Good fun was had by all and it was nice to meet several other artists making interesting things, I am featured in the video @ around 7:36 talking about “Childhood Remixed”.

I had a great day today at the V&A Digital Design Weekend which was part of the London Design Festival. I took several toys from “An Apple A Day Day” from the “Childhood Remixed” project for the public to play on an record noise from. Got to bump into Sophie McDonald of mztek, Davide Della Casa of sketchpatch,  Daniel Soltis of Tinker London & Andras Szalai who were all running great projects in the design studio.

Good fun was had by all even though I think my stuff was a little noisy at times, Sophie and Davide were demoing sketchpatch and I think I will do some pieces for them soon, Daniel was building amazing physical storytelling environment and Andras was coding in fluxus which I will definitely have to check out soon.

Many thanks to the V&A for asking me to come down to London and talk about my past, present and future work today. The three hour session had me answering questions on coding to composition, gaming to educational software. I was also really chuffed to finally meet Bill Thompson from BBC’s Digital Planet during the talk and answers some of his questions too.

All in all it was a good day and I will be back there on the 25th and 26th of September with several circuit bent toys from the “Childhood Remixed” project. Come along make and record some sounds between 10:30-5pm. See you there.

“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.

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.

I was fortunate to meet Allison Boggis at UCS and talk about my research the “Super Chip Tune Samba Band”, who in turn asked me to put together a short presentation for the UCS Early Years Academic Community meeting, it was nice to find out that there were other researchers interested in this area and how different all of our research is. It looks like their might be some interesting collaborations in the future.

I went to the best car boot sale ever on Sunday and I mean ever, I bought twelve usable toys which is quite a lot considering I usually average around four. So I am well on target to acheive 31 toys this month. Probably the best thing was the white and green “Talking Computer” which I have circuit bent, so when it talks you turn a dial it completely scrambles it’s brain. I call it “Daisy” in reference to “Hal” and “2001″, I will upload audio clips from it as soon when the piece gets installed into the gallery.

“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.

I am beginning to like Sundays, early start wander in to town to car boot sale and purchase toys to circuit bend over the course of the day. I bought this amazing toy guitar for 20p / 50 cents, it didn’t work when I got it home so I opened it up and found the speaker had some rusting and damage so I replaced it from another to and added in an audio jack and a severe 1M potentiometer pitch bend which is nice. Put it all back together and shazzzzam another toy for “An Apple A day”.

“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.