Monome demonstration at 5:30pm, music begins at 7.
Performers:
Watson (Santa Fe, NM)
http://www.watsonsound.ws
Visinin (San Francisco, CA)
http://visinin.com/
Circle Six (Denver, CO)
http://soundcloud.com/circle-six
http://monometour.com
http://sfcomplex.org
$10, $5 Students (Suggested Donation, no one will be turned away)
All Ages
In the spirit of collaboration, as it is exemplified by artistic endeavor, more than 30 Electronic Musicians from around the world will be participating in a global, relay-style tour, showcasing a diversity of musical usages for the monome controller.
Musician Brian Crabtree created the first Monome prototype device in 2001. Crabtree conceived of a device that would use an open grid of buttons in order to allow for greater diversity of functionality over differing musical software applications. Many fellow musicians requested such devices from Crabtree after becoming familiar with the initial device. Amidst a tidal wave of creative personalities, the Monome grew in popularity. From the lucid and exquisitely detailed synth work of friend, Daedelus, to his own minimal atmospheres, the public was soon glimpsed awareness of a rising artistic phenomenon. Crabtree, together with his business partner and wife, Kelli Cain, created an initial run of multiple devices in 2006 as a convenient way to meet the requests of musicians wanting to explore the monome for themselves. The company arose organically, over time, after demand for the device increased.
The monome itself has no hard-wired functionality; interaction between the keys and lights is determined by the application (such as Max/MSP) running on the computer. Its open-source nature allows one to program applications to utilize the controller in any way one wishes. In this manner, the monome community continues to redefine and expand its use. While the monome may primarily be used as a musical device, it is used in a wide variety of environments such as video and lighting, scientific reasearch, and art installation. In addition, monome makes available the resouces to enable a user to build one themselves, and creatively source a unique enclosure for the device. Thus, monome pulls from a wide audience of musicians, artists, programmers, makers and hackers.
Today, thousands of musicians across the globe utilize the monome to realize their creative dreams. As a result, a wide variety of music and art has risen where free-formed thoughts and ideas, once too frustrated by issues of tactile control, were finally able to manifest. The community of artists who formed around the device do not identify with the device alone, but also around a shared-interest in all things creative and well-designed. A growing sense of responsibility to their art pervades the community and it is in this spirit that The Monome Community Tour provides an opportunity for performers and audiences alike to experience the self-empowerment and freedom of the Monome.
