Category Archives: theory

Social, political and technological dimensions of the io enterprise.

JazzWord: AI in an improv session

This one’s really interesting. Perhaps not the warmest review (in comparison to, say, those at MusicZoom, CloudsandClocks or Monsieur Délire), maybe not the fairest, but Ken Waxman’s take on ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) at JazzWord, in which the machine improviser is “unobtrusive and egoless” and “thoughtful pauses” signpost the authentic human, I think is […]

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Beyond Planet Earth Tweetup: dreams of the future

Some thoughts and questions from the Scientific American / American Museum of Natural History Beyond Planet Earth Tweetup on January 18, 2012. Planetariums are cathedrals I’m moved by the planetarium: I travel to the stars I cannot see, struggle with the scale of what I cannot fathom. Modern planetariums demonstrate the grandeur of God’s creation, […]

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Beyond Planet Earth Tweetup

Nothing directly to do with io 0.0.1 beta++, but I will be participating in the Scientific American / American Museum of Natural History Beyond Planet Earth Tweetup on January 18, 2012, starting at 6:00 pm (EST). [More info…] What does this, however indirectly, have to do with improvisation, semi-autonomous machine musicians, and real-time interactive musical […]

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manifesto in action (liner notes: io 0.0.1 beta++)

Fourth and final excerpt from Sara Roberts’ liner notes to ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531): There is the limbic tickle of Freud’s uncanny, yes, our scanners are confused by this non-human playing music with humans. But even beyond that animal attentiveness we watch and listen carefully because we know we’re seeing a kind of manifesto […]

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standing alone (liner notes: io 0.0.1 beta++)

Third excerpt from Sara Roberts’ liner notes to ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531): For the audience, wondering how this artifact has so much presence, is so handily managing a situation they themselves might be challenged to negotiate? There is something in io’s performance that a human musician, even playing io as an instrument, could not […]

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its own sound (liner notes: io 0.0.1 beta++)

Another short excerpt from Sara Roberts’ liner notes to ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531): io 0.0.1 beta++ is rather special in being both an instrument and a player. And given the two attributes it has a very particular sound, ‘sound’ here referring to both timbral quality and the broader sense of having an indelible identity, […]

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a curious situation (liner notes: io 0.0.1 beta++)

A short excerpt from the liner notes to ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) written by the California-based interactive media artist Sara Roberts: On the stage: two men, a woman, and an artifact, a freestanding mélange of industrial, military, and domestic hardware. The humans hold graceful, polished objects, but the domed assemblage stands alone. And while […]

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analog io

I’ve assumed that future versions of io would have a single board computer (or multiple SBCs) in place of the clunky and fragile personal computer. There was, however, always an alternative. Take the not-so-humble analog computer, a technology with a fascinating past and a (still promising) future. Given that io’s behavior is driven by an […]

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io 0.0.1 beta: ironic tale? sci-fi parody? nostalgic relic? (a report from TWO Thousand + NINE)

Some thoughts and observations from my presentation on io 0.0.1 beta at the TWO Thousand + NINE symposium, the Sonic Arts Research Center, Belfast, N. Ireland. [Abstract…] At the end of the presentation, a couple of remarks stood out. One was Franziska Schroeder’s comment that the presentation posed more questions than provided answers, and the […]

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io 0.0.1 beta: ironic tale? sci-fi parody? nostalgic relic? (slideshow)

From the slideshow for the presentation on io 0.0.1 beta at the TWO Thousand + NINE symposium, the Sonic Arts Research Center, Belfast, N. Ireland. [Abstract…] My part (spoken by the humyn participant Han-earl Park) was never written down, but the full transcript of the (imaginary) statements by io 0.0.1 beta are reproduced below. (You […]

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io 0.0.1 beta: ironic tale? sci-fi parody? nostalgic relic? (abstract)

I’ll be presenting a paper on io 0.0.1 beta at the TWO Thousand + NINE symposium which takes place at the Sonic Arts Research Center, Belfast, N. Ireland. Abstract: Greetings! I am io 0.0.1 beta, an interactive, semi-autonomous, non-human technological artifact—a musical automaton. I operate as parts of a real-time cyborg ensemble—a socio-technical/socio-musical network—in which […]

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(imaginary) introductions by io

Some imaginary statements by io 0.0.1 beta: Greetings! I am io 0.0.1 beta, an interactive, semi-autonomous, non-human technological artifact—a musical automaton. I operate as parts of a real-time cyborg ensemble—a socio-technical/socio-musical network—in which the primary protocol is improvisation. I am, perhaps, an improviser and a social machine. from the abstract of ‘io 0.0.1 beta: ironic […]

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