WEBVTT
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36C3 preroll music
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Herald: But thanks that you all are here.
Actually, since it's all teardown moment,
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still, we have enough, we have lots of
people here. Interesting. This is as well
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an interesting talk because it's Helen
Leigh who's going to present this.
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Actually, give us an overview actually
about what hackers, you know, in music
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meant actually in the history. So to give
an overview, if I understood this well,
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she gives certain examples. And I think
she's gonna kick this a little bit further
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because she's going to talk a little bit
about her current work and future
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objectives. So I would fasten seat belts,
I would say. Yes. Helen Leigh. Give her a
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warm applause.
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applause
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Helen: Hello? Yep. So I'm Helen. This is
if you want to follow my stuff or download
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any of my things that I mentioned in the
talk about GitHub and various plots of my
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work on Twitter. So here we go. OK. Right.
I am going to talk to you today about
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we're gonna give you a story. I'm gonna
give you a story about how a group of
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music hackers in the 1940s changed the
face of music technology forever and how
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they didn't know anything by what they
were doing. But they still manage to do
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some incredibly cool things by just
disregarding and being really awesome
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hardware hackers. I'm also gonna give you
an overview of some of the coolest
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projects coming out of London and Berlin
at the moment. So I've been... I'm living
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in Berlin at the moment, but I was active
in the music hacking scene in London for a
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long time as well. So I'm going to show
you some cool projects. And before I start
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off on my story and cool projects I'm
going to just introduce myself. I am a
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creative technologist, which is a
ridiculous buzzword. But people like to
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put you in a box. But I'm basically a
massive nerd who really likes arty stuff,
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so I'd like to smash them together. My
favorite things to smash together are
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electronics and hardware and with music
technologies. And so with that in mind, I
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make a lot of strange musical instrument
creations, usually very experimental in
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form. I'll show you some of that as well.
This is one of my experimental
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instruments. I make sonic psycho sculpture
creatures and I've taken them on
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residencies in London, Shenzen and
Copenhagen. And I just really like
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experimenting with what a musical
instrument looks like. And not so much
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what it sounds like. I mean, I am into
other people's noise art. But for me, I
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like my instruments to sound melodic. But
yeah, form, I'm very interested in
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experimenting with. I also really like at
the moment - this is made out of brass.
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And I've made a lot of stuff with
different metals. But at the moment, I'm
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on a big soft circuit kick. And so I'm
experimenting with electronic embroidery
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and soft robotics to make kind of kinetic,
sculptural, squishy creature things. And
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I'll show you some of that later, too. And
obviously, this doesn't pay my rent,
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shockingly. So I also do some product
design and a lot of curriculum based
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things, remember, I'm a writer as well. So
this is a product that I designed. That's
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actually my hand on the box. Very
exciting. And it's a wearable instrument
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for children sold by PIMORONI and Adafruit
and et cetera. And it's a DIY wearable
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gesture based instrument for children to
learn how to code with. And I designed
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that with Imogen Heap. And I'll tell you
about that cool project later. But that's
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something I do. And I also do a lot of
writing. This is a still from one of my
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books I wrote recently. Last year it came
out, one called The Crafty Kid's Guide to
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DIY Electronics, where I teach basic
electronics through the medium of paper
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craft, origami, sewing and kind of like
DIY robotics as well. I also write for
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Hackaday. I've written for blah blah blah,
doesn't matter. I write words for money
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sometimes. Anyway, that's me. I am going
to tell you as one of my favorite stories
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of music, tech history. I'm going to start
off here with this rather pretentious
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quote from a rather pretentious man who I
still kind of love is a guy called John
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Cage, who most people know him for his
experimental compositions and his many
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and varied writings on on the subject
of what is sound and what a sound artist.
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But he was also pretty early on a hardware
hacker. He made experimental instruments.
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Actually, one of his first famous pieces
was him like smashing up a piano and
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changing that. So he was a composer, but
he was also an experimental hardware
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artist. I mean, he said this. There is no
noise. There is only sound. And the reason
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I put this quote up there is to kind of
make you... remind you that all music is
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made up. Okay. All instruments are
inventions. The violin wasn't a violin
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until probably the 13th century when
various instruments that came before it
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converged and someone using new
techniques, new tools. And it starts and
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it keeps revolving through the ages.
Right. And I think you could think of an
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instrument as a - as a specific thing, but
it's really not. We've been messing around
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with science since we've been humans,
basically, and deter with compositions.
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You might think of classical music
mainstays like Stravinsky, Strauss or
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Debussy as, as these kind of like boring
establishment figures, but actually in the
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day they were seen as avant garde. People
walked out of their performances. There
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were hit pieces about them in the mails.
You know, the Daily Mail of the time. So
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basically, anything that sounds strange to
you now or something that's experimental
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to us could well have an influence in a
long reaching way. So, yes, here we are.
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Oh, I'm going to tell you. But my favorite
conspiracy theory as well. So even down to
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the note A, 440 Hertz, middle A. And it's
- It was not even - it was not the letter.
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Sorry. It was not 440 Hertz until the
1950s when a group of dudes met up in one
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room in London. And then everybody signed
this agreement saying, OK, now an A is 440
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Hertz. Before that, a flute in Italy might
sound different to a flute in France.
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You'd have like this small tonal
variations. So it wasn't until yeah the
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1950s that it became actually the letter
A. There's a wonderful series of
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conspiracy theories around this that
actually that they chose 440 Hertz because
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it's a method of population mind control
and there are alternative websites out
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there, now you can literally go and if you
search for like uhm 440 Hertz
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conspiracies, there are websites that are
campaigning like groups that are
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campaigning for it to be changed for the
whole of modern music to be a to be
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changed. There's one at 432. There's one
at 438. And if you're in the 438 camp,
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because there are opposing camps as well.
