This workshop provides an introduction to the theoretical framework and practical applications of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol. The workshop assumes the participant is not familiar with MIDI; or is, but would like to know more detail on how the protocol functions.

Not only is MIDI extremely important in the computer music field, it also has applications in theater, lighting control, DJ/VJing, and animatronic figure control. A brief overview of MIDI’s role in each of these areas will be discussed.

In addition to the MIDI protocol itself, MIDI controllers will be discussed as well, with a demonstration on how to set-up a MIDI controller in Ableton Live, as well as using MIDI to control parameters within the program.

For more information about the workshop content, please contact the instructor, Nick Arner.

Workshop description: Processing is a programming language and environment built for the media arts and design communities. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook. It is used by students, artists, designers, architects, and researchers for learning, prototyping, and production. Participants will be led through a series of demonstrations and exercises that introduce them to programming fundamentals and the Processing IDE. More information on Processing can be found at www.processing.org. Participants are required to bring a laptop (OSX or Windows).

For more information about the workshop content, please contact the workshop instructor, Rob Powell.

Ignition 5.0: ART-astrophe

According to the Mayan calendar, the world is set to end in December 2012. As this purported “catastrophe” approaches, do we truly know what this means? Do we take this literally, as in the world’s complete destruction? Or does it refer to the end of the world as we know it, i.e., a paradigm change?

We are looking for new media art that addresses the theme of “change/growth”. The exhibition will feature all genres of new media art including ascii art, bio art, digital imaging, generative art, glitch art, internet art, motion graphics, net art, sound art, radio art, robotic art, telematic art, video art, and more. The exhibition will commence September 2012 at the Shot Tower Gallery – more details are forthcoming.

Stay tuned for our Call for Entries!

Scenes from past Ignition exhibitions:
Ignition 2.0

About the performers:

TradeMark G. (aka Mark Gunderson) is a musician and artist, perhaps best known as founder of the band The Evolution Control Committee in 1986. He is also a culture jammer, equipment designer, software designer, and organizer. The Evolution Control Committee is best known for its copyright-challenging stance, using found sounds to create new musical works at the risk of copyright violation. This made The ECC the target of a cease & desist order from CBS for sampling newscaster Dan Rather, but also earned The ECC credit for creating the “Mash-Up” genre of music (also called Bastard Pop). TradeMark can take credit for those and all other ECC projects, including the development and construction of the Thimbletron, a live sampling performance instrument; the 2003 nationwide release of the “Plagiarhythm Nation v2.0″ CD (which charted #1 in LA, NYC, San Francisco, and put the word “Plagiarhythm” in the Macmillan dictionary), and acquiring and managing the 10,000-record-strong ECC media archives. Over its full history The ECC has produced 16 full-length albums, a videotape, 2 seven-inch records, and even an 8-track tape and a wax cylinder recording. The ECC has appeared on air from CNN to C-SPAN and in print from Spin to US News & World Report. The Evolution Control Committee and other bands The ECC and TradeMark’s other bands have given nearly 1,000 live performances at festivals, concert halls, bars, and galleries in US cities from New York to San Francisco, and in Australia, Germany, Holland, England, France, and elsewhere.

Conceived in the late 1980′s amidst adolescence and inebriation, Le Scrambled Debutante is the “intellectual bastard child” of Allan Zane (WYRM) and Jerry Sutton of the up-and-coming Exit 27 project. From those early beginnings, there were only 2 bedroom recordings sessions that exist on chrome cassettes that never saw the light of day–until recently (see: ‘Vintage Deb (1988-1990)’). Now, 20+ years later, we have the “reunion” of Sutton & Zane…and Le Scrambled Debutante! The “band” consists of Allan Zane (aka Sir Bear Trapper), Jerry Sutton (aka Le Chat Du Noir), occasionally Sid Redlin… and a host of others that come and go. But how would one describe the sound of Le Scrambled Debutante you may ask? Imagine Ono & Lennon’s ‘Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins’, Nurse With Wound, Severed Heads, Virgin Prunes, and other assorted bands and genres, tossed into a blender on high speed, and the lid left off. That’s Le Scrambled Debutante. Pure Sonic Dada and Aural Buffoonery! Despite their extensive on-again-off-again existence since the late ‘80s, Le Scrambled Debutante will make their first EVER live debut for The Fuse Factory Electronic and Digital Arts Lab at the Wild Goose Creative. A live CD or LP of the event is likely to be released at a later date.

