Deadlines fast approaching for the innovate to educate award
funded by NESTA FUTURELAB This is a real exciting chance to work
with professionals in new media and the education sector, involved in
approaching learning and new tools, from an elcetronically mediated perspective.
One month and counting...

Recontres Internationales want my new work TAO JOYSTICK
for inclusion into their 2006 schedule.
heres a few pictures before the new website goes online...


And part of the statement that goes along with the project -

Tao Joystick is an interactive audiovisual games enhancement. It works in unison with any games console and translates audible gameplay expressions into random sound and video composition with realtime manipulation.

Each system consists of a gaming environment / installation including two monitors, a laptop running the required software and a games console.

Tao Joystick references the playing of original 80’s arcade games and consoles -
< ATARI > < SPECTRUM > < COMMODORE 64 >
< BREAK-OUT > < PONG > < DIG DUG > etc.

The constraints of such games with their limited controls and set specific values are replaced with alternative values of < speed > < loop setting > etc.
At present this is created via < JITTER > programming.

Within the constructed games environment. The playing of Tao Joystick re-defines the archived video footage that is presented on its double screen monitor. Video has been extracted from many sources including – Inuit Song, Butoh Dance, Bangrha and Tibetan chant.
Content is chosen according to the practice of Tao Joystick as a vehicle to re-present and preserve the musical, oral and dance culture of marginalised traditions, within a new technologically mediated context.

As practitioners seek to embed new technologies within the environment and create ever increasingly, more sophisticated < ubiquitous > and transparent interfaces for us to explore. Interactivity and usability can become secondary to the mediated experience and any aspect of intended game playing is difficult to understand.
Tao Joystick seeks to reverse this need for < ubiquity > and looks first and foremost towards < playability > and
< what makes a game addictive? >.
The technology that presents Tao Joystick is central to its physical makeup. The controller and console is very evidently a games controller and games console, yet the intended outcome, mediated by these self same new technologies, create an altogether unique and memorable audiovisual experience.

I have just been successful with a proposal towards
a futuresonic festival commision, hosted by Lancaster
arts base - FOLLY.
FUTURESONIC is an annual festival of sound, and AV installation,
held in Manchester. UK. Its very high profile, and I am really
excited at being given the commision to create a new piece of work for it.

My project is called BUMP..
and basically its an online project that translates the press of a
key into an actual realtime event.

exerpts from my proposal-

< BUMP... >

A sound
A text byte
An expression used within online discussions
A precursor
An interruption

Bump...

This adjective is appropriated from the endless realms of online forums where a user awaits a reply to his message.

Bump...

Situated within public walk spaces and areas of intersection between the many futuresonic festival events and interacted with on one of the many touch screen interfaces. < bump.. > will make it possible for participants to send a variety of sonic booms in real-time to one of the chosen hotspots.

Hotspots will be monitored by the use of live video stream via webcam and presented upon the Touchscreen interface.

TOUCHSCREEN INTERFACE
The interaction and execution of a sound-byte via an online flash based games module.

< bump… > involves a button-press online creating an actual real-time event within any specified location.
This is made possible via networked sockets and a flash signal being sent to a particular IP address port. max/msp receives this signal and changes it into
Any possible real-time event, i.e. sound.

IN CONTEXT

As computer technology becomes increasingly mature, the technology itself will fade into the background of human activities, becoming far less intrusive than is the case today.

Will reinstate the presence of this technological intervention over it's environment via the quick shot, rapid-fire, 8bit sounds emanating out of its location based < FOLLY > sound modules.

Just heard positive word from fellow performance space
audiovisual pioneers Troika Ranch. They will be holding a two week
workshop in New york this summer and hopefull I will be able to attend.

The workshop is specific to physical computing software -
Isadora. I have used this for a number of projects, it has a real ease of use
and is very useful as an interface between technology and the real world.
Used within dance performance and installation art environments.
I have presented this to students at Glasgow school of Art and at Duncan of
Jordanstone college of Art, and I hope atending this course will enable me with extra skills
and the potential for delivering a much higher quality of workshop within the future.