So if you're in the 438 camp, you're in
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luck because someone's made a music
adjustor. OK, so you can take your track
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that you've done and you can put it into a
converter and it will convert all of your
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music into 438. So you can do that if you
like. And there's even a radical fringe
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group calling for the middle A to be 538,
which is absolutely insane. But there we
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are, I love it. And so if you ever want to
go down a conspiracy theory YouTube black
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hole, which you probably will do, we're
all at camp, uh congress, not camp. You
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can look at that. But basically my point
here is that music is all made up.
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Instruments are all inventions. So, you
know, there are no rules. I'm gonna take
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you through em - one of the paths, one of
the many paths of music history and music
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hacking. And we're going to look at one
piece of hacked technology and how people
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who played with that and did things with
it that they weren't supposed to do
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changed modern history, modern music
production. This is the magnetic tape
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recorder. It's a lovely device. And it was
used popularized in World War 2 by the
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Nazis who used it to chop up propaganda
and so on. And after the World War, after
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the World War and the BBC took on it, took
it on themselves to try and develop a
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version of this. So this is a relatively
modern technology. In the 40s and 50s,
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it started becoming becoming popular and
it was used for real to real broadcasting,
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right. Before this, it was grammophones.
But a bunch of - so they were used in
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music studios and they were relatively
expensive. As it became cheaper, a bunch
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of music hackers saw its potential to do
something more than just line it up. So
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these hackers got their hands on a bunch
of these and a bunch of these magnetic
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tape recorders. And as people want to do
with technology that they get their hands
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on it. They started to fuck with it in a
new and very exciting ways. And what they
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did is they they as a movement in Paris
and then early 1940s called musique
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concrète, which was the first group of
people who were doing this. Aside from one
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lonely guy in Egypt as well. But there was
like the epicenter of this was - is in
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Paris. And what you do is you see the the
actual tape there. You use a razor blade
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to cut it. And then you can, for example,
flip it over, tape it back together, and
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then you've got one piece that's
backwards. Right. OK. And using that
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technique, I'll show you how actually you
this is it.
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sounds playing
OK, so not only can you chop things up and
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turn them around, you can speed them up
and slow them down. This gives you - this
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seems - so, basically, if you do it
faster, it will give you a higher tone.
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And if you do it slower, if you slow it
down, it will be lower. OK. We all know
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this kind of instinctually now. But back
then, this was fellow. This was completely
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revolutionary. You could make sounds that
were not existing in nature. Take, for
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example, the plucking of a violin string,
okay, you pluck a violin string. And it
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comes on quick. It's like boom. And then
if you let it die off, there's a "laaa".
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So what we call that in music is a sharp
attack on a long delay. And that's how a
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lot of musical instruments or natural
science will work. OK. They will fade off,
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OK. But using this technology, you could
switch it around. So it had the
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opposite effect. So like "uooom" the long
attack and a short delay. So you could
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create sounds that are not found in nature
now, which is extraordinary. And at the
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same time, there was the advent of
something called field recording, which
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was you could go outside instead of having
to record in a studio. You could have a
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physical piece of equipment that you could
carry around with you and a microphone, so
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you could go and record sounds outside.
Found sound is what we call that. Then you
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could take it back to the studio, chop it
up with a scalpel, sellotape it back
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together, rerecord it, and you could
create... This is just you know, it's just
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a huge, vast new set of tools that you can
work with as somebody who's making music.
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Now the first people doing this were, as I
say, these French guys in Paris
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and in musique concrète. And they
were doing it. And due to modern music,
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digital preservation techniques, you can
hear these, the sounds they were making on
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YouTube. You can spend some time and
listen to that. And I won't lie, they
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sound pretty awful. Nobody wants to listen
to that. I mean, unless you're a true
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enthusiast. But it's not it's not about
the music they were making, is about the
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techniques that they were creating, their
experimentation sounded terrible but
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actually was incredibly influential. We
use sampling now as just an ordinary
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thing, but this was the technology behind
it. It really came to a head in the 1960s
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when Beatle - the Beatles were the first
people to use this technique on "Tomorrow
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Never Knows". Now, normally, well, I would
play this, but when I did, at a talk
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similar to this at the Hackaday Super
Conference, they uhm they pulled my
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livestream because there was a 10 second
snippet of the Beatles. So I've decided
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not to risk it today. But you can look up
"Tomorrow Never Knows" and you can hear
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these "woauum, woauum, woauum" kind of
sounds. And that's actually flipped.
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That's just flipped sounds that the - all
of the Beatles brought in sounds from
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their home. They flipped it around,
speeded up and slowed it down. There's a
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famous like very high pitched
"hiehiehiehiehie" sound in that song and
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it's just Paul McCartney laughing and
they've manipulated it using sticky tape
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and scalpels. Anyway, so that was the
beginning of these new production
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techniques, right? You can use these in
modern music, you know, when you're in
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your Ableton or your Logic or whatever.
You know, those are just standard
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features. But this was the beginning of
it. And it's incredibly influential. I could
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follow it down this path. But I'm
actually going to take this and
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leave them to go on with modern mainstream
production. And I'm going to talk about
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this woman instead. Who was one of my
favorite things about hacker culture is
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the way that we learn from each other and
the way that we rev off of each other's
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work. And so I'm gonna go slightly
sideways and talk about this artist and
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engineer. Her name is Daphne Oram, and
who's heard of Daphne Oram? All right.
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Like ten of you. Which is more than usual,
actually, to be honest. So Daphne Oram is
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- everyone should know her name and that's
why I never shut up about her. She was a
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musician and physicist, an electronics
engineer who was unfortunate enough to be
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a woman. And was - has a pretty tragic
work history. But she... she's one of the
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iconic figures of early electronic music.
