Aman Amun

Over the course of the time I’ve spent putting together my live show for Aman Amun I’ve been compiling a massive list of things that might or might not go wrong during a performance. The technicality of the show that makes it unique and interesting also makes it unstable. I don’t particularly feel like working in an unstable climate, though, and I hate having to triple check everything to make sure things will run smooth.

Midway through the development of the project I stumbled across this tutorial on building a custom stompbox. I had been wrestling with how to get around the instability of the wii whiteboard software, and didn’t like having to always run back to the projection to activate/deactivate a sample and so forth. Having a stompbox controller therefor seemed ideal. It would give me an additional layer of functionality besides whats displayed, and I could do all of it while playing an instrument or singing at stage front.

With the help of Andrew Ferrer I built this equilateral hexagonal stomp box.   Its built from a blue tooth wireless keyboard I bought for $25, the sides are made from some nice extra wood Andrew had lying around, the face with some random galvanized steel thrown out in the sculpture department of UGA, and the buttons were bought online.  I spent a total of about $50.  Not bad for a one-of-a-kind wireless controller.

The bulk of the project actually lay in the software I wrote to accompany it.  I use it for everything from setting the tempo (with a tempo tap) to triggering individual rows on my sampler to changing patterns on my sequencer.

This is documentation for an interactive-art piece I call the munome which I am using as the backbone of the Aman Amun performance.

It is meant to be a conceptual exploration of taking something that is open source (the monome) and making it even more flexible and open. The monome itself is only a grid of buttons, but this very simplicity also opens up room for almost endless functionality. For this piece I have virtualized this instrument in Max-Msp and added ways to dynamically control it both functionally and visually.

Note that this is only a small fraction of what the Aman Amun performance entails, but it illustrates some of the other ideas I am actively experimenting with. The performance seeks to explore the gradiated region that sits between “live performance,” “djing” and “vjing.” The monome is clearly an instrument, but the use of pre-recorded samples is very reminiscent of the practice of Djing rather than live performance. The active control of the visual display enters the realm of Vjing, but the visual information (as you will see more clearly in future documentation) is largely controlled by the music itself.

Technical Details:
The Munome is running MLR and tr256 alongside Reason for the drums sounds. I am using Johnney Lee’s Wii Whiteboard to take the performance from behind the computer screen and place it out in front of the viewer.

I apologize for the video, audio, and performance quality. Expect more of all of the above in future documentation when time and equipment permits it. Thanks to midimeek, stretta, tehn, and the others of the monome community for helping make this possible. Thanks to Eric Marty and the others of the ARTX Dept. @ UGA for help with equipment and technical details. More to come.

http://www.amanamun.com
http://www.monome.org
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/project…
http://www.cycling74.com/