H.E.Ai.D.

Making Music and Playing @ Web2.0 Expo

doublejosh — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:28:51 +0000

This week the HEAiD project is at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco!
We have a prime spot for people attending to mix up their conference experience with some playfulness and group sound generation

Some photos

A Few New Features…

We’ve added a twitter tie-in to make the HEAiD talk.
If you tweet with a #heaid hash tag you can make it talk too.

The “laser balls” addition is working now too, so folks can interact and kick visual items around with their avatar created by the sensor. Play the music or play the game. The project now allows for two simultaneous goals by people playing with it. This creates an situation where the music becomes a bonus while playing with the physics or the game artifacts are the bonus while creating music. Either way it’s a fun twist on augmented reality gaming.

The Physical World Becomes a Software Construct

doublejosh — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:17:46 +0000

The Physical World Becomes a Software Construct: Talking with Brady Forrest about Where 2.0, 2010
“The internet eats everything it touches.”

Winter Lights: Explorations in Self-Illuminated Art

doublejosh — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:51:54 +0000

on Jan. 14th, 2010

http://redefinemag.com/arts/blitz-capitol-hill-art-walk-january-14th-2010

@VERMILLION GALLERY
part of Blitz Capitol Hill Art Walk

We’re back.

doublejosh — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:14:23 +0000

We had a great two weeks down in wonderland… Black Rock City, NV. The setup was fairly easy with the light and sturdy Stacia structure borrowed from Flight To Mars. Our sealed box calibrated fairly quickly. The most work was done in creating start-up scripts ensuring that any power-up resulted in a working installation, improving the audio interpretations for the main interaction set, and getting the laser feedback working!!!
We saw some great emergent behavior, which was a goal. It was lovely to watch people begin to interact and discover what control that had over the space. Often several people would create mostly noise, and eventually (at about 20 people) inevitable cooperation to move from noise to group control.
We saw games of Simon says, strangers spinning around holding hands –in twos as well as 12s, groups created one tracking shape and altering size, etc.
Most of the time our MaxMPS only set was controlling the audio, as it allowed for a 2-axis coordinate-based audio interaction rather than just a subdivided field. This gave more finite control of the sound and was less prone to becoming annoying over time. Our sets using audio clips got several hours of play time each. In the future, we’ll learn how to marry these two, as we’ll have to step outside the whining noise box.
With just one or two people, Steve did seem like an infant following people’s motion and cooing along with their movement. In this regard it was absolutely imperative that the laser tracking show feedback to let people know they were the source for energizing Steve.
One unexpected treat was kicking dust and watching the laser track it through the space along with the whirring “dust chime” effect.
The installation was a success in our minds, and was a pleasure to watch.

Open Source

doublejosh — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:54:03 +0000

There is some pretty crazy code going on to enable more game like modes of interaction. This process is being shared here: http://code.google.com/p/ubergeek/

Tools Necessary

doublejosh — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:48:16 +0000

Here is a list of the things we cannot forget to erecting and tinkering with Steve…

Power drill with 7/16″ hex socket (for winch)
3/4″ wrenches/socket & ratchet or box-end (for structure ring)
3/8″ socket (for peak tube fittings)
17mm (for structure)
…

(This is an ongoing post.)

Make a Piece for Steve to Play

doublejosh — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:45:52 +0000

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.

The Human’s Require Water

doublejosh — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:11:07 +0000

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.

Steve’s humans prefer geometric shade

doublejosh — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:29:38 +0000

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

Follow Actions in Abelton Live

doublejosh — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:39:37 +0000

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.