She should be as well-known as any of the
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- as Moog or whatever. But anyway, so
she's a trained musician and she got a job
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at the BBC queuing up these reel to reel
magnetic tape recorders, which is actually
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a pretty big deal at the time for women as
well. So she would. She went on a training
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course to Paris and - just studio
recording techniques. You know, standard
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corporate training. Right. And while she
was there I believe she met some of the
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people behind the musique concrète. And
she was basically and they showed her what
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they were doing. And it totally blew her
mind. She was like, oh, my God, I will
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take this back to the BBC. It's gonna be
so cool. I'm going to revolutionize
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everything. It's gonna be awesome. She
took it like that. And predictably enough,
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everyone was like, no, go back to pressing
buttons. So she did. But she also would
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run around at the BBC late at night after
hours stealing bits of equipment from
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other people's studios and wheeling them
into her own studio. And she would
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experiment with all these musique concrète
methods. And she was an electronics
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person, as well, and she was one of the
first people in the world to make purely
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electronic music, because she was one of
the first instances of someone who
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recorded her oscilloscope and then started
using that for compositional purposes as
00:16:02.910 --> 00:16:08.339
well. And she was doing this for maybe
five, six, seven years. And at the end of
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that, she started to get some interest.
She managed finally to convince somebody
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to give her a commission to create some
incidental music for a piece of - for a
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show. And erm and it was a success. Also
people hated it. Of course. But enough
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people wanted her to repeat it that
eventually the BBC gave her her own studio
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which is like absolutely, you know, out of
the question for someone in the fifties,
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for a woman in the 50s. And so she she was
starting to make this but she erm
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unfortunately at this point she got the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which is one of
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the most iconic sound design workshops and
studios in the whole history of music
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technology. So she starts this workshop,
the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but a year
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later she leaves to start her own artists
practice because they - they said she said
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they wanted my ideas and they wanted my
work but they didn't want me. So she had
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to leave her life's work. And she was
largely erased, actually, from everything
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that she did, even though she founded this
iconic this absolutely iconic workshop.
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And she went off and created. She didn't
have a sad life after that. She - she went
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off and created em, this wild synthesiser,
which is in the London Science Museum. And
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I was like instead of she she loved
looking at wave forms of music. So she
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thought she would use watercolor to draw
the wave forms and then have a synthesizer
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interpret those wave forms. And that's
called the Oramics Machine is like
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absolutely wild. You can look that up on
the Internet as well. It's cool to look
00:17:45.550 --> 00:17:51.700
at. So, yeah, she's becoming a bit more
popular now because of the work of some of
00:17:51.700 --> 00:17:55.760
the guys at the Radiophonic Workshop who
still exist. Some of the old guys who go
00:17:55.760 --> 00:18:00.380
around telling cool stories about them.
And but also because of the woman she
00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:05.900
helped bring in who stayed after she left.
And she's quite famous now because of
00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:10.039
something I'll show you. It's this lady.
And this is Delia Derbyshire, who's head
00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:14.980
of Delia Derbyshire. A lot more of you. I
thought so. Now, Delia Derbyshire again
00:18:14.980 --> 00:18:18.230
the same? She's got a maths and music
degree. She couldn't get a job, but she
00:18:18.230 --> 00:18:21.970
ended up basically pestering them into
letting her do some interning at the
00:18:21.970 --> 00:18:27.539
Radiophonic Workshop and eventually got a
job there. And then she was the arranger
00:18:27.539 --> 00:18:34.270
and made the instrumentation for this. Now
I'm going to play this for you. Before I
00:18:34.270 --> 00:18:39.600
do, I want you to think about the fact
that at the time every sound had to be
00:18:39.600 --> 00:18:46.140
physically cut and sticky taped together,
every sing-. And there's no multi-track
00:18:46.140 --> 00:18:50.659
recorders back then either. OK. So you
have to. It's an absolutely enormous
00:18:50.659 --> 00:18:54.630
process of recording the sounds,
stretching the sound, cutting the sounds,
00:18:54.630 --> 00:18:58.640
sticking it back together, making on a
reel, recording that onto a separate reel.
00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.750
Then you've got this and then you add more
sounds and then you have like several
00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:08.090
tapes that you have to condense into each
other without multi-track technology. OK.
00:19:08.090 --> 00:19:13.880
They're literally on different machines
shouting "Go" at each other. And that's
00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:17.400
how they recharged multi-track. But she
was very blasé about it. It was kind of amusing
00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.809
because it seems ridiculous to me now
to be able to compose a piece of music
00:19:20.809 --> 00:19:26.940
like that, like a jigsaw puzzle. But
she just shrugged and said, well,
00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:34.550
seemed to work. I find that kind of charming
but yes. So that's. Oh, no. Why didn't it play?
00:19:34.550 --> 00:19:37.170
low volume static noise
00:19:37.170 --> 00:19:44.530
Oh, no. Huh, goddamned. Well I'm gonna
play it for you anyway.
00:19:44.530 --> 00:19:48.620
Oh, it's playing! Oh good, it just took a minute.
00:19:48.620 --> 00:19:59.760
Doctor Who Theme playing
00:19:59.760 --> 00:20:03.710
[over the music] No theremin. No
synthesizers existed. This was literally
00:20:03.710 --> 00:20:13.429
just tapes. And she also made her own
instruments so she [inaudible], including
00:20:13.429 --> 00:20:17.240
my favourite which is called the
wopulator(?). And that just a good name
00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:24.078
Yeah, so uhm, they actually used a lot of
electronic engineering gear in their work.
00:20:24.078 --> 00:20:27.910
Anyway, we know how this goes. And I don't
want to get another copyright violation.
00:20:27.910 --> 00:20:31.567
Doctor Who Theme stops
So let's move on. I did actually want to
00:20:31.567 --> 00:20:37.100
play one of her own songs, so that's her
commercial work. But she was also an
00:20:37.100 --> 00:20:42.809
electronic experimental musician of her
own and on her own accord. And she I think
00:20:42.809 --> 00:20:49.250
you kind of forget that music in the 50s
and 60s actually kind of was wild as well.
00:20:49.250 --> 00:20:51.829
Let's see if we...
