Jason Van Anden:

Hello Community!

I have been out of the loop for a while (been lurking though) - a quick shout out to let you know why. First off, I have a new improved website - same address but completely different look: www.smileproject.com. This is not my main reason for posting though ...

Not sure if you all have been following this thing I have been working on called IntelligentDesigner (ID) - I spoke about it at Dorkbot last May and promised I would do something with it in the fall, and I have! ID is a visual programming paradigm that I invented to enable my emotive robots (Neil and Iona) to interact improvisationally. This system evolved over time but only really made sense to me - until now. Over the summer I worked with eleven very different musicians selected by my friend Nat Hawks (half of the duo Christian Science Minotaur) to create eleven amazing living music compositions using ID. Following is the official announcement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMPILED
DATE: Friday October 13th, 2006

LOCATION: Monkeytown
58 N. 3rd (btw. Wythe and Kent) L to Bedford
http://www.monkeytownhq.com
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

http://www.monkeytownhq.com/compiled.html

reservations strongly suggested (can be made easily through venue website)

TIME: (2 identical sets) 7:30pm and 10pm

PRICE: $10
admission includes a data CD containing the IntelligentDesigner software and interactive compositions from participating artists.

EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Brooklyn new media artist Jason Van Anden is unleashing his new interactive sound composition software, IntelligentDesigner, through an audience participation event at Williamsburg's A/V mecca Monkeytown. The I.D. software allows the user to manipulate the visual composition of an array of colorful bubbles, each with an assigned sound. It's an elegant minimalist videogame interface that runs "Living Music Composition 101." As the user alters the visual field, they alter the order in which the sounds are initiated, creating a living song of their own creation.

At the Monkeytown event four interactive kiosks will allow the audience to manipulate a touch-screen versions of I.D. While participating artists will give the audience the sound palette, it will be up to the audience to construct these fragments into structures. As the four kiosks will be wired to enormous independent video screens, the audience will be submerged in the visual equivalent of the form they've chosen the compositions to live in.

PARTICIPANTS
An impressive slew of local and international sound artists have been invited to take this exciting new software for a test spin.