Simon
Blackmore
…is a Manchester based artist that will introduce a brand new instrument called Sticks. Reducing a computer interface to 1s and 0s or more accurately sound and silence, sticks explore time, rhythm and live algorithmic composition.
As consumers of technology we are faced with increasingly elaborate ways of sorting through the vast quantities of music and images that are stored on our hard disks. Current trends, exemplified by Apple's iPhone, combine familiar visual systems such as libraries and shelves with elegantly designed innovative interfaces such as scroll wheels and touch screens. The Owl Project have been exploring the question, 'What would happen if we simply learnt to speak the same language as computers ?' This is not as far fetched as it seems, as there are many surprising similarities between rhythm and binary information. Simon will present some of the ideas behind sticks and demonstrate how they can be used to navigate through a music library and even remix it.
