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Tom Hall

RoboKumbia is an Academic Project designed by Studio José de la O for the Industrial Design School at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in the Mexico City Region. The objective of the project is to speculate how tecnology would look like if it's concieved on a Mexican-Urban context.

RoboKumbia

Hello José, please tell us a bit about yourself....

I’m a Designer, researcher and academic based in Mexico City. My work focuses on using critical and speculative design as a way to find better relationships between design, technology and society in Mexico. I run a Design studio and I’m a full time professor at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in the Mexico City Region.

How did the idea of Robokumbia come about?

Originally as a Joke. When the Regional Dean asked me what academic project I wanted to develop for the next semester, I said straight away: A Cumbia Playing Robot! Cumbia is a type of music and dance that originated in Colombia and has since then spread all over Latin America. It’s very popular among low income social sectors and could be considered vulgar among highbrow rich people. Personally it’s one of my favorite types of music.

Anyway, I was trying to be funny with the Dean - I mean, how ridiculous - 

? Right after I answered him, he looked at me straight in the eye and said, “OK. Do it”. So I was like, "Whoa! Now I have to deliver!"

Then, I started to ask myself what the academic justification for a Cumbia Playing Robot could be and it made perfect sense. On one hand, it would be a super fun incentive for Industrial Design students to generate and use technology, and on the other hand, it would be really interesting to speculate on how technology would look like if it was conceived in México, far away from the clichés of anodized aluminum, glass and white shiny plastic.

A key element of the project was to teach the students on how to find inspiration on their own context and transform those elements into proper design artifacts.

If Lance Whyman found the inspiration for the identity for the Mexico City Olympics by visiting the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City one afternoon, or the Pritziker Prize-winning architect Luis Barragan found his inspiration in old Colonial houses around his native Jalisco, what could my students - as contemporary designers - create if they found inspiration in their own surroundings? So, each robot takes its inspiration from different and local sources: public transport, street markets, religious niches, and icons found in the public space and local fairs.

image.png

We spent one whole semester developing it.

Were there any hurdles that you or the students ran into during your development? If so, what were they, and how did you get around them?

Yes! I would be lying if I said that this project was not a challenge for my students and I. The synchronization between robots was an issue for us, as an example. In that case, we managed to simplify all the MIDI signals on a single master Ableton file, and that helped a lot.

Another issue was the hardware. Most of the students didn’t have much experience with physical computing or with various kinds of construction, such as soldering. It was a challenge for them to find methodologies and shortcuts, to find mistakes, fix errors and to work with greater ease and efficiency as they went along.

Since I programmed the song on Ableton Live, we used Max for Live as a communication device between all the Midi signals, all of the Arduinos, and the collection of servo motors that were actually playing the instruments.

The result is amazing. Now that the project is complete, what are some further areas you and the student would like to explore?

I’m very interested in thinking about how to re-interpret technological interfaces in my own aesthetic and cultural context. One of the ideas that I want to work with my students next is to have them design MIDI interfaces that use alternative means of interaction - like facial recognition, for example.

Another project that we are starting this semester is in collaboration with an important museum in New York that will use digital fabrication and local materials such as Cochineal dye. I hope to use Max for these type of projects again!

RoboKumbia_combination_2.jpg

I ran into something amazing while I was down in Mexico City recently working on a project with my friends at Pac Interactive. They took me to a gallery opening/presentation that featured a band of Cumbia-playing robots. This plucky little robot band was the work of José de la O and his students at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, and of course I just had to know a little more about the project. José was kind enough to take some time to talk to me about the work.

an-interview-with-josé-de-la-o

An Interview with José de la O

Gregory Taylor

I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about step sequencers

I expect that an image of a particular step sequencer pops into the head of everyone who utters the phrase “step sequencer” out loud (Go on… try it!): Your very first step sequencer. The step sequencer you’re wondering about perhaps porting to Max/MSP. The last step sequencer variation you saw popping up on 

. That step sequencer named after Euclid. The step sequencer that’s in your Eurorack setup right now. The step sequencer you wish you could afford….

You get the picture, I hope. While I wrote 

 with the somewhat abstract goal of trying to communicate how Max users think about large-scale projects and think with Max, the choice of the kind of project to approach was easy - 

 loves step sequencers. Since the book’s appearance, I’ve gotten all kinds of questions about things I didn’t put in the book, too (that’s what follow-up books are for, after all). But there’s one thing I really didn’t put in the book that I’d like to talk about here: examples of really cool approaches to sequencing that are a bit off the beaten track.

I’d like to introduce you to one of those sequencers that definitely fell into the “sequencer I wish I could afford” category for me, and turn you on to a beautiful Max standalone application implementation of it: The Klee Sequencer.

