On Saturday 24th October I was at Space Studios in London to attend the Chiptune Marching Band workshop. I was really excited to go to this as I haven’t had a chance to dedicate my time to a single project with my breadboard and Arduino board.
After introductions we got down to making our noise making device. Essentially we were following instructions from a booklet, but more in depth explanations to how the different parts work were available if requested. My device had a light sensor which altered my sound, as shown below.
Once we finished ourdevices, which happened rather quickly, we took to the streets of Hackney to engage the masses in our noise!
There was a performance from pixelh8, Dave Giffiths (who I saw at OpenLabearlier this year) and others later on in the evening, but a slow train back home meant I had to miss it.
As usual this is exactly the sort of thing I’d like to see happening in Birmingham and the West Midlands. fizzPOP, which I run with help from Nikki and others, and 8Bit Lounge are going some way to filling this void and hopefully there’s some good news coming up in the next few days.
Libre FM logo Copyright (c) FooCorp, CC-BY-SA 3.0 or later
I’ve visited libre.fm a few times and, from the interface, it seems like it’s trying to act as a replacement or alternative to last.fm. Whilst I think this is a good idea I think libre.fm should be different somehow. Yes, the will value your privacy more than last.fm and the source code for the website will be available to everyone, but what could be different about the way that it functions?
There is a lot of free music out there online. I don’t mean the ‘free’ music you can get illegally, but freely availble. Websites like Jamendo and archive.org let people upload their music and offer it for free on their terms. Think of it this way: you’re free to download, share and use the music however you want, but if you want to use it commercially (make money from it) you’ve gotta pay, which seems fair in my opinion.
There’s a lot of this free music out there but I doubt many people know about it. Using last.fm people are recommended music by any artist, whether they offer their music for free or not. It’s unique selling point is that it presents this music to the users, rather than them having to search for it. What about if there was a recommendations website that only recommended music similar to your tastes but from free artists and musicians only? This is a niche I think libre.fm could fill. It fits exactly in with the ethos of the copyleft movement and could help propel more underground musicians.
libre.fm is still a very new service, so we’ve yet to see where it goes. I do hope this is one option they consider.
Now that I have the Gameboy Camera and Printer, LSDJ and will soon have the Transferer and 32M Cartridges I’m hoping to make something like this
One thing I also really like is this dance piece:
I would’ve like to have seen the dancers incorporate more erratic movement and even some sort of costumes (Princess Peach and Mario perhaps), but overall I think it shows that Gameboy Music isn’t just for the hobbyist
I’m only mentioning this once, as I get asked about it every year, sometimes by the same people.
In the Summer months I usually steward at festivals with Oxfam. I’ve been doing this since 2005 and it really is a great experience for a great cause. Applications for the general public opened yesterday (31st March), so apply now to avoid disappointment.
Although not my primary reasons for doing this (I’ve supported Oxfam in other ways for years) some of the benefits of stewarding with Oxfam, from my point of view, include:
By paying a £165 depost you can steward at as many festivals as they cater for (up to ten festivasl)
You’ll be helping a great cause.
In my experience of Glastonbury and Reading the separate stewards camping area is safer (though not completely), cleaner (depending on the weather) and you get to know lots of friendly people, ’cause you’re all there for one common purpose
Free meal tickets! These (usually) equal one ticket for each day of your shifts. It may not sound like a lot, but trust me, it is!
In my experience of stewarding at Reading we’re allound to walk through the backstage areas to access other stewarding areas, which means there’s a small chance you might meet some of the performers/semi famous people (sorry, had to brag), though don’t count on it, especially at Glastonbury. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
The responsibilities and shifts aren’t taxing, but it’s a great experience if you want to get into running events and such
You’ll be helping a great cause. DUH!
When you’re not on one of your eight-hour shifts you’re free to see the festival! In my experience of stewarding at Reading many of the shift posts/locations are actually situated in or near music tents, so whilst you’re on shift you’ll see acts and when you’re not you can see more! However, some shift posts aren’t located in or near music tents.
I’ll be there
You get the £165 deposit back upon them recieveing notification that you’ve completed all of your shifts, which is usually around November
By the time you’ve read this the Glastonbury vacancies may have already been filled, but there’s plenty of other festivals to choose from. This is great for anyone who supports Oxfam or who just couldn’t get a Reading/Leeds or Glastonbury Festival ticket.
Oh yeah, it’s all volunteer work, so you wont be paid.
Apply, damn you! If you’ve got the Summer free and £165 to lend you’ve got no excuse
I'm a software artist based online and in Birmingham, UK. The work that I do looks at interesting ways in which to interpret data, technology and how it relates to art and the creative sector. For more information look at the Projects page or found out more About Me
