Hello, IA members and hangers-on –

I wanted to announce some all-around good news, and update everyone as to what’s happening over here at the InterAccess office.

Besides a minor flood in the InterAccess Studio on the weekend, things have been going, uh, swimmingly, so to speak.

First off, we’d like to congratulate our Business Manager Tania Thompson who took leave in April, as she’s having another baby. While Tania won’t give birth until September, we do know that first-born baby boy Hopper will have a little sister! Congrats to Tania, Scott, Hopper and dog Libby. We’re glad that all sounds peachy in baby-ville.

Secondly, we’d like to welcome our newest addition to the InterAccess family — and it’s a boy! Welcome to Alex Snukal who will be our new Gallery and Studio Assistant.

Alex Snukal is an artist, musician, and writer who lives and works in Toronto. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 2007. Snukal performs regularly as part of Awesome, a costumed noise band, and Animal Monster, a solo electronic project. He is regular curator for Trampoline Hall, most recently in November 2007. Recent projects have included Castaway Reading Room, an installation at Hart House and The Politics of Pedaling, an article on Michel de Broin’s Shared Propulsion Car for Locus Suspectus.

Welcome Alex — he has been hired on an 18 month contract as maternity leave support. He’ll be your first point of contact for membership, basic administration and Axon, including the Axon Blog!

It was nearly a year ago that Jennifer passed the proverbial torch onto Sarah Todd, and now Sarah will pass the torch onto Alex. Where’s Sarah going, you ask? She’ll be starting at the Unviersity of British Columbia in the fall in their Critical and Curatorial Studies programme — as will, coincidentally, our Curatorial Intern, Shaun Dacey. But more about that in a few weeks — they will get their own good-bye blog posts.

Trinity, the folks who have been pushing the notion of a Linux-based handheld audio studio for some time now, have launched a full product today. It’s called the Indamixx Mobile DAW, and it’s a full software studio running on Samsung’s Q1 Ultra (formerly known as an Ultra Mobile PC). In fact, it might more accurate to say that it’s multiple DAWs, as you have various, full-blown software choices you can use pre-optimized on a handheld computer.

For anyone unimpressed by people tapping on iPhones and such, this is the real thing. Software includes, among other things:

• Just-added special version of EnergyXT, the increasingly-popular music production tool (as pictured here)
• Ardour, the powerful, open-source DAW software
• Hydrogen drum machine, Seq24 sequencer, Ardour audio editor
• Powerful Linux tools: LADSPA and VST effects support, synth and sound tools, and utilities

You also get tools like Skype and Pidgin, plus the usual Linux Internet apps, so I could imagine this would be a really powerful tool to have with you in world travels. Find wifi, call whomever you like.

It’s all about form factor. Some people will, naturally, be perfectly happy with a no-compromises laptop. But for people who prefer a handheld machine that could fit easily atop a keyboard or music stand, this finally gives you some real power – and a full-blown Linux OS. (The addition of EnergyXT to me is really the killer app.)

The hardware features:

• 7”, 1024×600 screen and VGA output
• 802.11g wifi and Ethernet
• 40 GB hard drive (not sure about real-world track count on that; I’ll try to find out)
• 2 USB 2.0 ports, so you could use this with a MIDI or audio interface
• Touch screen and physical keys, plus an 8-way joystick
• 1G RAM expandable to 2GB, reasonably speedy (very much so for a mobile device) Intel processor

Cost: US$999 as a special intro offer through 8/31 or until supplies are gone.

Availability: Now.

Whether or not you’re running out to buy one of these, I think the message to developers is clear. You can no longer assume the traditional computer and mouse is the target platform. With touch capabilities in Windows 7 and likely on Mac OS, with killer apps on everything from the iPhone to the DS, the growth of Linux laptops like the Eee, and touch and mobile interfaces everywhere, the potential diversity of computing is finally being realized. That means UI design will increasingly have to accommodate alternative modes of control (like touch), scale to different screen sizes (including higher resolutions as well as lower ones), and think about mobile. And Linux – already capable of emulating Windows well enough to run many music apps, and ready to host VSTs – could have a new window of opportunity. The change may not happen immediately, but smart developers will be prepared for whatever direction their customers may take.

Indamixx Portable Studio Site

Originally from Create Digital Music by Peter Kirn
reBlogged by InterAccess to Geekery - Audio

P2P Radio from robertanderson on Vimeo.

Could meshes of data help the creation of new, international radio broadcasting and receiving mechanisms – even in rural areas? Artist Juan Esteban Rios proposes a design to do that. It’s not just a software concept; a hardware design would make the idea accessible even to people who don’t own or know how to use computers.

