Dan Wilcox

Intro to PdParty

Dan Wilcox

This is an overview workshop PdParty, a free open-source iOS application for running Pure Data patches on Apple mobile devices using libpd. Directly inspired by Chris McCormick’s DroidParty for Android and the original RjDj by Reality Jockey, PdParty takes a step further by supporting OSC (Open Sound Control), MIDI, & MiFi game controller input as well as implementing the native Pd GUI objects for a WYSIWYG patch to mobile device experience. Various scene types are supported including compatibility modes for PdDroidParty & RjDj and both patches and abstraction libraries can be managed via a built-in web server. Unlike the rise of the single-purpose audio application, PdParty is meant to provide a platform for general purpose digital signal processing via Pure Data patches.

Dan Wilcox is an artist, engineer, musician, and performer who combines live musical performance techniques with experimental electronics and software for the exploration of new expression. He grew up in the Rocket City, and has performed in Europe, Asia, and around the US with his one man band cyborg performance project, robotcowboy.

robotcowboy

Dan Wilcox

robotcowboy is a wearable computing platform to explore new types of man-machine music & artistic performance. Embedded computing, custom open-source software, and audio electronics are utilized to build portable, self contained systems which both embed and embody the computation on the performer. This cyborg approach is both empowering and compromising as new sonic capability & movement are offset by the need for electrical energy: elements of tension between human and system. robotcowboy shows are always live and contain aspects of improvisation, feedback with the audience, and an inherent capability of failure.

robotcowboy’s first 2006-2007 incarnation melded rock with realtime algorithmic composition tools into a dynamic live show. The second incarnation followed the story of the first human on Mars with spacesuit as portable music machine in 2013. The ongoing third incarnation explores themes of trajectories, radiation, and space travel. The future is bright, do you have room to wiggle?

Dan Wilcox is an artist, engineer, musician, and performer who combines live musical performance techniques with experimental electronics and software for the exploration of new expression. He grew up in the Rocket City, and has performed in Europe, Asia, and around the US with his one man band cyborg performance project, robotcowboy.

ShadowPlay

Dan Wilcox

ShadowPlay is an exploration of the architecture and light in outdoor spaces through sound. Using a bicycle-mounted smartphone as a brightness sensor and a bluetooth speaker, the mottled patterns of light and shadow become the musical score as one rides along city streets.

The project is realized as an open source iOS application which uses one of the device’s cameras as a brightness sensor. Custom audio scenes generate live sound in response to the changes between light and shadow detected by the smartphone. You can even create your own sound scenes using the Pure Data computer music environment.

Dan Wilcox is an artist, engineer, musician, and performer who combines live musical performance techniques with experimental electronics and software for the exploration of new expression. He grew up in the Rocket City, and has performed in Europe, Asia, and around the US with his one man band cyborg performance project, robotcowboy.