Calling all musicians, vj's, programmers, visual artists and computer geeks!!!!

Antarctic Data Jams are events where we invite you to make songs, images, videos or just plain noise from raw weather data from the Antarctic. During the day there is a workshop and in the evening a performance. If you prefer to work at home, just find any kind of Antarctic data (we have supplied some, see left) and if you create something with it, bring it along to the event. The best will find its way onto the Antarctic Data Jam CD which we will market later in the year.

SoSLUG in conjunction with MediaShed and I-TASC (Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation), has sent Weather Monitoring equipment to the Antarctic to capture environmental data to be transformed into sensational music that programmers and artists can Jam to. The first two Antarctic Data Jams were run at The MediaShed in Southend on Sea and The Junction in Cambridge (see ADJ Events).

You do not need to be a programmer or a Geek to join in, it's all about having some fun at the expense of raw dull scientific data. You don't even need to use the software that we provide. For instance you can, if you want collect your own Antarctic sounds, manipulate them as you wish, make some audio tracks from them and play them at our event sessions. Their are no restrictions on the equipment to use our only stipulation is that it should have some or all Antarctica sound or data content.

Pure:Data (Pd~)

We are running the Antarctic Data Jam completely on Linux and using Open Source Software known as Pure Data (Pd). Pd as it is known is a rapid application development tool that anyone who can draw, can use.

The Antarctic Data Jam is not just about sounds and data, it is also about using tools to produce sounds and visual effects from data using simple graphical blocks that can be selected and added to other blocks which perform a function. Quite simply this is graphical programming, the workspace is a place to insert objects that perform different functions and lines can be drawn between these objects to allow them to interact with amongst other things the Internet, devices, control and logic functions as well as various forms of output including audio and visual.

Pd~ (Pure:data) allows us to do all this and much much more besides. With literally hundreds of examples to play with Pd~ is a relatively simple introduction into the arena of code programming without the complexity of knowing every syntax permutation required to achieve an output and seemingly endless typing.

What this site hopes to provide are tools to aid others interested in Pd~ and the Antarctic, bringing some focus to the plight of the animals that inhabit the most southerly continent.