Showing posts with label ars electronica. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ars electronica. Show all posts

Oct 5, 2010

Reactable Mobile - Music Creation and DJ-ing On-the-Go : This is why I need an iPad!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Reactible Mobile,  a fun "DJ" electronic music generator for the iPod and iPad, created by Reactable Systems, makers of the Reactable.  The Reactable is a multi-touch, multi-user system for music creation, sharing, and DJ-ing, but it comes in the form of a table. Even though one version of the Reactable, the Reactable Live! is portable, it is still pretty big.

In our increasingly mobile world, it's nice to know that now we can have something similar to take everywhere we go, with the Reactable Mobile that runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad. You can download and buy the Reactable Mobile app for the iPhone and iPad from the iTunes Store:  http://itunes.apple.com/app/reactable-mobile/id381127666?mt=8

The following videos provide a quick overview of how the Reactable app runs on mobile devices. The first video is a demonstration of "Verde", Le Freak Selector. The second video demonstrates the Reactable app on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.





Reactable Mobile (Reactable Systems SL) Description  (Taken from the iTunes website)

"Improvise and create music playfully with the Reactable mobile. Based on the award winning Reactable as used by Björk on her Volta Tour, this application brings the full creative power of the famous interactive instrument onto your mobile device."

"It uses concepts of modular synthesis, sampling, digital audio effects, DJing, and combines them with modern human computer interaction and multi-touch technology.Based on the very same audio and graphics engine as the Reactable, the mobile version brings a complete range of objects to multi-touch devices:"
A set of generator objects:
- loop players, with possibility to upload your own loops,
- synthesizers, with a large range of instruments to select from,
- oscillators, to synthesise pure and complex tones,
- input, to get audio directly from the device's microphone.
A set of effects to modify generated sounds:
- wave shapers: distortion, compression, and resampling,
- delays: reverb, feedback, and ping-pong,
- modulators: ring modulation, chorus, and flanger,
- filters: low pass, high pass, and band pass.
A set of controller objects to modify other objects parameters:
- sequencers, with step-by-step, matrix, or random modes,
- low frequency oscillators (LFO), with different waveforms,
- accelerometer, to fetch data from the movement of the device.
A set of global objects to modify the settings of the entire table:
- tempo, to change the speed of the table,
- volume, to lower or increase the loudness,
- tonalizer, to change the harmony of the melody.
"IMPORTANT NOTE: A graphic resolution issue with iPod Touch 4G prevents using the version 1.0.3 on this device. An update is on its way.  Note: as this application uses both graphic and audio resources extensively, recent devices will provide the best user experience."

RELATED
There is a Reactable in an exhibit at the Discovery Science Center in Charlotte, N.C.  I had a chance to play with it during my last visit, and it was... awesome.   For more information, including pictures and video,  take a look at this post:
Reactable Live! at Sonar Barcelona 2010 (You can play with one at Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC.)

Here is a very short video-clip of the Reactable at Discovery Place. (Because of the noise in the background, it is a bit difficult to hear what I was trying to play.)


If you are interested in tangible user interfaces, including the Reactable and other similar systems, take a look my previous posts on the topic:
Tangible User Interfaces Part 11: More Examples, Resources, and Use for TUI's in Education

Tangiblie User Interfaces, Part I: Siftables

Aug 28, 2010

Update & Links about the Interface Culture Exhibition at the 2010 Ars Electronica Festival, via Martin Kaltenbrunner

Here is an update about the the work of students in the Interface Cultures program, which will be presented at the Playful Interface Cultures at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria:

"This year‘s presentation by students in the Interface Cultures program showcases newly emerging artistic skill profiles at the nexus of interactive media technology and interface technology. These artists adroitly combine complex disciplines such as communications technology, biosciences, physical computing, interaction design, fashionable technology and information visualization in their test environments and experimental concepts."

