26 August 2008, 3:36 pm
My name is Adrienne, and I’m a graphic designer at Red Hat—I create meaning using type and image. The other day I stumbled upon a story involving music, sustainability, and open source. Needless to say, I was intrigued. Fig 1. the original Monome Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain are the artists and creators behind Monome. At first glance, this cool device is simply a white square with a grid of buttons. It produces music and the buttons light up. It seems random, but the lights and music are synchronized. Monome is a musical interface that connects to a computer–and is controlled by the applications the computer runs. It respond to the keys being pressed, and the LEDs light up–it is, at its simplest, a programmable controller for music, video, games, or art. The beauty of an open process allows people to build on the idea, creating more than anyone could originally imagine (just like Fedora). People have manipulated Monome to do a number of things. Max/msp is the programming environment for most of the Monome applications. This environment gave Crabtree and Cain the flexibility they needed to compose live art and video performances. Open source technology was better than the conventional methods they tried previously, because they could use and manipulate technology the way they wanted. Monome was born to help express music and art. But instead of hiding the idea, Crabtree and Cain decided to share with the world. So far, the work has been incredibly successful and a large community has formed, building upon the Monome idea. So far they’ve constructed 3 models:16 x 16 inches, 16 x 8 inches, and 8 x 8 inches. Each time they have sold out quickly. I love this line from their blog: “We believe that open source is commercially viable and mutually beneficial for our collective and the consumer. In opening our software we eliminate wasteful, redundant coding for ourselves by incorporating proven libraries and frameworks.” Fig 2. Monome in its for-sale sizes The Monome duo believe in sharing and sustainable practices. Even the name, Monome, is derived from their belief in minimalism. They make everything from the musical interfaces to the screenprinted shipping boxes in their loft in Philadelphia. They follow sustainable practices that use local sources for raw materials and services. They sell kits so people can build their own. Their business is based on the open source model. Like the Fedora Project, Monome also has a growing community of artists and programmers that actively contribute—whether it’s writing software or finding new ways to use the interface. This community has released a wide range of videos, showing everything from creating the actual machine to playing live performances. Perhaps their blog says it best: “We seek to actively facilitate community participation and encourage sharing.” At Red Hat, we do the same. More information Monome’s Wikipedia entry Official Monome website A Video and Text Interview with Monome from Cycling ‘74 YouTube videos of mono in action can be found here and here. ... read more
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