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.

SEP 12: After our short trip to Arizona, breathtaking views (and sounds?) in Utah.

SEP 11	Art Performance: 'What the Fuck'
Location	Kanab, UT/USA
Timeframe	7:10-9:15 PM | (Pre) 2:13 min. (Post) 3:40 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	SEP 06-08 [1 1/2 day]. MAX/MSP, sound recording and editing

Native Americans are living in fenced Indian reservations in times when signs of the brutal history completely disappeared. Monuments remembering the loss are rare and voids remain. For two hours an empty billboard in Utah converted into an ephemeral interactive memorial. An investigation of history and memory, meaning and interrelations. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Technology: In covering up sensors hanging off the billboard with the palm of the hand, single syllables are unveiled.

The lower canyon: Navajo's Hasdeztwazi, or "spiral rock arches".

Only a few places find their way into performances ...

Next SOUND NOMADS performances in pipeline. Search for further sound sources and playgrounds. Long trips.

Arizona, current field for SOUND NOMADS explorations.

SEP 03	Art Performance: 'Sound Pets'
Location	San Francisco, CA/USA
Timeframe	1 day | ??:00 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	AUG 31-SEP 02 [2 1/2 days]. MAX/MSP, sound editing, track composing, pet construction, callibration
Challenges	police, weather conditions

Video Clip: Coming soon!

This time one of SOUND NOMADS' fundaments to reflect on situations of everyday life and the surroundings as directly as possible should be transferred. The 'Sound Pets' were born. 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 San Francisco with the two unconventional pets. Software development for a certain level of autonomous intelligence and precise calibration allow these pets to emit beats and recordings of sound huntings along the way. Beat – car wash sound pet 1 - beat – motel sound pet 2 - beat ... Light intensity (shadows of buildings, time of day, etc) as well as movements are responsible for the selection of samples out of the two sound pools. The stopping of a pet manifests itself as the momentary arresting of the rhythmic chain.

Finally, Victor alias 'the great soft-hearted car' gets his long overdue car wash in return for his 24/7 service. OK sure, sound recordings inclusive. But boy, you look so great!! Thanks goes to Gary and Michael (Elephant Car Wash Rancho Mirage).

AUG 15	Art Performance: 'Black Balloons'
Location	Cholla Cactus Garden/Joshua Tree NP, CA/USA
Timeframe	8:30-10:30 AM | 2:30 min./4:50 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	AUG 09-14 [3 days]. camping dinner recordings and splash huntings, track composing, balloon research, sensor callibrations, software development/adjustments
Challenges	car breakdown - one day overdue/second take necessary, bursting balloons (tent solution), tricky mounting and callibration of sensors, heat

Deserts as environments of extreme heat may cause serious stresses and fragilities in different manners. Contrasts of vulnerability and eternal unbreakables. The appearance of balloons and cactuses side by side, a love-hate relationship with dangerous consequences.

Technology: When balloons burst/explode, sensors on the inside of the balloons become exposed, leaving sounds behind. Out of complete silence, a soundscape gradually emerges. Light sensors power the master track ... One of the balloons differs from the others, simulates, by means of a distance sensor, a water balloon, now silent due to the explosion and lost water. RT sound processing from the assessed sensor data.