From Gerd Leonard’s Open Letter to the Independent Music Industry:

Technical and economic innovations have, for the past 10 years, stripped away many traditions, social and economic hierarchies and monopolies in the music industry, and if there is one thing we can say for sure I guess that would be that it’s now show-time: the music industry is finally reaching a major inflection point; 10 years after the first .com ventures shook the ground. It took a lot longer than we all thought but it’s hitting much harder now: CD sales are down between 20 – 40% YTD, and digital sales are not making up the difference, any time soon – and the one-horse race with iTunes clearly is a dead-end.
Continue reading

Share is a community for portable performers founded in 2001 by Barry Manalog, geoffGDAM and Newclueless that provides an open space for knowledge exchange and audio/visual performance. Every week we host a free multimedia jam open to all participants and observers. Walk-ins welcome.

Currently, Share events take place in New York City and San Diego, USA, Montreal, CA, and Wiesbaden, Germany. Share NYC’s non-profit status is made possible through the support of the New York Foundation for the Arts. Continue reading

Lansdown Lecture: iPoi -- Accelerating Digital Live Art :: Speaker: Jennifer Sheridan :: Date: Wednesday 18 April 2007, Time: 4:45pm for one hour :: Location: Middlesex University, London, EN4 8HT, Cat Hill Campus: Room 97, LONDON :: Admission is free. iPoi: Accelerating Digital Live Art: Imagine swinging a tiny computer around your body to create live visuals and audio like a DJ or VJ. iPoi is based on the ancient Maori art of poi and uses a wireless, peer-to-peer, sensor-packed upgrade of the original. iPoi is created by embedding tiny computers in tennis balls, and swinging them wildly around your body. iPoi uses the wonder of acceleration, the hidden force that is in our every movement and has been performed in nightclubs, festivals and conferences in the UK, North America and Australia. Dr. Jennifer G. Sheridan is a Digital Live Artist and Researcher who specialises in Digital Live Art (the intersection of HCI, Live Art and Computing). Continue reading

You Bring the Secret Location to Life

REMOTE by Chris Vecchio :: 9 September – 21 October 2006 :: Gallery Joe Bird Park 3rd and Arch Streets :: Philadelphia, PA :: viewable 24-7 best experienced at night (but no sound after 10PM) :: INSTRUCTIONS: 1) Get up off of the couch 2) (but bring the remote control with you) 3) Go to the south west corner of 3rd and Arch 4) Use your remote to activate the park.

REMOTE is an interactive environmental installation containing a range of sound and visual effects. Installed in an outdoor space, the installation is activated, controlled, and navigated using a common household remote control which may be supplied by the viewer. The piece takes the form of an intervention in an outdoor space, along a street or in a small park. There’s an “insider” element to the installation since, when not activated, its location may not be immediately apparent to a passerby. Additionally, the viewer needs to know to bring a remote to the location to bring the secret to life. Continue reading

Mattias Esbjörnsson and his colleagues at the Interactive Institute in Stockholm are designing wireless software for mobile music “socials.” But the dance parties they envision take place at 55 miles per hour. SoundPryer is a wireless peer-to-peer system for joint music listening in automobiles. Each driver becomes a mobile radio station, transmitting their digital music stream to other cars within Wi-Fi range.

SoundPryer has similarities to tUNA, a handheld ad-hoc networking radio device demonstrated last year by Media Lab Europe that enables users to tune in to other nearby digital music players, on a school bus for example. And while the PDA-based SoundPryer system can also be used in more stationary face-to-face situations, Esbjörnsson purposely kept his eyes on the road when designing the system. First of all, he writes in a scientific paper (PDF), it’s a tougher challenge than more stationary systems. The potential duration of interactions between drivers may be extremely short as the cars zip down the highway or, in the event of gridlock, painfully long. The freeway is also a decidedly anonymous zone, perfect for studying how people might react to a new social technology.

From “Wireless Music’s New Social Sound,” by David Pescovitz, theFeature.

tunA is a handheld ad-hoc radio device for local music sharing created by Arianna Bassoli, Julian Moore, Stefan Agamanolis at the Media Lab Europe.

tunA is a mobile wireless application that allows users to share their music locally through handheld devices. Users can “tune in” to other nearby tunA music players and listen to what someone else is listening to. Developed on iPaqs and connected via 802.11b in ad-hoc mode, the application displays a list of people using tunA that are in range, gives access to their profile and playlist information, and enables synchronized peer-to-peer audio streaming. The idea is to use music to connect people at a local level and engender the sense of a shared experience.