A Day At The Seaside August 2010

“A Day at the Seaside” is a digital re-imagining of the Aldeburgh coastline. Commissioned by Aldeburgh Music the project took eight months to produce.Using the local environment, artists and school children to create an audio visual installation itself.

“A Day at the Seaside” has brought together several groups of school children from the Thurston Schools cluster, visiting Aldeburgh Beach and documenting their visits using digital cameras and audio recording equipment. The experience collected by all is woven into an interactive recreation of the seaside.

The project utilizes the talents of David Chatting (additional programming) and Mike Challis (sound recording) and the many school children from the Thurston Schools cluster.

The project will be live from noon on Friday 6th Aug 2010 to Friday 13th Aug 2010 in the Jerwood Kiln Studio, Snape Maltings as part of the Faster Than Sound | Lab Week during the Aldeburgh Proms. The project was created with generous support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

Hands On Sound June 2010

Commisioned by Aldeburgh Music a piece for massed Nintendo DS and Gameboy ensemble. Dozens of machines were ready and primed, adapted into musical instruments for a musical performance on June 27th as part of the Aldeburgh Festival.  A huge PA system relayed the sounds of this ‘console concerto’ on Aldeburgh Beach. The project and software was created by Matthew C Applegate with the workshops and performance lead by Duncan Chapman. The project was supported by The Suffolk Foundation and Suffolk Single Gateway.

Childhood Remixed May 2010

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 are 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.

Observations March 2010

“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 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 were 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 at 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.

Digital Planet Theme Tune May 2009

Working alongside the Digital Planet production crew for BBC World Service.

Matthew C. Applegate was commissioned to create a digital realisation of the Digital Planet theme tune. It was debut’d on May 26th, 2009 to several million listeners worldwide. The music uses a Atari 800XL, Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo DS and several more of my uniquely programmed instruments.

The theme tune was subsequently released as a free ringtone through The Open University and is available from their website here.

The Open University and Digital Planet, BBC World Service’s Weekly Technology programme, have joined forces to produce six special co-produced editions of the programme. Hosted by Gareth Mitchell, Digital Planet brings the clearest, sharpest guide to developments in our connected world to a worldwide audience via radio, digital and online.

For more information visit the Digital Planet BBC site here. Image reproduced with permission see footer.

All imagery and music © & (P) Hidden Youth Records UK 2009 unless otherwhise stated.

An Alan Turing Fantasy, April 2009

Working alongside Timothy Capalbo from The New School for Drama. Matthew C. Applegate  provided the music for a new play by Zay Amsbury and directed by Web Begole. Featuring David Marshall, Aidan O’Shea (Turing) and Amanda Rhines. The Performances took place on April 23-25, 2009 at The New School for Drama, 151 Bank Street, New York, NY.

“An Alan Turing Fantasy, a new play by Zay Amsbury and directed by Web Begole, asks the question: What if Alan Turing used the resources of British Intelligence to push his theories on machine intelligence to the limit? In a retrofitted Royal Air Force hangar, Turing creates an artificial intelligence that grows beyond his imitation games and holds the promise of ending his loneliness forever.”

Obsolete? March 2009

“Obsolete?” is a audio and visual study of the people, machines, history of The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park and looks closely at the themes of mathematics, logic, code-breaking and enciphering. The project was funded by the PRS Foundations new music award and commissioned by The National Museum of Computing.

The music itself is composed using some of the oldest and rarest computers in the world such as the WWII code-breaking machine Colossus Mark 2 Rebuild, and the 1960’s Elliott 803 largely used for mathematics and some of the more commonplace machines such as the BBC Micro. With over thirty machines studied and utilised within the music, it is a combination of both sounds from the internal sound chips and the external electro-mechanical sounds. In addition to this, the piece also utilises such items as the early non-electrical mechanical adding machines.

The project was comprised of twelves pieces of music and accompanying visuals and culminated in two performances at the prestigious Bletchley Park Mansion on March 20th and 21st, 2009.

The project has attracted widespread media attention and has been featured on BBC New 24, BBC Look East, BBC South Today, New Scientist Magazine,  Dazed & Confused Magazine, Games TM Magazine, Future Music, BBC Radio 4, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Three Counties and covered on several news websites including The Register, MacWorld, bit.tech, Slashdot, The IET, IT Pro and several more.

Available on iTunes UK here and iTunes USA here!