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.

An amazing display of musical talent and preparation using 2x Beatbox Stylophones. These cost around $25 each plus postage so for under $60 for 2 its was cheaper than a xylophone and heaps more funky.

Algorithms are Thoughts, Chainsaws are Tools from Stephen Ramsay on Vimeo.

Andrew Sorensen’s Live coding with Impromptu is critiqued by Stephen Ramsay

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

If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: ‘Somewhere, my flower is there…’

Pioneering Aboriginal singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter has died.

A Ngarrindjeri woman, Hunter was born in 1955 near the banks of the Murray River in South Australia.

She was a member of the Stolen Generations, having been forcibly removed from her family at the age of eight.

Hunter met her lifelong partner and musical soul mate Archie Roach when she was 16. Both were homeless teenagers at the time.

Roach and Hunter have been described as a singing/songwriting team of extraordinary spirit.

Review by Lia Laor Levinsky College of Education, Israel International Journal of Education and the Arts

” Dillon’s attempt to understand the personal meaning of music for young people is particularly
important in view of past attempts to stay close to scientific modes of thinking.”

“In my view, the major innovation in Dillon’s book is his point of departure for developing his
vision of music education through children. He is interested in examining children’s unique
outlook of their musical experiences and the relevance of this experience to their lives, and
factors that enable children to develop self-contained dialogue with music through listening,
performing, and creating. “

Lia provides an insightful and helpful review in the light of strengthening the thesis for a relational pedagogy based upon our relationship to knowledge in ontological sense radiating out towards the epistemological. It is indeed an  honour to receive these thoughts from an expert in the philosophy of relationships such as this. I am humbled by the insight and attention to the ideas. Steve Dillon

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.

Download report click here

UTS Sydney Assoc Prof Bert Bongers

Eva Saether & Per Skold Malmo Sweden

Matt Thibeault from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign USA and Doctoral student Melanie Matchett

Tim Kitchen Strathcona Melbourne Australia

Alex Ruthmann & Tony Beatrice University of Massachusetts Lowell USA