Solumenata, consisting of WYRM co-founders Liz Lang (aka Auracene) and Allan Zane with the addition of PBK, have embarked on a new musical journey–taking them out of the “darkness” and into a “light” that is almost bone-bleaching. Six months even before the release of the farewell WYRM CD, Solumenata debuted with their first LP ‘Aeriform’ on the Russian SEALT label in the Summer of 2011. In less than three months, the LP sold out. Solumenata are slowly working on a follow-up CD. Solumenata is premiering with their first live installation.

Doctah X, producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, operates the House of Dub Studio. In the mid 80s, he recorded and toured in Europe with Cream drummer Ginger Baker and Italian reggae star, Papa Winnie as well as backing John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Big Walter Horton as guitarist and vocalist. Today, his style is firmly rooted in Jamaican reggae, rock and blues, venturing deeply into the realm of reggae known as dub. His favorite producers are Bill Laswell, King Tubby, Scientist, Dr. Israel, Dub Gabriel, Liquid Stranger, Roommate and Rusko. Doctah X has been pushing bass culture worldwide for years and is one of a handful of dub statesmen from the Midwest. His live performances blur the line between traditional DJ-ing, band and electronic music performance. His music encompasses Eastern and African sound samples and instruments. Studio trademarks are striking production, emotive playing, thought-provoking lyrics and inventive sound design and manipulations. His latest CD release is Agent from Kabul.

About the performers:

David Morneau is a composer of an entirely undecided genre. In his work he endeavors to explore ideas about our culture, issues concerning creativity, and even the very nature of music itself. Morneau’s work is characterized by his eclectic interests and collaborative spirit. Described by Molly Sheridan as a “flashing beacon” of inspiration, Morneau’s eclectic output is best exemplified by 60×365, his “ambitious yearlong musical project” for which he composed a new one-minute composition every day. These “miniature compositions include ambient tracks, found sound, instrumental performances, and plenty of loop and sample-based pieces.” Selections from 60×365 have been featured on the Sonoscop festival in Barcelona, Spark Festival at the University of Minnesota, Electronic Music Midwest at Lewis University, in a collaborative dance performance with choreographer Kristin Hapke at Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, Washington, and on Jon Nelson’s Some Assembly Required. Morneau’s current ambitious composition, Love Songs Project, is a collaboration with eleven poets that combines Shakespeare’s sonnets with contemporary poetry in genre-crossing songs. Each song is composed in a manner that allows for easy adaptation, allowing him to create multiple arrangements for a wider range of performance options.

Tone Elevator was formed in 2008 and consists of Karen Kreutzfeld, Luckydog, and Adam “A/DM” McKinley, who later joined in 2010. All three members have had extensive musical backgrounds and use a variety of electronic keyboards, sound modules, and guitars to create dark ambient sounds and sonically meandering noises.

Described as a “pink haze of layered drone-goo, wrapped in static”, Mike Shiflet’s music crosses boundaries between ambient, drone, and beat-based noise. His performance technique involves a combination of several analog noise generators with Macintosh computer and software, usually resulting in a mix of rich drones and fluttering, frequency-jumping noises. In addition to recording as a solo artist, he has been involved in a variety of groups ranging from the violin-led improv group Burning Star Core and the laptop duo Scenic Railroads to performance troupe Noumena and cathartic sludge/noise band Sword Heaven. For a number of years, Mike ran GMBY Records (known as Gameboy before legal threats from Nintendo) and released exactly 100 albums by improv and noise artists from across the globe. His most recent self-released album is “http://www.michaelshiflet.com/shop/llanos.html”>Llanos.

