everydaytrash

I met a lot of amazing people last weekend in Oslo. One of the most inspiring was Nasra Ali Omar, a Somali-Norwegian who grew up in Somalia, then Kenya then Northern Norway. Nasra was helping out with the trash art/found object show, but her real passion is music. And environmentally friendly music at that. She and her collaborators are committed to releasing their music in electronic files only, never burned onto CDs that end up in the trash.

Still more amazing is the technology she’s developing to debut in Norway later this year. Using motion sensors designed for medical examinations and blue tooth technology, Nasra manipulates a series of electric pads stuck to her fingers and arms that allow her to affect the intensity of her sound while playing the drums, play back pre-recorded beats and lay a track while performing , adding layer upon layer to her sound. She performs with a dancer, also fitted with the sensors so that the dancer and her movements can control the music as well. Others have tried similar programming in the past, but always with lots of wires or having to wear an entire electric jacket. With the small sensors and wireless blue tooth, Nasra and co. are breaking new ground. A bit off the subject of garbage, but trashtastic nonetheless!

In other music news, and to reroot ourselves in the subject of trash, Neopolitan musicians have made lemonade out of the recent trash crisis in Naples. “Garbage Sound” is music made using instruments crafted from things found in the trash.

(That’s Nasra above, striking a silly pose during the opening of Recycling the Looking Glass)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under Trash Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.