Pixelh8

Pixelh8 @ The V&A

February 27th, 2010

Today I gave a  Q&A session at the V&A it was part of the SAP Digital Design Weekend. There were loads of other events and talks by different artists like Memo Akten and Jason Bruges and the amazing Decode exhibit. I will be giving the talk again tomorrow same time same place.

I also ran a circuit bending workshop earlier that morning for NESTA as part of the idiscover programme which was really good fun and the students really enjoyed it too. They were able to create a fully working circuit bent keyboard for each of them to take home at the end of the workshop. You can listen to the sounds they made below.

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Posted in Educational, Lectures & Workshops |

Pixelh8 @ ATM, Norwich and Musician’s Union “Decent Exposure”

February 23rd, 2010

A lot of public talking today about four hours actually! Two events. First up was a visit to ATM Norwich which I am a patron of to talk about chip tune music, circuit bending with some level three students, who asked some very good questions and showed some good lateral thinking with regards to their own music. Secondly was “Decent Exposure” a Q & A on how to deal with the press, I was on a panel with Wendy Roby of Drowned in Sound, Bob Patterson of BPA Live Agency, Bobbi Coppen of All About Promotions and Alex Mann of the Musicians Union. It was very nice to do something for the Musicians Union, who have been very supportive of me in the past. Again good questions were asked and the crowd enjoyed the evening.

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Pixelh8 Q&A @ FACT, Liverpool

February 2nd, 2010

Two days in a row I did a Q&A with two different schools the Academy of St.Francis of Assisi and Holly Lodge Girls College and others at FACT, it was great some good questions coming out of the students, I demonstrated circuit bending, discussed “Obsolete?” and did a short mini-gig where the participants could ask questions in between songs about how and what I was doing to create the music.

TALKSSCALED

TALKSSCALED2

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

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Posted in Chip Tune Workshops, Educational, Lectures & Workshops, Performances, Software |

Pixelh8 Computer Graphics Workshop @ FACT, Liverpool

February 1st, 2010

CGWSTGAMESHOT1oday I did a Computer Graphics Workshop with two different schools the Academy of St.Francis of Assisi and Holly Lodge Girls College at FACT, Liverpool as part of the current Space Invaders exhibition. They were a fantastic group, so good in fact we even had time to make sound effects for the game as well. The space was perfect as we could beam the game on a huge cinema screen as we were making it.

The game will be all edited and back to them in a week for them to play on in school and at home. Next up tonight “An Evening With Pixelh8” all sold out!!!

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SUPER CHIP TUNE SAMBA BAND @ FACT, Liverpool

January 31st, 2010

MENU1 SAMBAPLAYER

Firstly many thanks to Anna, Hamish, Ben and the support staff at FACT.  Secondly the adults and children who took part.

Today I ran  a day long workshop, teaching people how to use the new “SUPER CHIP TUNE SAMBA BAND” software, the new software is made to encourage people to perform chip tune music together in groups. The day long session included an introduction to chip tune music, why and how I made the software, the rehearsal and the performance by the participants.  Already the event has attracted international press here and here.

The software is designed to mimic the sounds of a samba band albeit a very chip tune samba band with a Sirdu, Caixa, Rep, Ganza and an Agogo, it’s time to turn those game playing skills in to Samba music.

Despite many technical hitches due to several cables being a bit flaky (grrr just bought them for the event, but I can sort this out with a bit of funding or sponsorship) the feedback was very very positive and some nice stories about families coming together for the event to make music.  Can’t post any pictures tonight left my camera adapter at the lab will update this post later in the week.

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I really enjoyed it and the families did too. 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.  You can read my paper on it below on the how, what and why of the workshop, minus the conclusion which I will write up next week.

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

Some minor hitches with the software (if one drum is exited before it is finished playing it holds it in memory especially the Agogo) and I think the PC/MAC Player software needs to have several more patterns and more simpler patterns as well apart from that it was great.

When it’s all done and written up all the software and teaching notes will be available for download so you can make your own samba band in your schools and homes.

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.

FACT-logo


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Pixelh8 @ Computing Club, Holywells High School, Ipswich “Processing Lesson 3″

January 19th, 2010

p3lessonAfter a long Christmas and New Year break, it’s back to coding, fortunately that break didn’t wash away all that they had learned and we were able to get on with Dimensional arrays. The best part of the lesson was when we started talking about how the Baddy AI will be implemented next lesson. They were beginning to think laterally, and how the computer doesn’t view the game as the player, but as a maze of 0 and 2’s in this case. The 2’s in the array are solid walls and so could 1,3, and 4 but they will be added later. 0’s are for nothing and is where both the goody and baddy can walk.The first row of 0’s is there to allow for space to draw the number of lives, score and level later on.

Every loop it redraws the level, and when key presses occur it checks if the position the character wants to head is clear, if it’s not it issues a return;. The following code builds upon last lesson here and adds the map drawing and good guy collision with it. The code as is also purposely presented the students with a dilemma, how do you get into the maze.

To get the below example to work

1) Load up processing and save immediately calling it “MazeGame” this will create a folder, example “MazeGame”

2) Within that folder create another folder called “data” so MazeGame\data

3) Within that folder put a graphic called “good.png” 40X40 pixels.

