NEW MEMBER WELCOME // Sam Tarakajian Pushes Creative And Technological Interaction To The Max

When we asked new 3rd Ward member Sam Tarakajian to tell us a little bit about himself, he gave us the short answer right away: "I'm a nerd who wishes he was Daft Punk."

Like the famed French electronic music duo, who are known for their extravagant multimedia live shows, Tarakajian isn't interested merely in music or sound, but the whole interconnected spectrum of audiovisual experience and interaction. "Like anyone I enjoy recording sound and composing music, taking pictures and making cool visuals, but more than anything I see beauty in order and process," he says. "I think in the design of systems that react, transform and generate there is tremendous room for expression, especially when those systems act in ways that defy our expectations."

Tarakajian works for Cycling '74, the company that makes Max, a popular  visual programming language that allows one to build an endless array of virtual tools and systems for music and other media. "Max is 'software that connects,' a graphical interface that lets you build complex systems by visually connecting simple parts," he says. "You can use it to design synthesizers, compose algorithmic music, build an instrument that you play with an EKG, create video that evolves in response to atmospheric pressure, or basically anything else."

Hit the jump for more about Tarakajian, including how he plans to make computers more like dogs.

When Tarakajian came to 3rd Ward he knew it was the right place. "When I got there I felt happy," he says. "There is never any shortage of creative people or creative activity at 3rd Ward. No matter what time of day you're there, someone is in the shop cutting teeth for his chair, getting his dog to sit under the table while he runs his business, or measuring out a giant chunk of fabric for a two-story t-shirt. When you walk in you slap yourself in the head and say 'Oh, that's right, I totally forgot: the world is interesting and beautiful.' That's a pretty great environment to work in, much better than the coffee shop, which doesn't even have free coffee."

What's Tarakajian up to at the moment? "Basically I'm trying to make computer devices more like dogs," he says. "The thing that's great about dogs is that when they see each other it's a big deal. They have a need, a compulsion to get in each others face, to bark and smell each other and more or less go completely nuts."

Computers are different. "Put two computers in a room and nothing happens," he explains. "Forever. This is really dumb. A lot of interesting artistic pieces involve getting multiple devices to work together. You might be using sensor data from an Arduino to control some process on your desktop, or maybe using an iPad to control an instance of Ableton Live. If you've ever worked on a project like this you know that you could spend half your time just explaining to your devices how to talk to each other."

So Tarakajian is working on an open-source library that will allow devices to more easily communicate with each other. "One day I will make it so that any device with some kind of network connection can say ''Sup other devices, here are some cool parameters you might want to control.' Any other device could then be all 'Oh, word? Well go ahead and make these adjustments.' The whole process will be wireless, require no setup and run in realtime."

Tarakajian's also looking for someone with experience as an iPad DJ. "I'd love to ask you/him/her a few questions about how you work your magic," he says. "It would help me tremendously in my current work." And if you're interested in learning Max, check out his tutorial series on Youtube or find him in person. "Literally nothing in the world would make me happier than to help you embark on a real-time, life-changing, multimedia odyssey," he says.

-- John Ruscher