via Martin Kaltenbrunner (Interface Culture at the University of art and Industrial Design):
statement: http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/arsPDF
poster: http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/files/playful_interface_cultures.pdf
festival page: http://new.aec.at/repair/en/2010/08/16/playful-interface-cultures/
vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/channels/interfaceculture



SOMEWHAT RELATED
Interface Culture Lab Blog
Did you know that you can get a Masters degree in Ludic Interfaces?
Ars Electronica 2010 Flickr Site
WIRED: Here comes Ars Electronica 2010 (Bruce Sterling)
Ars Electronica/Futurelab

Aug 27, 2010

iRiS Interaction at the Playful Interface Cultures Exhibition & Ars Electronica Festival (video, short post, and links)

Earlier this week, I shared my wish to attend the Playful Interface Cultures exhibition at the Ars Electronica Festival.   Since I can't get to Linz, Austria to see the festival first hand, I'll share a video of the iRiS project that is part of the exhibition and festival - the link to the video was sent to me by Johannes Schoening, one of the iRiS project team members.  iRiS stands for Immediate Remote Interaction System, and is the outcome of a joint research project of the University of Saarbrucken and the University of Munich, in Germany.

If you happen to be at the festival, you can see the project in action between 10 and 11 P.M on September 5th and September 6th.


iRiS - Immediate Remote Interaction System from awiethoff on Vimeo.


RELATED
Post: Updated iRiS:  iPhone Remote Interaction System: Paint a Media Facade on your Favorite Building
More Urban Screens and 3D Media Facades
Ars Electronica is located in Linz, Austria.
iRiS Project Website

Aug 24, 2010

I wish I could go to the Playful Interface Cultures exhibition at the Ars Electronica Festival!

Here is part of the description of Playful Interface Cultures:

"This years exhibition of the Interface Cultures Department is showing emerging artistic ability profiles transformed by heterogeneous sets, tools and methods of creation departed from interactive media- and interface technology. To take advantage of disciplines related to communication technology, bioscience, physical computing, interaction design, fashionable technology or information visualisation, artists are focusing on new ways to combine these complex frameworks within test environments and experimental concepts. This origin is supporting group- and project based developments and inspires a flexible and multi-perspective sharing of knowledge and abilities within the process of artistic creation."

Video about the upcoming Ars Electronica Festival:



RELATED:
Interface Culture Lab: playful interactive art
Ars Electronica Festival  Linz, Thursday, September 2-Saturday, September 11
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH
Ars-Electronica-Straße 1
4040 Linz
Austria

Tel. 0043.732.7272.55

Fax. 0043.732.7272.2
E-Mail: festival@aec.at


AGB Ars Electronica Linz GmbH

Jun 4, 2010

UPDATED iRiS: iPhone Remote Interaction System: Paint a multi-media facade on your favorite building! via Johannes Schoning (updated with links)



"We used Touch Projector to paint on a multimedia facade (here: Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria). Users simply aim their device at the facade causing the viewfinder to show the facade locally. In this local image, users can now draw with the selected color. The building then changes its color accordingly as if users directly painted on it."


NOTE:
Currenty Johannes Schöning works at the Innovative Retail Laboratory of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Saarbruecken.  His research interests include new methods and interfaces to intuitively navigate through spatial information, and ways new intelligent interfaces can help people to solve daily tasks more effectively.  Johannes recently completed his Ph.D. at the Saarland University.  He runs the multi-touch Google group. (LINK: http://groups.google.de/group/multi-touch) Johannes is involved in a range of interesting professional activities.  He's currently looking for new opportunities.


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Urban Screens Conference & Exhibition:  Calls for Interactive Media and Video Art (2010) 
More Urban Screens and 3D Media Facades
Book:  Media Facades:  History, Technology, and Content (M. Hank Haeusler)
3D Projections on Buildings: A distinctive way of communicating
Communicating Through Architecture:  Media Facades and the Digital Infrastructure  The Rathous (Contains an assortment of videos and pictures)
Art and Commerce Meet on Building's Interactive Media Facades
Kelsey Keith, Fast Company, 10/2/2009