i am happy to present matan berkowitz. he is reinventing body percussion. he is the upcoming rockstarof digital music performance art. he has developed a new wayto translate this into music. turning everyday objectsinto instruments. please, give a big warm welcometo matan berkowitz, music is the instrument. hello everybody, my name is matan. i came here from tel aviv.
i will talk about translatingphysical signals into music. i’m gonna show prototypesand inventions of me. i will talk about working withthe special needs population to enable them to play in new ways. at the end of the talki am going to demonstrate how movement translates into music. hopefully we’ll playsome music on stage today. let's begin, my background, as you can see, these are someof the things we are talking about soon.
this is some kind of spoiler. this is some kind of spoilerof some things we will talk about. i came from art, that is what i did. i was a screen writer and director. i was travelling the worldas a musician and i was happy. then i felt something was missing. this voice inside me kept telling methat my energy could be spent doing more meaningful things. which influences people's life directly.
and improve people's lives. as i started thinking about iti reached the conclusion: two things were missing: first the sense of impactand second the sense of invention. inventing things that are innovative. so without knowing too muchi started a company. this feeling of not knowing who you are, the identity crisis was foreign for me. ever since i was a kid i wantedto become a film director and musician.
this is what i became. i called the company “shift“. for me it was a change. so i started to focus on innovation. on how to improve technologyfor important causes. this is what we didin the first year 2014. we worked with start-ups and non-profitorganizations, even a hospital. we were merging technology and impact. it was a yearwhere i learned a lot of things.
i also got into the scene of start-ups. and i was fascinatedespecially by one thing: hackathons. for those of youwho don't know what hackathons are, it’s an event when people come togetherfrom different backgrounds. you find developers, designers, makers. they build things togetherin a very short time. 24 hours, 48 hours,72 hours straight, non-stop. once you built those things,you present them in the end of the hackathonsand judges give prizes.
this was amazing for me. i started experimenting with things. hackathons,they have some kind of centre: a new technology or a theme,where people work around the theme. they create things for it. i found my theme was music technology. i started a pattern: i come to hackathons,build a prototype and i win. so my life started changing.
i was focusingon what i was doing in music technology. the more dominant that became, we shifted from working with clientsto in-house projects. i wanna show you some of the inventions. the first hackathon i did,made me realize: is there a relationship betweentechnology, music and the physical body? how can we translate this? i started to make the distinctionin my mind: what could we do physicallyto control our body.
like moving the head, using our voice. we can control them,but there are more things, biological things,we can't really control. like our heart beat or brain activity. these things are musical,for me they seem musical. you might be able to influence thembut not control them: how do you make musicwith instruments you can't control? i will show you. the first onewas from the first hackathon i went to.
do you remember google glass? it was an experiment for googleto launch a wearable device that has a camera,microphone and the sensors on it. when it came to israelthere was a hackathon. it was the first time we ever saw it. when i was there i noticed: the groups were forming ideasthat i thought were awkward. one group wanted a dating appfor the google glasses. they reasoned:
if you are at a dateand unsure what to say the google glasscould tell you what to say. if you have ever been on a dateyou know it is a terrible idea. why would you gowith google glass to a date and say what the screentells you to say? i wouldn’t take it to a date,but on stage. what can i do there with that? what caught my attention was: every google glass has sensorsthat track head movements.
this way it knows where your head is. how could you translatethose movements into music? so i built the google glass beats. an application that turnsgoogle glass into a musical instrument. i show you a videoof the first prototype i made. if you look at the screen behind me,you see the dot. the dot is moving,it is tracking my head movement. with this dot i can controlsome effects on my voice. right now i can activateeffects on my voice.
you see the dot moving? when it’s movingon the x-axis it controls reverb. when it`s moving on the y-axis it controls delay. it can also loop my voice. it can also loop my voice.it can also loop my voice. ok. glasses. drop the beat. (beatboxing) glass beats.
