In
The Geographic Flow of Music (
arxiv), researchers Conrad Lee and Pádraig Cunningham propose a method to use data from the
last.fm API to track the world's listening habits by location and time, showing where shifts in musical tastes have originated and subsequently migrated. Results show music trends originating in smaller cities and flowing outward in unexpected ways, contradicting some assumptions in social science about larger cities being more efficient engines of (cultural) invention.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Apr 26, 2012 -
13 comments
Marc-André Hamelin composed
Circus Galop for the player piano. Performing it is impossible for a mere pair of human hands, but two people have tried to
fake it until they make it. Another has
transcribed it (or half of it, perhaps) for
one player. Often, people will run it through a MIDI sequencer of their choice, to make a
lively animation. Some have built
Arduino robots that
perform it. But, in the end, the best medium for a work this insane is the humble, yet manic
player piano (less manic, but clearer-sounding performance
here). Hamelin
himself has run his composition through one, managing to get his television host to start dancing as the closing credits fade out...
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Jan 3, 2012 -
34 comments
Animata is an open source real-time animation software, designed to create animations, interactive background projections for concerts, theatre and dance performances.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Dec 8, 2008 -
14 comments
"So, that’s my long and winding history of a little postcard from the Upper West Side of Manhattan!" Suzanne Vega
writes about writing the hit song
Tom's Diner, coping with its numerous remixes, and its part in the birth of the MP3 music compression format.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Sep 24, 2008 -
34 comments
Introduced to Western culture by the Beatles in their single
Norwegian Wood, the
sitar has featured prominently in North Indian classical music for centuries. Princeton-based computer scientist Ajay Kapur updates the instrument with his
ESitar, an audio and video controller that uses
gesture input (PDF) and
machine learning algorithms to facilitate joining the computer with Ajay in his sitar performance. Undergraduate engineering students at the University of Pennsylvania work from the other direction, building
RAVI-bot, an
award-winning, self-playing
robotic sitar (YouTube) programmed to generate music from classical
Raga scales and melodies all on its own. For those in the Philadelphia area, be sure to check out a live performance of RAVI-bot at the local
Klein Art Gallery.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Apr 19, 2007 -
32 comments
To work around the proprietary whims of digital audio software developers and laptop processor limitations during the mid- and late-1990s, a small band of technically-minded people, including the electronic musician
Blitter, pulled together in the late 1990s to engineer the open-source
OPEN DSP EZ-Kit platform, a 16-bit computer designed entirely with a focus on low cost and extensible control and DSP arithmetic capabilities. While this project and
similar commercial offerings never seemed to gain the critical mass needed to sustain long-term interest, perhaps the new
Arduino hardware project from MIT's
Processing hardware group may gain a foothold with
Processing and
Pure Data audio software hobbyists and artists alike, allowing the creative community to extend, enhance and share inventive uses of new technology. Arduino's use has
already begun in
fascinating museum installations around the world, and has become a part of this year's
SONAR and
Ars Electronica festivals.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Aug 12, 2006 -
10 comments
A video broadcast of György Ligeti's
Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes (AVI, French), with
helpful background on the controversial piece located here. For those who know French, you may also be interested in 1993's
György Ligeti: Portrait, A Documentary by Michel Follin, showing Ligeti as "the displaced cosmopolitan", through the metaphor of train ride through the European countryside. These and many other avant-garde films can be found at
Ubuweb, including features with
William Burroughs, a recent "
performance" of Cage's 4'33", and Varése and Le Corbusier's 1958 World Fair collaboration
Poême électronique, a 400-speaker soundspace installation predating
later, more experimental feedback pieces.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Jul 2, 2006 -
14 comments