Music playing
00:20:51.829 --> 00:20:55.340
[talking over music]
This is one of her tracks from the 60s.
00:20:55.340 --> 00:21:13.369
Kind of a banger.
[making sounds]
00:21:13.369 --> 00:21:19.609
You might even recognize this track,
because someone did sample it.
00:21:19.609 --> 00:21:23.659
Die Antwoord literally just rapped over the
top of that and then released it as a
00:21:23.659 --> 00:21:32.659
track. She made this for a science fiction
show that was based on an Asimov story and
00:21:32.659 --> 00:21:36.049
this remains, but the Asimov story that it
was made for has been deleted from the BBC
00:21:36.049 --> 00:21:42.510
archives, which I find to be an absolute
tragedy. I would love to watch that. If
00:21:42.510 --> 00:21:47.140
you uhm if you flip it back, the robotic
sound is singing "praise be to the
00:21:47.140 --> 00:21:50.590
master".
Music stops
00:21:50.590 --> 00:21:54.690
Thank you, Daphne. And so that's the
that's my story of the BBC Radiophonic
00:21:54.690 --> 00:21:58.620
Workshop. But I wanted to leave you with a
quote from one of the BBC Radiophonic
00:21:58.620 --> 00:22:03.350
Workshop engineers. Unfortunately unnamed
in the documentary that I watched and I
00:22:03.350 --> 00:22:06.720
just thought this was kind of a cute
sentiment because they were making things
00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:09.960
up. They weren't - they weren't the
experts in the room. They didn't know what
00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:15.330
they couldn't do. So they just basically
managed to mess around with stuff and
00:22:15.330 --> 00:22:19.179
ended up with something really special and
really cool and something that was just
00:22:19.179 --> 00:22:24.260
iconic. You know, some of the biggest
electronic music acts in the world today,
00:22:24.260 --> 00:22:29.101
still say that the work at the BBC
Radiophonic Workshop was one of the big
00:22:29.101 --> 00:22:37.040
influences in life as well. So. So, yeah,
that's the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. And I
00:22:37.040 --> 00:22:41.571
think it's very important that we allow
for ridiculousness in technology and we
00:22:41.571 --> 00:22:48.240
allow for ugly noises and we allow for
stupid things that don't fully - you don't
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:54.620
really see what they're for. Like the
power of them allowing for experimentation
00:22:54.620 --> 00:22:59.210
that isn't very successful at first or
doesn't sound successful. The idea is
00:22:59.210 --> 00:23:07.100
really important. Yeah. So outsiders,
hooray. That was a golden age. We've got
00:23:07.100 --> 00:23:12.419
the invention of a new technology and what
resulted in democratization. You know, the
00:23:12.419 --> 00:23:18.309
availability of a new technology to a
reasonable number of people led to this
00:23:18.309 --> 00:23:23.429
uhm to this amazing sea change in the way
that people made music, made digital music
00:23:23.429 --> 00:23:27.960
and analog back then. But, you know, the
way that we make music was changed by
00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:34.050
these experimenters. It was definitely a
golden age for - for new techniques. But I
00:23:34.050 --> 00:23:37.840
think that we're currently in a golden age
for people who are working with
00:23:37.840 --> 00:23:45.990
experimental instruments and experimental
sound in general. And I think that we. So
00:23:45.990 --> 00:23:49.200
we've got loads and loads of really
exciting new technologies that are
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:53.640
available. We've got cheap
microcontrollers. We've we can make our
00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:58.260
own PCBs. We can make our own
synthesizers. We can access people, which
00:23:58.260 --> 00:24:02.160
is which is really crucial. I mean, think
about Daphne. She didn't learn about
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:06.270
musique concrète and she didn't find the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop until she had a
00:24:06.270 --> 00:24:10.950
spark of an idea from somebody else. So
really, it is learning tools, learning
00:24:10.950 --> 00:24:15.970
type, you know, gaining access to tools,
learning new techniques and learning and
00:24:15.970 --> 00:24:20.410
being inspired by other people is really,
really critical for anything to to really
00:24:20.410 --> 00:24:24.360
change and to really and to happen. But I
think that at the moment we've been
00:24:24.360 --> 00:24:27.950
really, really cool, accessible new
technologies that more and more people are
00:24:27.950 --> 00:24:34.020
learning how to use and more and more are
becoming much simpler as well. And and
00:24:34.020 --> 00:24:37.970
crucially, people are more accessible. So
people share, particularly in our
00:24:37.970 --> 00:24:42.659
community, people share their knowledge
and very freely. And you don't have to be
00:24:42.659 --> 00:24:44.659
in the same room to do this. I know a
bunch of people are listening on the
00:24:44.659 --> 00:24:49.750
livestream right now. So you don't have to
be here to learn about things.
00:24:49.750 --> 00:24:54.840
And you don't have to be in the room to
lend it - to attend a workshop with
00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:58.909
somebody. Right. There's these wonderful
YouTube tutorials now for sharing
00:24:58.909 --> 00:25:03.700
information. Niche communities are just
way more accessible through online places.
