Controlling lights and sounds at the Young Enterprise Awards

Yesterday I used the Ensemble at the North Yorkshire Young Enterprise awards in Harrogate. I was controlling three sets of lights and lots of sounds, all from a single Xbox controller. As each team was called to give their presentation, the stage was lit up with flashing lights and a different piece of music was played.


Each of the presentations went well, the confidence of the students was particularly impressive, they were much less nervous than I would have been! 


My personal highlight was the spoof episode of The Apprentice. Lord Sugar grilled the 'candidates' about their project before deciding that they were all hired! I have to admit it didn't follow the show completely though, there was no squabbling in the boardroom!

Guest lecture at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus

Me, Myself and MRI

Following on from my lecture at Huddersfield on Tuesday, today I was at Scarborough giving the same talk to students on the second year of the Creative Music Technology course. The lecture covers a wide range of projects from my time before Apollo Creative, as well as more recent work like 'Me, Myself and MRI' and the Fountaineers Project.

Apollo Christmas Card

We're proud that this years official Apollo Christmas card was designed by Jack from The Forest School whilst he was on work experience with us in the summer. 

Lecture at University of Huddersfield

Today was my annual lecture at the University of Huddersfield, talking about real world examples for interactive installations. It's an opportunity for the students to see how some of the work they are doing might be applied in the 'real world'.

I also stayed around after the lecture to provide some feedback on the students work and also to chat to Anton, who is doing an MSc by research and will be working with the Apollo Ensemble.

'Making Music with Special Children' Event

It was great to have the opportunity today to demonstrate the Apollo Ensemble to participants of the 'Making Music with Special Children' course, organised by Jessie's Fund.

Lesley provided some examples of how technology can be used as a musical instrument to enable children to participate in music making.  I was able to show the benefits of the Apollo wireless sensors, especially the Press and Dice.

Thanks to all on the course for a lovely welcome.

Charmed Lives exhibition opens at the Rotunda, Scarborough

The 'Charmed Lives' exhibition opens today at the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough, featuring touch screen interactives created by students from the University of Hull. The interactives were created over six weeks by students on the Creative Music Technology course, with mentoring and lectures provided by Mark from Apollo Creative.

You can see a brief overview of the pieces on the cultiv8 blog.

The exhibition will be on until the 27th November.

Music & Inclusivity Conference

Apollo were at the 'Music & Inclusivity' Conference at York St John University today, showing the Apollo Ensemble. We were joined by Andrew Cleaton, who has recently been interviewing people for our new series of case studies.

The Ensemble was also being showcased in a workshop run by Accessible Arts and Media.