Idle Swamp




hardware:   Apple PowerBook G4/OSX
software:   RTcmix, max/msp ([rtcmix~]), MiXViews (for the LPC analysis)

Dan Trueman and Perry Cook did an amazing thing at Princeton. They talked Apple Computer into donating 20 iBook laptop computers. Using this as a base, they formed the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). Yikes! What a snazzy idea!

They arranged to do a big premiere performance with PLOrk, and asked a group of us former- and current- Princeton composer people to imagine and write a piece for the event. Idle Swamp was my contribution.

It was great fun, not the least of which was the community that grew around the venture. They asked all of us to come and work with the students involved in the PLOrk seminar. Simply trying to figure out what the heck to do with 15-20 laptops was tricky, especially once they all got cranked up and making noises. Yikes again!

The concert was wonderful, good friends, good tunes, good times. We took the show on the road and performed at Dartmouth also.