03/21 2013 the first day of spring has arrived ...

... and very soon, it will be  

 5/4/2013 the date for this year's ImagineRIT !  

Syncopated Surfing Ring + A Pod Calypso is an immersive multimedia production that invites audience members to become "interactors" in playful performances of rhythm and balance routines. Participants can opt to portray either a "syncopated surfing ringer" or "dolphin impersonificationist," where, through the use of novel interfaces and motion capture devices, they control avatars within a virtual aquatic environment. This atypical tropical troupe attempts to reach new depths of intelligent human-cetacean communication via the generation of musical, motional, and mathematical patterns.

come make

waves of interaction between

light, wind, water, dolphins and surfers

theatre of peace

03/12/2013  The twelfth of march, two thousand and thirteen.

Another uncommon date, since the numeric representation of the month 03 and day 12 are permutations of the year 2013.   

In my two previous blog postings, I've outlined the idea behind two "interactive musicals" 

The Syncopated Surfing Ring plus A Pod Calypso

An atypical tropical troupe performing a revue* of imaginative scenarios between a curious band of surfers and inquisitive wild dolphins.

*revue: a light theatrical entertainment consisting of short sketches, songs, and dances

Close Encounters of the Mth Kind: Music Motion Math and other Meaningful Signs of Intelligent Life.

The theme for a series of interactive musicals that play with the notions of establishing friendly communication and exchanging knowledge between different forms of intelligent living creatures, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial.

These acts/routines are intended to be the prototypes that define/refine the concept of a "theatre of peace".


Einstein said "the most important question a person can ask is "is the universe a friendly place ?""  The proposed objective for a "theatre of peace" is to propagate kindness and knowledge through the creation of interactive performances that combine the arts & sciences, within an environment that will inspire creativity in the participants (the intention is that there are no mere observers or audiences in attendance) to actively make the world a better place for all.  In so doing, it is believed that a proof is being constructed that the answer to the most important question above is positively a "yes". 

Just as "the arts" can greatly expand the effectiveness of STEM to form a vastly more powerful combination dubbed STEAM (see below),  it is my firm belief that there are many ways that science and mathematics, united with the performing arts (music, movement/dance and theatre**), can produce exceptionally vivid and meaningful events*** that have the potential to be transformative experiences in positive ways. 

I am seeking to investigate using a highly interdisciplinary blend to experiment with developing enhanced learning environments that more fully engage "all sides of the brain" via the expanded sensory stimulation extended to the body, mind, and soul. 

**Storytelling is a powerful creative activity; making up analogies invokes the same abstract reasoning ability as is required in mathematics and science to construct and utilize models, define symbols, and recognize underlying patterns and relationships.  It was the means that early humans used to pass along the most significant and essential lessons learned from experiments and experiences from one generation to the next.

***events can be just about anything, including classroom/lab/studio lessons and routines all the way to much more extensive and extended productions.

The classroom of the future could be envisioned as a "theatre of peace", an interactive multimedia space in which constructive "acts" are played that consist of combinations of lessons and experiments, in which students/audiences become performers, immersed in the rich experience that comes from new discoveries, and in the expression and communication of thought through myriad symbolic forms, including graphic visualization, sonification, and motion.  After all, human beings certainly did not evolve within an environment consisting of boring rooms with tables, desks and seats.  Rather, our ancestors senses were undoubtedly heightened as they were continually challenged to move, balance, observe, listen, and communicate as a group.

Here are several paragraphs from an article that appeared in Scientific American titled  From STEM to STEAM: Science and Art Go Hand-in-Hand 

Mae Jemison, a doctor, dancer, and the first African American woman in space, said, “The difference between science and the arts is not that they are different sides of the same coin… or even different parts of the same continuum,  but rather, they are manifestations of the same thing. The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity.”

By teaching the arts, we can have our cake and eat it, too. In 2008, the DANA Arts and Cognition Consortium, a philanthropic organization that supports brain research, assembled scientists from seven different universities to study whether the arts affect other areas of learning. Several studies from the report correlated training in the arts to improvements in math and reading scores, while others showed that arts boost attention, cognition, working memory, and reading fluency.

Dr. Jerome Kagan, an Emeritus professor at Harvard University and listed in one review as the 22^nd most eminent psychologist of the 20^th century, says that the arts contribute amazingly well to learning because they regularly combine the three major tools that the mind uses to acquire, store, and communicate knowledge: motor skills, perceptual representation, and language.

“Art and music require the use of both schematic and procedural knowledge and, therefore, amplify a child’s understanding of self and the world,” Kagan said at the John Hopkins Learning, Arts, and the Brain Summit in 2009.

With this realization in mind, educators across the nation are experimenting with merging art and science lessons. At the Wolf Trap Institute in Virginia, “teaching artists” are combining physical dance with subjects like math and geometry. In Rhode Island, MIT researcher Jie Qui introduced students to paper-based electronics as part of her master’s thesis exploring the use of technology in expressive art. Both programs excited students about science while concurrently fueling their imaginations. A potent blend of science and imagination sounds like the perfect concoction to get our country back on track.

