3 Jun 04 / toronto pictures (in progress)

performance

2 Jun 04 / toronto

performance

So, I'm back from a weekend in Toronto for the Distillery Jazz Festival. If you're interested, you can find the performance listing under programming:cross disciplinary collaborations:lumina:lee robinson i/o. I'm credited as a "computer image designer," which is a new title for me.

In addition to playing a few shows, I got to hang out with one of my old friends from elementary school and his family. Cool people.

Sights and sounds to come, I promise. Also, Toronto is a great city. Next time I'll stay for more than 30 hours.

25 Mar 04 / upcoming performances

announcements, design, hci, music, performance, tech toys

Last semester, I created an interactive video performance system (using Max/MSP and Jitter) that responds to audio input for a jazz duo here in Pittsburgh. It started as my final project for Roger Dannenberg's computer music class here at Carnegie Mellon, but it has taken on a life of its own.

Here's the announcement: we'll be playing two gigs at the Distillery Jazz Festival in Toronto. I'll bring my tech toys, and Lee and Ravish will improvise up a storm.

Here are the dates:
Friday, May 28 - 11:00pm
Saturday, May 29 - 2:30pm

Lee Robinson - saxophone
Ravish Momin - drums
Jesse Kriss - interactive performance system creation

7 Jan 04 / more wireless fun

hci, music, performance, tech toys

Wireless is the new black. Here's an interesting project:

CodeBLUE: A Bluetooth Interactive Dance Club System [pdf]

Also, feel free to leave comments...

6 Jan 04 / game controllers as instruments

hci, music, performance, tech toys

I've been intrigued by game controllers for some time now. There's something very satisfying about hijacking them for musical purposes. As it turns out, there are a number of tools that make this fairly easy (like max/msp and junxion). Also, you can get a Playstation -> USB adapter, which will let you use any number of cool PS2 controllers.

After a bit of research, I ended up with the Logitech Cordless Wingman. It's a PC/Mac controller with 11 buttons, two analog joysticks, an 8-way D-pad, and a mini fader for throttle control. That's a ton of input possibilities, and my computer can be way over on the other side of the room.

This controller will be put to good use shortly...there'll be more updates as the projects develop.

23 Dec 03 / city as instrument

hci, music, performance, tech toys

I was looking at the papers presented at the last NIME conference, and I came across this one: the urban environment as a musical interface.

Even with all the new technology we've seen in recent years, the basic musician-instrument relationship really hasn't changed that much. Yet. The idea of an explorable evironment as a music controller is, I think, pretty neat. It starts to seriously break down the standard ideas of musician, audience, and performer.

For more on NIME '03, check out Eric Cook's recap.