L2ork on the Run!

In a decisive move to conquer an unsuspecting world, the L2Orkists have packed up their hemispherical speakers into their custom-made bags, loaded into three cramped minivans and begun a six-day sojourn through the mid-west.

With the first of three performances at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati happening at 7:30 PM our troop of droopy-eyed, wiimote wielding, laptop-virtuosos left a sleepy Blacksburg around 8 AM. Our caravan cut through a foreign countryside and, in 7 hours, arrived outside of an eager concert hall.

We unpacked and were left to our own devices to explore the surrounding city until sound check. A group of us found a hipster coffee shop and on suggestion by what could have been the owner, were led to an amazing Mediterranean restaurant and feasted on delicious Spicy Gyros. Later we returned to that hipster coffee shop and sipped on some of the best coffee that I’ve experienced in my lifetime.

As the opening act we were able to break down our set up and enjoy the rest of the concert, which kind of helped to put some perspective on the work we’ve been doing.

I had intended to finish this post before we left Cincinnati but the time to leave approached too quickly and since then we have traversed into 4 states and traveled 5+ hours and have arrived in Carbondale, IL where it is surprisingly flat and every store is separated into its own mini strip-mall.

We have a performance tomorrow at Southern Illinois University with Ron Coulter which should be exciting and then we pack up and journey to Indianapolis Friday for our last performance on Sunday.

This is Miles, signing off until next time!

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L2Ork on the Cover of the Linux Journal May 2010 Issue

I finally got my hands on the May issue of the Linux Journal (many thanks Dave!) and am truly thrilled by the fact that L2Ork ended up on the front cover of the magazine. More so, Linux Journal editors have honored us with a generous 8-page story, including an interview with yours truly. To top it all off, LJ also has a really entertaining podcast discussing connections between L2Ork speakers and Star Wars. For more info on the article, or to obtain a copy of Linux Journal, click here.

On an unrelated note, L2Ork has finally joined Facebook. You can find us by clicking here or by visiting the Links page.

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April 17th 2010 L2Ork/DISIS Spring EventIt’s been a busy semester to say the least. Consequently, I hope you’ll forgive us for posting this announcement so close to the actual event.

It is my great pleasure to announce the upcoming joint L2Ork/DISIS spring event scheduled for April 17th 2010 (Saturday) in the Squires Recital Salon, starting at 7pm with the Boys & Girls Club of Roanoke, VA children’s showcase, followed by the 8pm Benefit Concert.

Apart from the L2Ork 14-member ensemble, the program will also feature guest artists Matthew Burtner (UVA), Ron Coulter (SIUC) and Mark Engebretson (UNCG), as well as Virginia Tech Music Department’s tremendously talented soprano Chelsea Crane. All donations will benefit Boys & Girls Club of Roanoke, VA.

The 7pm program is geared mainly towards children and parents and will also include a demo hands-on session for visitors and parents alike. The 8pm benefit concert will be more experimental in nature, featuring numbers for L2Ork and soloists, works by visiting artists, as well as musical robots and other innovative creative technologies.

On April 20th, L2Ork will also embark on its maiden tour made possible through generous contributions by Virginia Tech’s Center for Creative Technologies in the Arts (CCTA), Institute for Society, Culture & Environment (ISCE), Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE), Collaborative for Creative Technologies in the Arts & Design (CCTAD), and Center for Human-Computer Interaction (CHCI).

The tour will include performances at the Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music (April 20th) as part of the Sonic Exploration concert series, Southern Illinois University (April 22nd), and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (April 25th) as part of the International Intermedia Festival of Telematic Arts.

For additional info visit the Events page.

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Kevin and Donovan from the Boys and Girls ClubHello all,

Over the last month L2Ork has been working with the Roanoke Boys and Girls club to adapt a laptop orchestra for use in elementary school education. I have been traveling to Roanoke 3 times a week to teach the students and help them make music. We currently have ten 5th grade students involved in the program, and they are all eager to learn and have been great to work with.

Both the students, and VT l2orkists are very excited by the opportunity to collaborate with one another through the use of the laptop orchestra. On April 17th, we very much look forward to performing with our fellow l2orkists from the Boys & Girls Club. Undoubtedly the upcoming concert will be a big step forward for all involved, and I urge everyone to attend.

More to come in the next couple weeks, Jonathan.

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As busy as things have been since the onset of the spring semester, only now are we finally getting to updating community resources. To start off, we have created a general l2ork-dev public mailing list for the purpose of encouraging community participation in our infrastructure development as well as for support of creation of other L*Orks around the globe. In addition, since in L2Ork we do not like compromises, we’ve also provided a custom Ubuntu 9.10 real-time kernel that provides 100% hardware support for the MSI Wind U100 notebooks (available on the Software page). A growing library of Pure-Data externals and abstractions should follow shortly.

For additional info on the said content visit “Join the L2Orkmania” page.

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