Pure data programming for beginners.

DATE: May 12th – 14th, 5–8pm
DURATION: 9 hours
MENTOR: Svetlana Maraš
LOCATION: Ljudmila, Rimska 8, Ljubljana

About the workshop

This course is meant for musicians or music enthusiast who have none or very little experience in object programming. It lasts for three days during which the basics of Pure data programming will be covered while focusing on audio and building of interfaces for musical performance that can be controlled using wide range of external controllers. The course ends with presentations of demo projects that have been developed during the course.

This course is not meant to make you an amazing programmer, but rather a great musical thinker who will be able to use PD as a tool in production of original works. This course should open your mind to realize that there are many amazing possibilities that you can have for free, that can spare you of buying expansive musical equipment – it just takes creative thinking and a bit of programming. To be able to adapt technology to your own needs is to be free of making compromises with your ideas and keep the originality of your work.

Timeline

First day of the course is planned for the basics of Pure Data programming – we will learn names and functions of the smallest units in PD that we will mostly use (objects, messages, ...). We will see how these can be used to load and read audio files and manipulate them in different ways. At this point, we will also learn about the structure of a PD patch - how to send and receive messages remotely, how to create sub-patches and how to create interface that will control all parts of the patch.
On day two, we will focus on audio files, writing and reading of the tables. Once we cover the basics of audio in PD we will create sample playing templates that we will use in our work further on. This way we will bypass unnecessary programming steps and we will focus on inventing the original sequencers, rhythmical and melodic matrixes and other algorithms for playing one or many audio files at a time. These algorithms could also be used to control different sample parameters. By covering the basics of MIDI and OSC participants will be enabled to use their own controllers in order to interact with the patch. Participants will be thought to adapt their musical ideas to the logic of Pure Data programming language and inspired by it, to create their own musical interfaces that they could use in music making as well as in the live performance.
This is what we will be doing on day three - putting ideas into projects that each one will present to the rest of us in a mini presentation/ performance. By the end of the course participants should be able to think PD-wise, to sketch their PD-inspired-musical ideas and to implement them into original patches.

About the mentor

Svetlana Maraš is Serbian composer and sound artist. She studied composition at Faculty of Music Art in Belgrade and took part in many courses, festivals and workshops worldwide (Bang on a Can, Columbia University The School of the Arts, Mozarteum Summer Academy, KlangkunstBuhne at UDK etc). She graduated from Helsinki Media Lab - Sound in New Media department. Along with the formal music training, she pursued the path of extreme experimentation that brought her into area where music merges with other fields of art, theory and science. Svetlana is active as a performer of live electronic music, using laptop as a versatile musical instrument in improvisation with other musicians or solo. She performed among other places at Espace Multimedia Gantner (France), A38 (Budapest), Ausland (Berlin), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Onassis Cultural Center (Athens) etc. Her works encompass as well interactive sound installations, electro-acoustic compositions, virtual sound environments, theory of electronic music and sound art, music theatre, applied music and other more conceptual works of sound art.

Registration

The number of places is limited, so please apply/announce yourself to: delavnica@ljudmila.org. Bring your laptop with you – if you don't own one, let us know. Contribution for 9 hour workshop is 15 €. Payment before the start of the workshop is a prerequisite for participation. No previous skills needed. Workshop will be in English language.