This weekend the Music Hackspace Ensemble team will join a programme of artists, performers, composers and technologists to present the Cave of Sounds installation as part of the Digital Art & Performance Weekender exhibition at Watermans Arts Centre.

When: 12pm-8pm Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd of November, 12pm-5pm Sunday 3rd of November. (Cave of Sounds only).

Where: Watermans, 40 High St, Brentford, Middlesex TW8 0DS ‎, 5 min from Kev Gardens tube station (District Line).

Entrance: Cave of Sounds installation is free to attend. See full programme to buy tickets for the events marked with a *.

The exhibition focuses around intersections and collaborations of artists through performance, dance, sound, technology and more! The weekend will include interactive and immersive installations and performances, sound and dance and choreography.

Cave of Sounds is an interactive sound installation created by artist in residence Tim Murray-Browne with members of the Music Hackspace. It’s the outcome of the Ensemble project, exploring what it means to hack new musical interfaces together. Join us and take part in an interactive sound installation through a circle of networked instruments. Created through Sound and Music’s Embedded Composer in Residence programme with the Music Hackspace. With support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Arts Council England.

The Cave of Sounds is created by Tim Murray-Browne with Dom Aversano, Sus Garcia, Wallace Hobbes, Daniel Lopez, Tadeo Sendon, Panagiotis Tigas and Kacper Ziemianin. caveofsounds.com 

Special thanks for support to Duncan Chapman, Atau Tanaka, Hannah Bujic, Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, Martin Klang, Nick Sherrard, The Centre for Creative Collaboration, Troyganic, Queen Mary University of London and Mind The Film.

 

Join us with sound sculptor Ranjit Bhatnagar, next Thursday 24th of October. Ranjit Bhatnagar will present his project entitled Singing Room for a Shy Person, an interactive sound installation, commissioned by Métamatic Research Initiative and being exhibited, along with nine other MRI commissions, at the Tinguely Museum in Basel.

When: Thursday 24th of October 2013, 7.30pm
Where: Troyganic, 132 Kingsland Road, Hoxton, London
Entrance: Free

Singing Room for a Shy Person is and installation that consists of a sound-isolating booth, in which visitors can go, seal themselves off from the world, and sing, recite, blabber, or whatever they want.  On the outside of the booth, a set of computer-controlled musical instruments interprets their voice in a rickety, mechanical way.  “The installation is a way for a shy person to perform for an audience, in an odd sort of way, without revealing themselves too much. It’s software runs with Max/MSP, doing a fairly simple spectral analysis to extract peak frequencies from the singer’s voice, and sending them back off. The instruments are all controlled via MIDI, using note on and note off commands to activate various solenoids and motors”.

Ranjit Bhatnagar is a sound sculptor who works with technology, language, and found materials to create interactive installations and musical instruments. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Ranjit received a BA from U.C. Berkeley and an MS from the University of Pennsylvania. His works have been exhibited across the United States and Europe, and have appeared in performances as far from New York as Shanghai. As part of an ongoing annual project, he creates a new homemade musical instrument each day of the month during February: the Instrument-a-day project, which is now in its sixth year. He has also worked with the art collectives Flux Factory and Rabid Hands to build a large-scale installation at the Palais de Tokyo Museum in Paris this summer.

More info: http://moonmilk.com/

Join us this Thursday with performer, sound artist and teacher Marco Donnarumma. Marco will present Xth Sense, a biophysical instrument that amplifies the muscle sounds of the human body and uses these as musical material and control data.”When a performer contracts any muscle, low frequency sound are produced. By capturing these sounds with a microphone embedded in the Xth Sense sensor and live sampling them with a computer you get music in real time.”

When: Thursday 17th of October 2013, 7.30pm
Where: Troyganic, 132 Kingsland Road, Hoxton, London
Entrance: Free

Marco Donnarumma performing Music for Flesh II with Xth Sense| Interactive music performance for enhanced body (Xth Sense) from Marco Donnarumma.

