The Cubes

From Paul Fowler: This year I'm using my new favorite toy for the laptop work that I'm doing. They're called Audiocubes and they're made by Percussa - www.percussa.com. They're an extremely intuitive performance interface for the computer. Through the use of infrared sensors on 4 of the sides, controller information and note information are sent to the computer. There's much more to it, but this is the gist of how I'm using them in the concert.

I sought these out after doing a fair amount of live laptop work in which the performance aspect, when compared to a violinist's or percussionist's movement, was extremely weak — if not completely uninteresting — "Yeah, I play faderbox!" Ha! With the cubes, the audience can see how the sound is being shaped while they hear it... For example, if I strike one side of the cube and then move my hand back, a sound is triggered and then gets quieter and the color of the cube becomes lighter. It's as if one could carry around a computer screen with all the sound wave and volume graphics and then use their hands to shape the sound.

Despite the parlor trick attractiveness, I am astounded by the usefulness of these little cubes and look forward to exploring more ways of playing with them....