00:25:03.700 --> 00:25:11.120
And we've got an incredible community and
abundance as well. So this is I mean, I
00:25:11.120 --> 00:25:14.409
shouldn't have put this slide in here but
it doesn't matter. Uhm so this is this is
00:25:14.409 --> 00:25:19.679
one of my old hacker spaces. It's Machines
Room. In uhm in London. And it was where -
00:25:19.679 --> 00:25:23.669
where the music, technology, one of the
places where the music tech community in
00:25:23.669 --> 00:25:29.470
London was centered. And they did some, it
was there on the London hackerspace, but
00:25:29.470 --> 00:25:34.530
we did a lot of things. But there's a
community called the hackoustic that I was
00:25:34.530 --> 00:25:38.900
involved with. And we used to do a lot of
events there. I'm saying that the reason I
00:25:38.900 --> 00:25:43.230
put this slide down was just just to show
that hacker spaces and maker spaces often
00:25:43.230 --> 00:25:47.549
have some kind of music technology
partnerships and those kind of central
00:25:47.549 --> 00:25:51.450
spaces where you can share things and
share knowledge and get inspired by each
00:25:51.450 --> 00:25:55.080
other's work and also hold events is
really, really crucial. Actually, I do
00:25:55.080 --> 00:26:01.070
know why I put this slide in. So, so this
slide the - this this was a wonderful
00:26:01.070 --> 00:26:07.120
space for uhm for three years. And then
the landlord raised the rent four times
00:26:07.120 --> 00:26:15.010
and this amazing community of artists and
designers and music hackers was removed,
00:26:15.010 --> 00:26:19.169
and at the same time, the London hackspace
moved from central London to west London
00:26:19.169 --> 00:26:23.070
and a bunch of other hacker spaces and fab
labs closed as well just because of how
00:26:23.070 --> 00:26:29.309
expensive the center of London had had
become. And there's just as a direct
00:26:29.309 --> 00:26:33.679
result of that, I moved to Berlin. So like
this is there by, by, uhm by allowing this
00:26:33.679 --> 00:26:37.830
kind of gentrification of our hackerspaces
we actually do destroy community as much
00:26:37.830 --> 00:26:44.980
as we can create community online as well.
Like this. So this is uhm this is an
00:26:44.980 --> 00:26:49.370
example of awesome online community. This
is, um, YouTube uhm video from someone
00:26:49.370 --> 00:26:53.179
from the London music tech hacker scene
and probably the most famous person from
00:26:53.179 --> 00:26:57.640
it. And it's a guy called Sam who goes by
"Look Mum No Computer" on the Internet.
00:26:57.640 --> 00:27:01.980
And he he's an electronic engineer and
general purpose weirdo. Which is why I
00:27:01.980 --> 00:27:07.549
like him. And this is one of his
creations. He made a Furby synth, which is
00:27:07.549 --> 00:27:13.570
as horrific as you imagine, if not more
so. So don't look that up. I mean, do look
00:27:13.570 --> 00:27:18.200
that up. But it is genuinely be prepared
to not have a nice time. But he doesn't
00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:22.080
just show his instruments. He doesn't just
perform with them. He he does really
00:27:22.080 --> 00:27:25.640
awesome electronics teardowns as well. So
I've learned a bunch of stuff from
00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:30.500
watching his videos and looking at
actually how he's done them. And that's
00:27:30.500 --> 00:27:34.409
something that's really exciting. I mean,
like maybe 20 years ago, I wouldn't have
00:27:34.409 --> 00:27:36.960
had access to this kind of knowledge. I
just would have I probably wouldn't have
00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:40.630
even known that I like this kind of stuff,
you know, wouldn't have been exposed to
00:27:40.630 --> 00:27:43.820
it. And then I certainly wouldn't... You
know, I've been going down my my local pub
00:27:43.820 --> 00:27:49.011
saying, hey, he wants to work on, uh, on a
weird Furby instrument with me. And they'd
00:27:49.011 --> 00:27:54.010
be like, well, no. So it's kind of nice to
be able to show your weird passions with
00:27:54.010 --> 00:27:58.240
the people on the Internet. And then, of
course, we have, we're at one of these.
00:27:58.240 --> 00:28:02.809
This is me and my friend Phoenix. We've
done a fair bit of music tech hacking
00:28:02.809 --> 00:28:08.830
together. And this is actually the British
version of Congress, EMF camp. I guess
00:28:08.830 --> 00:28:12.440
it's the version of Chaos camp, actually.
But so yeah, EMF camp, which is actually
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:17.360
in 2020 this year. It's a yes. It's really
cool small hacker festival or but these
00:28:17.360 --> 00:28:22.419
kind of spaces and these kind of events
really allow. I mean, I've learned so much
00:28:22.419 --> 00:28:27.559
just by being here the last couple of
days. And every time we do this, we should
00:28:27.559 --> 00:28:32.400
cherish and we should cherish the hacker
spaces and the events. And we should also
00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:35.991
support people like Sam, who makes his
living through Patreon and on YouTube, you
00:28:35.991 --> 00:28:41.130
know, so by supporting maker spaces and
events and also by supporting individual
00:28:41.130 --> 00:28:45.560
people who are putting the effort in to
create and share work, I think and we can
00:28:45.560 --> 00:28:52.419
cherish this community. OK. Onto the final
bit. I'm going to show you some - some of
00:28:52.419 --> 00:28:58.270
the cool projects that I've been working
on with other people. But the reason I've
00:28:58.270 --> 00:29:03.190
chosen the ones that I'm showing you is
because they are also using some of my
00:29:03.190 --> 00:29:08.220
favorite ways that you can hack on
instruments. So I figured I'd show you a
00:29:08.220 --> 00:29:13.010
project, but also show you how to make,
you know, how you can have a go at it. So
00:29:13.010 --> 00:29:18.500
recently I've lived in London and Berlin,
and one of my favorite things to do is
00:29:18.500 --> 00:29:24.460
when I'm in a space is to make an
instrument in the context of two people's
00:29:24.460 --> 00:29:29.169
work, two or more people's work. I always
find like my work is always way better if
00:29:29.169 --> 00:29:34.730
I'm collaborating with somebody else. So
you know what they do and what I do
00:29:34.730 --> 00:29:38.340
smushed together to create something
that's better than either of us could have
00:29:38.340 --> 00:29:43.620
done on our own. And I think this is a
good example if it will play and this is
00:29:43.620 --> 00:29:46.320
one of my first sonic soul circuits
sculpture creatures.
