You’re looking at a hybrid music/chess system that I’ve created, in preparation for a concert of new and experimental music in late June. The chessboard on the left (a Novag Citrine) is wired to the computer via a serial/USB cable. When people play on the chessboard, the computer monitors their moves, and attempts to figure […]

A few friends recommended I check out the May issue of Wired, so I finally picked up a copy at the airport today. They were right — this is the best issue of Wired I’ve seen in a few years! Wired is one of many magazines that has been noticeably suffering from the downturn in […]

I’ll be at BarCamp LA this Saturday, attempting to initiate a music-nerdery session that covers such topics as MIDI control in Processing, Mechanical Music and Process Music. I may also do a session on Mind Reading with Google, or Flickr Hacks, if there’s sufficient interest. If there’s something special you’d like me to cover, such […]

I found this old video of mine while looking at some old backup CDs. Back in the early 90s, while playing with Gryphon Software’s “Morph” software, I accidentally stumbled upon a technique for making a still photograph or painting look like a hologram. The basic idea is that you make a mirror image of the […]

I’ve been posting the above ad at local chess clubs in Los Angeles, in preparation for a June concert in which a live chess game will be translated into music. Contact me if you have leads. Thanks!

The other day I found this DIY music box kit over at Think Geek, but they were out of stock. So I found a supplier in the UK, called Grand Illusions. They actually carry two models, including one with a larger number of tines (20 tines covering a 2 1/2 octave diatonic range ). Naturally […]

The music box disc I’m getting prepared, mentioned in the previous post, looks something like this. Here’s a simulation of what it would sound like, played on an antique Stella music box, assuming the box’s spring-wound mechanism has the strength to play the first chord, in which every tine sounds at the same time. It […]

Oh, I’ve been bitten by this mechanical music bug big time. I’m now working on composing some new music for an orchestrion. This will be no mere weekend-long project (as most of mine tend to be), and hopefully I can share some audio snippets with you as work progresses. I imagine most of you don’t […]

On Twitter, there are a lot of bots that will auto-follow you if you say certain magic words. This is easily accomplished using the Twitter API – I’ve done it for fun (try saying “Beetlejuice” on twitter), and I’m definitely not the first. I’m sure some of you have experienced being mysteriously followed on twitter […]