Shapeless: The Drum Machine can be looked at two ways – one the one hand, it’s a drum machine with 10 different sample kits. On the other hand, it’s a new form of interactive album that is just starting to enter the collective consciousness. In the past, you’d go to the store and buy a CD and it always sounds the same.  With the proliferation of general computing devices (such as smartphones), the possibility of having an album that is different every time you play it is now a reality. Essentially, it’s ‘the album as an app’.  S:TDM makes it easy to randomly tap out some drum patterns and get something that sounds good and is interesting every time. Each kit in the app represents a different track on the album – since they are each set up similarly, you can flip thru different kits with the same pattern and get interesting variations on the same pattern.  Over all the app is easy to pick up and play with and it’s free, so check it out!

Aside from experimental artists, other companies are pursuing this same concept, such as MXP4. Someday, I think this will break into the mainstream.

Artist Page

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free
Developer: Einar Andersson

Cosmogramma Fieldlines is a wonderful and free augmented reality application to celebrate the imminent release of the new Flying Lotus album ‘Cosmogramma’ (itunes). The downloadable app allows users to interact using their webcam or their mouse, creating an entrancing combination of sound and motion.

Cosmogramma Fieldlines was developed by Aaron Meyers with sound design by Flying Lotus and harp by Rebekah Raff.  Based on the artwork by Leigh McCloskey.

Download here for Mac/Windows (video below)

Built with OpenFrameworks

Record Makers is a French independent label celebrating 10 years of activity. For the occasion, artists Mrzyk & Moriceau have created a surrealistic iPhone game in which you can create random art by swiping different parts of the drawing.

* Make your own pictures combinations by sliding the 3 different images
* Save the created images for your iPhone background or send them to your friends
* enjoy an original theme music by Sebastien Tellier and Mr Oizo’s incredible game sounds

There are 3 wining combinations! Check www.recordmakers.com for game rules and winning prices, and get an exclusive video directed by Mrzyk & Moriceau for Sebastien Tellier (embeded below) made especially for the iPhone users as a b-day gift.

Concept and Design – Mrzyk & Moriceau
Sound Effects – Mr Oizo
Opening Theme – Sébastien Tellier
iPhone Development – Sam Vermette

If you like the work of Mrzyk & Moriceau, download also their desktop widget for Mac OSX showcasing a drawing a day. Fantastic stuff!

(Thanks Sávio)

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free
Developer: Record Makers

Nokia and the Push 900 (hacking project) have just announced the same PUSH concept focusing on the North American individuals or groups keen to hack Nokia’s N900 device. Check out the new USA site for details of what PUSH N900 USA is all about, the prizes ($10,000 for 1st prize) and the ‘Discussion’ page which works just like a standard Wiki – share, collaborate, edit and of course, push information!

The final date for submissions is Noon ET, February 15, 2010

What is PUSH N900 MOD IN THE USA all about?
PUSH is a project run by Nokia that initially called out to the global hacker/modder community to harness the open-source Maemo platform that the Nokia N900 runs on, as well as the device itself, and create hardware hacks/mods for something they’re passionate about. The initial PUSH N900 project saw a host of awesome entries from all around the globe, from the Nokia N900 performing light graffiti, kite aerial photography or even real-time scoring of skateboarding tricks amongst your network of fellow skaters.

Here are a few videos of previous projects and some currently in progress. Also, you can follow Push N900 on Twitter for latest updates.

See also Nokia Hackerbox [Objects, Maemo]

Just got a word from Mills at ustwo™ on their new 48hr app, the third in the series “…™” (dotdotdot). Although it’s a little hard to tell what the task may be this time, it nevertheless appears another exciting mini-app-adventure from ustwo™.

If you haven’t seen the previous two videos, you can check them out here.

Coming soon..

If you were reading out tweets yesterday you would have picked up we received a very nice surprise from Nokia. Nicely wrapped box within a box with included christmas card, USB cable and a small instruction reading “Can’t hack it…for clues go to this site”. We knew there was a “special” item coming but a 2.5kg box was way more than we expected. As already shared by guys at Utku Can who got the same present few days earlier, and posted on Slashgear & Gizmodo, the pressie is a special (hackable) black box containing a Nokia device. We too made a right mess with the foam balls but unwrapping it uncovered a beautifully made mysterious black box and seemingly no way of opening it. The box can only be opened via a provided USB cable and by visiting hackerbox.co.uk which includes instructions for Mac, Windows and Linux. Through a process of using a terminal, a signal is sent to the Arduino board inside the box which kick starts the fan and heater to warm up a coil and fill up the box with smoke (see video) which after few seconds opens revelling the enclosed Nokia N900 with too many little gifts to name including a 16gig micro SD card , a wonderful sketchbook from Liberty and a Lammy pen, mini xmas cake and a miniature (fire)fox (awesome!)

Very impressive indeed but above all, a brand new Nokia N900 for us to play with. What is especially interesting about this Nokia device is the fully open sourced Linux based Maemo OS. Not too far from Android, Nokia hopes the device will attract developers to exploit the platform and somewhat literally “hacking” the device. Alongside this strategy they launched pushn900, a website dedicated to taking the device apart or modding it into something entirely new – capable of doing things no device has ever done before. Nokia asked teams of hackers all around the world to take part and in response, they got hundreds of inspiring ideas. Now the project is down to 5 teams including The Haptic Guide, Kaping with the N900, Solderin’ Skaters, Light Hack Crew and Sketch Your World. All five teams are using the device in a trully unique way and without getting into too much detail you should definitely visit the site and follow the developments which we will do also.

I have also spent the last two days exploring the Maemo OS including the applications available for the device. Whilst the selection is limited, few interesting ones are beginning to appear. These are available from Maemo’s extras repository and the guide how to get to it you can find here. If you are looking for hardware reviews of the device, here, here and here are a few that I came across that should give you a good insight into what the N900 does and can do.

We leave you (for the time being), with exclusive/won’t find anywhere else making-off video of Nokia Hackerbox! Stay tuned for reviews of creative applications for Nokia N900 yet to come.

One last thing, did you know that earlier this year Nokia N900 was used to control onedotzero projections at BFI in London? Read more about it here: onedotzero // BFI // London [Processing, Events] and onedotzero.app [Processing]

There have been many ‘projection’ projects recently but this morning I came across 1024. Created by Francois Wunschel and Pier Schneider (2 founders of EXYZT group), 1024 works on the interactions between 1024 Dimensions: Space, Sound, Visual, Light, Body, Architecture, City…

Mostly built with Quartz Composer + custom plugins.

Here is a selection of their work. Not all projection, some LED installations but nevertheless all quite jaw dropping. For more, see 1024d.net + their blog + vimeo

In case you missed it last week, Mills from ustwoâ„¢ told us much about why the .â„¢. Only few days ago, the release was followed with 2 fantastic promo videos for the app. What is wonderful about these is that apps created within inspiring studios are also opportunities for expression beyond just the product. Definitely, apps that inspire…Enjoy..

Voted FWA site of the week, Concave Stream’s promo flash site for their latest instrumental album “Soundtrack for a Book” creates dot based 3d landscapes from book covers. It appears to simultaneously respond to music playing altering landscape topology. You can rotate and zoom the large number of coloured pixels floating in space. There is also a number of options to create traces of pixels by choosing the colour and even download the images. Having been playing with it for about 5 minutes I created some pretty wonderful images. Try for yourself at:

Concave Scream

The website was created by Kinetic

(via datavisualization.ch)