00:29:46.320 --> 00:29:51.950
plucking sounds
This started off as a hack just overnight
00:29:51.950 --> 00:30:00.789
hack with my composer friend Andrew Hockey
and Drew Fustini from Oshpark and myself,
00:30:00.789 --> 00:30:05.000
obviously, and we worked together
overnight to create this. This is a
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.240
circuit sculpture. If you don't know what
a circuit sculpture is, it's basically uhm
00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:14.039
instead of putting your circuit inside of
a box, all of the parts or the key parts
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:20.300
of it are shown and are actually
celebrated as art in their own light. And
00:30:20.300 --> 00:30:23.299
so that's what a circuit sculpture is. And
there's a couple of wonderful people and
00:30:23.299 --> 00:30:29.240
there is this guy called Mohit(?) who
makes really beautiful things. He's living
00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:34.940
in San Francisco. And then this guy called
Giri(?), who is in Prague, I want to say.
00:30:34.940 --> 00:30:41.610
And they make really, really awesome,
tiny, neat things. But I I'm not tiny and
00:30:41.610 --> 00:30:46.529
neat, so I make big, massive and messy
things. So this is the first one I made.
00:30:46.529 --> 00:30:50.140
It was really interesting to me. I really
like capacitive touch as a technology and
00:30:50.140 --> 00:30:55.880
it's can be unreliable, but I find it kind
of really fun to work with. And it's very
00:30:55.880 --> 00:31:01.809
intuitive for a musician. And then that
led to me developing a second creature.
00:31:01.809 --> 00:31:07.750
And I'm really inspired by kind of utopian
science fiction. And I wanted to make a
00:31:07.750 --> 00:31:12.470
series of creatures that inhabited the
same world and sung when you touch them.
00:31:12.470 --> 00:31:17.169
So this was the second in the series. This
is a more traditional instrument. I mean,
00:31:17.169 --> 00:31:20.710
obviously, it's still weird. It's more
traditional in the - past one, the second
00:31:20.710 --> 00:31:27.130
one, the first one was generative in some
way, like semi generative. And this one is
00:31:27.130 --> 00:31:31.450
more like one note per limb with two modes
of modulation. This is a bass.
00:31:31.450 --> 00:31:45.740
synth bass sound playing
"wobb wobb wobb".
00:31:45.740 --> 00:31:58.780
Helen chuckles
So that's my base creature, which I'm
00:31:58.780 --> 00:32:03.549
actually developing for a real musician
now and a woman, amazing bassist called
00:32:03.549 --> 00:32:07.220
Ayse Hassan who is the basis for the
Savages and just was on tour with the
00:32:07.220 --> 00:32:13.169
Pixies and I'm going to - I'm making her a
stage presence one. And so she's going to
00:32:13.169 --> 00:32:16.770
be able to play it, but that's gonna be
more generation based as well. But it's
00:32:16.770 --> 00:32:21.590
kind of interesting to to try and create
something that in its functionality is
00:32:21.590 --> 00:32:27.899
very traditional, but in its form is
really weird. And that's kind of fun to
00:32:27.899 --> 00:32:34.840
play with. But now my latest one is
another creature. But this is kind of like
00:32:34.840 --> 00:32:41.039
an abstract sensicle pod. It's gonna be
human sized. And each of the limbs will
00:32:41.039 --> 00:32:45.460
pay a different part of the choral
arrangement. And then there's like some
00:32:45.460 --> 00:32:48.640
kind of like sunlight feature at the top
where you can modulate it by touching the
00:32:48.640 --> 00:32:54.269
copper rods. I've actually made a
prototype, which you can listen to. So
00:32:54.269 --> 00:32:58.390
this is this is the latest version of one
of the limbs of the tentacle, which I made
00:32:58.390 --> 00:33:02.529
and it just made it for the form. But then
everybody seems to really like cuddling
00:33:02.529 --> 00:33:07.580
it. It's very comforting. So I decided to
make it purr after I'd finished
00:33:07.580 --> 00:33:12.529
prototyping. If you want to listen to my
purring tentacle afterwards, you can. It
00:33:12.529 --> 00:33:17.850
does sometimes work, but I should say
actually. Hello. So this is it. This is,
00:33:17.850 --> 00:33:21.769
um. This is machine embroidered conductive
thread so that - that is able then to
00:33:21.769 --> 00:33:27.200
detect capacity. That's a capacitive touch
sensor essentially - It's a sensicle. And
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:30.620
so yeah you can see that afterwards if you
want. It mostly works. I made it yesterday
00:33:30.620 --> 00:33:38.269
so that's quite fine. But again, you know,
I would not have been able to create the
00:33:38.269 --> 00:33:43.160
intricate sounds without the help of my
composer friend, and I would not have been
00:33:43.160 --> 00:33:46.470
able you know this and I would not been
able to get the implementation that I
00:33:46.470 --> 00:33:51.299
wanted onto the beagleboard whithout erm,
Drew. And so it's, it's, it's, it's really
00:33:51.299 --> 00:33:55.260
nice to kind of like sit together and mash
up your mash up your skills.
00:33:55.260 --> 00:34:00.260
bottles falling over
Now, these all use one of these and this
00:34:00.260 --> 00:34:07.389
is another one of my instruments. This is
a wearable, flexible PCB, it's gonna be a
00:34:07.389 --> 00:34:12.090
vocoder, but it's not finished yet. But.
But the reason I'm showing you that is
00:34:12.090 --> 00:34:17.040
because that's the sensor that I use. This
is a they call it the trill. It's
00:34:17.040 --> 00:34:20.550
essentially like if anybody viewed any of
you who used capacitive touch before, you
00:34:20.550 --> 00:34:27.760
probably used an MPR121 sensor. This is
like an MPR121 sensor ++. It's much more..
00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:34.170
they've got... a) it's got like 20
something pins, which is wild and it's way
00:34:34.170 --> 00:34:38.260
more sensitive as well. So I find it
really really great. So if anybody's doing
00:34:38.260 --> 00:34:41.030
stuff with cap touch and they're having
some problems with it: a) make sure you
00:34:41.030 --> 00:34:45.500
ground it and b) have a go on that trail.
