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Symphony for dot matrix printers
[The User] Thaddeus Thomas
The Symphony for dot matrix printers is a work which transforms obsolete office technology into an instrument for musical performance. The Symphony focuses the listener's attention on a nearly forgotten technology: the dot-matrix printer. Specifically, it employs the noises the printers make as the sole sound source for a musical composition. Leaving the constituent elements untouched, the process imposes a new order upon them, reorganizing the sounds along a musical structure.
Dot matrix printers are thus turned into musical 'instruments', while a computer network system, typical of a contemporary office, is employed as the 'orchestra' used to play them. The orchestra is 'conducted' by a network server which reads from a composed 'score'. Each of the printers plays from a different 'part' comprised of rhythms and pitches made up of letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks and other characters. [The User] uses ASCII textfiles to compose, orchestrate, and synchronize sonorous and densely textured, rhythmically-driven music. During the half hour performance, the sounds are amplified and broadcast over a sound system. The audience is also presented with live images of the sound sources: the motions of the mechanisms, rollers and gears are captured using miniature video cameras installed inside the printers and projected onto large screens.
The software is written by Thaddeus Thomas, VLab / Redada Software (vlab at tallships dot ca).
Please read this disclaimer before downloading
download here | report broken link
project homepage: http://www.sat.qc.ca/the_user/dotmatrix/en/intro.html
keywords: sound-hardware-text_manipulation-musical
category: hardware transformation
uploaded by thomax, 11 Mar 2003
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