Loosely Assembled

During the Portland satellite version of iPhoneDevCamp this weekend, I was able to put together, with the help of a few actual coders, an app that Tracy Rolling and I have been dreaming about for over a year.

The app simply initiates a series of randomly scheduled noises to be played from your phone. You have no control over what the noises are (although i have to concede that we are not interested in “gross” noises) or when they will (or will not) happen. The sounds happen regardless of what app you are in, or even if the phone is asleep. It really brings a little bit of that “out of control” feeling into your life.

One of the best parts is something that we realized while building this, is that all random noises, since they are coordinated from a central server, will be synchronized! So imaging you are in the cheese aisle and your phone sneezes, but you also hear another person’s phone (or pocket, or purse) sneeze also. You are in a cafe, and you hear the sound of a modem coming from 5 different people. Etc.

Since it was a hack, there wasn’t a lot of time to really choose the best sound clips, I settled for about 20 pretty mediocre samples, but now that I have it actually working, I’d love to find a high quality selection of sounds that are really conceptually more interesting, and I know that asking for submissions will also bring out a wider range of ideas than I would ever have on my own. So I’d like to formally invite everyone to submit some sound files for this app. They should be less than 5 seconds long (although i may now be flexible on this limitation), in the aif or wav format, and free from any kind of copyright. Send them to fekaylius at the domain of this blog for consideration. I’m really hoping for some mind blowing stuff, from super high frequency (only teens can hear it) stuff, to bizarre juxtapositions of sounds that would normally not be heard together, and beyond. Selected sounds will receive credit and thanks and praise.

people who helped get the app up and running at the dev camp were

• carl sheppard
• justin miller
• greg stromire

thanks to dean for running the pdx satellite!!!

thanks for urban airship for being the pushers

Update: check out http://0009.org/bzzt for all the new version of these apps

via: youtube

wow, so hackable, so rad

going beyond what i can say, abnormal behavior child is making a great something!

2 music videos, watch them in order

Story from North America (FULL VERSION!) from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Just found this great 30 minute video about Portland’s X-Ray Cafe

Start Here

Audio Seismography?

Watch this video of a car driving alongside a bunch of partially filled water bottles, tapping out the theme song to Mario Bros.

Rad.