Weather Report video

Space exploration has brought not only views of the outer cosmos, but critical views back of the planet. So, among the new instrument designs coming to Yuri’s Night are at least two music devices built around sonifying data about planet Earth. (I’ll be bringing one, as well — more details soon.)”Weather Report”, by Cal Arts students Jordan Hochenbaum and Owen Vallis, uses a multi-point, tangible interface to surf temperature data and translate it into music. Full details over on Create Digital Music:Weather Report: Multi-Touch + Surface Temperature = Music on Earth

The underlying technology comes from the open Reactivision library, as used in the ReacTable (popularized recently on the Bjork tour).

If you’re bringing a music or visual project to Yuri’s Night, be sure to let us know.

Yuri’s Night Bay Area: 2 PM - 2 AM Nasa Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA

… and around the planet

Bay Area information:

• Tickets
• Event site
• Events schedule

In a collaboration between CDM and Yuri’s Night Bay Area, I would like to welcome you all to YuriCDM.com. Here we will be showcasing the musicians, artists, speakers, and innovating technologies that will make this year’s Yuri’s Night an event unlike any other.

Yuri’s Night is a celebration of space exploration—and mankind’s curiosity, scientific ingenuity, technical achievements, and spirit of collaboration that have made it all possible. Each year, in over 120 places world-wide, Yuri’s Night commemorates mankind’s first venture into space, by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, and the launch of the first Space Shuttle by NASA exactly twenty years later. This year, NASA’s 50th anniversary, the Bay Area will be home to the largest Yuri’s Night celebration ever, with 8,000 people joining astronauts, artists, scientists, engineers, and musicians to pay tribute to our global space heritage and to celebrate how much more is out there to be discovered!

Electronic music by:

Amon Tobin in Gent; photo: volume12 (CC) via Flickr.

• Amon Tobin (Ninja Tune, Montreal)
• A special twilight downtempo set by Tipper (HI)
• John Tejada (LA/palette recordings): live set
• Lusine (Ghostly Intl., Seattle): live set
• Scuba (Hotflush Recordings, UK)
• Digitonal vs. Posthuman (UK): with live violin
• [a]pendics.shuffle (LA): live set
• Deru (Merck, LA): live set
• Tycho (Ghostly, Merck): live set
• Mr. Projectile (Merck): live set
• Dr. Toast (False Profit) vs. Ganucheau: live

Live vocal and instrumental music by:

Cellist Zoe Keating, by ekai. (CC)

• Telstar (Featuring: Phil Lesh, Steve Molitz, & John Molo)
• Freezepop (Rykodisc, Boston): indie synthpop / new wave
• Particle (LA): instrumental space-disco-dance
• BLVD w/ Souleye (LA): hip-hop, house, & breaks
• Zoë Keating: avant garde looping cello
• MJ Greenmountain (Hamsa Lila) vs. Yossi Fine (NY): global fusion and afro-tribal funk
• Christopher Willits (12k, Ghostly Intl.): processed guitar soundscapes
• Gamelan X: the intergalactic 17-member percussive melodic marching troupe
• Lulacruza: Argentinan percussion, guitar, and vocals

Speeches by:

Will Wright at the NASA podium. Photo: MysteryBee.

• World-renowned video game designer Will Wright.
• NASA astrobiologist Jonathan Trent.
• leader of the new NASA G.R.E.E.N. team for green technology research Saul Griffith.
• MIT-trained mad scientist and founder of one of the most innovative green power companies today, Makani Power.

Live performances by:

• 60 minutes of heart-pumping, high energy airplane aerobatics by Aeronautika
• Aerial performance and dance by Capacitor.
• Alien insects by Bad Unkl Sista, featuring breathtaking costumes by Anastazia Louise
• Gravity-defying stilt performances by The VonStilt Family

… and this is not even the full list! Stay tuned for more to come.

- matt

Composer/sound designer Matt Ganucheau is one of the organizers of Yuri’s Night Bay Area. He’s co-editing the Yuri’s Night site for createdigitalmusic.com and createdigitalmotion.com.