(applause) so this was the first prototype i made. it won the google glass hackathon. we won over that dating applicationwith google glass. that got me going,because we could make these things. i was fascinated by the relationshipwith the physical body. this was controlled by head movements,allowing me to loop and create layers. then we tried something biological,what you can’t control. so i started working with eeg.
eeg is a way to measure the brain. you can detect brainwaveswith that technology. i teamed up with a new israeli start-up. they developed a new way to detectmore data from brain waves. if you look behind me,you see some things that inspired me. all this red and yellow datais brain activity and very chaotic. but this guy hereis an experienced meditator. that part where there isnothing but the red line, this guy went into deep trance.
he can manageto change his brain activity. that got me thinkingthis could be an instrument, using neuro feedback to make music. the first prototypewas working with sefi udi. he is paraplegic man in a wheelchair. he is a very inspiring individual. before he became paraplegic,he used to play the guitar. he missed playing it. then he couldn't do it anymore.
the eeg was a good way to tryto be creative in music. we created this eeg musical device. this translatedsefi's brain activity into music. later that day, that was a hackathonwith the name tom, sefi was on the stage, playing music. he was able to consciouslymake the music go on and off. his mind was focused, that he could say: now i will make the music stopand then it stopped. i could never do that.
this is hard to control. you can try to be relaxed or agitated. so the eeg can measurethe alpha brainwaves and detect how awake you are. but for any other use it is limiting. so i thought: let‘s go one step furtherand make a musical hat. the idea of the musical hatwas to combine both things. the google glass was a wearable device.
i didn’t make it i was just using it. i was curious to seewhat i could do starting from scratch. so we took this designer hatand we added two components. the first was the java scope,like the sensor in the google glasses. the other thing, the buttonsenabled anyone to loop themselves. just like the demo i showed you. the twist is that insidethe head i put an eeg reader. so now while you are controlling music,doing hand movements, your head was controlling the music.
the brain waves were unconsciouslydoing music as well. basically mergingphysical and biological elements. this was made and inventedon a music event called “tech feast“, it is happening at the end of this monthin berlin, you should check it out. the next prototype wasfrom a music tech feast in london. a tech feast for wearable devices. that glove measures your heart beat. i could convertthe pulse of a person into music. i accumulated different typesof inventions.
so i started creating shows that arebased on the physical body making music. these shows are made for big stages. this is a microsoft stage,a big microsoft event. for this show we had eeg brain wavesand the heart beat sensors. i was playing the guitar.there was a drummer, a didgeridoo. we did the thing through water and sandto create these patterns. another show for google,i went on stage without any instrument. all the music was made with the body. one person was meditating on stageaffecting his brain waves.
a girl was running on stage,increasing her heartbeat. i used emotion to create more music. all this music was doneusing nothing but the body. using the same technologyi started experimenting with art. so this example: this is an interactive installationi made for a museum. which is an alien cocoon shape. when you stand in front of it,it gives feedback of your movements. it gives it light and sound.
if there are two people in front of it,it mirrors both of them. once they move at the same time,the whole thing comes alive. lights and music climax. basically it measureshow in sync you are. this kept going. i made this interactive,dance thing with video mapping. as i was working on these projectsi started thinking: what about positive impact? it was all about“let's do something that matters“.
a lot of these things were about fun. musical hats and dancers,that’s pretty cool. but how are we helping people?how are we changing their lives? the more we thought about it,the more we realized: the connection of music and body,is something for disabled people. this is rachaely,a girl from jerusalem. she has amazing energy, though she iscognitively and physically impaired. she can't do nothing almost at all. she can't move or speak,at least consciously.
she can smile and wave her hand. when my friend came, and said: "i want to make an instrument for her",that was a challenge for me. all she could do was move her hand. we needed a one button machine. she can’t fine-tune her movements,she is just moving. how could you make musicusing nothing but that? how could you make musicaccessible for her? we created a glove:
there were more versions later. this glove has three different modes. the first mode was „drum mode“. everytime she hit a surface it createda kick and then a snare sound. this way she couldplay the drums like this. (beatboxing) this was empowering,she was experimenting with rhythm. nothing but hand movements,one hand enabled her to play the drums. the second mode was dj-mode.
we took her favorite songwhich is a song about the messiah and cut it into segments. instead of listening passivelyshe could tap the next part. she could choosewhen to play the next part of the song. listening becamea participatory experience for her. the third mode wasn’t even musical. i took her mother to the studioand recorded her two favorite books. then we took the recordingsand cut them into individual sentences. that way she could listen tothe next part of the story
whenever she wanted to. instead of being dependent she usedthe glove and her mother's voice. this inspired me to other things. i decided to take one step further: i came up with the theory called"the musicall accessibility pyramid“. on top you have professional musicians. they know music theory, spend money onand make money from music. then you have people who are hobbyist. they have all the same things,they just spend their money on music.
then you have not musicians. they think: "i should havestarted playing the guitar with 14" all these people are wrong.if they wanted to, they could play. we can’t forget aboutpeople with disabilities. they want to play. they might be real talents, but they arecognitive and physical challenged. that prevents them from making music.