It's like 10 euros. I think that, that
00:34:45.500 --> 00:34:49.980
sensor. And it is done by bela. You can
see one of their boards there. Now I'm
00:34:49.980 --> 00:34:53.490
gonna do a whole slide about bela and Fan
Girl about them because they're my
00:34:53.490 --> 00:34:59.170
favorite technology at the moment to use
for embedded systems, for embedded
00:34:59.170 --> 00:35:02.760
instruments. And this is like the size,
this is this big. It is based on the
00:35:02.760 --> 00:35:07.020
pocket beagle, which is the size of a
small Altoids tin. So it's very, very
00:35:07.020 --> 00:35:13.331
small. But it runs, it runs, it's a full
Linux computer and is really, really
00:35:13.331 --> 00:35:16.950
awesome. Super, super responsive, super
low latency, which is really important
00:35:16.950 --> 00:35:22.010
when you're creating instruments. But also
the cool thing is it runs this. This is
00:35:22.010 --> 00:35:26.350
PureData. It's a visual programing
language for sound creation. A lot of
00:35:26.350 --> 00:35:32.590
artists and sound designers and music
creators, they use this already. You
00:35:32.590 --> 00:35:35.450
might. This is very similar to something
called Max, actually made by the same guy.
00:35:35.450 --> 00:35:42.140
But this one's open source. Yeah. So and
so that's bela and PureData. Definitely
00:35:42.140 --> 00:35:46.641
worth checking out if you're interested in
instrument design. The reason the bela is
00:35:46.641 --> 00:35:51.830
special is because, because of the
latency, but also because no other... So
00:35:51.830 --> 00:35:56.120
you can't get a microcontroller that will
run PureData except for the Raspberry Pi
00:35:56.120 --> 00:36:01.190
does. But the latency on the Raspberry Pi
is like meeh. So I would always suggest if
00:36:01.190 --> 00:36:08.850
you're doing something. The bela and
PureData is a nice combo. OK. That's that
00:36:08.850 --> 00:36:13.870
one. Then the other project I wanted to
talk to you briefly about is, is this is
00:36:13.870 --> 00:36:16.850
Ariana Grande, who you probably don't know
who she is, but anyone under the age of 13
00:36:16.850 --> 00:36:19.790
certainly will. And here she is demoing
and is called MI MU glove.
00:36:19.790 --> 00:36:21.160
music playing
[talking over music]
00:36:21.160 --> 00:36:29.550
It's a gesture control. I say yes, gesture
control. And she's controlling, she's
00:36:29.550 --> 00:36:36.750
doing looping. She's doing effects using
gestures. Obviously, gestures, various
00:36:36.750 --> 00:36:39.750
gestures. Thank you, Ariana.
music stops
00:36:39.750 --> 00:36:43.581
So that's that's the that's the. This is
what she's using here. And this is coming
00:36:43.581 --> 00:36:49.420
out of London. About of the music tech
company called MI MU, that was originated
00:36:49.420 --> 00:36:54.770
by Imogen Heap, if you know her. And I saw
the Ariana video and something I didn't
00:36:54.770 --> 00:36:58.340
mention is I actually do quite a lot of
teaching as well. And when I saw that
00:36:58.340 --> 00:37:01.731
Ariana video, I just thought I was like,
oh, my God, if I showed this to a 12 year
00:37:01.731 --> 00:37:06.580
old girl and told them we could make one,
they were going to lose their mind. So
00:37:06.580 --> 00:37:10.160
these cost like five grand, though. So I
don't think I could get one of these in
00:37:10.160 --> 00:37:15.490
the classroom. So I just messaged Imogen
and asked her if I could make a children's
00:37:15.490 --> 00:37:26.110
version. And so I did. She said yes. And
she - we, this is this is a wonderful
00:37:26.110 --> 00:37:31.940
piece of technology called the micro:bit.
And it's a DIY, it's like my first
00:37:31.940 --> 00:37:36.310
microcontroller that is made by the BBC.
It's like 10 pounds. It's very, very
00:37:36.310 --> 00:37:41.620
cheap. It doesn't do a lot. But what it
does, it does very well and very simply.
00:37:41.620 --> 00:37:49.070
And I was able to make an approximation of
a five thousand dollar glove with a ten
00:37:49.070 --> 00:37:54.560
dollar microcontroller, which is nice.
That's what the core of the product that I
00:37:54.560 --> 00:38:01.080
made is actually in. But. I haven't got
the time to talk to you about that. That's
00:38:01.080 --> 00:38:04.090
my leather robot unicorn. I gesture
control, but I can't tell you about that.
00:38:04.090 --> 00:38:07.350
This is another artist, got no time for
that. So we're getting onto this last one.
00:38:07.350 --> 00:38:15.380
So basically I was able to - with one
bridge, one micro:bit and a little bit of
00:38:15.380 --> 00:38:18.890
code to get it to work on professional
music software. And this is a musician
00:38:18.890 --> 00:38:24.830
called Bishi who's really awesome and this
is her using my ten dollar hack.
00:38:24.830 --> 00:38:28.560
music playing
[talking over music]
00:38:28.560 --> 00:38:35.130
To do very similar things. To the 5000
dollar. And of course, that's not stadium
00:38:35.130 --> 00:38:40.810
level. Ariana claimed they couldn't use
that on tour. But it's it was a fun
00:38:40.810 --> 00:38:45.620
project that we hacked together.
music stops
00:38:45.620 --> 00:38:51.840
And that is that's my time. I have done
all of it, by the way. All of this, how I
00:38:51.840 --> 00:38:57.390
did that. And that's all on my GitHub. All
of the code. If you've already got a
00:38:57.390 --> 00:39:02.000
micro:bit, you can do, you can do it
yourself or you can get the kits for like
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:05.830
30 bucks. It's not very expensive. So all
that's on my GitHub along with some weird
00:39:05.830 --> 00:39:10.720
factory signs of things. And you can
follow along on on my weird electronic
00:39:10.720 --> 00:39:17.390
adventures on my Twitter. I'm pretty
reactive. So say hi to me and I'll be
00:39:17.390 --> 00:39:21.150
hanging around here if you want to listen
to my tentacle. So the end, okay.
