PIKSEL

As part of the Libre Graphics Meeting 2013: Future Tools held at the new building of MediaLab Prado in Madrid, Brendan Howell and Jon Nordby premier the Piksels and Lines Orchestra (PLO).

The Piksels and Lines Orchestra is an experimental performance system for graphic design. The image industry populates our visual culture, yet it exists in a world with an inner life that is invisible to most people. The orchestra shifts the focus from the end results to the actions and decisions that take place during the creative process.  By turning the tools of graphic design, the software applications, into instruments, the active labour and the operational gestures of designers are converted to sound. Actions like painting, cutting, setting text, adding layers, drawing shapes etc. are reflected by sonic events within a score.  At the same time, the system brings the audience visually into the everyday work environment of the designer by exposing the application interfaces as they are used. In order to make the necessary software modifications, the applications used in this project are all free and open source software.

Howell and Nordby are working with four volunteer actors this evening, performing the first composition for the PLO system, a noise opera set in a fictional design agency. The software instruments played in this performance include GIMP, MyPaint, and Scribus, and  this instance of the PLO Soundserver is realized in SuperCollider.

The performance starts today Friday 12. April 21:30 GMT +1 and the live stream is found here.

The PLO system was commissioned by Piksel as part of  the Libre Graphics Research Project funded by EU, and realized through an artist residency throughout November/December 2012 in Bergen. The first presentation of the system was given at the 10th anniversary of the Piksel festival: Piksel [X] 24th November. The technical documentation, specifications and source code of the system is stored on GitHub.

The initial idea for the Piksels and Lines Orchestra commission was developed during the 3rd Libre Graphics Research Meeting held in Bergen June 2012, and is one of several commissions developed through the LGRU-project.

OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Piksels & Lines Orchestra Residency (PLO)

The Libre Graphics Research Unit is a traveling lab where ideas for creative tools are developed.
Its diverse activities range from the practical to the theoretical via writing, research meetings, experimental prototyping, conferences and workshops. The Research Unit is an initiative of four European media-labs actively engaged in Free/Libre and Open Source Software and Free Culture. At the core of the LGRU project is a series of research commissions that allow artists and software developers to work together at the same level, imagining and building future graphic and performative tools.

In this context, Piksel is offering a collaborative research residency for one artist and one developer, to jointly explore the interoperability and expansion of functionality in self-produced and/or existing libre graphic tools, placed in a performative setting. The free/libre graphics tools can include, but are not limited to the following technologies: GIMP, Scribus, Inkscape, MyPaint, FontForge, Pure Data, Open Frameworks, Py-Cessing, Processing, The Underweb, Blender etc. (continue reading…)

Bergen, 6-9 June 2012 @ ROM 8

The Piksels & Lines research seminar is the third in the Libre Graphic Research Unit research meeting series and will have a particular focus on improvements, interoperability between and fringe use of F/LOSS graphic bitmap and vector software, as well as generative software used in performative contexts.

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