain extent, what we may and may not do. Those decisions are put in place by the people who design the tools. Together, as users, developers and all areas between the two extremes, we boil in a constantly reconfiguring sea of use possibilities, material and mental affordances.

You can find out more about the magazine through this brilliant presentation from FOSDEM 2011.

I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive from Canada, so for now the PDF will suffice. Go support the open source and free culture scene and get your copy!

I was unsatisfied with the way the default smilies on my blog were looking at me so I decided to glitch them :-)

Download them from here

These smilies were made using GlitchSVG and a bit of post-processing. To use them on your Wordpress site just replace the ones located at /wp-includes/images/smilies/ with these ones ;-)

On Thursday 17th March from 8pm I’ll be providing visuals for BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble) at SOUNDktichen Balkan Fusion at the Hare and Hounds

BiLE are a collaborative group of composers (instrumental and electroacoustic), performers and programmers who are all active members of BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre). The core group of six artists were brought together through their shared interest in live performance and desire to perform and improvise together in an interactive ensemble.

This will be my first foray into the land of live visuals and certainly not my last. I’m really excited about this as long as my computer doesn’t crash it’ll be an awesome set! Get your tickets here.