I’m a big believer in open platforms, computer platforms, and the power to customize stuff. Unfortunately, there’s a simple reality: developers’ work is sometimes a bit like the proverbial bull in the china shop. (Code SMASH!) In short: a lot of times when Windows’ file managemer Explorer is hanging, it’s not Microsoft’s fault. Misbehaved shell […]

Nine Inch Nails have been on tour around Australia with the Soundwave festival, and their artistic director Rob Sheridan has been along for the ride, and took his Canon 5D MKII on stage at various venues. Full HD Version from Nine Inch Nails. Screw resolution charts and slow focus pulls on flora, this is how […]

Photo: Lara Sobel plays with naturally-synthesized fractals by burning into wood via high voltage. Fractals, those wacky self-similar, rough geometries that resemble so many patterns in nature, were once all the rage. Ravers and digital artists embraced them, only to get bored with them, apparently. To billions of years of evolution and natural phenomena, they’re […]

Music-boxing in NI Kontakt from Create Digital Media on Vimeo. You know the stereotype. “Synths” are expressive. “Samplers” are those things relegated to playing fake instruments. But what makes synths fun to play as an instrument is the power they have over your sound, and the interactivity they provide. Peter Dines did a series for […]

Trackmate LusidOSC Sequencer Application from Adam Kumpf on Vimeo. Want to interact with your computer musically using physical objects and other fancy-schmancy, science-fiction-y interfaces? Don’t want to rely on Microsoft or wait until 2019? You’re in luck. It’s like Christmas for DIYers and interactive futurists. Enter LusidOSC, a set of protocols, libraries, and useful code, […]

Let’s back up for a second. You hear terms like “spatially augmented reality” or “projection mapping,” and it may seem as though you’ve wound up in the latest movie adaptation of a Philip Dick sci fi short story. When we talk about these terms, we really mean one thing: getting projection off of flat, rectangular […]

Whatever your feelings about Microsoft, their R&D operation employs some of the smartest minds in the business – and has done so for a long time. TechFest is the event that shares some of the best experiments. Some turn into products, others don’t, but the events always have some gems, and can provide plenty of […]

Maker Profile – Computer Making Music on Make: television from make magazine on Vimeo. Make:Television has done a really lovely piece on CCRMA, the research center at Stanford University that works on problems ranging from acoustics and sound to musical instrument design. CCRMA is really just one microcosm of the whole music tech making scene […]

Simulated guitar? Gibson gets carried away, but the law wins. Photo/bento creation (CC) Sakurako Kitsa.(Yup, this is a Fender Strat, but this is my kind of simulation of a musical instrument – in cheese form!) Gibson, the guitar company, has been on an utterly absurd campaign against music games, bringing lawsuits against the developers of […]

Touchscreens are often compared to the ground-breaking – if imaginary – designs of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But Brazilian Paulo Egidio Silva must be a real Trekker. His elaborate touchscreen panel configuration really looks like the LCARS computer system simulated on the TV show. Of course, that isn’t to say this isn’t a practical […]