00:39:21.150 --> 00:39:24.330
applause
00:39:24.330 --> 00:39:37.870
Herald: Helen Leigh, woo. Thank you, Helen,
for his fantastic presentation. I'm
00:39:37.870 --> 00:39:43.370
wondering actually, how are we gonna play
that thing there? What it's like. I had a
00:39:43.370 --> 00:39:49.460
questions here. No. Yes. Yes. Online, of
course. They are far more, more speedy
00:39:49.460 --> 00:39:52.990
than we are. Shoot!
Signal Angel: So the question from the
00:39:52.990 --> 00:39:59.290
Internet is: Have you ever considered
creating music without human interaction?
00:39:59.290 --> 00:40:01.350
Helen: Yes.
laughs
00:40:01.350 --> 00:40:08.110
Her: Okay then, next one.
Hel: Thank you. Good night. No, I mean,
00:40:08.110 --> 00:40:13.810
I'm personally I'm a very tactile person
and so I like creating instruments that
00:40:13.810 --> 00:40:22.470
you... that you stroke that are
affectionate almost and kind. I like
00:40:22.470 --> 00:40:26.180
giving the things that I create some kind
of persona and that you interact with
00:40:26.180 --> 00:40:29.520
them. However, a lot of people use...
there's a lot people doing really
00:40:29.520 --> 00:40:35.320
interesting things with generative, non-
human interactive art. In fact, the
00:40:35.320 --> 00:40:38.790
composer friend that I was talking about,
Andrew Hockey, who's done a lovely... He's
00:40:38.790 --> 00:40:44.020
haked a musical marble run and that is
just automated. I mean, when the marbles
00:40:44.020 --> 00:40:48.180
go down, the marble run. It will trigger
generative signs, which is really, really
00:40:48.180 --> 00:40:53.570
cool. There's lots of people doing it. But
for me personally, I just I know. I like.
00:40:53.570 --> 00:40:57.320
I like touching the objects that I make.
You know, I'm the kind of strange person
00:40:57.320 --> 00:41:00.520
who walks around a craft store with a
multimeter kind of like touching things
00:41:00.520 --> 00:41:04.040
and figuring out if they're conductive,
like adequately conductive.
00:41:04.040 --> 00:41:08.230
Her: You're measuring out...
Hel: Yeah. So for example, in fabric
00:41:08.230 --> 00:41:10.760
stores, there might be something that's
conductive. That's not actually built as
00:41:10.760 --> 00:41:15.480
conductive. Or I'll often go to art stores
and craft stores or architectural supply
00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:21.040
stores. And you can find you know, you
don't have to go to Conrad. You can go to
00:41:21.040 --> 00:41:26.290
Modulor with your multimeter. If I just
like you can, you know see if it's
00:41:26.290 --> 00:41:28.600
conductive or it's not.
laughs
00:41:28.600 --> 00:41:34.000
Herold: We believe you. I'm just imagining
you there.
00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:37.760
Helen: Oh, yeah. No, it's...
Herold: At a flea market.
00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:40.650
Helen: I've had some strange looks.
laughing
00:41:40.650 --> 00:41:44.780
Herold: That question here from number two
please here in the front.
00:41:44.780 --> 00:41:50.180
Mic 2: Have you also created instruments
that actually work with the physicality of
00:41:50.180 --> 00:41:58.010
the object that you have built instead of
triggering some processing?
00:41:58.010 --> 00:42:06.740
Helen: So actually, you mean...
Mic 2: Like what if the tentacle itself,
00:42:06.740 --> 00:42:11.400
the sound it produces would be amplified
and somehow that, the base of the
00:42:11.400 --> 00:42:17.030
processing of the actual...
Helen: Oh, you mean more acoustic. Yeah.
00:42:17.030 --> 00:42:20.970
Actually when the tentacle is done it will
have some kind of physical feedback loop
00:42:20.970 --> 00:42:27.970
in it that will be reactive to its uhm, to
its space, to its personal space even as
00:42:27.970 --> 00:42:30.870
well. So actually the cool thing about
capacitive touch technology is if you get
00:42:30.870 --> 00:42:37.330
the thresholding right, you can not just
sense touch. You can sense proximity and
00:42:37.330 --> 00:42:40.710
that kind of also very cool how many
people are in the room as well. So you can
00:42:40.710 --> 00:42:45.210
get it to react quite... not uniformly,
but you can get it to react quite nicely
00:42:45.210 --> 00:42:51.410
to its environment and also the
way that people are manipulating it as
00:42:51.410 --> 00:42:54.650
well. And you can also code some cool
things into that as well. So basically
00:42:54.650 --> 00:42:59.510
based on, you know, like the number of
touches. How often people have played with
00:42:59.510 --> 00:43:03.500
it and, you know, and then and how people
have played with it. And get that type of
00:43:03.500 --> 00:43:08.140
feedback in to the music that it's making
in a generative fashion. There's lots of
00:43:08.140 --> 00:43:10.880
cool things that I want to do with this
next sculpture. But yeah
00:43:10.880 --> 00:43:12.430
laughs
Mic 2: Thanks.
00:43:12.430 --> 00:43:19.570
Herold: I'm so sad. I really have to spoil it
here. Really... we have to shut this now.
00:43:19.570 --> 00:43:26.760
And I would like you to ask do to talk to
her personally. Here next to the stage.
00:43:26.760 --> 00:43:31.490
Thank you all for being here. Thank you.
Thank you. And leave for this fantastic
00:43:31.490 --> 00:43:33.490
presentation on.
00:43:33.490 --> 00:43:34.490
applause
00:43:34.490 --> 00:43:35.490
36c3 postroll music
00:43:35.490 --> 00:44:00.000
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