urban music boxes & troubadours
site specific events

The Concept
Most classical music events take place in concert halls or venues designed for this purpose. These venues as symbolic representations of high culture can at times be intimidating to certain demographics. The overlying concept here is to target groups that are usually underrepresented or not represented at all in New Music events. The targeted group is immigrants living in underprivileged areas of urban Nicosia. The philosophy of the project is: since this particular group does not come to the concert hall, we take a concert experience directly to them, in neighborhoods and shops of areas facing social alienation. By installing ten custom-made tablet stations in different locations in Cyprus we gave the chance for everyone to experiment and engage with interactive and intuitive new technology (UPISketch), which has the potential in creating further interest in New Music. The project involved exhibitions and 3-day workshops which were given by the Centre Iannis Xenakis.

The Music Boxes

In terms of the “Music Boxes”, there were ten custom-made tablet station installed at

1. Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation
2. Cyprus Museum
3. Rialto Theater
4. Pancyprian Gymnasium Museums
5. European University Cyprus
6. Thalassa Museum
7. Technopolis 20
8. Novia Mavromoustaki School of Music
9. Cyprus Wine Museum
10. Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery

Special thanks to the professors from EUC: Dr. Konstantinos Katzis, Yanna Christophorou, Dr. Sofia Hadjipapa Gee, Tasos Anastasiades and Dr. Potheini Vaiouli

The “Troubadours”
Interactive concerts took place in public spaces, breaking the performer / audience barrier. 

The artist Peter Sheppard Skaerved was in Cyprus in July 2018 researching various places for public interventions. He played in various public spaces like malls, museums and coffee shops. In July a public music intervention was also made by Kristine Dizon in form of a clarinet recital in a central square.

See the photos and videos below

01/07/18
Peter Sheppard Skaerved
music intervention in "Public" store, Cyprus
music intervention in Home for Cooperation, Cyprus
music intervention in Old City Walls, Nicosia, Cyprus

03/07/18
Kristine Dizon
clarinet intervention
Chrysallniotissa Crafts Centre Square, Nicosia, Cyprus
Read more...

10/07/18
Peter Sheppard Skaerved
Mall of Engomi,
Cyprus Museum,
House of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios Museum
Nicosia, Cyprus

11/07/18
Peter Sheppard Skaerved
Medieval Castle of Larnaka, Limassol Castle
Kolossi Castle and
Curium Ancient Theater
Nicosia, Cyprus

7/10/18
Claudio Bettinelli
In Aria – An improvisation project for theremin and electronics with percussionist CLAUDIO BETTINELLI
Shoe Factory, Nicosia, Cyprus
Read more...

14/12/18
Shawn Mativetsky (Tabla) and Sorin Alexandru Horlea (Violin & Viola)
Music for Tabla with Violin & Electronics
European University Cyprus, Auditorium A (Diogenis Str. 6, CY02404, Nicosia, Cyprus)

07/10/19
Peter Sheppard Skaerved
The Byzantine Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus

UPISketch
The ten custom- made tablet station use to the extent a hardware and software, which is designed by faculty and students from the University. The software includes a new version of UPIC for mobile devices and a software from DMU which acts as modern interactive music box.

Software Development

You can track the steps of the development of the UPISketch software here:

30/6/17

24/7/17
Graphic User Interface

20/9/17
Zooming and Playhead

24/10/17
Moving Sounds Around

A series of short tutorial videos demonstrating the basic functionality of the application can be found here and in the gallery at the bottom of the page:

20/6/18
Video Tutorials

2/7/18
UPISketch Demo

Workshops

In parallel with the “Urban Music Boxes” activity, three different workshops were organized in collaboration with the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, with Centre Iannis Xenakis and the De Montfort University in April 2018:

23/4/18
Music Workshops: "Making Music with Sounds"
Read more...

24/4/18
"DIY electronics"
Read more...

25-27 /4/18
Music Workshops "Let's draw music!"
Read more...

Credits

UPISketch is made possible through the following collaborations:

European University Cyprus, supported by the Interfaces programme for the activity “Urban Music Boxes and Troubadours”

DRAC Normandie.

The following libraries have been used: JUCE, PYin, KFRConcept, Code: Rodolphe Bourotte
Code: Sean Soraghan, Daniel Walz
Mathematical Support: Paul Lanthier
Key graphics: Louis Hyerlé

Thanks are extended to: Sharon Kanach, Evis Sammoutis, Potheini Vaiouli, Jean-Louis Villeval / Copyright (c) 2017 Centre Iannis Xenakis

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The action Urban Music Boxes and Troubadours was conceived and coordinated by Evis Sammoutis.

2017-2018-2019
organised by:
European University Cyprus
http://www.euc.ac.cy

2017 07 24 FirstExperimentsWithGUI

2017 07 24 FirstExperimentsWithGUI

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 1

Tutorial 2

Tutorial 2

Tutorial 3

Tutorial 4

2017 10 24 MovingSoundsAround

2017 06 30 ValueTreeXMLiOSTest

2017-09-20-Zooming&Playhead

UPISketch Demo

1st UPISketch Workshop April 2018

Yeni Cami/ben vos posc ver dir

'voil qe'm digaz cals mais vos plaz'

Shoe Factory, Nicosia 27 6 17

Shoe Factory 2

We find our way to the frozen time

At the foot of the wall...

In Aria- Claudio Bettinelli

Urban Music Boxes and Troubadours Trailer

Urban Music Boxes and Troubadours

Andriae by Interfaces Network

Andriae by Interfaces Network