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.

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.

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.

I am really pleased to announce that Marshall Amplification have sponsored the Super Chip Tune Samba Band, by way of several Marshall MS-4 Micro Amps. I am incredibly thankful for their contribution, it means the band can now be a full on marching band, no complicated wires and PA systems, just plug and play. More videos and pictures from the upcoming workshops soon!

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.

On January 31st, 2010 I ran a day long workshop at FACT, Liverpool, teaching people how to use the “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. The software was 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, and utilising the participants existing hand-eye coordination, muscle memory and general video game playing skills to learn new and additional musical skills.

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.

“Observations” is an audio visual study of the people, machines and practices at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, which culminated in two performances on 12th &13th of March, 2010 at 7.30pm during the Cambridge Science Festival.

The piece poses the question of “What does it mean to be an Astronomer?” and how it has evolved; from observations with the unaided eye and the first telescopic studies 400 years ago, to modern telescopes and satellites collecting data across the full reach of the spectrum, and the importance of theoretical study of astronomical concepts such as cosmology.

Following on from the successful “Obsolete?” in 2009 at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, Matthew C. Applegate aka Pixelh8 internationally renowned “chip tune” musician will be directing, composing and performing this entirely new piece.

All of the sounds in the music will be recorded from the machines, people and interpreted from the data they collect at the Institute. This includes electro-mechanical, mechanical, and ambiance as well as interviews with leading scientists and curious visitors to the Institute.

The work is supported by the researchers at The Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge and the outreach officer Dr. Carolin Crawford and was funded by the PRS for Music Foundation Live Connections award.

The music is now available from pixelh8.co.uk/music/ & Last FM and iTunes, Spotify et al shortly.

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.

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

Can’t keep this quiet any longer, the long awaited follow-up to “Obsolete?” is here. Very excited.

“Observations” is an audio visual study of the people, machines and practices at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. Culminating in two performances on 12th &13th of March, 2010 at 7.30pm during the Cambridge Science Festival.

The piece poses the question of “What does it mean to be an Astronomer?” and how it has evolved; from observations with the unaided eye and the first telescopic studies 400 years ago, to modern telescopes and satellites collecting data across the full reach of the spectrum, and the importance of theoretical study of astronomical concepts such as cosmology.

Following on from the successful “Obsolete?” in 2009 at The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park, Matthew C. Applegate aka Pixelh8 internationally renowned “chip tune” musician will be directing, composing and performing this entirely new piece.

All of the sounds in the music will be recorded from the machines, people and interpreted from the data they collect at the Institute. This includes electro-mechanical, mechanical, and ambience as well as interviews with leading scientists and curious visitors to the Institute.

The work is supported by the researchers at The Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge and the outreach officer Dr. Carolin Crawford and was funded by the PRS for Music Foundation Live Connections award.

The PRS for Music Foundation (PRSF) is the UK’s largest independent funder of new music across all genres. Widely respected as an adventurous and proactive funding body, the Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity – from unsigned band showcases to composer residencies, from commissions for new music to experimental live electronica. Since March 2000 PRSF has given more than £12 million to over 3,000 new music initiatives.