tynor@prism.gatech.EDU (Steve Tynor) (04/05/90)
In article <3154@astroatc.UUCP> ttl@astroatc.UUCP (Tony Laundrie) writes: ... >About a year ago, I saw the comedy act of the Flying Karamazov Brothers. >They ended their show with a fantastic song (about juggling, of course) >whose music was all generated via pressure pads feeding a MIDI system. ... >Has anybody else seen this show? Our of curiosity, does anybody know their >exact setup? No, but Laurie Anderson does something simliar in her shows - check out her movie "Home of the Brave" if you've never seen her live. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Virtue is its own punishment. Steve Tynor Georgia Tech Research Institute Artificial Intelligence Branch tynor@prism.gatech.edu
alves@nunki.usc.edu (William Alves) (04/09/90)
Mark Coniglio at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts) in Valencia has developed a series of accelerometers which are placed on a dancer's body. When the dancer moves that part of the body in a particular axis of motion, a MIDI signal is sent over radio control to a computer. His Mac-based soft- ware listens for particular signals and can react by simply routing that MIDI signal to the appropriate module, or may react by playing a pre-stored sequence, or may react in a number of different ways. The signal sent from the dancer may be tuned to a particular MIDI message, and the velocity or controller amount may be proportional to the strength of the movement. The sensors on the dancer's body, it should be noted, are *motion*, not *location*, detectors. That is, a dancer does not trigger it by finding a particular point in absolute space, but by moving a certain way at any place. I saw a demo of this system with a piece composed by Coniglio at Cal-Arts a week ago Sunday. He didn't have all the hardware running as smoothly as he wanted, but is planning a new version with smaller and more robust hardware and cleaner radio transmitters. Bill Alves USC School of Music / Center for Scholarly Technology
jboggs@inco.UUCP (John Boggs) (04/11/90)
In article <9003@chaph.usc.edu> alves@nunki.usc.edu (William Alves) writes: >Mark Coniglio at the California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts) in Valencia >has developed a series of accelerometers which are placed on a dancer's body. >When the dancer moves that part of the body in a particular axis of motion, >a MIDI signal is sent over radio control to a computer. (more stuff...) I saw a performance several years ago by the Flying Karamazov Brothers (excellent jugglers for those of you who don't know). In one of the routines, one juggler wore trigger pads (similar to electronic drum triggers only smaller) on his arms (forearms, palms, upper arms), his legs (tops of the feet, inside of the calf, top of the thigh), his forehead, and his chest. Additionally, he wore four traditional (full size) electronic drum pads mounted on a harness so that one projected above each shoulder and one projected to the side next to each hip. Connected to this (by wires) was an little red wagon filled with MIDI rack modules. When he juggled various balls and clubs, he bounced them off the various triggers and drum pads to produce a variety of rythmic and tonic combi- nations which fit together very nicely. It was a great routine. All-in- all, a pretty interesting arrangement for "alternate controllers". -- John Boggs McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Company McLean, Virginia, USA
mayer@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Niels Mayer) (04/12/90)
Speaking of dancing music... I came across a neato system at the recent CHI conference in Seattle. David Rokeby's "Very Nervous system" is a video-to-midi system that has been used for turning dancer's movements into sound. It was also used in the Supercussion sessions at Hypermidia in (Vancouver, Canada 3/5+6/89) which permitted quadriplegic musicians to perform live on stage... I must have spent about 2 hours in the system galumphing and lurching around. His system was really fun to "play" -- much more fun than playing a keyboard itself. (Esp. because I'm mostly a bass player, not a keyboardist -- I'm all-thumbs on a keyboard if I have to play in real-time). Unlike the systems described in previous articles in this newsgroup, Rokeby's system makes no contact with the person "playing" the music. Instead, there's a video camera that captures images in real time and a box that magically transforms the video into MIDI. A Macintosh then processes the MIDI into "musical themes" and that is sent to a roland S-330 sampler for output. Your body and hand movements infront of the video camera controlled the musical themes being played. I was impressed. I want one at home for parties. The Grateful Dead (flames to /dev/null, please) should use this on stage during "space" -- have the audience movements become space. For more info, contact: David Rokeby 349a Spadina Ave. Toronto, Ontario M5T 2G3 tel (416) 596-1428. PS: I'll let someone less tired than I write up something about "The Interactive Experience" show at CHI. It included a video about Rokeby's supercussion exploits, various live performances, etc. Alas, I lost the info sheet on who played. The only name I remember is Roger Dannenberg, who did a piece for trumpet accompanied by trumpet-->IVLPitchrider-->Midi-->Computer-->Synth+Video. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Niels Mayer -- hplabs!mayer -- mayer@hplabs.hp.com Human-Computer Interaction Department Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Palo Alto, CA. *