[chuck-users] [chuck] ChucKian greetings and updates!

Kassen signal.automatique at gmail.com
Tue Dec 30 11:41:50 EST 2008


Dear Ge,

I'd like to share some notes on some of the more philosophical points here.
That's what a approaching new year will do to you, I suppose like a cross
between well wishes and new year's resolutions.

* Meanwhile, the ChucK community continues to grow both in and out of
> academia.


I think this is great and indeed essential. I briefly addressed a similar
point at the round table discussion at STEIM's jamboree. It's my humble
opinion that one of the great weaknesses of popular culture is getting stuck
in what's fashionable at the moment while one of the great weaknesses of the
academic world can be getting stuck in a "ivory tower" with little eye for
practical applications. I think keeping in touch with both can bring great
benefits for both.

"Peer review" is one of the pillars of science and I honestly can't think of
a better way to peer review work on subjects like interface design or
synthesis methods than putting them on a stage (of whatever kind). Similarly
a bit of research can be very beneficial to artistic practice or plain
entertainment. I don't mean that as a substitute for a paper or emotional
investment at all, but as a tool fo rincreasing the quality of both.

I think we are doing very, very well here and that this is a perspective
from which we can learn and gain a lot more still in the future.


> * Along this line, we would like to articulate the following point: major
> general language features that are introduced as part of ChiP *will* be
> fully released in the main distribution (only iPhone/smule-specific features
> will remain proprietary for now).  This is by design when we structured
> Smule.  You see, most of us at Smule care about, use, and release
> open-source software, and we genuinely want to build an ecosystem where
> things can be as open as possible and remain mutually beneficial. We shall
> keep moving forward in this way.
>

To me this didn't need extra explanation. Clearly the iPhone is more closed
then I'd like but I have to recognise that without that aspect and the
control it brings it likely never would've gotten as popular as it is. The
iPhone is very standardised and popular which brings some very interesting
properties. Clearly Smule (amongst others) has been able to bring
experimental interfaces to electronic sounds to people who would never
otherwise have been interested in such experiments and it has done very well
indeed. I think this can only be beneficial. To me it's very funny that a
mainstream news source like Fox seemed quite sceptical about using the tilt
sensor in laptops for music while a audience that's nearly as mainstream
like the iPhone's audience has been delighted by *the exact same thing*. I
really don't think the average Ocarina customer is very concerned with
maximising the bandwith between the performer's intentions and the sound
synthesis parameters (nor should they have to be).

To me this is a exact analogy of what I wrote about above and a very good
thing. If somebody could please send a note to the developers of most DAW's,
various performers and accedemics who make me think of the word "critical
theory" (regardless of the topic the paper is actually on)? Thanks ;¬).



>
> * ChucK releases: it's been a while since the last release, so perhaps not
> many are holding their breath for the next release.  It's coming, for better
> or for worse!!  File IO is finally in place, along with several other
> features.  miniAudicle MAUI for Windows and Linux are nearing completion as
> well.  Stay tuned!
>

 Sounds great! I'm very much looking forward to both of those. A million
thanks again for everybody's time and efford.

Full steam ahead!
Yours,
Kas.
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