The Dark Re-programmed for Hallowe'en 

Last weekend the hardware for the Braunarts installation
The Dark was "requisitioned" by
Kerrang! Radio to host a Big Brother-style elimination contest: five contestants were put into the space after 24 hours of sleep deprivation, and once we'd reconfigured the hardware we got to spend three hours throwing an improvised live 3D sound composition at them. Composer Rob Godman assembled the sounds, while I got to wield them in 3D via wireless joystick and some hastily-assembled Max/MSP control code driving the
SurroundAV software.
USB gaming devices make ideal Max/MSP control devices, and as mass-produced commodities they're almost cheap enough to come in breakfast cereal; contrast this with the $1000 Motor-Mix, the $2000 Buchla Thunder, and so on. The folks at
STEIM are getting heavily into dismembering gaming devices to build their own controllers, and it makes a lot of sense.