it makes it much more difficultto experience music. i thought: what if we connectthe two ends of the pyramid? what happens if we merge musiciansand special needs people? this became an event called „discotech“. this stands for:disability, community and technology. it was the first eventof this kind in the world. creating music technologyfor people with special needs. it was produced by my companyand by a company called „imagine“.
i made a video about this eventand i’d like to show it to you. (music) discotech stands for disability,community and technology. we took four musicians with disabilitiesto enable them to play music. we have four personswith different challenges. four teams workingto create four prototypes. i was born without a hand. i always wanted tobe able to play an instrument. the main challenge wasto build the extension.
to sound like a natural arm,this was the idea. when i was 18,i had a snowboard accident. since then i had a wheel chairand we combined instruments together. i had a harmonica and a microphoneand a special kind of guitar. everything is connected to a looper. he can disconnect it. my project is to be a one-man band. we discovered he had a brain toumor,when he was 15 months. after the operationwe discovered that he was blind.
he became autistic,then he started to play. he is disabled on his left side, so he plays with four fingers rightand left with only one finger. he uses this one finger on his left hand. whenever he hits one notewe turn it into a chord. we supplied him with the abilityto set the cords, by using his leg. ofer greenwas a very good student of mine. when i met himhe could still move and talk a bit. later it got worse.
we create a systemthat will send notes to the program. so he can write chords. the camera that follows his eyesfunctions with the joystick. he can use this finger,that will be his clip. the music that isin his head can get on the computer. and from that to your ears. we have 3d printers and electronics, musicians, designers,mathematicians and so on. the most talented people.
wow! it was kind of fun.i was like hacking. people were jamming, it was really fun. all the peoplethat came here volunteered. it’s a project for them. for me it’s more than a project,it’s my son. this is his life. these four representall people that need these things. they can benefit from this.
it’s good for people with special needs. it's also good for childrenand for professionals. the main goal isto make the music accessible. (music) i have never thought that i could play. nobody said it was easy. music has been my loveand my best friend. it saved my life. music is the most powerful mediumin the world.
and combined with technologythat’s the perfect blend. let's go back to the start. we need to create continuitywithout boundaries. i really hope that this will grownot just in israel but everywhere. discotech is gonna help a lot of people. rock on! thank you guys. so one second. going back to the"music accessibility pyramid"
this event was successful in some ways. it inspired people. i went on this tour. my theory was: if you take this pyramidand connect the dots what happens is: the thing reverses. people with a greater challengebenefit people with a lesser challenge. people who have it as a hobby. and people whose livesrevolve around music.
i also learnt a lesson from discotech. when i was on a public speaking tour,i saw how people were touched. i also realized how hard it wasto bring these prototypes on the market. how hard it isto create this product to help people. the reason is money. it is a niche market. how to make these prototypesinto fully formed products if they are not commercially buyable? i thought i should havemore of these events all over the world.
i did make a lot of contacts. the more i thought about it, i realized: we make more prototypes, more inventions but we never get them in the handsof the people who need them. this brings us to today. i’m very excited.it is an amazing event. and you're a great audience. i want to announce somethingi’ve been working on for a while. it is two different projects.
the first is the evolutionof the company and of the vision. shift is becoming an innovation lab. but it is not just an innovation lab,it will have a positive impact. it will create things,that will solve challenges. i am fortunate enoughto go on these tours. amit labs, harvard labs, google labs. i saw big groups working,i wanted to ask them questions. i was seeking the adviceof people with a lot of experience. i hope by 2017 we will launch this lab.
talking about potential partners,we dream of making all of this reality. in the meantimei will talk about my new project. i have a demo for you, are you ready? are you ready?come on! right! this project is called „airstrument“. it is a prototype,it looks like a prototype. let’s see if the sound works: (clapping) give me some volume.
what this doesis the accumulation of all this. i again went to a festival,this time in sweden and created this prototype for gestures. i realized: this might be the most efficientto learn to play music. to make music accessible in a new way. once we made this prototypewe won the hackathon. we got into a new programpart of the european union. we are going into the next level.
i’ll try a little demo,hopefully it works, let's try it out. (clap) (beat) (electronical music) alright,thank you very much for your time. so just to finish off, thank you guys. i just want to leave youwith this one simple message. find the sweet spotwhat you want to do and try to findwhere it meets to benefit the world.
when you find that spot,go for it and make a change. my name is matan.thank you very much, enjoy!
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