Posts Tagged ‘OLPC’

Jam2jam_XO for OLPC 2031 downloads and top download for Sugar Labs for this week. Congratulations to the development team and particularly Thorin Kerr who did innovative work in making this happen.

Jam2jam_XO  has 1000 downloads in its first week, and is currently listed in the “Top Downloads” for Media Creation activities on Sugar Labs, the official OLPC software site.

Congratulations to ACID developer Thorin Kerr who has made a version of jam2jam for OLPC that is an exciting contribution to music on the machine. OLPC Australia will be trying the new music software in classrooms with children in remote communities. Teachers and musicians will be developing Recipes for jamming and style/scenes for music learning and for use in other subjects where collaborative music making can contribute to making the learning experiences fun and engaging. See more info and download a copy for your XO by clicking this link.

You don’t have to own an OLPC to try it you can run the OS from a memory stick on Mac or PC machines.

Thorin has also tested jam2jam XO on Sugar on a stick using PC and Apple machines. The only downside of this format is the OS does not permit camera functions.

About Jam2Jam XO

Jam2jam software makes the OLPC XO laptop into a musical instrument. With Jam2jam XO, players can create and perform music and present images either on their own or synchronised with others, over the mesh network. In a Jam2Jam XO band each user plays a different part, either bass, drums, guitar, or keyboards.

Jam2Jam XO uses generative technologies so users can make choices about the musical activity in real time and influence changes in the music by moving a part icon up and down to alter the music in various ways. With Jam2jam XO you can be playing in a band within minutes and learn about musical concepts through playing collaboratively with others.

Thorin Kerr demonstrates a reggae groove using jam2jam on OLPC. With this program we are wanting to emphasise the cultural fluidity of the content so that when new communities play with jam2jam the content they can play with will be one that they value and can be expressive with. Thorin’s work with OLPC is showing that we can put very different content on jam2jam for OLPC so that when it goes to communities around the world we can use content from that place that resonates and engages. Jam2jam research began like this when we asked Afro American kids in Ohio what kind of music they liked and then made generative styles based on those preferences. Whilst most of our styles are what we might call ‘Pop or rock’  we can do anything from abstract electronica to Bach or Xenakis or any tuning and rhythmic system. The ethics of musical content is an important consideration and we hope to place these choices in the hands of the users in their own communities to select and make.

The Jam2jam OLPC Crew: Steve Dillon, Thorin Kerr & Andrew Brown

See jam2jam for OLPC on the World News

Thorin Kerr Demonstrates jam2jam for OLPC using a Country and western style with web cam images. This shows the extended functionality of network jamming with both music and images DJ/VJ. This will enable users to jam collaboratively with OLPC instruments in real time and also capture images.

Whilst the sound on these little machines is only heard through the tiny inbuilt speakers through headphones or a stereo the sounds are lovely samples.

Thorin Kerr development programmer for ACID’s Network Jamming project has developed a unique approach for using the One Laptop Per Child OLPC XO ccomputer as a musical instrument. Jam2jam presents a band or ensemble metaphor for collaborative  music making with computers. Thorin and the  Network Jamming team have developed a suite of software applications that allow  novice users to plays the computer or a controller as an instrument in a live real time ensemble. For the XO Thorin has made good use of the Sugar environment to create a network jamming experience. Players can use bass, guitar, drums and keyboards by simply moving the arrow keys  horizontally and vertically. These gestures affect a pitch and density algorithm and  a musical style and sound samples for each instrument.

Jammers can then play together by joining the jam host and their instruments syncronise over the Mesh network.

What is exciting about this is that each  computer acts as a single instrument and the Jammers can play collaboratively as aband or ensemble in real time. The idea of  the computers as a distributed intelligence rises up in the design whilst it provides an experience design that activates the collaborative energy of music ensemble collaboration and creative improvisation.

We are looking forward to developing some visual features suing the inbuilt camera and engaging  interested musicians in developing some Jam scenes as musical styles with new midi files and instrument samples alongside some recipes for jamming.