SOUND NOMADS is back. With Berlin as this year's nodal point, new playgrounds are crying for exploration. While starting with some sound huntings in the city, the post production work on our last year's overseas tour draws to a close.

Happy Birthday Ger! Thank you for all the automated birthday e-/snail-mail greetings. My this year's birthday-donation goes to ... the former domain owner of gerger.com! This is a huge (though expensive) step and yes, I promise not to give future birthday-donations to myself again :-) I hope you like the new domain name as much as I do.

Update your bookmarks! After 10 years of existence of v-a-m-p.com, this site is now available at http://gerger.com .

Wow, that was fast. Tons of work and fantastic experiences lie behind me. Never a Year went by more quickly than 2006. Work updates, works on commission worldwide, o0oo upgrades, groundbraking productivity/workflow enhancements, 6 months nomadism in the United States and in November the Berlin art studio and apartment moved into a new space.

And of course: 2006 was the Year of the much-anticipated public sound/ performance art project SOUND NOMADS. But 2007 is going to be a blast! The equipment is still packed. Sensor repairs, postproductions but also preproductions in progress ... In queue: short SOUND NOMADS trips across Europe. This Year is going to be huge for SOUND NOMADS and further projects likewise.

Sound Huntings: 20 . Art Performances: 10 . Audio-/Backtracks: various tracks still in process

Active Nomads Hours: Jul/Aug/Sep: ca. 1300
Dokumentationsmaterial (Fotos/Video Clips): 16,958 files, 25.80 GB

Car: 15,000 mi, 5 flat tires, 1 car backed into Victor, 2 tickets, 3 cops, Gas: $2538.35, other car expenses: $3549.01

GAS Apr	GAS May	GAS Jun	GAS Jul	GAS Aug	GAS Sep	GAS Oct
$139.42	$606.46	$436.13	$468.98	$374.67	$471.37	$41.32

DVD: estimated release Feb, 2007

STILL OPEN: Go for gold! The dog from our recent 'Play!' performance in Utah was buried in a nightly action at the beach of Santa Monica. Still no signs that it was found!

OCT 2-8: Oahu/Hawaii. BTW, in the meantime, back in co-gr (cold/grey) Berlin.

Santa Monica Watch Tower 7. Right back corner. 118 Ger Ger's feet (Puma Speed Cat P US Grey/Olive 9/EUR 42/UK 8/CM 27) to Pacific Coast Highway. Turn right. Keep on going 98 feet. Go for gold!

This is the end of the first SOUND NOMADS season and of this intense US tour. A continued series of performances will arise next year ...

The SOUND NOMADS project page with the full range of downloads and additional details will be complete in November.

SEP 26	Art Performance: 'Lantern Dogs'
Location	Los Angeles, CA/USA
Timeframe	3:45-5:30 PM | ??:00 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	SEP 07, SEP 22 [2 days]. MAX/MSP, sound editing, track composing, callibration

Los Angeles dogs and puppies. Sidewalks - rich, poor, famous, empty. Beverly Hills lost and found in translation. Who is the dog - we are what we do. Watch out for the sweet and lovely lamp posts - in broad light, by day and by night.

Technology: With the help of some self-developed RT noise generators, the lamp post become playable through distance sensors. Live audio inputs and master track round off the setting.

As one of our last actions in LA, manholes became recording studios. The soundscape of the city captured blurred.

SEP 25	Art Performance: 'Sound Pets LA'
Location	Los Angeles, CA/USA
Timeframe	1 day | ??:00 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	SEP 23-24 [2 days]. MAX/MSP, sound recording and editing, track composing, pet reconstruction, callibration

Video Clip: Coming soon!

Never change a winning team ... after the success in San Francisco, we took the chance to reinvent the sound pets in LA with refurbished beats and a new language. Creatures fed with sound samples are playing their own rhythms based on the city's intensities of light and shadow.

Technology: Two light sensors - each mounted in a handsized transparent cube - are brought to life. A day around Los Angeles with the two unconventional pets. Software development for a certain level of autonomous intelligence and precise calibration allow these pets to emit beats and to place fast food orders along the way. Beat - order pet 1 - beat - order pet 2 - beat ... Light intensity (shadows of buildings, time of day, etc) as well as movements are responsible for the selection of fast food pool samples. The stopping of a pet manifests itself as the momentary arresting of the rhythmic chain.

SEP 22: Back to the starting point - the countdown runs, still 5 SOUND NOMADS days left in LA.

SEP 21	Art Performance: 'Victor's Desert Party'
Location	Goffs, CA/USA
Timeframe	5:00-7:00 PM | ??:00 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	SEP 07-08, SEP 21 [3 days]. MAX/MSP, sound recording and editing, track composing, callibration

Video Clip: Coming soon!

Victor, the good guy behind the scenes. In honor of him a desert party was thrown last Thursday. Beats triggered by his turn signals, wired headlights, collective shaking/moving/sliding ...

Technology: In various ways the car becomes playable through sensors. Light sensors on the blinkers and on the headlights trigger samples; distance sensors generate sound changes to the master track when the car moves. Party karaoke thanks to the mic-in megaphone.

SEP 20	Art Performance: 'Luxor 22.145'
Location	Luxor Hotel and Casino/Las Vegas, NV/USA
Timeframe	7:00 PM - 3:00 AM | ??:00 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	SEP 18-20 [3 days]. MAX/MSP, sound editing, track composing, callibration, storyboard

As planned - a m/hotel performance went down in Vegas. Luxor: rooms 4455, employees 4000, casino 120,000 square feet, 250 miles visible Xenon light shot. Room No. 22.145: sensor equipped bending matresses, sound generating moving chairs, pitch shifting ironing and flickering lights.

Technology: Lamps become sound triggers and pitch shifters by means of light sensors, irons turn into turntables through pressure sensors, chairs become free-moving VST instruments through sensor combinations. Mattresses (bend it over), drawers (open/close), closet doors, curtains (movements) and the TV set (light intensity of a selected channel) become a sampler ... This performance consists of seven essentially different superstructures and interactive scenarios. A night in the luxury hotel becomes a performance night.

SEP 19: Pools, sun, lights, nights, party, slots, splash, poker, roulette, siegfried & roy, casino, pools, girls, buffets, skin, lights, folies bergere, money, ... nope, not for us. SN performance #7.

Welcome Nevada. One night in Valley of Fire State Park under the stars. Next stop: Vegas.

Much of the time in Utah was spent with travelling, but lots of ideas and additional energy emerged in this desolated region.

SEP 16: An incidental meeting with rodeo riders at the gas station brought us to the today's rodeo high school event in Cedar City for SOUND NOMADS field recordings.

SEP 16	Art Performance: 'Play'
Location	Cedar City, UT/USA
Timeframe	13:00-16:00 PM | 2:00 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	AUG 31, SEP 07-09 [3 days]. MAX/MSP, sound recording and editing, track composing, callibration, props

Entertainment can have positive impacts on us, it can destroy and break. Unachievable fantastic sim worlds, growing frustrations, offendings, suppressions of problems ... Play!

Technology: Live pitching of audio sample with distance sensor on the ground. Sensor equipped rocking dog as music score controller.

SEP 14: Appropriate for the harsh monsoon weather we've currently settled down in a cabin near Torrey/UT.

SEP 12: As it gets more difficult to explore new sounds to work with in these areas, we are ready to give up these awsome landscapes for Vegas.