A lot of you may have noticed I have moved away from being “Pixelh8″, I still am “Pixelh8″ I am just more interested in promoting, facilitating and helping others be creative, I have always done this, it is just my main focus now. Whether it be making or performing music, designing or programming games or creating stop frame animation. 2012 is going to be about helping others create. There are two reasons for this;

1) I have had five years of fun, making and promoting myself as Pixelh8 it would be nice to now help others.

2) I am starting my PhD in “Educational Music Technology” all my research will be focused on helping to get others involved in music performance and creation.

There are already some great events I am booked for in 2012, Games Britania a game making festival in Rotherham which is building year on year, HESFES home educating festival where i’ll be designing games in a field, BACON a two day technology conference, British Museum workshops, St. Albans game design week, Young Rewired State 2012 and working with IP1 and The Mix to deliver so unique music making workshops. Don’t panic if I have missed anything. The full list albeit amazing is quite long indeed.

This doesn’t include the two patents, several conferences, maybe another published paper, being in a book about music, making all of my existing iPhone Apps HD for the iPad, “OCARBOT 2″ and “Cross-side” for iPhone, helping my ex-degree students publish some XBOX 360 games, jumping out an airplane and sending something else into space. 2012 will be busy.

Of course this is just the “plan” things will change. “OCARBOT EDU” has been slightly delayed to fix a few things here and there; try and trim the 134MB distribution size, allow myself a chance to recharge my batteries and to play on some new games and software over christmas.

Hopefully I’ll bump in to you in 2012 either in real life or on twitter, @pixelh8. Either way I hope 2011 was good for you and that 2012 will be even better. If you need me for anything just drop me a line.

I am very pleased with the outcome and would like to thank Ross Dalziel, FACT, Liverpool, Anna Kronenburg, Dr. Michael Doherty of the Centre for Design Innovation, UCS and SEMPRE.

Amusingly I ended up taken part and presenting some of my research to the group to fill in for one of the presenters, my research was very different to the others but none the less well received. It also allowed me to break the ice with several other researchers during coffee. All in all it was good fun and it made me aware of several other organisations and research projects.

You can find out more about David Gauntletts book “Making is Connecting” here.

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!!!

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.

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

Image reproduced with permission see footer.

Thank you so much Paul and all at Marshall Amplification.

“An Apple A Day” is an attempt to circuit bend / automate one toy everyday for a month, up a maximum of 31 toys, all of which will be accessible as musical instruments for the public to play, perform and record in their own music.

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.

You can read my paper on it below, the research forms part of my Masters Degree at the Centre for Design Innovation, University Suffolk College, UK.

Cultural perceptions, ownership and interaction with re-purposed musical instruments

The event has attracted international press here and here thanks to Wired & GeekDad.

The feedback from the workshop was very very positive and some nice stories about families coming together for the event to make music. Very pleased that they really took to the idea of creating something with the DS instead of just being a passive consumer of it. I also gave them copies of SUPER CHIP TUNE SAMBA BAND and Music Tech Master Stroke so they can go away and make there own music. minus the conclusion which I will write up next week.

This event forms part of FACTs “Space Invaders: Art and the Computer Game Environment” season and is delivered in partnership with Netherlands Media Art Institution, Amsterdam. Special thanks to all staff at FACT and special thanks to Anna Kronenburg for organising the event.

Photos courtesy of Anna Kronenburg and Louise Latter @ FACT, Liverpool