So much is possible when we just open up the materials of musical invention to a range of people – and those materials can be cloth, circuits, acoustic, electronic, light, sound. I was reminded of that yet again last week, thanks to an amazing group of artists, developers, facilitators, and organizers.
I’m still recovering – in a good way – from five days last week filled with people sewing and soldering, wearable interfaces and constructed projection-mapped kinetic sculptures and new digital instruments. Native Instruments and Ableton took us inside their development process – and provided hardware, pretzels, pastries, and Club-Mate. Artists showed us the innards of how they work. And we finished with new projects and a night-long party of live music at Berghain Kantine. Special thanks to the CTM Festival team and artist Derek Holzer, who helped run the hacklab with me and who is an inspiring artist and inventor himself.
We’re busy editing our own videos, including live performances, installations, and Imogen Heap talking about wearable interfaces and creativity.
In the meantime, I can share some more images and a video talking to me and participants that gives you a view of what the hacklab was like when it was in full swing middle of last week. Laura Zurriaga produced the film for Berlin-based independent video site RealEyz. Watch, and witness how I was so into this thing that I didn’t even trim my beard. (Cough.)
Speaking of why I enjoy doing this, one person featured in this video is Darsha Hewitt. This image pretty much sums up her awesomeness. (She came sporting her I <3 555 t-shirt, too.) Meeting people like that and seeing how they can get other people engaged in inventing new stuff on the spot is humbling. And yes, we'll a) share what we learned and b) do this again.
