Joseph Hyde

I’ve bad at  keeping this up to date lately – too busy doing things to have time to write about them!  I never did report back after Seeing Sound 2, which was a great success – I was really pleased with the quality and variety of papers, performances and films, and we attracted a really good crowd.  The site now contains a reasonable amount of documentation of the event, and links to lots of the films we showed online.

Mostly I’ve been planning next year though, which is going to be really busy! I’ll be going to the US for two more visits to the Center for Visual Music as part of my ongoing research into Oskar Fischinger’s creative process; also presenting my work at Stanford University and the SXSW festival. I’ll be working on the Danceroom Spectroscopy and Guerrilla Dance projects. But mostly I’ll be working on my MADE project me and my shadow, starting at the National Theatre in January. More on that very soon.. (image: Katrin Bethge)

I’m in Istanbul for the first stage of my me and my shadow project. As previously noted here, this is the 2011 commission from MADE (Mobility for Digital Arts in Europe), and this first stage comprises a two-week residency at Istanbul Bilgi University with boDig, one of the four MADE partners.

It’s great to be in Istanbul – the weather’s beautiful, the university campus is leafy and calm, just waking up after the summer slumber; and this is the view from my hotel. Also, ISEA is here, starting tonight.  I’ll be too busy to go to all of it, but hope to catch some!

I’ve started a blog for me and my shadow, which will document the project in quite some detail.  I’ve already put quite a lot of stuff on there; you can check it out here.

Dates for the second Seeing Sound symposium have been fixed – the event will take place over the 29th and 30th October 2011 at Bath Spa University (UK).

This informal biennial event explores multimedia work which foregrounds the relationship between sound and image – in areas such as visual music, abstract cinema, experimental animation, audiovisual performance and installation work.

This year will see a partial focus on direct sound – the generation of sound and music from visual material (by various techniques including images drawn or photographed on an optical film soundtrack).

We already have a few key speakers in place, and are open for submissions. For more details see the Seeing Sound site.

There are a few clips online now relating to my recent work on the MADE commission and the Danceroom Spectroscopy project.

For the MADE commission, I’ve made a recording of the presentation I gave in Enghiens-les-Bains to launch the project in June.  It’s not particularly slick, but it serves as an introduction of sorts to the project prior to it actually starting in September.  You can see it here.

There are a couple of clips of the Danceroom Spectroscopy workshops at the Arnolfini (also in June – I had a busy month..).  The first is some material I filmed with my nice new Canon 60D DSLR on the first weekend (music by Lee Malcolm) – the second – from the second weekend – was edited by Becca Rose.  I did the sound for this one as Lee was busy playing Glastonbury.

I’ve been out of action for a few weeks following an accident, so have been a little slow in announcing some major news.  I’m delighted to announce that my proposal, me and my shadow, has been chosen as the winner of the MADE (Mobility for Digital Arts in Europe) 2011 commission.  MADE is the initiative of four leading European Digital Arts organisations, Centre des Arts Enghien-les-Bains, body > data > space, BoDig and Transcultures.  My project builds on experience with the Kinect and related technologies, and previous work in telematics.  It will consist of ‘portal’ installations in four cities across Europe, which will connect users in each space through real-time motion capture, projecting their 3D ‘shadows’ into a creative collaborative space.  I will be working on the project in close collaboration with the partner organisations through a series of residencies with each, culminating in the presentation of the finished project at the Bains Numeriques festival in June 2012.

image: David Glowacki

My work with the Kinect (see post below) is branching out in various directions – I’ll be posting about some more exciting developments very soon.

I’m co-directing some workshops for dancer/ choreographers at the Arnolfini in Brisol, looking at the implications of the Kinect for physical performance.  I’ll be working with David Glowacki, who works in Computational Chemistry at the University of Bristol, and using his remarkable Dance Spectroscopy system.  Also on the team will be musician Lee J. Malcolm.  It promises to be a great art/science collaboration.

There’s nothing on the Arnolfini site yet, but I believe there will be very soon – will link as soon as I can.  The workshops will run in two groups over two weekends: Sat 18 – Sun 19 June and Sat 25 – Sun 26 June, all 12-4pm.  The cost will be £15 per weekend session, and numbers strictly limited. More details anon..

Although I’ve not posted for a while, there’s a lot going on at the moment – expect more posts very soon! I’ve just returned from Los Angeles, continuing my research into Oskar Fischinger, and in particular his scores and process materials, at the Center for Visual Music.  I found some very promising material this time, and have also recently learned I’ve successfully landed an AHRC Fellowship award to continue this work in more depth next year.  Whilst at CVM I also learned of some VERY exciting upcoming developments in the world of Fischinger.  I’m sworn to secrecy, but any fans of his work should keep their ears to the ground..

I also managed to squeeze in a little desert road trip, which was great!

Sorry there’s not been much new on here for a while – we had another baby (Solomon, born 16th August 2010).  I’ve got lots coming up though, so watch this space. I’ve got a sabbatical starting next month (yay!), which should mean I’ve got a lot more time to make things. I’m planning another trip to the States in March/April, and I’m working on a score for Dance Works Rotterdam and Andre Gingras, which premieres on the 2nd April.

In the meantime, I’ve been having lots of fun with a Microsoft Kinect. From making interactive work with dancers I’ve become very interested in computer vision and camera sensing, and this gadget is a dream come true!  I’ve put up a special links page with some of the projects or Kinect ‘hacks’ that have been interesting me, and the software libraries I’ve been using.  I’m really excited with the progress I’m making – more anon!

I’m keeping it local this summer.  Usually I do things everywhere but where I actually live, but over June and July I’ve a few things on close to home.  We’ve been living in Frome for a few years now – it’s quite a little town in deepest Somerset, but there’s a surprising amount going on and a surprising number of interesting and creative people around.  This year, as well as the long(ish)-running Frome Festival (9-18 July), there’s a new event – the beinghuman weekend (18-20 June) – which looks very promising indeed.  It’s in a great new venue too, the beinghuman warehouse (pictured).  I’m doing bits and bobs in both – the Contraption club night and the live music film in the festival, and a visual music debate and a programme of some of my work in the beinghuman weekend.  Both events look great if you happen to be in Somerset (which is not such a bad place to be now summer’s finally here, I must say).

I’ve made a few revisions for the new sound/video piece I made for CCRMA for my ‘retrospective’ (that word makes me feel a bit old) at the CCRMA stage last month (see Feb post below).  I think it’s finished now.  You can take a look at it here.