Liminal People (formerly known as Unfound Man) has been making more-or-less musical noises alone or in various obscure southern midwest and northern southeast bands for over a quarter-century. He is primarily a drummer and percussionist of minimal training, as well as a self-taught bassist, keyboardist, and occasional vocalist. Groups he has worked with over the years include: Mexican Pig Torture, Burning Giraffe, Toys Don’t Hate, Dionysian Tapestry, Death Hippy, And Siamese Urbain, Bulbous, Involution, Metanoia, Neato Torpedo, Chivalrous Dogs, Mystic Dub Star, Maybe, Subaudition, and Woodsprites. The songs on his first solo CD, Liminal Transfers, released 2010 by Sothis Medias, represent material recorded 2001-2010.

About the performers:

CORRIDORS is a body of works for audio and video that have been developed over the last three years utilizing a specific process of preparation and performance. In this process, an instrumentalist is recorded improvising, with minimal instruction. These recordings are then edited, choosing only the moments where the performance appears to be the most energetic and intuitive. These moments are processed using esoteric noise software to remove the representation of the instrument, but retain and emphasize the energy of the playing, with the end result being approximately 6-15 sound files of static texture. For performance, these files are loaded onto multiple minidisc players or iPods. Each piece contains a set bank of sounds used as building blocks that are “mixed” live over a 5-7 channel audio system and “played” dynamically, responding to the performance space. Speakers are placed strategically around the space while I control the performance from the center of the room. This allows height and distance to be used along with range of frequency as dynamic compositional tools to shift the perceived size of the room over time and gradually envelope or release the listener. Custom speakers have been developed to act as specific voices and to allow for easy placement throughout a space. Some works also use live guitar feedback distributed through the same multi-channel system.

Pilia’s work has become progressively concerned with the research of the sculputural dimensions of sound and its relations with space, memory and time suspension both through instrumental executional-experimental practices (mainly on guitar and dbass) and investigations into the recording and production process. He is one of the founding members of 3/4HadBeenEliminated, a synthethis between improvisation, electro-acoustic composition and avant-rock sensibilities. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Italian band Massimo Volume.

Jeff Chenault aka Central Inhabitants has been involved in the Columbus electronic music scene since 1983. His early experiments were unannounced noise improvisations. In the late 80′s, he founded the Exoteque Music label and would release over 60 cassettes of original music. His multiple collaborations include James Towning of Fact 22, Mark Gunderson of the Evolution Control Committee, Andy Izold of 10-Speed Guillotine, and Chris Phinney of Mental Anguish. Jeff is also a music historian, a staff writer for Tiki Magazine, and last year produced his first vinyl LP, The Beachcomber Trio Live at the Kahiki–a rare vintage recording that was recorded at the famous Polynesian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio in 1965. A second album of rare Exotica music is planned for later this year, after beginning to perform solo again following a 15 year hiatus.

About the performers:

In 1979, Paul Metzger drilled a few innocent holes into a Yamaha acoustic guitar. A self taught musician with 5 years of playing behind him, Metzger was growing tired of the conventions of the instrument. This lobotomy was the first of many surgeries that would follow in years to come. Strings were added, subtracted, added again; the frets of the neck were disemboweled and retrofitted with a sarod like metal fingerboard plate; paint was splattered over it, a rejigged music box was affixed to the guitar’s belly, a crash cymbal mounted to its bottom. On the face of it, the instrument took on the look of a piece of tramp art. Thirty years on, Metzger plays the same guitar in rotation with a heavily modified 23 string banjo in a tireless – often isolated – search for a musical style of his own which he finally took public for the first time in 2002. His sonic vocabulary ranges from deeply satisfying & impulsive outer cosmos ragadelia to clangorous, rapidly punctuated percussive workouts. Metzger has been described as a virtuoso and a visionary whose live performances are vital, deeply visceral and simply breathtaking.

