“Beat Unboxed” from the “Childhood Remixed project has made it’s way to Waterman’s Gallery in Brentford London, exhibiting alongside loads of other excellent pieces from other artists. Go and have a play. The exhibition is open now but there is a private view on the 14th of September more details for that here.

Unleashed Devices : An exhibition featuring the work of over 30 artists exploring new technologies critically and creatively.  By reconstructing, remixing and reinventing everyday electronic devices, these take on a new life, that not only challenge our conception of technology but also music, art and design.  Includes playful installations, interactive electronic-sculptures, movement tracking works and performances.

Participating artists:

Tine Bech, Hellicar & Lewis, Patrick Tresset & Nanda Khaorapapong, Daniel Soltis, John Nussey, Matthew Applegate/ Pixelh8, Alex Zivanovic, Neil Mendoza & Anthony Goh, Communications, Ryan Jordan, Genetic Moo, Wajid Yaseen, Eduard Prats Molner & Marijana Mitrovic, Owl Project, sketchPatch, Mary Thompson, Peter Forde, Evan Raskob, Owen Bowden, Tom Schofield, Dave Griffiths, Stuart Dunbar, Anna Dumitriu (in collaboration with Tom Keen, Dr. Simon Park, Dr. Blay Whitby and Lorenzo Grespan), Megan Smith, Vincent Van Uffelen & Olga Panades, Andy Deck, Jordan Tate & Adam Tindale, Andrew Back, Thessia Machado,Daniel Ploeger

My exhibition “Childhood Remixed” has moved to the Barbican for the opening weekend of Pixar’s Toy Story 3 in 3D, the toys are located in the foyer of Cinema 1 on level -2.

The exhibition will be on display from today until Monday afternoon so be sure to pop by and have a go at making some interesting sounds from reclaimed and remixed toys.

You can read more about the event here on the Barbican’s website.

As some of you may have noticed the Software page from my blog has been removed. The Music Tech Software of the past will no longer be distributed from these pages. I have recently had the good fortune to do a project called the “Super Chip Tune Samba Band” which encourages large groups of people to come together to create and perform music. The project has attracted a lot of attention from both big companies to the people who the software is intended for, and for this I am grateful. It has also changed my focus from primarily instrument maker to more educational related software.

It has also now made me change the way I do things, no longer will I reverse engineer / hack computers to learn about them, it’s all gone, all of it, destroyed (much to my friends and colleagues despair). From now on it will be official development only. Developing for several hand held platforms with the intention to create small but useful music related software. With iPhone and Android development already underway, and with the intention of developing for DSiware, PSP Go and Symbian in the future. I feel going the legitimate and official route will allow those who are unaware of the music making on these devices more aware of their potential, and by “their” I wholeheartedly mean the individuals.

This is by no means an attempt to legitimise chip tune music, it is something I feel I need to do as an individual. I love chip tune music, I have always striven to push it as far as I can take it, from making software for all to projects like Obsolete? and this is where it has lead me.

I hope you”ll join me on my new adventure.

For more information follow @room1studios & @pixelh8 on Twitter.

New double album “The Schematic” out soon!!!

Today was good fun, I did a Super Chip Tune Samba band workshop at the BBC Blast event in Bury St. Edmunds with a local school group. They did really well, so well I rewrote song of the patterns during the lunch break and even let them come up with some themselves for the rest of the group to play. They were little troopers managing to play for four hours in total, which is incredible especially considering the temperature today.

The event was full of other activities like photography, stop frame animation and sound design, I ended the day with a performance and Q&A and good fun was had by all.

You can find out more details of the event and BBC Blast in general here.

“A Day At The Seaside” is a new interactive audio visual installation by Matthew C. Applegate / Pixelh8 at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh. The project sees several groups of school children visiting the seaside, some for the very first time and documenting their visits using digital cameras and audio recording equipment. The experience collected by all is woven into an interactive recreation, a digital beach.

Created by Matthew C. Applegate the project utilizes the talents of David Chatting (additional programming) and Mike Challis (sound recording) and the many school children from Beyton Middle School, Blackbourne Middle School, Thurston Community College, Cockfield Primary School and Great Barton Primary School who took part.

The project is Managed by Bella Scarr at Aldeburgh music and funded with generous support from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The installation is on display at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh, in the prestigious Jerwood Kiln Studio between August 6th -14th.