 

Marco Donnarumma was born in Italy and is currently based in London. He is a PhD student at Goldsmiths, University of London, funded by the European Research Council and supervised by Prof. Atau Tanaka and Dr. Matthew Fuller. Marco looks at the collision of critical creativity with humanized technologies. He is known for his body-based performance works and creates custom open biotechnologies and physical interactive systems. He is a Harvestworks Creativity + Technology = Enterprise Fellow (New York, US) with support by the Rockefeller Foundation.

In the past 3 years, Marco has performed over 100 concerts and spoken in 50 countries including US and South America, Europe, India, China, South Korea and Australia. His works have been selected at leading art events (ISEA, Venice Biennale, WRO Biennale), specialized festivals and venues (FILE, Panorama, EMPAC, New York Electronic Arts Festival, Sonorities, Némo, Mapping, Piksel, Re-New, Laboral) and major academic conferences (NIME, ICMC, Pure Data Convention, Linux Audio Conference @ Stanford CCRMA, SICMF). He curated a comprehensive journal publication on biotech and performing arts entitled Biotechnological Performance Practice (eContact! 14.2). His writings have appeared in the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (MIT Press), in the book “New Art/Science Affinities” (CMU and Studio for Creative Enquiry, US), and several times in specialised conference proceedings.

His biophysical system, the Xth Sense, (XS) was recently awarded the first prize in the Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition (Georgia Tech, US 2012) as the “world’s most innovative new musical instrument”. The XS was publicly launched during summer 2012 at the Scotland Music Hack Day.

His latest work “Nigredo”, a private installation for altered self-perception with Marije Baalman, was recently awarded the 2nd prize in the TransitioMX New Media Art Award (MX). He has been artists in residence at STEIM (NL), Inspace (UK), and National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance (DK). His work has been funded by the European Commission, British Council, Creative Scotland, New Media Scotland, and the Danish Arts Council. His projects have been reviewed on BBC, Reuters, Wired, RTVE, El Pais, Weave, Create Digital Music, We Make Money Not Art, Rhizome, and Digicult.

More info: http://marcodonnarumma.com/

The Cave of Sounds (project documentation) from Tim Murray-Browne on Vimeo.

This video documents the first two exhibits of the work at the Barbican 19-26 August 2013 and the Victoria and Albert Museum 21 September 2013. Check out caveofsounds.com for more details about the project and future exhibitions.

The Cave of Sounds is an interactive sound installation exploring the power of music to bind individuals together and the visceral urge to use technology to broadcast our identity. It is formed of eight original electronic instruments, each designed and created over a period of ten months by a member of London’s Music Hackspace as a personal and interactive embodiment of the ideas and mind of its creator. It was created during a Sound and Music Embedded residency with the Music Hackspace by Tim Murray-Browne working with Music Hackspace members Dom Aversano, Sus Garcia, Wallace Hobbes, Daniel Lopez, Tadeo Sendon, Alex Sonom, Panagiotis Tigas and Kacper Ziemianin.

Documentation film by Mind the Film – mindthefilm.co.uk.

Many thanks for support to Duncan Chapman, Atau Tanaka, Hannah Bujic, Nick Sherrard, Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, Martin Klang and Jenny Attwater. Embedded is funded by Esmee Fairbairn and realised with support from Arts Council England.

 

http://caveofsounds.com/

When: Thursday 3 September 2013, 7.30pm

Where: Troyganic, 132 Kingsland Road, Hoxton, London

Entrance: Free

Somehow, ten months have already passed since I started here at the Music Hackspace and my time as Embedded Composer in Residence is now complete. This Thursday, I’ll be talking at Troyganic about the outcomes of my residency and my experience here.