Metzger has played more than 500 shows worldwide on bills with a diverse array of artists including blues legends Spider John Koerner & Tony Glover, Japanese metal act Boris, new wave revivalists Gang Gang Dance, psych acts Amen Dunes and Six Organs of Admittance, moperockers Low and fellow string journeymen Sir Richard Bishop and Jack Rose. Notable festival appearances include the Festival Météo (France), Suoni per il Popolo (Montreal, Canada), Two Rivers (Portland, Maine) and events sponsored by WFMU and The Wire magazine. He has been profiled on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and recorded for Amsterdam’s legendary VPRO radio.

sineqube.com is a repository for the music & software of Kevin Holland, a classically-trained guitarist, composer, electronic musician and Max/MSP developer. Kevin began studying music in earnest at the age of 10. Although picking up the French horn came relatively quickly, it soon became apparent this was not his passion. Several years on the piano proved useful in developing an early sense of theory and an understanding of intervallic relationships, but it wasn’t until beginning guitar at 13 that he felt at home with the right instrument. More than 20 years later, it is still his primary musical force. At university, he studied music theory and composition, and received private classical guitar instruction. During this period, he served as a composer’s apprentice, fulfilling copyediting duties, attending world premieres, studying orchestration, and gaining further insight into his craft. After graduating with his music degree, Kevin realized that the sounds in his head came from instruments that didn’t exist, and so began a voracious appetite for synthesis, which helped him to approximate externally the private ensembles that played in his mind.

Around 2000, Max/MSP became a major part of his work, and since that time, Kevin has released several standalone music applications under the sineqube moniker to great reception. Most of them freeware, he believes firmly that budget should not be a restraint on an artist’s creativity. Over the years, Kevin began tinkering with various other instruments including kalimba, lap harp, crystal flute, bass, doumbek, tongue drum, and ukulele, to name a few, owing greatly to a time when new instruments would be purchased over groceries. All of these sounds have contributed to his composition and helped blur the line between the acoustic and the synthetic. His recent live sets incorporate custom software, live improvised guitar, and audience participation via repurposed video game controllers. He wants to break down the barrier between the lone electronic performer mysteriously clicking buttons behind a laptop and the passive audience unaware of the alchemy behind the scenes.

Ryan Jewell is a musician, improviser and sound artist currently living in Columbus, Ohio. He studied percussion and electronic composition techniques at Capital University and has since studied drum set with Susie Ibarra and tabla with Dr. Lowell Lybarger. In addition to being a frequent traveler of the US, he has toured extensively as a soloist and collaborator in Europe, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Jewell has also performed at a number of international festivals including the SOWIESO 1 and Les Sciences Bruitistes festivals in Paris, the International Noise Conference in Miami, SXSW in Austin, Neon Marshmallow in Chicago and the Kraak Festival in Brussels. He has had the honor to perform, collaborate and record with a diverse array of artists such as Greg Kelley, C. Spencer Yeh, Nate Wooley, Christine Sehnaoui, Bhob Rainey, Jandek, Mike Shiflet, Envenomist, Larry Marotta, Vic Rawlings, Fossils, Rafael Toral, Psychedelic Horseshit, Pink Reason, Jason Zeh, Wasteland Jazz Unit, and many more.

Prepay your entry fee: 2 for 1

Prepay 2 for 1 $10.00 USD Option 2 $10.00 USD Option 3 $10.00 USD

About the performers:

The circuit-bent/garage rock trio CMKT 4 hail from DeKalb, IL. Their band is comprised of the holy trinity of rock, guitar-bass-drums, that has been slathered with a nice dollop of synthesizer and circuit-bent toy textures. Their music is comprised of straightforward anthems and crunchy, bluesy numbers that bleed into electronic, semi-improvised Kraut rock. Be sure to pick up one of their hand-made bottle-cap contact microphones at the merch table!

Based in Columbus Ohio, Tone Elevator was formed in 2008 and consists of Karen Kreutzfeld, Luckydog, and A/Dm. All three members have had extensive musical backgrounds and use a variety of electronic keyboards, sound modules, and guitars to create dark ambient sounds and noises that sonically meander. Their influences are wide and varied, ranging from Legendary Pink Dots, Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream to doom metal, drone, glitch, and Krautrock, to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Steve Roach, and 10-speed Guillotine.

