Adventures in Electrostatic

Last week for NIME I completed my first fully working prototype of the yet-to-be-named plate spinning instrument. My sensing strategy for both the individual plate IDs and rotation has changed greatly since their initial inception. At first I had planned on using computer vision to get the rotational and ‘fingerprint’ data from the individual plates, but after trying several different algorithms, the frame rate proved too slow for the fine grained data I wanted… So next I leapt into the hardware world. In the very beginning I assumed I would be using hardware for data collection, but decided to try the CV stuff because it would allow me to divorce the sensing from the physical stick setup… Read more »

Presentation

For some reason plate spinning got into my head as my method of performance. There is something really physical and chaotic with plate spinning that is like a magic show. Never do I get nervous when watching a guitar player on stage… mistakes do not seem as eminent or catastrophic—and that is an interesting aspect to bring to the stage, catastrophe. Read more »

What kind of music do I want to make for NIME?
Well I thought about it and came up with a hybrid answer: blues and The Books mixed together… see the two links below for examples.

Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughn
Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again by The Books

I know… maybe a little hard to imagine, but I think there is something about the off-beats and human-ness of the two. I really like when, in blues for example, the beat strays and comes right back on, esp. when coupled with build up from the rest of the band. Also, with The Books’ music, I seem to really enjoy the samples they use that involve folk music and speech that is just slightly off kilter with the beat.

To translate that to my NIME project, I think that means sample that may stray and reconnect, possibly controlled by my human hand? We will see.

Well lemme tell ya:

I wake up to the sound of music; I used to have one of those alarm clocks that starts with a loud blaring beep and continues until you slam/snooze it off… but then I wised up. Now I wake up to a track from my iTunes Library that gradually gets louder; and I have to tell you, much much better. The only down side is some songs I like have been subconsciously tainted with the feeling of waking up (which for me is not a good one), I can’t really listen to Anthony and the Johnsons (for instance) without thinking about 8am.

After the morning, almost every non-thinking moment of my life is taken up by a song rolling through my head; its always been that way, I remember in art class when I was little I got in trouble for ‘humming too loud’ when the class was drawing. I walk around with a song/lyrics in my head and often let it come out. Those of you who encounter me on a daily basis have I’m sure been victim to a random song lyric directed to you, for instance “sense you been goooooooooone.”