Jordan Rudess and the Harpejji, which is described on their site as a member of a small family of stringed musical instruments known as tapping instruments. Tapping instruments are descendents of the electric guitar but are optimized for a style of playing that involves tapping on the strings to produce a note. One of the primary benefits of this style of playing is that it only requires one finger to make each note, unlike strumming which requires at least one finger on each hand to make a note.
By freeing up more fingers, the player has the freedom to play arrangements that are physically too difficult to play with the more traditional playing techniques. Unlike all other commercially available tapping instruments, the harpejji has a keyboard-inspired playing interface that many will find easier to learn, more comfortable to play and more interesting to explore.
The harpejji is played on a stand, horizontally or on a slight incline or decline. A decline position allows the audience to see more of your playing, whereas an incline position makes it easiest to reach the top frets.
French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s New commission for The Curve, Barbican, London, a work drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways.
For his installation in The Curve, Boursier-Mougenot creates a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.
27 February 2010 - 23 May 2010
The Curve, Barbican, London
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery…
Another approach to getting a pay check without having to play the music
This Pat Metheny project is very interesting. He has built/had built (they look like Eric Singers work to me??) an Orchestrion, a robotic orchestra that is responding to his guitar playing style on the fly - check it out
Home Page
The home stereo and 5.1 reproduction arrangement that we are all familiar with is psychoacoustically flawed. There is simply no way conventional stereo or 5.1 can recreate the panoramic spread and depth of sound we hear in concert halls, churches, theaters, or rock concerts. With Ambiophonic sound reproduction, however, you really can be there.
You would have to be very concerned about the reproduction experience to set your listening up like this - congratulations…
A video of the early tests of my new Singing Bowl robot - the sound is not good yet, but there is more experimentation in the beater leather to soften the sound timbre
Version 2 of the Singing Bowls robot. This one is excellent - the motors are really wuiet - the foam works really well - easy to work, good quietning characteristics and really strong. I am very proud of the spring loaded servo connection to the playing stick - this allows for small variations in pressure and for minor in-consistencies in the bowls symetry. You can see the Arduino and Xbee in a poacket and the battery pack goes in the other side.
I was involved in this interesting research project over the last 2 years - here is a short documentary video about the project made by Mike Leggett
Thinking Through The Body ArtLab 08 is an interdisciplinary research project exploring the use and potential of touch, movement and proprioception (the sense of ones position and volume in space) in body-focused interactive art practices. Project participants are: Catherine Truman, Garth Paine, George Khut, George Khut, Jonathan Duckworth, Lian Loke, Lizzie Muller, Maggie Slattery and Somaya Langley.
The project has been supported through the Australia Council, Inter-Arts Offices ArtLab 2008? initiative, and generously supported by Campbelltown Arts Centre, The Bundanon Trust, and Performance Space.
the This is a great little, Arduino compatible board, which has an XBee slot on the back, making it cheaper than purchasing an Arduino and XBee shield and also giving it a much much smaller form factor. It is compatible with the Arduino API although you need to download the Funnel library as it has some other functionality. - well worth a look
It based on the original design from LilyPad Arduino v1.6. It has connections for a Lithium Polymer battery and includes a charge circuit over USB. An XBee socket is available on the bottom of the board
March 8th, 2010 by 
Garth
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