[dorkbotdc-blabber] DCMAT Meeting: Sunday, November 21st, 1-3pm at HacDC / Rebecca Bray, DIY Instrument Building with Audio Effects

[Jonah Beram]

Hello all,

Come by HacDC this Sunday, November 21st from 1-3pm for DC Music and 
Technology's usual informal get together.

This month, DCMAT will be hosting a presentation by Rebecca Bray, Manager of Interaction Design and Strategy at the Smithsonian. Rebecca often works at the intersection of art and technology, and though much of her work does not explicitly fit into the world of music and audio, it often asks the same questions we do at DCMAT. Read on below for more details.

After Rebecca’s presentation, I’ll be demonstrating a work-in-progress audio instrument created solely out of effects units in Apple Logic, played with a piezo-electric drum pad. All concepts explored should be transferable to other software (or even hardware effects, if you have them).

Depending on how much time we have, I’ll delve into historical precedents including early electronic music studio techniques, piezo-electrics, electronic drums, digital signal processing, questions about what makes an instrument satisfyingly “playable” and the usual conversation about aesthetics versus technological novelty.

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More info about Rebecca:

Rebecca Bray’s work usually involves new technology and interactivity but also always seems to gravitate towards plants, dirt and strange science experiments. A former professor at NYU’s interactive technology master's program and artist-in-residence at Eyebeam in NYC, she recently emigrated from New York to DC to make interactive projects for the Smithsonian.

Recent projects include:

- Silosphere, a wearable mediated soundscape helmet (http://www.bigbee.org/Silosphere.html)
- Botanicalls, a system that allows plants to call people (http://www.botanicalls.com/)
- Window Farms, crowd-sourced urban hydroponic design (http://brittaandrebecca.org/windowfarms/index.html)
- DrinkPeeDrinkPeeDrinkPee, DIY kits for transforming urine into fertilizer (http://eyebeam.org/projects/drinkpeedrinkpeedrinkpee)
- NYCH20, an interactive animation about the New York water infrastructure for the American Museum of Natural History
- The Meatrix, an animated film about factory farms (http://www.themeatrix.com/)
- Glass Bead Collective (http://www.glassbeadcollective.org/)
- immersive inflated projection blimps
and
- Imps, interactive people who live in shadows.

On Sunday she'll talk about some of the projects mentioned above as well as some of her favorite other work that revolves around art-science, participation and play.

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Join the DCMAT mailing list / discussion group:

DC Music and Technology’s Google Group serves as the main point of contact for related information and discussions. Learn more here: http://groups.google.com/group/dcmusicandtechnology .

To join the group, click “Apply for group membership” on the right sidebar and be sure to include a little something about yourself in your application (this is primarily used to filter out spammers).

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Directions to HacDC (http://hacdc.org): 

HacDC is located in the Church of Saint Stephen and the Incarnation on 1525 Newton St NW, Washington, DC. Click here for a Google Map: http://goo.gl/EpB4 . Street parking is available nearby. If you are riding public transit, there is an S bus stop across from the church on 16th St and the Columbia Heights Metro is 4-6 blocks away. 

The church has multiple entrances. To get to HacDC's space, approach the building from the 16th Street side (NOT Newton Street), walk through the parking lot and approach the red doors. They will likely be locked, so call HacDC's main number 202-870-5002 and some one will come down to let you in. 

Alternatively, if you make it through the red doors by yourself, you will be in a stairwell. Walk to the top floor landing and pass through the doors on your left. Turn left and walk the short distance to the end of the hallway. HacDC is the door at the end of the hall.

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Hope to see you on Sunday!

Jonah
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