4) Run it

//MazeGame
//Copyright Room 1 Studios 2009
//Matthew C. Applegate – Pixelh8

int goodx, goody;

int level, column, row;
int[][][] mapper = {

//Level 1

{
{0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0},
{2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2}},//End of Level 1

//Level 2
{
{0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0},
{2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2},
{2,0,0,9,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,2},
{2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2}} //End of Level 2
};

PImage hero;

void setup(){
background(0);
size(600, 400); // 15 X 10
hero = loadImage(“good.png“);
}

void draw (){
background(0);
updatescreen();
}

void updatescreen (){
image(hero, goodx*40, goody*40);

for (int row = 0; row < 10; row++){
for (int column = 0; column < 15; column++){
if (mapper [level] [row] [column] == 2){fill(255); rect (column*40,row*40, 40,40);}
}}
}

void keyReleased() {
if (key == CODED) {

//check if collision free
if (keyCode == UP)    {
if ((mapper [level] [goody-1][goodx]>0)&& (mapper[level] [goody-1][goodx]<4)){return;}}
if (keyCode == DOWN)    {
if ((mapper [level] [goody+1][goodx]>0)&& (mapper[level] [goody+1][goodx]<4)){return;}}
if (keyCode == LEFT)    {
if ((mapper [level] [goody][goodx-1]>0)&& (mapper[level] [goody][goodx-1]<4)){return;}}
if (keyCode == RIGHT)    {
if ((mapper[level]  [goody][goodx+1]>0)&& (mapper[level][goody][goodx+1]<4)){return;}}

//If collision free
if (keyCode == UP)    {goody=goody-1;}
if (keyCode == DOWN)  {goody=goody+1;}
if (keyCode == LEFT)  {goodx=goodx-1;}
if (keyCode == RIGHT) {goodx=goodx+1;}
}
}

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Posted in Educational, Holywells Computing Club, Programming in Schools |

Pixelh8 “A Choice To Compute” the article on Game People

January 6th, 2010

gamerpeopleVery pleased I got to finally written this up “A Choice to Compute: Rant in C++” it is part of a talk I give on the decline of programmers and some of the possible causes behind it. You can read the full article on Game People and all of the quotes can be referenced.

Although things are getting better there is still alot of work to be done to turn things around, and on the back of this rant instead of just complaining about the problems I have set up “Computer Club” with several schools to get people programming at an early age. You can see some of the example lessons and projects that I have undertaken with Holywells High School on this Blog here.

Enjoy.

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Posted in Educational, Holywells Computing Club, Lectures & Workshops, Press, Programming in Schools |

FACT DS Orchestra using Pixelh8 Music Tech Master Stroke

December 22nd, 2009

DSOrchestra

“Our Lady Of Perpetual Succour Catholic Primary School in Widnes collaborated with artist and FACT education freelancer Ross Dalziel on a piece of music using acclaimed artist and musician Pixelh8’s Tech Master Stroke ‘chiptune’ software for Nintendo DS…

FACT’s engagement and education team invited the DS Orchestra to play at the opening of the exhibition “Space Invaders – Art and the Computer game Envirionment” at FACT in Liverpool which continues to run from 18 December 2009 to 21 February 2010.” FACT.

Many thanks to Ross Dalziel of Sound Network and all the staff at FACT, and of course the fantastic DS Orchestra, look out for “Super Chip Tune Samba Band” software, workshops and videos coming soon.

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Posted in Chip Tune Workshops, Educational, Lectures & Workshops, Performances, Press, Software |

Pixelh8 @ FACT, Liverpool for the launch of “SUPER CHIP TUNE SAMBA BAND”

December 20th, 2009

MENU1 SAMBAPLAYER

On January 31st, 2010 I will be running a day long workshop, teaching people how to use the new “SUPER CHIP TUNE SAMBA BAND” software, the new software is made to encourage people to perform chip tune music together in groups. The day long session will include introduction to chip tune music, why and how I made the software, the rehearsal and the performance by the participants. For booking details contact FACT at their website. Already the event has attracted international press here and here so book early to avoid disappointment.

The software is designed to mimic the sounds of a samba band albeit a very chip tune samba band with a Sirdu, Caixa, Rep, Ganza and an Agogo, it’s time to turn those game playing skills in to Samba music.

After the event the software will be released to download for free as well as some play-along videos for you to get started using it.

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.

FACT-logo

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Posted in Chip Tune Workshops, Educational, Lectures & Workshops, Performances, Software |

Pixelh8 @ Computing Club, Holywells High School, Ipswich “Processing Lesson 2″

December 15th, 2009

mazegameI am genuinely very proud of my Computer Club only the second week in to programming with “Processing” and they are real getting it, they are really thinking logically and coherently. Below is a simple program to load a sprite place it on the screen and move it around using the cursor keys, they were all able to follow my instructions and get it to work.

I also set a few traps along the way for them to figure out for themselves and they were successful in solving the problem. Again this is just another piece of the overall project, and will later be merged with work from other sessions.

Cleverly they also worked out how to load other graphics and experimented with them too.

To get the below example to work

1) Load up processing and save immediately this will create a folder, example “MazeGame”

2) Within that folder create another folder called “data” so MazeGame\Data

3) Within that folder put a graphic called “good.png” 40X40 pixels.

4) Run it

//MazeGame
//Copyright Room 1 Studios 2009
//Matthew C. Applegate – Pixelh8

int goodx, goody;
PImage hero;

void setup(){
background(0);
size(600, 400); // 15 X 10
hero = loadImage(“good.png“);
}

void draw (){
background(0);
updatescreen();
}

void updatescreen (){
image(hero, goodx*40, goody*40);
}

void keyReleased() {
if (key == CODED) {
if (keyCode == UP)    {goody=goody-1;}
if (keyCode == DOWN)  {goody=goody+1;}
if (keyCode == LEFT)  {goodx=goodx-1;}
if (keyCode == RIGHT) {goodx=goodx+1;}
}
}

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Posted in Educational, Holywells Computing Club, Lectures & Workshops, Programming in Schools, Visits |

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