Pocket Gamelan

Several posters were presented at the Mobile Music Workshop yesterday afternoon, a good opportunity to discover new projects and have a chat with their author.

Pocket Gamelan (PDF), developed by Greg Schiemer and Mark Havryliv, couldn't make it to Amsterdam on time (seems to be somewhere in the caring hands of the post) but that won't prevent me from mentioning it. The interactive musical interface allows non-expert performers to create microtonal music using bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. Players swing the handsets on the end of a cord in a circular trajectory. As the phone is swung it produces audible artefacts such as Doppler shift and chorusing which are generated as a bi-product of movement. The device works like a network of operations in which melodies and the speed at which they’re played can be altered.

Pocket Gamelan, draws on Schiemer's "Tupperware Gamelan" instruments of the 70s and 80s. The custom-made electronic instruments, housed in plastic kitchenware, were designed for non-expert players and used in dance and performance (via.)

Video 1 and 2.

Image.
Related: the 1999 performance Improvisation for Two Altered Telephones.