Thanks to Jean Poole for posting his interview with me on Skynoise. Skynoise.net is a central source for new and emerging media art and innovation – it’s a pleasure to be featured on such a great site.

I was going to write an article about this years Rhode Island Mind Meld, but I dont think I could do a better job than Peter Kirn’s recent post on CreateDigitalMusic.com.

This was my second year as a participant, and I hope not my last.

It’s such a pleasure to have a creative spacetime to work and communicate with so many talented artists. I get to meet and share ideas with some of today’s top musicians and electronic artists. It is truly inspiring.

Special thanks to everyone involved, including:

Treanor Brothers Animation
Duncan Laurie
Steve Nalepa
Nick Bauta
Tony Flackett
Robotkid
Todd Thille
and of course
Peter Kirn

DJsounds caught up with the US conceptual/video artist Gardner Post to talk about art + technology at the Remix Hotel, at The National in South Beach. The interview is followed by a trip to a nearby apartment to get a special, behind-the-scenes insight into what Gardner’s working on this year – complete with words from celebrity DJ Tom Laroc!

Gardner was in South Beach with his Baby Grand Master creation (an acclaimed DJ/VJ masterpiece, modestly tagged the king of ‘video instruments’) to collaborate with the New York-born, Miami-based hip-hop DJ Tom Laroc/United Content Providers.

DJsounds last spoke to Gardner in 2007 at the Optronica festival, so it was great to see his vision for Baby Grand Master-style video mash-up materialising in such full-on splendour. Enjoy the show.

Words: LRC

External links:
www.babygrandmaster.com
www.myspace.com/djtomlaroc
www.remixmag.com/remixhotel
www.nationalhotel.com

5/1/08

Special thanks to Sandro Canavezzi de Abreu and everyone at UFSCar for making the 1º Contato festival a great success. I had a fantastic time, and was inspired by the creative efforts of everyone involved.

For the festival, we put together a weeklong experimental workshop which focused on exploring interactive connections between disparate media. We used Max/MSP Jitter for processing, iCubeX and Wi-micro devices for input sensing, video tracking, audio analysis and event detection, improvised electronic instruments, and synchronized OSC timing via a network server.

We were fortunate to have Tania Fraga bring her Java 3D virtual environments to the workshop, which created a beautiful lightscape when mixed in with the media.

The dancer Ivani Santana performed live improvisation with the piece using a wireless control glove and other body sensors.

On Saturday evening, I performed live video with Daevid Allen and Gong for the festival concert, which was a blast. Thanks to everyone who came out to the show for making the event such a wonderful time!

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting some more pics and videos from the festival and the workshop. If you have any materials, let me know and I will be happy to post.

I’m also looking forward to seeing the upcoming beta version of 3L “Thrill” VJ Software. Thrill is the real-time 3D visual tool you always wanted. I saw a version this summer that was quite impressive.

August 4th 2007. Chosen as Critics Choice in London’s Evening Standard’s TOP FIVE gigs of that weekend, alongside London gigs by Prince, Issac Hayes and Dr John, the Addictive TV guys returned to the southbank for a huge outdoor gig. In what seems to have become established as an annual event, Saturday 4th August 2007 saw DJ/producers and audiovisual artists Addictive TV rock London’s Southbank for the third year running with a traffic-stopping audiovisual set from the roof of the National Theatre, projecting on the massive 30 metre flytower, visible right across the Thames and from Waterloo Bridge. Without a cloud in the sky, it was the hottest day of the year in London!

Addictive TV’s website

I had a wonderful time at the Water Music Remix Show in Newport Rhode Island.

We had a great show, and I was fortunate to meet and work with an incredible group of musicians and vj’s. I also had the good fortune of meeting the artist and radionics researcher Duncan Laurie, who let us stay at his incredible studio in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

The Water Music Remix show was hosted by Duncan Laurie, Larry Kraman and the Museum of Yachting in Newport, RI. The audio-visual program in front of Fort Adams included the all-star line-up of Benton-C Bainbridge, David Lublin, Synesthete, David Last, Aerostatic, and Nalepa.

Merry Go Round, performed by Glenn French.

Experiment 1. 5/2/07

If you like this, try YouTube Doubler. Make your own YouTube mashup.

Gardner Post Presents:

Baby Grand Master™ – The King of Video Instruments.

Introducing the breathtaking Baby Grand Master™, Gardner Post’s latest, most muscled athlete.

Shouldered and powerful as always, but sleeker now with Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD players, this powerful entertainment machine is purposefully trimmed and tuned for heart-pounding performance. Artistic expression, power, control and comfort await notice with bold assurance.

There’s not an ounce of excess. But there is anticipation… because on stage, in the museum, or in the living room, the Baby Grand Master™ commands.

Now available to qualifying clientele.

http://www.babygrandmaster.com

The first video is from the Digital Hollywood conference in Beverly Hills, 1994. Some friends at Interactive Light lent us an array of floor mounted infrared controllers, so we hooked them into VuJak and let people do what they wanted during the exhibit. Shown in this video is a dancer who got quicky hooked on it and spent a long time with it. Interactive Light, Inc. created the D Beam Controller, which is now integrated into Roland keyboards.

The next video is just us having fun in the studio one night in 1993. We had just gotten the system working well and there were people over for a party, so we turned on the camera. Fun stuff.

And here’s some raw footage straight out of the system from around the same time. Fun with randomness. Always liked this. Still kinda relevant. Bill was so much more fun than GW…

There’s another post about VuJak here

A big thanks to Addictive TV, Amy Z, and everyone who made Optronica 2007 a big success. And to all the folks who came to see our show a the ICA London.

We had a great time, and were glad to meet so many super-xlnt people.

Addictive TV keeps getting better and better. If you get a chance to see one of their shows, do it! You wont regret it. Their stuff looked monumental on the massive Imax screen, and they played an amazing new remix of Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again”. I think this one could be a big hit.

I also got to see two killer sets from Exceeda. I had never seen their set before. Fantastic stuff. Xavier rocked the house with his Phantom of Optronica set.

Peter Greenaway performed a spectacular live mix of his films in the Imax theatre.

And Coldcut performed a beautiful tribute to Robert Anton Wilson.

So, all in all, and wonderful experience.

Post and Kane in 3D. If you get very close to the monitor and stare at this picture for a long time, you will get an interesting effect.

Graham from Addictive

Exceeda, Addictive, VJ Anyone, Motorboy

Coldcut, Addictive, Brian Kane, Hexstatic

Peter Greenaway

Baby Grand Master. The King of Video Instruments.

created by Gardner Post.

photography by Till Krautkraemer.

Website coming soon …