4 Hands iPhone

Atau Tanaka, and Adam Parkinson

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2012
• Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

Abstract:

Program notes: Adam & Atau exploit a commonly available consumer electronics device, a smartphone, as an expressive, gestural musical instrument. The device is well known an iconic object of desire in our society of consumption, playing music as a fixed commodity. The performers re-appropriate the mobile phone and transform the consumer object into an instrument for concert performance. As a duo, with one in each hand, they create a chamber music, 4-hands iPhone. The accelerometers allow high precision capture of the performer's free space gestures. This drives a granular synthesis patch in Pure Data (PD), where one patch becomes the process by which a range of sounds from the natural world are stretched, frozen, scattered, and restitched. The fact that all system components---sensor input, signal processing and sound synthesis, and audio output, are embodied in a single device make it a self-contained, expressive musical instrument. Composer(s) Credits: Atau Tanaka and Adam Parkinson Instrumentalist(s) Credits: Artist(s) Biography: Atau Tanaka's first inspirations came upon meeting John Cage during his Norton Lectures at Harvard and would go to on re-create Cage's Variations VII with Matt Wand and :zoviet*france:, performing it in Newcastle upon Tyne, Berlin, and Paris. In the 90's he formed Sensorband with Zbigniew Karkowski and Edwin van der Heide and then moved to Japan and came in contact with the noise music scene, playing with Merzbow, Otomo, KK Null and others. Atau has released solo, group, and compilation CD's on labels such as Sub Rosa, Bip-hop, Caipirinha Music, Touch/Ash, Sonoris, Sirr-ecords. His work has been presented at ICC in Japan, Ars Electronica, DEAF/V2, IRCAM, and Transmediale in Europe, and Eyebeam, Wood Street Gallery, and SFMOMA in the U.S. He has been artistic ambassador for Apple, researcher for Sony CSL, artistic co-director of STEIM, and director of Culture Lab Newcastle. He is currently European Research Council (ERC) fellow at Goldsmiths Digital Studios in London. Adam Parkinson is an electronic musician based in Newcastle, England. He has recently completed PhD, with much of his research looking at mobile music and performing with iPhones.He has worked alongside various improvisers such as Rhodri Davies, Klaus Filip, Robin Hayward and Dominic Lash, and has been involved in collaborations to create sound installations with Kaffe Matthews and Caroline Bergvall. He also dabbles in making dance music, and is trying to write a perfect pop song. Atau & Adam have been performing as a duo since 2008: first as a laptop / biomuse duo then in the current iPhone formation. 4-Hands iPhone has so far been performed across Europe and North America including the FutureEverything Festival (Manchester), Passos Manuel (Porto), Charm of Sound Festival (Helsinki), Electron Festival (Geneva), Mois Multi (Quebec), Music With A View (New York). Concert Venue and Time: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Monday May 21, 9:00pm

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @incollection{nime2012-music-TanakaParkinson2012,
 abstract = {Program notes:

Adam \& Atau exploit a commonly available consumer electronics device, a smartphone, as an expressive, gestural musical instrument. The device is well known an iconic object of desire in our society of consumption, playing music as a fixed commodity. The performers re-appropriate the mobile phone and transform the consumer object into an instrument for concert performance. As a duo, with one in each hand, they create a chamber music, 4-hands iPhone. The accelerometers allow high precision capture of the performer's free space gestures. This drives a granular synthesis patch in Pure Data (PD), where one patch becomes the process by which a range of sounds from the natural world are stretched, frozen, scattered, and restitched. The fact that all system components---sensor input, signal processing and sound synthesis, and audio output, are embodied in a single device make it a self-contained, expressive musical instrument.

Composer(s) Credits:

Atau Tanaka and Adam Parkinson

Instrumentalist(s) Credits:

Artist(s) Biography:

Atau Tanaka's first inspirations came upon meeting John Cage during his Norton Lectures at Harvard and would go to on re-create Cage's Variations VII with Matt Wand and \emph{:zoviet*france:}, performing it in Newcastle upon Tyne, Berlin, and Paris. In the 90's he formed Sensorband with Zbigniew Karkowski and Edwin van der Heide and then moved to Japan and came in contact with the noise music scene, playing with Merzbow, Otomo, KK Null and others. Atau has released solo, group, and compilation CD's on labels such as Sub Rosa, Bip-hop, Caipirinha Music, Touch/Ash, Sonoris, Sirr-ecords. His work has been presented at ICC in Japan, Ars Electronica, DEAF/V2, IRCAM, and Transmediale in Europe, and Eyebeam, Wood Street Gallery, and SFMOMA in the U.S. He has been artistic ambassador for Apple, researcher for Sony CSL, artistic co-director of STEIM, and director of Culture Lab Newcastle. He is currently European Research Council (ERC) fellow at Goldsmiths Digital Studios in London.

Adam Parkinson is an electronic musician based in Newcastle, England. He has recently completed PhD, with much of his research looking at mobile music and performing with iPhones.He has worked alongside various improvisers such as Rhodri Davies, Klaus Filip, Robin Hayward and Dominic Lash, and has been involved in collaborations to create sound installations with Kaffe Matthews and Caroline Bergvall. He also dabbles in making dance music, and is trying to write a perfect pop song.
Atau \& Adam have been performing as a duo since 2008: first as a laptop / biomuse duo then in the current iPhone formation. 4-Hands iPhone has so far been performed across Europe and North America including the FutureEverything Festival (Manchester), Passos Manuel (Porto), Charm of Sound Festival (Helsinki), Electron Festival (Geneva), Mois Multi (Quebec), Music With A View (New York).

Concert Venue and Time: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Monday May 21, 9:00pm},
 address = {Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.},
 author = {Atau Tanaka and Adam Parkinson},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 day = {21-23},
 editor = {Georg Essl and Brent Gillespie and Michael Gurevich and Sile O'Modhrain},
 month = {May},
 publisher = {Electrical Engineering \& Computer Science and Performing Arts Technology, University of Michigan},
 title = {4 Hands iPhone},
 year = {2012}
}