About (Inconspicuous)Nomad Music

(Inconspicuous)Nomad Music is a multidisciplinary center for research in interactive audio. By studying mental processes, digital technologies, and traditional techniques, we explore how the line between creator and user can be blurred or even intentionally confused. Our work is often computer-based, but this is not exclusively the case. Of equal interest is the exploration of interactivity in non-digital environments.

Ongoing areas of interest include: Composition, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Audience-centric interfaces, Embodied Interaction, Software Music Systems, Synthesis Techniques and Algorithms, Physical Modeling, Mobile Music, Sensors, Signal Processing, Digital Recording and Editing, Psychoacoustics and Musical Acoustics, Music Information Retrieval, Data Sonification and Sound Visualization, Music Cognition, Music Affect, Music Therapy, Music Education, and Acoustic Interactivity.


Hevajra Progress

Hevajra has passed an important benchmark. The algorithms for all 'interludes' have been developed. These interludes are the parts of Hevjara that have only minor interactive elements, making them resting points where the user/performer/audience can just sit back and listen, before moving on to a more involved process.

Listen to one of them:

The Hearing Lineage in Development

HevajraWork has begun on a new project, The Hearing Lineage, that examines how we hear and learn. At its heart is a human-driven algorithm (that is, designed, controlled and implemented by the composer) that allows each instrument to "learn" the music that it hears the others play. Each has certain tendencies of pitch and rhythm, but each also has the goal of repeating what it hears exactly -- at least, as far as that is truly possible.

Future development will include implementation of interactive electronics to facilitate real-time manipulation of the music in concert. Listen to a sample -- a mock-up of the beginning:

KebyarButton

KebyarButton Software InterfaceKebyarButton is an evolving Balinese gamelan emulator. By algorithmically generating a simple version of a core section of a gamelan composition, KebyarButton encourages users to develop a basic understanding of the style. Each performance of KebyarButton is unique.

Users are also encouraged to experiment and "destroy" the music. Four real-time phase vocoders allow the manipulation of pitch and time in order to facilitate the creation of entirely new sounds. MIDI out is also provided so that users can test the form of gamelan on instruments of their choosing. But because the five-not pelog scale used here does not conform to equal temperament, the pitches become approximations.

Download a protoype: KebyarButton.dmg.zip

Listen:

Paramitas, for table, seat, bowl of objects, and hidden electronics

The whole pictureThere is sound, and there are objects to play with. Paramitas is ready to be experienced.

The Experience:

In front of you is a low table with a cushioned seat in front of it. Upon the table is a bowl containing four round objects -- a pomegranate, a spiked ball, a leather ball, and a sphere of willow twigs. In front of the bowl are four pads, labeled from left to right, "GENEROSITY, PATIENCE, DILIGENCE, VIGILANCE." Colors are muted but rich, and you can feel the texture with your eyes alone. In the air, an amorphous body of semi-musical sound swirls.

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