Strange Electronics: Realtime A/V and Hardware Hacking
February 18, 2011
Transistor, Chicago, IL
Strange Electronics: Realtime A/V and Hardware Hacking was the first of two Strange Electronics events programmed by James Connolly and Kyle Evans. The evening featured a collection of Chicago-based realtime audio and video performers exploring the pseudo-alchemic discipline of homemade instrument creation by means of coding, building, bending, breaking, and the all around exploitation of strange and archaic hardware. Artists Emilie Crewe, Becky Grajeda, and Monica Panzarino performed as Tit Band with the aid of custom-built, wireless electronic "Nipulator" bras created by Panzarino. The bras use hardware potentiometers (or knobs), an Arduino microcontroller, and a Max/MSP/Jitter software patch to process videos of each artist singing a freestyled "melisma" technique. The left "nipple" of the bra loops a section of the video, and the right "nipple" controls the speed of the loop, while adding reverb to the audio. The evening's other performers included Cracked Ray Tube, Arcanebolt, and Slow Electronics.
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View the poster.