moonmilk

happy new year!December 31st, 2008

noise party at AVAM, BaltimoreNovember 4th, 2008

Noise Party! On Saturday the 15th I’m doing a family junk-music workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Make silly instruments and silly noises! Stick around for other cool events! More info at avam.org.

Download poster

odd instruments on NPRSeptember 28th, 2008

National Public Radio’s All Things Considered did a little feature on odd musical instruments on September 28th, and they were kind enough to feature some of my 29 Noisy Noises along with a bunch of other strange and wonderful instruments. You can hear the segment, and see a slideshow of some of the odd instruments, on the All Things Considered website.

water installation this weekend at Dumbo Art FestivalSeptember 25th, 2008

I’m showing an installation in the East River, at that little brick-littered beach right under the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge this Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 27 and 28). It’s named Ignatz and it’s all about bricks.

Plenty of art and performances at the DUMBO Art Festival all weekend. You really should go!

p.s. consider subscribing to the moonmilk mailing list for announcements of stuff like this.

is this the first blog?September 25th, 2008

“Most of the people I’ve talked to, I’ve asked who had inspired them,” he said. “Who were you reading when you decided to start blogging? To a certain point that becomes a harder and harder thing the further back you go. For instance, Justin Hall started his site in January 1994, before most of us had heard of the web. I asked him, ‘Well, you’re one of the first bloggers, was there anyone out there who you were getting inspiration from?’ And he pointed me to this other guy named Ranjit Bhatnagar who was keeping a site at moonmilk.com in 1993. And, sure enough, it was a reverse chronological list of stuff he found on the web.”

– Simon Owens interviews Scott Rosenberg for PBS. Rosenberg is working on a book-length history of blogging.

15 years, wow. And I’ve been photoblogging since ‘94. No wonder I’m tired. Check out a retrospective of moonmilk over the years here.

results of the junk guitar classAugust 2nd, 2008

Electric Junk Guitar Workshop from ranjit on Vimeo.

class: make an electric junk guitarJuly 9th, 2008

On July 30th I’ll be teaching a class at Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, making electric guitars out of junk. Check out the etsy class listing to register for the class, or look at this post on Make.

“The electric guitar is a sophisticated and highly evolved instrument. But you can make your own out of a few bucks worth of junk and parts. Learn to wind your own guitar pickups and build them into a simple one- or two-string junk guitar with a surprisingly nice sound. Depending on your ambition and experience, you can make your junk guitar as simple or as sophisticated as you want, but everybody is guaranteed to go home with at least a fun twangy noisemaker.”

trumpet marine at figment festivalJune 27th, 2008

I made a little sound sculpture - a sort of wind-powered banjo - for this weekend’s Figment Festival on Governors Island. Here it is installed on the island’s waterfront by Castle Williams, with a spectacular view of downtown Manhattan. (If you’re in the New York area, come to the festival this weekend - it’s free, and there’s eight million things to see.)

If the wind really picks up, the flowers will spin.

And here’s a video from when I was testing it on my deck.

all my candyMay 6th, 2008

installation proposal for artbots 2008 from ranjit on Vimeo.

Proposal for Artbots 2008

Simple automatic instruments are constructed from local materials and objects on site. The system learns the sounds it can make by trying out its instruments, and then uses its range of sounds to try to reproduce the rhythmic and melodic qualities of sounds such as the voices of visitors. It then loops and alters these imitative sequences into improvised compositions. (That last part’s not done yet, so you won’t see it in the video.)

In this example, the source audio is a bit of the soundtrack from the movie Citizen Kane, and the noisemakers are a set of found object percussion machines and an electromagnetically fretted electric guitar.

three noisy things coming soonApril 1st, 2008

I’ve got three noisy things happening or starting soon:

• Friday afternoon (April 4): instrument workshop/jam session at The Tank, NYC
• Opening Friday (April 4): Everything Must Go — the last ever show at Flux Factory’s current space in Queens, soon to be flattened by the MTA.
• Opening Saturday (April 5): Artistic Mediums: Revelations of the Invisible — at the Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI

(more…)

pix and sounds from 29 noisy noisesMarch 14th, 2008

Thanks to everyone who came to the 29 Noisy Noises party on March 1 and helped me celebrate finishing 29 instruments in 29 days! Lots of great people came over and made a lot of great noise on the 29 instruments — you can hear some of it below.