Born and raised in NY, Paul Giallorenzo is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, and sound designer using piano, synthesizer, and electronics in a wide variety of groups and contexts, ranging from jazz and improvised music to electro-acoustic / noise. Current projects include GitGO (482 Music, free jazz compositions); Breakway (Friends and Relatives, electro/acoustic improvising trio with electronicist Brian Labycz and drummer Marc Riordan); Masul (Creative Sources Recordings, duo with Swiss composer/bass saxophonist Thomas Mejer); The Telegraph Series (Augmented Records, synth-pop duo with drummer/vocalist Allison Stanley); and a piano trio featuring Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Tim Daisy. Brian Labycz is an improviser hailing from Chicago primarily performing with electronics. He draws from a range of sources utilizing a modular synthesizer, acoustic instruments, digital manipulations, field recordings, and self-made devices to produce and explore various expressive forms. with a primary focus on improvisation his aim is to produce dynamic gestures with electronics in a live setting. the goal is to transcend gadgetry to arrive at a fully realized performance instrument. working as a soloist and in various group settings he has performed and released work in the US and Japan.

Two inventors, Karl (aka thejunkyardcatalyst), and “1/2 Mang” met at Circuitastrophe Cincinnati 08, and formed The Thriftstore Boratorium — an interactive lab for experiments, work, troubleshooting, recording, jamming, circuit bending, modifying, designing, robotizing, etc.

Experimental musicians Michael Una and Tomer Gal will discuss and demonstrate the various communications protocols that allow communication between the iPad and circuit-bent toys, such as OSC, MIDI, and CV, along with the various hardware used to translate those signals such as off-the-shelf solutions, kits, and programmable microcontrollers such as Arduino. They will also demonstrate the preparing of circuit-bent and handmade circuits to accept those types of signals and what sort of sounds can be achieved. The presentation will conclude with a demonstration of what such a system can sound like, a Q&A session, and an opportunity for audience members to play and experiment with the system to see how it works up close.

About the performers:

Mother Daughter Crime Team is a collaborative project by Michael Una and Tomer Gal that uses circuit-bent and handmade electronics to produce deep Reggae riddims and dubmatic beats in a glitchy, lo-fi style.

Shaun’s work is an examination of contrasting ideas and elements in music. It is a space where complex circuits fuse with hardware store parts or scrap metal. He takes aim at using restraint as a powerful tool by taking away more than he is giving, and accomplishes this by removing a single conventional element of music making. Imagine a song of choruses but no verse, or a crash cymbal and a bass, but no guitar. He often uses a plank of wood with steel strings and a synthesizer to create minimalist, dynamic pieces. His music embraces the electro-acoustic and ambient genres, with hints of musique concrete. He utilizes broken circuits, a synthesizer, and home-made electronic boxes, and fuses them with home-made acoustic counter parts in creating electro-acoustic music. He has assembled 5 releases to date and has performed at Sonic Circuits and Signal Festival, as well as a tour in the US and in Europe. As one half of Bicameral Mind (with Bryce Eiman), he performs at various festivals in the US and has 7 releases with a variety of collaborators.

Originally a visual artist and writer, Stevey began working in the media of soundrecording in 1992 with the ‘spine’ tapes/ experimental music while serving overseas in the Army. Inspired by the works of Einsteurzende Neubauten, early industrial and metal, he worked to form his own sound and experiment with different techniques. Performing live at various raves and art galleries, performing noise, electro, industial rock and ambient through the years in central and northeastern Ohio, Stevey used spoken word, samples and a variety of sounds, collaborating with low-fi noise artists. In 1997 he released his first CD released, “Axess”, which was experimental, dark ambient and was reviewed in OUTBURN magazine summer 1998. In 2001 “Tactil Vision” began as a live electro noise improv and the various live recordings of dubs ranging from ambient to Drum n Bass and hard techno. He gradually “progressed” to songwriting and self-released CDs under the names BentWithLight (2000) and TVKiLL. Stevey plays guitar, keyboards, does vocals, writes and records as well as graphics and photography for 5AM. Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, the beauty in small details and natural processes is what inspires much of the imagery.