Obviously, I won’t be able to cover everything – so just the highlights…

Day 1 The first presentation was one I gave about Jade and some new Tap.Tools that I’ve been developing. It was quite a long and technical presentation (this was a fairly technically skilled crowd). It was probably about 3 different presentations smashed into one. Nonetheless, it seems that it was applicable or thought-provoking for at least a few people.

Fortunately the following presentation, by pcastine/Litter/”>Peter Castine’s Litter objects.

After a lunch break, Anders Vinjar presented LISP and some of how he works with LISP on the Linux platform. This was again refreshing because it is a non-realtime application that I rarely consider, and know little about. There are number of elements of the language and syntax which seem like they would integrate well into Jade’s scripting language for working with random masks, random numbers, etc. As an additional note, Anders made a great guide for teaching my wife (Leah) and I about the mass-transit systems in Oslo!

Øyvind Brandtsegg, from TEKS in Trondheim, finished off the afternoon with an excellent demonstration of his live/realtime Csound rig – including a performance to demonstrate it’s abilities. This was one of the most engaging presentations of the workshop for me, perhaps because we actually got to enjoy music as well as the tech-talk.

In the evening my wife and I joined others from the workshop to see Bjärne Kvinnsland’s Tunnel of Light installation in the Nydalen subway station. It is incredible that Bjärne and his collaborators were able to build this installation, and it is amazing to have it in such a public space. This site has some info about it, but it really doesn’t do any justice to how good the interactive lighting looks. The sounds of the installation have a surprisingly wide range of expression which I thought was really well done.

Day 2 The second day began talking about the cross-field between music and visual arts. This included talks by Laura Beloff from the Art Academy and Maia Urstad. Both talks were quite thought provoking and raised interesting discussions during the informal times (coffee breaks, lunch). The imagery and concepts in Maia’s installation documentation was particularly exquisite.

In the afternoon NOTAM’s director, Jøran Rudi, introduced the sessions discussing sensor technologies. I once again presented the TeaBox and SensorBox (like I have done at SEAMUS and NIME – but with some information about our new directions on the project). Peter Flemming gave one of the most down-to-earth presentations of the workshop as he talked about robotics and Basic Stamps. Peter had an incredible ability to make some of this potentially daunting technology seem within reach, and he showed his works which use the technology effectively in his installation work.

The final set of presentations for the day were focused on sound reproduction and spatialization. Trond Lossius presented VBAP and RVBAP in MaxMSP, and his own derivative of those systems. His version handled environments such as a multiple-room installation where you want to create effects such sounds passing through walls from room to room. I’m fascinated by this, and hope that I get to experiment with these ideas in the future!

I briefly presented the 3D interfaces I’ve used for spatialization of sound, including the OpenGL-based example that I made for the 3rd-Party examples that ship with Cycling’74’s Jitter. Most of the time was spent looking at some video clips from the installations I’ve built with Jesse Allison: FoundSound and UnFoundSound, which track colored objects with a video camera which are then mapped onto spatialization coordinates.

Robin Støckert presented ultrasonic speakers, which had everyone in amazement. I have been hearing of the technology for a couple of years now, but have never experienced it. It is stunning how directional and focused the sound can be. It is unfortunate that the lower frequencies (below 400-500Hz if I remember correctly) cannot be reproduced.

Finally we ended the day with Natasha Barrett discussing ambisonics and her use of them in her installation Exploratio Invisiblis. After the discussion we were able to go to the installation (it was installed at NOTAM for the duration of the workshop) to hear examples of the ambisonic reproductions while enjoying drinks. One of the keys for appreciating the ambisonic reproductions in the installation, I found, was that I needed to close my eyes so that I didn’t see the speakers. It’s funny how our visual apparatus can get in the way of our aural experiences. And the sounds and sound-objects used in the installation were very rich and powerful, making it a great experience.

Day 3 The final day of the workshop seemed to be a lot more laid back. It could be that I wasn’t presenting, so it was just that I was more laid back. There were lots of free moments to talk to people and fill in the gaps from the presentations. There are a lot of incredible people here doing a lot of incredible things. I feel blessed to have been able to interact with some of them!

The morning presentations and group discussions were about stability issues. Sigurd Saue and Robin Støckert, both from Trondheim, presented very practical things to do with regard to installations. Sigurd talked about WatchDog Timers and WatchDog cards for computers. The WatchDog expects to get a tick from the software within some reasonable interval. If it doesn’t get it, the watchdog notices and reboots the computer. This is especially useful in long-term installations (i.e. several years of operation), but I can see a great use for it even in short term installations. There was actually quite a bit of talk about considerations in long-term installations throughout the workshop; I found these discussions to be quite useful.

Robin’s presentation also presented very practical, useful information. It was almost a check-list of what to do to prevent mysterious problems in installations. I typically build it, and don’t think necessarily about electromagnetic interference (he had an installation where it stopped working when people entered – because of their cel-phones!). Also being certain of proper grounding and other considerations. While it seems obvious to check these things, I know that I rarely do until there is a problem…

After a lunch break, Yngve Sandboe presented some of his software for controlling lights, such as Safari. I found the presentation interesting for a variety of reasons. One is that I’m not terribly familiar with the lighting world, DMX protocol, etc. Another is that it is structuring very complex systems, and using networks for it. I took lots of notes, I’ll need to review them again soon…

Wrap Up Overall I think it was a very successful workshop. It is a very interesting collection of people, and it is wonderful to have so many organizations cooperating to make everything happen (PNEK, OCA, NOTAM, BEK, TEKS, Ultima, and the Academy of Art). I’m especially grateful to Trond Lossius who spearheaded the effort to get me here, and to Janne Strang Dahl (PNEK), Christiane Erharter (OCA), Laura Beloff (the Academy), Jøran Rudi and Bjärne Kvinnsland (NOTAM) who did all of the leg work and organizing! They are all really super fantastic people!

I hope I will have the privilege of being involved in something like this again! -Tim

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