Jam with Sonic Forest at the ULTRA Music Festival March 26-27

There is about a month left until the ULTRA Music Festival, The World's Premiere Electronic Music Festival, March 26-27 in Miami, Florida and we have been continuing to work diligently on the software for an even better experience of Sonic Forest.

• We have some new samples off the Roland Fantom Sampler.
• We have developed a nice "Groove/Elastic" hybrid patch to get long smooth decays from the shorter samples like marimba, kalimba, even tabla.
• Since ULTRA will be crowded, I am also developing some "auto-hooks" to shorten samples as density increases in the SForest.

We are nearly finished with the new "Reflections of Sonic Forest 2010" CD. Scoring it in stereo and 5.1. The 5.1 is lushhhhhh!! If you have a home theater set up, it's almost like being in the Forest! CDs will be available at Ultra Music Fest as well as on our website, http://www.janneysound.com/.

You know that Tiesto, deadmau5, David Guetta will be on the stages at Ultra. But you could be part of the experience of ULTRA through Sonic Forest. We’re looking for conga/jembe drummers who want to jam in the Sonic Forest. Send us your email address at phenom (at) rcn (dot) com and we'll get in touch with you.

"Sonic Forest" is part of my series of Urban Musical Instruments that has appeared at a number of major music festivals including Bonnaroo, Glantonbury and Coachella. It consists of a number of cylindrical 9" diameter columns, each 8 feet high. Each column contains a series of photo-sensors, audio speaker, LED cone-light and star-strobe. By strolling among the columns, people trigger the photo-sensors, which activates the light and an ever-changing “sound score” of melodic tones, environmental sounds and spoken text.

But to learn what it REALLY does, check out "Parks and Recreation" TV star Aziz Ansari's adventure in Sonic Forest ==> Here.

Hatching a Creative Imagination in a Subterranean Rainbow

I've been working on the final presentation of "Subterranean Rainbow" for Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.

"Subterranean Rainbow" was initiated to help solve the design problem of encouraging students and faculty not to cross the state highway  and to use this new pedestrian tunnel.
       But, while I feel it is the role of design to solve problems, it is the role of art to ask questions. So  my interest is to make the passageway that is not just a transition space, but a destination place of creative play, a new place for creative interaction at all hours of the day and night, especially on a college campus.

As part of my "Urban Musical Instrument" series, my interest is to create an icon for Hendrix College and the city of Conway, to create a place that encourages social interaction in public spaces, a truly "open classroom."