1 Block Jam: Musical Dominoes {anchor:Block Jam: Musical Dominoes} {image:all.jpg} A project which came to my attention via {link:Music Thing|http://musicthing.blogspot.com/} (via {link:We Make Money Not Art|http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/}): Sony's {link:Block Jam|http://www.sony.net/Fun/SonyDesign/2003/BlockJam/future.html}. This system is interesting for a number of reasons: - it's physical: the blocks have buttons and lights, and are connected manually, causing musical pulses to move between the blocks which flash in response; - it's stateful: there are routers which can change direction on each pulse they receive; - it's two-dimensional. There are Quicktime movies of the system in use {link:here|http://www.sony.net/Fun/SonyDesign/2003/BlockJam/img/demo200x150.mov} and {link:here|http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/IL/projects/blockjam/downloads/BlockJam_0.mov} and a Shockwave Demo on the main page. More technical details {link:here|http://www.csl.sony.co.jp/IL/projects/blockjam/index.html}. It's hard to tell exactly how sophisticated it is musically - it's basically a collection of state machines with a sample library - but it looks fun. Of course, that old bugbear of "allowing anyone to make music" rears its ugly head. I don't see Block Jam as a musical instrument, and it appears to be of limited use in musical education; it certainly isn't a compositional tool. It's a toy. Chill, people. 2005-01-11 20:20:37.0 2005-01-11 19:42:13.0 Tue Jan 11 19:46:11 UTC 2005