H.E.Ai.D.

We’ve opened up the composition/creation process for our Robot HEAiD to anyone willing to create an Abelton Live set or even just send us a zip of a small cohesive sound library. That’s right, you too can be the master of puppets behind a generative music piece. We’re kinda going open-source!

Just visit this URL for the full details: http://bit.ly/makemusic

This is VERY MUCH a WORKING-LIVING DOCUMENT.
This document is being created by a group and will steadily improve as the date approaches and probably beyond.

Send me your track

You can get a 14-day demo of abelton capable of saving live sets. The demo version will also allow you to play and learn without the 14 day licence, so just get that when you are ready to save. A lite licence (without sound libraries) is ~$300.

Since Steve’s brain is kept alive by his intrepit team, he has interest in their survival. One key ingredient of keeping humans alive is hydration (some of them like to keep clean too.) Here are some of the formulas we’ve used to calculate water consumption, and the method we’re using for gray water.

We’re capping at a 30 person support team. Estimating: 40 people X 7 days X 1.5 gallons per day, totaling: 420 gallons.

Plus, initial support staff of 8 people X 6 days X 1.5 gallons per day, totaling: 72 gallons.

The gnomes tell us that that 1/2 of each gallon of water used goes to grey water, totaling: 246 gallons.

We’re paying $500 for use of a 250 gallon tank plus a mid-week pumping (varies), giving us 500 total gallons.

This should keep us covered for the water being bought and used within the group, and allows for other water brought by people… plus the possibility of no (or a very late) mid-week pumping.

Hope this helps other people know what’s available and what costs are associated.

In order to simplify our life, several of us are going to be using the Hexayurt guide to create some living spaces. They are an “open-source” design for cheaply constructing an insulated, simple to build, little temporary home. I imagine this is also a great resource for disaster relief or refugee situations.

The Hexayurt is a prize-winning shelter you can build yourself for about $200 (backup link). Suitable raw materials include common building materials ( fire safe insulation boards,) hexacomb cardboard and plastic. You cut six 4′ x 8′ panels in half diagonally to make the roof, and use six more whole panels to form the walls. It takes about two hours. The design (backup link) is in the public domain.

Different materials are appropriate for different uses – insulation, extended life, low cost, durability in extreme environments and so on. The design is in the public domain, and is in active development as a Free/Open Source style project.

PS: The balloon pictured on the right is a floating, in-the-field, wifi access point. A whole other awesome project!

Here are two links to resources on building these great structures…

http://hexayurt.com

http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Playa

Our friend Philthy gave us a lesson. Here’s how he builds them with a spot to walk in without ducking!

http://philthysanchez.com/cib/2008/hexayurt/building_a_hexayurt_with_a_vestibule.pdf

There are a few steps to ‘automating’ ‘music’ (both words worthy of sneer quotes)… one of which is letting the piece continue without input while staying dynamic. Letting the participant effect the piece must alter the thread, but it needs to continue.

Half of our system is Abelton Live, so the follow action is a key. Here is a link some info on that…

http://www.ableton.com/pages/tips/2004_11

However, whether to continue the piece with follow actions or let silence happen will be part of the system as well.

Noatikl just wasn’t doing what we wanted. It’s more about composition and didn’t seem to have the flexibility we wanted… or at least it just wasn’t inspiring us.

We’ve now dived into MaxMSP land.

The big bonus was that our new best friends John and David showed us behind the curtain. And we’ve been able to leap forward into some great MIDI processing.

We have some great plans for the “rules” of our system. We’ll post about that when we solidify them a bit more.

Our robot HEAiD will be making the trip to Critical Massive. The Northwest Regional event for fire lover, raver, gift economy, techie weirdos.

Awesomely enough we received a grant and a few reduced price tickets. It’s rude to say how much, so we’ll just say: THANKS!