I finally had time to finish up the videos last night, and there are three of the up in the Youtube group. Remember that the group is open to join and add videos to, so if you come to an event, please do so.
At some point, everyone picked something up and played it. Here is a small portion of the hour or so that people were playing with instruments.
Bill T Miller came by and showed off some of his toys, and talked about bending in general. He is also all through the jam video.
Fred Owsley came by and demoed his Tenori-on, x0xb0x, and circuit bent drum machine. He was also around for a large chunk of the jam.
Circuit benders are people who customize electronics (frequently toys) to make them sound bad. In Somerville, their labors can now be made public at Noise Night, a bi-monthly get-together hosted by the local hacker organization Willoughby and Baltic. When I arrived at W&B's Davis Square space, host Jimmie Rodgers handed me a Talk 'N Learn Alphabet toy, one of those plastic slabs that will speak letters at you if you press the corresponding vowel or consonant. I pressed "N" — for Noise Night — and the thing screamed at me...
While I can't say that I agree that we make toys sound "bad", I do understand the sentiment. I want to Thank Bill T Miller for coming out with some of his wonderful toys, and Fred Owsley for bringing his awesome gear (first time I've ever seen a tenori-on in person).
Once again I'm also going to thank the Willoughby and Baltic for hosting our noisy event. The larger community space should be open for next week's Noise Night, and we can allow for more people. At that time I'll also start scheduling performances. So if you are a performer and you want a 15 minute slot, then shoot me an email (jimmie at noise night dot com).
I'm going to get the videos up in short order. All of which will be posted in the Youtube group. I'll also make sure to update here when they are up as well. Remember that both the Youtube and the Flickr groups are open to the public, so please post to them if you have videos or pictures.
Here is a small jam session from the second Noise Night. If there is interest, I can find a way of getting the full 18 minute jam up.
This was unfortunately the only video I shot that night, and I didn't manage to get any pictures. I'll make sure to get at least a few things each time though. Hopefully as things progress, others will show up who are interested in photographing things, and more content will be generated.
The Youtube group is up and running, with some videos of the first event. You can check out an example here:
There are a total of 9 videos so far! The Flickr pool is also available, with images as well. If When you come to one of the events, please take some pictures (and video as well) and throw them in the pool. They will then show up on the webpage.
I'll get the video up from the second one shortly. I had already uploaded it once, but it appears to have failed out at some point. I'll upload it again tonight.
Then next Noise Night is going to be a bit larger, so we are going to move it to the community space at the Willoughby and Baltic. There is a stage for performances, which we can set up upon request. Once things get rolling with Noise Night, I will want a featured performer each time. Let me know if you are interested in such a thing (Jimmie @ thiswebsite).