We hope you will come and join us on our very special beach.

I had a wonderful time at the Vintage Computer Festival, the National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, so many computers so many exhibits. I instantly fell in love with the a Vextrec computer once I saw and heard it in action. I got to see some of the collections from other museums like the Centre for Computing History who have some immaculate and rare computers and even Jim Austin’s Altair 8800 from his collection.

I was very fortunate to meet and chat with most of the speakers Chris Serle (The Computer Show) , Sophie Wilson (ARM processor and Acorn Computers) , Dylan Smith (the Tweeting spectrum) I even asked some questions during the Q&A’s for both Sophie Wilson and O.M.D. who gave an amazing Q&A and performance of some new songs and classics. The volunteers at the museum also took to giving presentations at the museum Peter Onion on the Elliott 803, Tony Frazer on the Witch, Delwyn Holyroyd on mainframes of the 1970s, Tony Sale on Colossus and our youngest volunteer Adam Bradley on the Cray series computers which the crowd loved.

I also gave two performances in the mansion which were good fun because of the small audience size, people could ask questions during, for the chip tune performance I even took them through the code for the visuals. The second show on Sunday was was a re-showing of Obsolete? and a Q&A which I am beginning to like doing more and more. For the rest of the time I was directing people round the museum and talking to exhibitors.

All in all it was a great weekend and good fun was had by all, I even picked up a second BBC Micro.

You can hear BBC’s Broadcasting House’s report on it here around 54 minutes in to the programs, also report on the event at the BBC Technology website here.

Very excited about being a part of the Bury St. Edmunds BBC Blast weekend, there are literally loads of activities for the 13-19 who wants to get involved and get creative, the events are free and I will be there with a Super Chip Tune Samba Band and to give a performance and lecture. Electronic dance music, fashion and film making it’s all here thanks to the BBC.

Facebook event page for my workshop here and main BBC Blast Bury St. Edmunds page here.

Image reproduced with permission see footer.

As a follow the Outriders radio documentary that went out Jamillah Knowles at BBC Technology put together an article on it, which ended up on the BBC front page next to some guy called Steve Jobs.

Again it features the excellent Simon Cottee director of Pixel – A pixel art documentary and the amazing Tristan Perich creator of the 1 bit symphony and you can find more information on their stuff on there too. You can read the full article here and listen to the podcast here.

Enjoy

Image reproduced with permission see footer.

Very pleased to be featured on BBC Radio 5’s Outriders took the time to have a closer look at Pixel Art and Chip Tune Music, I was interviewed alongside the excellent Simon Cottee director of Pixel – A pixel art documentary and the amazing Tristan Perich creator of the 1 bit symphony and I am very pleased with the coverage that this documentary brings to these areas. You can Listen on the radio on BBC Radio 5 it is broadcast on Tuesdays at 0300 in Up All Night or you can listen now online here. You can also have a go on a re-creation of the circuit bent NES at Childhood Remix here. Enjoy!

Well I can honestly say I feel that the opening night of “Childhood Remixed” was a success, we had loads of visitors and lots of fun. For many visitors it was there first experience with either circuit bending / automation or chip tune and many found it an enjoyable one. Children of all ages from 8 to 80 were happy at play on the modified toys to make sounds. Both the Mayor and Dr. Michael Doherty gave speeches about my work and said nice things about me too, so all in all it was a good night. Sincere amount of thanks to James Noble and Julia Devonshire for all of their continued help and support during the install week, I couldn’t have done it without them.

Click on one of the photos to see more on my Flickr page.

Childrens’ toys are often seen as transitional objects that let the child gain mastery of the world around them. Paradoxically “Childhood Remixed” seeks to re-purpose the toys of Pixelh8’s childhood with the skills and understanding of the world he has as an adult. By rewiring, re-purposing and re-using them he will essentially be remixing his own childhood to form an orchestra of automated toys and interactive instruments.

Scouring the local car boot sales, charity shops and in some cases rubbish bins, Pixelh8 was able to reclaim some of the toys that informed him musically and creatively as a child, by re-working them with new acquired skills it will in turn create a learning curve that folds back on itself.

Childhood Remixed was commissioned by Ipswich Borough Council & Turnstone Arts Grants sponsor Ip-art Award 2007- 2010 and will be on display in Town Hall Galleries from May 29th to July 12th as part of the Ip-art festival.