First hint of the awesome? Naming the sequencer for the Swiss-German artist 

. As Scott Stites, the sequencer's creator, tells it in his entertainingly written 

, it's an inspired bit of naming, indeed.

So what makes the Klee Sequencer different? As Scott Stites describes in his 

 to the device, the difference has to do with an insight that’s straight-ahead to someone with a background in electronics (or programming), but maybe less so to the rest of us:

Instead of thinking of a step sequencer as a counter, think of it as 

 that correspond to individual steps. Instead of counting through the sequence, you trigger it by taking that pattern and rotating it to the right (or left) and using the pattern to select which event to trigger.

Here’s a simple pair of Max patches that demonstrate that difference. The left-hand example cycles through a set of steps to generate a note offset to create a sequence, while the right-hand example creates the same output by cycling through a pattern of ones and zeros to generate the note offsets.

Hardware and software engineers use the term “shift register” to describe that principle, and that’s what’s basically at the heart of the Klee sequencer. The crucial insight behind the sequencer lies in the idea that you can use the shift register technique to generate 

 at a time by modifying the pattern of ones and zeros, and then sum the offsets associated with each step in the sequence to create interesting and complex sequences.

 object when they work with shift registers (and I'm sure that lots of them could share versions of the above patch that are 

-centric with you. I invite them to do so, in fact). I use the 

 object instead because it lets me do two things that aren't that easy with the 

 object: I can rotate my register backward (by setting the step for the 

 object to a negative number), and I can also "count" through the register by different numbers than 1 (again, by setting the step value for the 

Here’s a Max patch that demonstrates how it works:

Klee_examples.zip

Cool, huh? Of course, this simple example is working with note offsets rather than the control voltages associated with the Klee hardware sequencer. And one of the other reasons for the Klee sequencer's fabled status is that there are a myriad of wonderful variations that can be generated by building out from this simple example. If you'd like to get a sense of what those features are now that you've got the basic idea, here's a great video that covers some of the sequencer's features:

This is a brief demo of the key features of the Klee Sequencer.

Klee Sequencer Tutorial Demo Part 1

If you’re like me, you probably finished that video and started wondering about spending a little quality patching time.

You’re not alone. In fact, someone’s already done all the heavy lifting: Dan Nigrin has - in cooperation with the Klee sequencer’s designer - created a kick-ass standalone version of the Klee which is not only faithful to the original, but also extends it in some interesting new directions.

 would suggest that he’s just as interested in variations on the traditional step sequencer as we are. In addition to his standalone version of the Klee sequencer, you’ll also find Max-based versions of RYK’s 

, a really fascinating sequencer developed in collaboration with 

Here’s what Dan had to say about his experience with the Klee sequencer:

Dan's implementation of the Klee sequencer.

standalone version of the Klee (updated to version 2.3 just this week, with some nice new features added) available as a 

 supported by video tutorials covering topics from basic functionality and 

new Klee features specific to the Max implementation

. It's well done, and well worth your attention, either as an addition to your software toolset, or as a source of ideas and inspiration. Check it out!

Klee_700pixel.png

I’ve been thinking a lot about step sequencers recently, and about different approaches to the idea. I’d like to introduce you to one of those sequencers in its hardware and software incarnations - Scott Stites' Klee sequencer.

softwarehardware-overview-let-us-praise-the-klee-sequencer

Software/Hardware Overview: Let Us Praise the Klee Sequencer

Darwin Grosse

One of the most exciting new features of the Max 8 release is its support for the Node JavaScript engine within the Max application. And the form that support takes isn’t merely a communications bridge between the two separate and distinct systems - our developers have tried to integrate the best of both worlds into Node For Max.

The easiest way to get a good overview of what Node For Max is would be to start with our colleague Cassie’s Node For Max introduction:

Node is an event-driven JavaScript runtime. But what does that mean, and how can you use it with Max 8? In this video, Cassie outlines some of the advantages and possibilities that Node for Max brings to your patches. She also shows some small projects that you could build using Node for Max. 

If you're interested in even more examples of what Node for Max can do, visit http://github.com/cycling74/n4m-examples for more. We hope that if you make something cool yourself, you'll submit it so that we can incorporate it into a growing body of fun examples and starting points.

Get the Latest on Max and our Community

An Interview with José de la O

Software/Hardware Overview: Let Us Praise the Klee Sequencer

Node For Max Intro – Let’s Get Started!

Ringing in the New Year

An Interview with Dillon Bastan

Perfect Circuit's Max + Modular Live Stream

Book Review: Broken Music - Artists' Recordworks

An Interview with Gregory Taylor

Searching in Max 8

An Interview with Kevin Kripper