Library Music @ the MIT Music Library

Less than a week after getting back from Las Vegas, AudioPint PureJoy and Jamioki were set up as an interactive installation in the MIT Music Library as a part of the "Library Music" show curated by Tod Machover. Here's the MIT News Office's article about the show, and here's another, from an Italian website.

We'll put up audio and video from this installation as soon as we wrangle it into a more manageable form. Stay tuned!

Media Attention since CES

Some press folks that I talked to at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas have posted content online about the AudioPint / PureJoy demo. Here they are:

PureJoy Project Makes Everyone Musical - from Emru Townsend's blog on PCWorld.

AudioPint PureJoy MIT Media Lab Crazy Cool - an interview with Nikki Inderlied that I did for I4U news. Here's a YouTube version of the same interview, in case you have any trouble viewing the first one..

MIT Media Lab: New Music Performance Technology - an interview with Russ Johnson representing Lunch@Piero's, the organizers of our venue

-Dave

PureJoy and AudioPint at CES

This week I took a setup with four PureJoys and the development AudioPint system to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. My trip was sponsored by VIA, the Taiwanese company that makes the small motherboards that run the AudioPint. We were all set up at an off-site location just across the street from the main Las Vegas convention center, and received a healthy flow of press in two 2.5-hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday. Due to the commercial nature of CES, the most common question that I got was "so what are you selling?" I think that my response of "nothing, at the moment" caught people off-guard, and was a breath of fresh air to many. Lots of visitors saw the potential for fun, collaborative jamming that the system offers, and many tried it out. (one guy said "this is so cool, I'd totally buy this! let me know when it's on the market") It was a successful trip overall, for several reasons:

1) The four-person AudioPint became more ruggedized and travel-worthy. I did learn, however, how HEAVY the thing is, and that next time I take it anywhere it must have its own wheels, or at least a skateboard strapped underneath.
2) I got some total newbies to play around with the system, and observed their reactions
3) I had 5 hours over 2 days where all I did was play with the system, which increased my own chops on the system
4) I got to experience Las Vegas - a first for me.

Las Vegas is an interesting place. I don't think I could spend too much time here without sinking into utter despair, since more than anywhere else I've ever been Vegas is designed to extract as much money from visitors as it can, every minute. But for just a couple of days, it provides for nonstop entertainment. Maybe I'll be back for next year's CES, though with a much lighter PureJoy/AudioPint/Jamioki rig!
-Dave