Photo by Andrew Sempere - more party photos from Andrew - more from me

electric jam
“set up a groove”

(more…)

coney island band organ rally!March 14th, 2008

This Sunday 3/16, noon to 4:30pm, the Coney Island Museum celebrates automatic music - organ grinders, player pianos, and more - at the Band Organ Rally. I’m building a brand new automatic instrument for the event, and bringing some older ones too. Sneak previews below.

something new

something old

29 noisy noises: celebrate homemade instruments tomorrow!February 29th, 2008

Gonna have a party on Saturday March 1st to celebrate surviving the building of 29 instruments in 29 days! It’ll be 3-6pm (or so) in Long Island City, Queens, NYC - contact me for more info. There’ll be beer and snax and making noises. Bring your own noisemakers and/or ideas for noisemakers.

I’m going to continue with the instrument-building, making one every week forever. Or until I get tired of it. They’ll all be posted here.

thing a dayFebruary 7th, 2008

I’m making a new musical instrument every day in February. On March 1st I think I’ll have to have either a concert or a bonfire. Follow my adventures at flickr or thing-a-day.com!

Some highlights so far: matchbox synthesizer, diet cocarina, rotten stick electric guitar. You can hear sound samples from all of them at their respective pages.

Mister Resistor in ConcertDecember 5th, 2007

My Parsons students are playing a concert on Sunday the 16th - it’s also their final exam. Please come out and support them!

It’ll be 4pm, Dec. 16th at The Openhouse at 201 Mulberry Street in SoHo, Manhattan - just south of Spring Street.

Here’s a preview of what some of the students are working on.

Mister Resistor Preview 1 from ranjit on Vimeo.

Create Digital Music, Etsy Labs and Make Magazine present
A Very Special Handmade Music Night
featuring Mister Resistor live in concert
Sunday December 16th, 2-5pm
at The Openhouse, 201 Mulberry St near Spring St in SoHo
$FREE
more info at misterresistor.com or createdigitalmusic.com

Bring your hand-carved ocarinas, homebrew synthesizers, circuit bent toys and tin can banjos to show and tell and jam.

At 4pm, enjoy the handmade sonic stylings of Mister Resistor- these Parsons students have spent the semester building and playing musical instruments made from cassette tape, microchips, oatmeal boxes, and much more.

To help newcomers learn how to make their own creations, Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn will lead off with a workshop on musical electronics, with free kits from PAiA Corporation that uses pencil markings to produce circuits. (No soldering required, so total beginners can give it a try. Kits for the project are free, on a first-come, first-served basis.) Throughout the afternoon, New York’s top musical makers will meet and display their creations.

greenmarket scans of the week continue!November 3rd, 2007

more greens * buy prints

lev the thereminbot sings for boingboing tvOctober 3rd, 2007

Lev’s featured in the premiere episode of BoingBoing TV today.

Thanks, boingers!

thingamajigs this weekendSeptember 29th, 2007

I was involved in a few events at the Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs in Oakland, California:

• Saturday 12-2: Circuit-bending* party at The Crucible to make instruments for Sunday. Bring an electronic musical toy to sacrifice!
• Saturday 5:30-6:30: Artists’ talk at Rock Paper Scissors Gallery along with Stewart Port and Edward Schocker.
• Sunday 1-2: Noise parade at Lake Merritt using the instruments we made on Saturday! Starting neat the sign at the entrance to Children’s Fairyland (Also check out Betsey’s installation which was at the same spot from 4-6).

lev plays patsySeptember 22nd, 2007

Here’s LEV again, because one “Crazy” wasn’t enough.

Lev plays Patsy from ranjit on Vimeo.

(also on youtube)

lev and thumpbot play “crazy”September 20th, 2007

Here’s LEV, my theremin-playing robot first seen at Artbots 2003, playing a familiar song with the help of the newly built thumpbot and an obsolete synthesizer.

Lev and Thumpbot play “Crazy” from ranjit on Vimeo.

(also on youtube)

They don’t play so well, but what do you expect from robots?