I had the good fortune to meet Pam Burnard a while back when looking for a University to attend for my PhD in music, technology and education. Everyone I talked to said if I am going to do a PhD in that area, Pam was the person to talk to, and although I was a little late in my application and ended up somewhere else, I did make an amazing contact by meeting her. She has the ability to take a holistic approach to a seemingly chaotic and random area and not only find common themes but communicate that to the reader. This even more true in her newest book “Musical Creativities in Practice” which is fantastic on so many levels, the first being that it is so rigorous in illustrating how varied music creativity is. I wish I had this book when I was younger as I could have said to myself, “look there are other people struggling just like you, there are other people with wild ideas just like you.” The stories from the varied artists will undoubtedly remind the musicians how wonderful and difficult music can be, to educator just how important getting it right can be and to the non-musicians it will highlight many myths about music and hopefully encourage some of them in to music itself.

I am featured in the book in Chapter 8 alongside Kenneth Young (Media Molecule/Little Big Planet) and when you get interviewed for something like this you never know just what the big picture is, again it is down to Pam’s skill of drawing together the various strands of peoples lives to create that complete image. I am am truly grateful to have been a small part in such a wonderful text which I am sure several of you will appreciate. You can get a hold of the book at the Oxford University Press website here and whether your a musician, researcher, educator, or just interested in music and its many areas this is definitely a very good book for you to read.

Here is some more information on the book.

‘Musical Creativites in Practice’ offers a powerful corrective to myths and outmoded conceptions. It argues the need for conceptual expansion of musical creativities in line with real world practices. It explores how different types of musical creativities are regonized and communicated in the practices of professional musicians including composers, improvisers, singer songwriters, original bands, DJs, live coders and interactive sound designers working in the video games industry. Drawing on Bourdieu’s thinking tools, this book provides the foundation for a sociological analysis of musical creativities which is designed to transform the ways that music in education is thought about in the future.”

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!

Don’t get me wrong I like doing interviews but sometimes it is nice to do one like this, which was very relaxed and I did it via Skype from my couch, I literally had just stopped working on Observations in the studio to talk about it on the Nerdy Show. You can hear my interview on the podcast my bit is about 42 minutes into the program, you can download the show from their website here or from iTunes here.

You can find out more about Observations here. Observations takes place on March 12th & 13th, 2010 at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University at 7:30pm and it’s free!!! It’s getting very exciting now.

Thanks for Kirsti Weir at Dazed Digital for coming and having a chat with me about  Observations, during which I had the epiphany of what the universe actually sounded like how bad might diet was especially when I read it all back, to find out what check out the full interview here.

You can also check null+void music blog here for other amazing music and reporting.

You can find out more about Observations here. Observations takes place on March 12th & 13th, 2010 at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University at 7:30pm and it’s free!!! It’s getting very exciting now.

Really enjoyed doing this interview, they were a great team and I love the way they introduced the pieces with loads of historical research and references to other music.

The interview explains how and why I made the leap from Obsolete? to Observations. You can listen and download through iTunes here or direct from their web-page here.

You can find out more about Observations here. Observations takes place on March 12th & 13th, 2010 at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University at 7:30pm and it’s free!!!

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.

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 my childhood with the skills and understanding of the world I have as an adult.

By rewiring, re-purposing and re-using them I will essentially be remixing my childhood to form an orchestra of automated toys, a learning curve that that folds back on itself.

The interactive pieces will be on display in the Town Hall Galleries, Ipswich between May 29th- July 11th, 2010.  Alongside the main pieces I will also be running workshops and giving talks about my work.

The pieces were commissoned by Ipswich Borough Council & Turnstone Arts Grants sponsor Ip-art Award 2007- 2010 and I am very grateful to be exhibiting this project in my home town. Join the Facebook event page here.

Very 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.