ReSiDeNt BlOg

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Happy 25th birthday, MIDI. It's been a long time...

Peter Kirn at Create Digital Music has posted a reader's speculation that this year marks the 25th anniversary of MIDI. I find myself using MIDI more than usual during my LEMUR residency, and it feels like reminiscing with an old friend. Ever since MSP was released, my work has been moving away from the note-y, event-y nature of MIDI messages and toward the constantly flowing river of MSP signals. (OK, technologists will correct me: signal vectors ain't exactly analog, but the paradigms are related.) I even made the piece One Single File Line for soprano saxophone and computer specifically to explore the cybernetic condition of situated-within-a-flow-of-data-mess.

And now I'm having fun screwing my head on backwards at LEMUR to remember my old MIDI tricks. Every "makenote" object connected to a "noteout" in Max reminds me of my earliest interactive work--often quite literally, since I find myself opening old patches to cannibalize them. Good to see you again, MIDI, you haven't changed a bit.

Holland Hopson
http://www.hollandhopson.com

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