Nearly all my efforts during my time here have been focused on creating The Cave of Sounds, with seven regulars of the Music Hackspace. Over the past two months, we’ve toured this work to the Barbican and the V&A. On Thursday, I’ll be describing how the project developed over the residency, listening to how its sound has evolved since my last update in May and discussing what we’ve learned through recent exhibitions as well as the future of the project.

So please join us this Thursday at Troyganic. Grab a drink and some food at 7pm, the talk will begin at 7.30.

Tim Murray-Browne
Composer in Residence with Sound and Music / Music Hackspace

 

The Music Hackspace’s very own resident project Cave of Sounds will be part of the Digital Design Weekend at the V&A, an event that celebrates collaborations in digital art, design and science, including interactive installations, bacteria textiles, hacking projects, biotechnology, inventive electronics, family activities and more.

When: Saturday 21st 10.30-16.30 (Cave of Sounds only. To see the full event programme click here). 

Where: Victoria and Albert Museum, Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre. Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL ‎

Entrance: Free

Cave of Sounds is an interactive sound installation created by artist in residence Tim Murray-Browne with members of the Music Hackspace. It’s the outcome of the Ensemble project, exploring what it means to hack new musical interfaces together. Join us and take part in an interactive sound installation through a circle of networked instruments. Created through Sound and Music’s Embedded Composer in Residence programme with the Music Hackspace. With support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Arts Council England.

The Cave of Sounds is created by Tim Murray-Browne with Dom Aversano, Sus Garcia, Wallace Hobbes, Daniel Lopez, Tadeo Sendon, Panagiotis Tigas and Kacper Ziemianin. caveofsounds.com 

Special thanks for support to Duncan Chapman, Atau Tanaka, Hannah Bujic, Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, Martin Klang, Nick Sherrard, The Centre for Creative Collaboration, Troyganic, Queen Mary University of London and Mind The Film.

 

The Cave of Sounds from Tim Murray-Browne on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 

On Thursday 12th of September, we will receive the founders of two recent successful Kickstarter projects (TouchKeys and The OWL), and discuss the next phases in their project. They will share their experience at starting the project, what it’s been like during the fund raising campaign, and finally, what’s next, now that they have the money. It is an opportunity for these two projects to find support and resources among the audience, and for the audience to get insight into community entrepreneurship.

As usual, our events are free to attend and open to everyone.

As the Music Hackspace returns to its welcoming Troyganic Café in East London after a month at the Barbican, it will also be an opportunity for multiple performances following the Kickstarter seminar.

WHERE: Troyganic, 132 Kingsland Road, London (near Hoxton station)
WHEN: Thursday 12th of September, 19:30 (seminar), 21:30 (performances)

SEMINAR SPEAKERS
Andrew McPherson, who recently successfully reached his goal to fund the production of TouchKeys. Andrew raised £46k out of his £30k target. You can find the project here on Kickstarter).

Guillaume Le Nost, part of The OWL team that smashed their target of £7k with an impressive £33k funding in late July 2013. You can find the OWL project here on Kickstarter.

PERFORMANCES
From 21.30 till 00:00

21.30 Bas Vellekoop http://www.basvellekoop.com/

22.05 diarmo Live Set. www.diarmo.co.uk

22.40 Tom Webster https://soundcloud.com/tamagazzi

23.05 Doctor Benway and Lady Hackspace A/V set

and on visuals a set each
Joe Catchpole
Blanca Regina

In the interludes raxil4
with intermission machines

After a month spent at the Barbican center, to where we moved all our events and activities for the whole month of August during Hack the Barbican event (which was a great success) we are back to Troyganic and we are not slowing down!!!

WHEN: Thursday 5th of September, 7pm
WHERE: 132 Kingsland Road, London, Troyganic (in the basement). Tube: Hoxton

The first event will feature a presentation of ‘Plug + Play’ system by Neil Merry , a recent graduate from the Design Products Course at the Royal College of Art.