Close Encounters of the Mth Kind: Music Motion Math and Other Meaningful Signs of Intelligent Life

02/13/2013

    the thirteenth of february, two thousand and thirteen  

           another uncommon* date

And so, an opportune moment to introduce another peculiar idea:

Close Encounters of the Mth Kind:  Music Motion Math 

This title describes the theme for a series** of interactive musicals that play with the notions of establishing meaningful communication between different forms of living creatures:  explorations of creative ways to compose signals to convey kindness and knowledge between intelligent beings, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial.

Gracing A Maze

*see previous blog entry for an explanation of an "uncommon" date

**coming soon: a description of the prototype interactive musical entitled "Syncopated Surfing Ring & A Pod Calypso"

A Pod Calypso: An Atypical Tropical Troupe

Wednesday, January 23 2013 is a rather uncommon date, in that the four digits for the month / day are
0 1 / 2 3 which is a permutation (in sorted order) of the digits of the year, 2 0 1 3.

This year there will be six other uncommon dates, (i.e. permutations of 2013) on

    02/13  the thirteenth of February
             03/12  the twelfth of March
                       03/21 the twenty-first of March
                                10/23 the twenty-third of October
                                         12/03 the third of December and
                                                  12/30 the thirtieth of December
                                                     
bringing the total number of uncommon dates in 2013 to seven.

Since today is already quite unordinary, it seems appropriate for the atypical tropical troupe called "A Pod Calypso" to make its debut.

Bubble Drumagoging

This demo features the bubble drum kit, a set of percussion instruments made out of exercise balls.  Using Apple's Logic Pro with Wavemachine Labs' Drumagog plug-in, a blend of both acoustic and synthesized audio is produced from the combined input from microphone, accelerometer, and camera sources.

Syncopated Surfing Ring

The syncopated surfing ring is a new experimental platform for exploring interactive music visualization and prototyping rhythm and balance based exergames.  The intention is to develop variations on the drum circle theme, with an essential difference being the inclusion of movement that engages the core muscles and, due to the increased sensory motor stimulation and communication between left and right hemispheres of the brain, promotes neuroplasticity.

Players will create and perform patterns that are expressed as wave-like movements on surfboards^* accentuated by the sounds made from various percussion instruments, such as the maracas, shakere, cowbell, claves, tambourine, and bubble drum (such as the "sun drum" shown here, which allows surfers to beat on it, rather than the other way around.)

iPod touches are used to capture accelerometer data that can be analyzed to display relationships between the motions of the riders and acoustic waves generated by various sources, including live or recorded music.

^*Note that the "surfboards" used can be any type of balance board, such as the IndoBoard, or as pictured above, simply a bamboo surfboard-shaped cutting board atop a BOSU.

The video below shows how a loop-based percussion pattern can be played by all the members of a syncopated surfing ring. The pattern comes from the Native Instruments Discovery Series West Africa.

Bubble Drum Project

As exhibited most vividly by the group from the Clem Burke Drumming Project during a presentation at the 2010 Games For Health Conference drumming can give the player a highly intensive form of exercise.

The Bubble Drum Project was conceived to explore and experiment with an alternative "drum kit" that has been specifically designed to give a vigorous physical workout and develop prototype rhythm games that engage the player with challenging cognitive stimulation and also provide an instrument/interface to facilitate deeper musical expression that emphasizes dynamics, accents, creating polyrhythmic patterns and steady timekeeping.

One of the obvious problems with real drum kits is that they are loud. While this is fine for concert venues and club settings, they are otherwise quite impractical for playing in most spaces without disturbing others (not to mention the necessity for drummers to wear ear plugs to protect hearing.)

Alternatively, various electronic pads can be used in place of actual drums and cymbals, which then also allow the drum kit to become an input device so that individual strokes can be recorded and used as a controller for games (e.g. Activision's Guitar Hero and Harmonix's Rock Band). However, there are several factors that limit the degree to which playing these imitation drum kits can provide rigorous exercise and cognitive stimulation. For example, typically there is limited or no sensitivity to dynamic levels or accents to make the playing truly reflect musical expression. The pads themselves cannot absorb the shock of stick hits like real drum heads, so there is a lack of "feel" not to mention the possibility of wrist strain or more serious injury. Another drawback of playing typical rhythm games that utilize these pads is that a player cannot be particularly creative since the choice of notes (as well as the available selection of songs) are completely dictated by the video game companies.

The concept of using fitness balls as drums, combined with rhythmic aerobic movements, has become somewhat popular through a franchise known as Drums Alive®. Extending this approach, these fairly inexpensive and rugged exercise balls can actually become functional electronic drum pads. A surprisingly expressive musical instrument can be fashioned that can be played in such a way that it provides a good workout. Using captured accelerometer and microphone input data, it is possible to build interesting rhythm games that can accurately measure the player's timing, dynamics, endurance, pattern matching and creative rhythm making abilities. Both aural and visual feedback can be generated to give the player the feeling of musical and artistic expression while at the same time providing a good physical workout and cognitive stimulation.

At the upcoming Games For Health 2011 Conference I will be showing several innovative rhythm games that have been developed as prototypes to demonstrate the use of exercise balls that can function as drum pad controllers through the use of attached iPod touch devices, Wiimotes, and microphones.