Manchester Digital Laboratory

Are you a sound hacker, audio producer, or developer who’s keen to play with Manchester’s richest auditory dataset? Will your hack win one of our exclusive prizes?

Manchester Museums

Manchester has some fantastic museums and galleries; from Manchester Museum to the Whitworth Gallery – but also including the iconic Jodrell Bank and John Rylands Library. The collections are not just about storing historical artefacts; did you know Delia Derbyshire’s archive is part of the University of Manchester’s collection?)

What is In The Mix Hack Weekend?

In The Mix is a project exploring the auditory layers of Manchester’s galleries – from the content of the collections to the auditory experiences around them, and the intrinsic sounds of items and the spaces themselves. What can we do with these materials when we tie them together with modern technologies and platforms? Can we use this rich mix of materials to create new soundscapes, new ways of experiencing the museums, new ways of visiting and understanding culture through sound?

Huw Bunford (Super Furry Animals) and Naomi Kashiwagi (Manchester Museums) have already been diving into the collections and mixing things up. The spirit of proto-sound-hacker Delia Derbyshire has been infusing the project with historical sounds of the future.

We want to break this out more, though. What happens when we make interactive soundscapes, tying in reactive sound with location based and environmental cues? Can we make a score for the Museums which changes based on how people are visiting and experiencing the collections? Can we create web-based audio games and players which tie together visitors from different locations to create an emergent composition broadcast? What does InfiniteGangnamStyle sound like for Jodrell Bank? How can we swingify the mummies?

What are we using?

Come along to the In The Mix weekend. We’ll be hacking on a number of tools

• RjDj and the RJC1000
• Processing and PD
• Unity3D
• AudioLibJS and Web Audio APIs
• EchoNest API

Though, of course, you’re welcome to bring your own.

Breakdown

On Friday night from 7pm we’ll be hosting a social, introducing participants to each other through the medium of liquids and finding partners who may want to work with each other, as well as looking at what the museum has to offer and some interesting work in this space.

We’ll be running tutorial sessions and workshops with some of these toolkits on Saturday morning from 10, and we’ll have mini unconference happening throughout the rest of the day if you’re looking to pick up skills and ideas from other people.

On Sunday is a chance to finish off your hacks to submit for the awards, which will be awarded by popular vote on Sunday afternoon.

If you’re interested, sign up for free on our EventBrite page, or drop us a line at dave@madlab.org.uk

 If you’ve read this far, you’ll be happy to hear we’ll have food, drinks and engineering lubricants available throughout the weekend. Yes, you deserve it.