‘Plug + Play’ is a new way to interact with music production software. Traditionally, electronic music requires the performer to hunch behind a laptop, synthesizer or drum machine pushing buttons and twiddling knobs. Through a series of clip on sensors and interactive lights, this portable ‘toolkit’ translates on-stage actions into audio and visual effects. It bridges this gap between the static production of digital sounds and the front-of-stage energy created by live amplified instruments. Focusing on artists that cross the boundary of music producer, DJ, and live band, Plug & Play transforms a microphone stand into a dynamic music controller, a maraca into a heavy bass line or a raised hand into a pulsating synth wave.

preview video: https://vimeo.com/68624946

 

 

For the Hackthebarbican, the Material Studies group (Blanca Regina, Matthias Kispert and Andrew Riley) will conduct and play in a session/workshop of 3 hours divided in 2 explorations at the Hammerson room and at the Lake Patio, from 15:00 until 18:00. For this session we will use multiple materials as cardboard , paper, wood and plastic. Audience can became a participant in any moment. Join us and explore the sound of the materials in a playfull experience!

The Material Studies Group was formed in 2012 by Blanca
Regina, Matthias Kispert, Andrew Riley and has since created a number of workshops focused on playful collective explorations of the sounds within matter. So far, workshops have been held at Sound//Space at V22 Summer Club, at SoundFjord Gallery and Cafe Oto, with guest participants including Steve Beresford,Iris Garrelfs and Ryan Jordan among others.

Avant-garde art, be it musically, visually or performance based often appears as somewhat elitist, with a
defined hierarchy between those who create the work (the artists) and those experience it (the audience). To
people who have not had the fortune of being taught all the codes of the artform, the pieces and the settings
in which these are shown can be uncomfortable and alienating.

The Material Studies project seeks to open these experimental artforms to anyone who wishes to participate in the collective, improvised sonic exploration of various materials and objects, whether by actively working with the objects, passively absorbing the interactions of others or by expressing a response to the sonic exploration through visual or written acts.

The use of traditional instruments, terminology and tools of manipulation are avoided. Participants together develop an improvisational language based solely on the sounds that can be teased out of various everyday objects, with each session being themed around a particular material or object.

No expertise or previous experience is required, instead the sessions focus on the communicative potential of collective improvisation, where every participant needs to listen and react to everything that is happening around, where every gesture has an influence on everything else.

The underlying principle of the project is to promote a corrosion of the space between the artist-performer
and the contemplator-audience and to promote the idea that we are all valuable as artists regardless of
education or class.

Materials used to date have included wood, plastic, metal, ceramics, paper and cardboard.

More information http://www.soundfjord.org/materialstudies.htm

To celebrate 2 years of community building, this event will showcase 2 projects supported by members of the Music Hackspace, and discuss the emergence of entrepreneurship within hackerspace communities.

WHERE: Barbican Free Stage, Penthouse 4C
Ground level by the lake side
Nearest Tube: Moorgate
Entrance by Silk Street

WHEN: Thursday 29th of August, 7:00pm

PROGRAM: The OWL, TouchKeys and a Panel

The OWL: a programmable guitar pedal. This project led by Martin Klang has raised over 400% of its target on Kickstarter and is now in production. Martin had previously released limited editions of modular synthesisers. The OWL allows to program and load your own effects onto a guitar pedal. Martin will present the OWL, the process that led to its Kickstarter campaign and the next steps of the project.

TouchKeys: This project led by Andrew McPherson is currently live on Kickstarter and to this day has reached 97% of its £30k target. The TouchKeys are a DIY sensor kit for adding multi-touch sensing to any piano keyboard. Andrew will demonstrate the TouchKeys and retrace 4 years of academic research leading to his Kickstarter campaign, and the next steps of the project.

PANEL
Martin Klang and Andrew McPherson will be joined by Charles Armstrong, founder of the Trampery and producer of Hack The Barbican, for a session on hacking, entrepreneurship and communities, moderated by Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, co-founder of the Music Hackspace.