Releasing it earlier in the month, as it was always my intention, this August newsletter brings a smaller set of news, but of no lesser importance. This is so also because I'm traveling, taking more time to read, and do some journaling. I've wondered about having more interactivity within these newsletters, and I always include 5 other ways to keep in the loop and get in touch (i.e. the "social icons" at the bottom). But I am looking for new feedback here. Interestingly enough, the news on this month's edition do include a good deal about engagement and interactivity. Enjoy!
I've noticed an increasing interest in QC and creative practice, most notably with the emergence of new conferences and academic forums. Though, fortunately, a good number of them have been free or relatively cheap to register, its audience ends up mostly being those who are in academia, or tech industry. In the context of my MSCA project, IIMPAQCT, I'm concerned about bringing creative artists to the center of the discussion. With this in mind, I've decided to create a new platform to build that extended creative and scientific community. And to counter the regional assymetries, ever more present for those without institutional affiliation or access to travel grants, this community platform needs to be online-first. I'm launching a website and discussions forum: community.quantumland.art. The main part of this platform, the discussions forum, is a place to share music, books, software, films, events, and ideas dealing with QC and Creative Practice. To make new posts and reply to current threads one only needs to create a free Github account. Indeed, both this forum and front page (which will work as a knowledge base) are hosted on Github, in open access, allowing every aspect of it to be built by the community. I'm excited to invite, in advance, the members of this newsletter to join the Community.
Bandcamp is an online record store and music community that allows musicians and small labels to directly publish their music online. This is in opposition to the traditional record label model, or online music distributor + music streaming service, i.e. the never-ending list of intermediaries in the record music industry. You will often find on bandcamp music that is not on mainstream media (yet?). And this includes some creative music with QC that should start to appear listed in the Community. in the next few days. In recent times, on the first friday of most months, bandcamp waives their revenue share - meaning more money goes directly to the artists. This makes it a great day to grow (or start) your music collection. The next Bandcamp Friday is on August 4th. And if you'd like, you can start by browsing the collection of yours truly over here.
SOFTWARE
The Algorithm of Epilepsy JS
The Algorithm of Epilepsy JS, screenshot of execution_E
Following up on my promise from the middle-of-the-month newsletter last June, I have just released the near realtime version of The Algorithm of Epilepsy code. And to make it even more interactive, I published a little webpage that allows you to explore it running live. This version of the code, originally written in Python by Mauro Pinto (involving a considerable amount of rendering time), was re-written by me in javascript and made possible to run in near realtime on modern internet browsers - and no, it is not p5js code, turns out it was too heavy! This is part of my practice-based research that went into producing the original spatialized music for the theatre play about EEG Epilepsy Seizure Prediction, The Algorithm of Epilepsy. In particular, on this page you will be able to run 5 differently tuned ictogenesis simulations - that is, the process leading to a seizure and its interictal epileptiform discharges. All the code that goes into making this possible is also available on a github repository.
On the past July 21st, me and STArt premiered the Jupiter meets Saturn: Making Of video on youtube. This is a great video documenting our creative process, allowing you to see and hear how we develop the sonic canvas cosmos. If you feel inspired by watching our process and decide to also try some creative expression of your own, we would be interested hear about it here. Please note that the music in this video is not the final mixed version that went into the album, which you can hear on bandcamp. And prints of the original artwork are available by contacting STArt directly. We are also working on a videoclip to be released in the near future and we might be performing live in the coming months.