It’s 10 weeks since I took part in the Arduino and Physical Computing Workshop at Madlab and I’ve been meaning to post about it… and actually do something with it too.
Of course I’ve known of Arduino for quite some time…. Monomatic’s PEAL control system is built using one… but I’ve never actually played with one myself. Thanks to Dave Mee who ‘lent’ me his Arduino Duemilanove kit.
I’ve come across this really interesting 3D scanning technique before – but I’ve now spent a bit more time following the various links and exploring it in more detail…
I’m keen to try it for myself and wonder if a ‘micro’ projector such as the Optoma Pico PK 101 DLP and IPEVO Point 2 View USB webcam and/or ‘tricked out’ PS3 Eye Webcam could be a compact and affordable solution – and possibly for live performance too?
There’s a good overview of the technique in the May 2008 post Turn a webcam and projector into a 3D scanner which also provides some Processing applets and code examples and lists useful references and links.
I got my iPhone 3GS at its launch in June 09 – and though I do love it I reckon it lacks some important functionality and could do with several usability improvements – and I think I’m not alone 
I also have an iPod Touch 2G – which I jailbroke with the Dev-Team’s redsn0w 0.72 shortly after getting the iPhone so I could explore Homebrew development – and though I had intended to keep the iPhone ‘official’ – six months of playing and testing has convinced me to jailbreak my iPhone too and unlock some of its hidden potential.
This fairly lengthy post outlines my research, choices, process and outcomes…
Here’s some of what I think I’ll gain:
It’s been a while since I’ve spent a bit of time browsing and catching up with developments at the monome.org community site – though I’m always interested to see what’s been going on – and typically a few things caught my eye:
MonoControl – “an adaptable and flexible midi control application written in Processing for Ableton Live (or any other DAW) which, if configured correctly, should report all controller changes to MonoControl which then adjusts the LEDs on the monome. The app uses the buttons of the far rhs column of the monome to navigate through 8 different pages – and in each you can create combinations of faders, crossfader, x-y faders, push, toggle and note buttons and button matrixes – all stored in an an xml file.” (my somewhat edited version of the app description)…
This is exactly what I’ve been hoping to develop myself using Nick Rothwell’s shado…so I started to implement it into my Mirror2 real-time video processing Processing sketch and it’s working well…
on Friday, 13th February I attended the Owl Project m-Log workshop at FACT in Liverpool and spent a thoroughly enjoyable (though quite intense and tiring day) building my own m-Log from the supplied kit.
the m-Log kit
With my monome 64 due to arrive imminently I’ve been browsing the monome website for sparkly things I particularly like the look of…
Starting with Ableton Live…
1. drumwreck by anton hornquist – website & youtube demo
monome step sequencer in maxmsp/live
Early days for this app… which seems both intuitive and ergonomic… and even works using the ‘monome40_fake’ patch. Latest developments on its monome discussion thread.
Here’s a first draft outline as PDF - though it’s still waiting for feedback and contributions from Anthony Rowe.
There’s always more to find out there… Deep Vacuuming the Source Files and then looking fairly systematically through BIT-101 Lab has turned up several interesting Flash demos:
a sweet little non-interactive 3d particle system waveform – 041101_lewis.fla
Click on the image to load Flash in a pop up.
and a simple sound activated wave pattern – 050819_lewis.fla
Click on the image to load Flash in a pop up.
It also suggested some new and useful practitioner and reference links – though these have quickly branched out further still…
I’ve recently proposed this idea to Gini Simpson, Head of Media Arts at SPACE Studios, Hackney, London, E8 3RH. The outline is included in full here but you can also download it as a PDF.
Introduction
Through recent online research for my own creative practice I came across a fascinating, but hitherto unknown to me, USA based project – momone.
There are videos of the monome 40h in action HERE
Essentially the momome is a beautifully designed, hand-crafted, minimalist interactive interface for controlling and monitoring pretty much anything audio, visual and beyond…
Interesting things I’ve found…
I want one… I really, really want one…
monome 40h – ~$500 second hand
monome.org
Several video’s HERE
the monome 40h is a reconfigurable grid of sixty-four backlit buttons.
buttons can be configured as toggles, radio groupings, sliders, or organized into more sophisticated systems to monitor and trigger sample playback positions, stream 1-bit video, interact with dynamic physical models, and play games. button press and visual indication are decoupled by design: the correlation is established by each application.
Scanning Turnkey’s official magazine I noticed a few interesting things…
Most of all I really liked…
Novation ReMOTE 25SL
www.novationmusic.com
I’d always thought that my KORG microKONTROL MIDI controller was the best implemented compact unit on the market… and at current price of £155 new from Turnkey I still think nothing comes close for the money… but the Novation ReMOTE SL series look great… and with their Automap Universal standard feature – instant communication with most sequencers… and now with VST plug-ins too… I think this is a must. I can envisage it having a big impact on productivity working with Nuendo and that’s got to be a good thing… the ReMOTE 25 SL is £289 new from Turnkey… looking on ebay now… new US $299.99 + $80 shipping… drool…
