This is a maintained archive of www.cassiel.com up to July 2011.
For more recent content please see the new site.

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Modular Music Box: The Movie

We have video footage of Monomatic's Modular Music Box online:

• Vimeo
• YouTube

This was shot at Kinetica, hence the raucous background noise.

Slattery's New Brain

Work continues on a replacement brain for Slattery's Lamp, now permanently resident at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Slattery's original brain was built using a blue-and-white G3 Macintosh which was second-hand back in 2004, and eventually stopped working a few months ago. The technology of sensors and embedded systems has moved on a lot since then, so a totally Arduino-based solution is now feasible. Slattery's new mind (hosted in C++) will be roughly as complex as the old one (in MaxMSP), but without the indefinitely big persistent memory, and hence unable to effectively "dream".

Ironically, given that Arduinos are ideally suited to sensor-based artworks, IMMA have commissioned a non-responsive "port" of the Slattery system. Hopefully, the lamp can be equipped with some senses at a future date.

Zinepublished

I apparently have one-and-a-bit articles in Sound On Sound's new "bookazine" (wince) called DAW Power User - I contributed some material on Ableton Live and DAW controllers.

The Modular Music Box

We (Monomatic) are in the process of building an Arduino-based, monome-styled Modular Music Box for the Kinetica Art Fair, 4th-6th February 2011. There's a blow-by-blow account of the construction and design on the Monomatic blog.

(Photo: Tim Simpson Photography.)

Ras goffa, Birmingham/Leeds/Dublin

Imminent dates for ras goffa Bobby Sands:

• Birmingham, 11th November
• Leeds, 13th November
• Dublin, 7th December

Interview with Eddie Ladd on the IDFB site here.

(photo: Keith Morris)

More Max, More Grid

A bit of an outbreak of writing for Sound On Sound over the last couple of months: a two-parter on Max for Live in the Ableton Live Techniques series (one two), and a review of the Livid Instruments Ohm64 controller.

For those (myself included) who are on the fence regarding the Ohm64, the fact that it can now be ordered in customised colours might be persuasive.

Xenakis at Spitalfields

We are starting work on the software, tracking system and audio engine for an interactive installation piece - the Xenakis Pavilion - for the Spitalfields Festival. This photograph shows the area where the installation will materialise, TARDIS-like, in early June.

Trespassing at Somerset House

We have been commissioned to compose a sound score for Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company for a new work entitled Trespass at Somerset House. More details here.

Ras goffa, Spring Loaded, London

Fresh from a performance at British Dance Edition 2010, ras goffa Bobby Sands is showing in the Spring Loaded festival at The Place on April 10th.

(Photo: Keith Morris.)

Max for Live for Print

Late news: our Max for Live review was published in the February issue of Sound On Sound. It may still be on news stands, and is available for download here.