It seems a powerful idea for musicians, as well, particularly if it helped eliminate the need for dedicated streaming servers. (There may be others who are more familiar with P2P broadcasting technology out there; if so, I’d love to hear from you.) Imagine tuning into a gamelan performance in Jakarta, then a live electronic music evening from Brazil, then a performance in rural sub-Saharan African (relayed to better infrastructure in Lagos).

The technology here is radio-based (see clarification from the creator of the video in comments), but mesh and P2P technologies involving the Internet — or a bridge from remote, radio- or satellite-based communication — could likewise apply.

Video feature by designguide.tv, found via toxi.

Originally from Create Digital Music by Peter Kirn
reBlogged by InterAccess to Geekery - Audio

Live Electronic Music with MaxMSP and PD

A workshop by David Ogborn
August 2 & 3 (inclusive) 10-5pm @ the NAISA space
Registration fee $50
Email to register in advance at info@naisa.ca

An intense 2-day workshop on the creation, troubleshooting and performance of software patches for live electronic music. Major topics to be covered include audio & MIDI interfacing, time domain audio transformations, spectral audio transformations, and the art of producing portable patches that last. While a background as a musician is strongly recommended, no prior experience with electronic music techniques is required. The practical emphasis will be on the use of MaxMSP, but all of the concepts discussed will be demonstrated in parallel in the free, open-source environment PD.

Come cheer on your favorite graphical programming environment, this Thursday!

On a semi-annual basis, vtape overhauls it’s office and facilities and makes way for newer equipment, and cleans off shelves, archives things, etc. These cleaning efforts culminate in a garage sale at the end of the week.

This Saturday starting at 11am, the equipment vtape no longer wants (projectors, monitors, video players, etc) will be set up silent auction style. The starting bids are reasonable because it all has to go!

Hope to see you there!

Add Melanie Lowe’s facebook application “You Saw Me?” and have your status projected in InterAccess’s front window nightly for the world (ie Ossington hipsters, 905ers and the occasional rowdy) to see until August 9th, when Cake on the Icing closes. Go to: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=10600965740 to add the application.

Public Collectors is an extremely rad project organized by Chicago based artist Marc Fischer, who is also known as one-third of Temporary Services, which is also extremely rad.

But back to Public Collectors - the website says “Public Collectors consists of informal agreements where collectors allow the contents of their collection to be published and permit those who are curious to directly experience the objects in person. Participants must be willing to type up an inventory of their collection, provide a means of contact and share their collection with the public. Collectors can be based in any geographic location.”

So, for example, if you’re going to be in the Chicago area you can email Marc Fischer and make arrangements to go to his home and listen to his record collection or view his collection of adult comics from Mexico. Or you can peruse the website and check out digital collections of Documentation of Music Underground, Before the Internet, Documentation of People Documenting Anti-War Protesters, or Documentation of Face Painting Options in Mexico City, etc.

In other collection news, apparently Napoleon’s not-so-well preserved gentleman part is in New Jersey. This video follows Tony Perrottet, author of Napoleon’s Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped, as he travels to New Jersey to see the historic object for himself. Evidently it is in the collection of the late New Jersey urologist Dr. John Lattimer, who, according to his daughter, bought the famous privates to “lend dignity” to the profession of urology.

Originally from Mercer Union Hall by noreply@blogger.com (Mercer Union)
reBlogged by InterAccess to Cultural Artifacts

The Guardian has done what every critic of both art & sports has both feared and mocked since time eternal…. They let their reporters cover the events of the other side. Art Critics reporting on the “Pastoral” qualities of the football stadium & Sports Reporters covering the lack of score keeping in contemporary interpretive dance.

To be honest the coverage is pretty trite and limited but the idea is pretty fun and if it was seriously embraced for longer then 1 day it could be a very interesting and culturally “bridging” activity.

Saddly it is only one day and like that episode of M.A.S.H Klinger goes back to company clerk the next day only to have nightmares of the life he had as Hospital Unit Command.

Read More:
Sports on Arts
Arts on Sports

Originally from Bad at Sports by Christopher Hudgens
reBlogged by InterAccess to Cultural Artifacts

naw + Black Market + Freida Abtan + Jade Malek

Saturday, July 19th
9:00pm

lab.synthèse
435 Beaubien Ouest
Outremont, QC
http://www.labsynthese.com/

naw
Toronto/Montreal
Noise Factory Records
http://www.phoniq.net
http://www.virb.com/naw
http://www.myspace.com/nawmusic

Black Market
Montreal
g25productions/trotch
http://www.flatwax.com
http://www.myspace.com/blackmarket

Freida Abtan
Montreal/Providence
united dairies/jnana records
http://www.myspace.com/freidaabtan

Jade Malek
North-Lebanon
http://www.myspace.com/jademalek

five dollars

facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=24293948573&ref=ts