fifteen years

monome turned fifteen in may. i started writing an overambitious “history of the grid” but here’s the shorter version: we’ve just redesigned the grid, again. and somehow we went on an adventure despite thinking we knew the path. fifteen years ago we were hand-soldering thousands of LEDs (mostly the right way), cooking circuits in a toaster (a few burnt ones were thrown out the window), and generally had no idea what people would do with these enigmatic objects. this years’ journey led through different mountains (global component shortages, uh-oh parts-on-backwards, contemplating the color of nothing/everything) but the primary difference was knowing we had a massive global community supporting us. i’ve said versions of this before: at the outset we imagined many futures, yet this one we find ourselves in remains astonishing. thank you for being a part of it.

grid

everything is new, even though we added nothing. the keypads have been optimized, the aluminum design has been reworked requiring less material for faster production, and the circuit and firmware have had a complete redesign with speed and efficiency in mind. it’s usb-c, slightly thinner, and the leds are on the cooler side of the spectrum. these changes have allowed us to radically drop the price while still producing parts in small batches with local suppliers.

otherwise, it’s the same.

events

music hackspace continues to host norns workshops led by lines community members. this weekend’s course features generative composition with jonathan snyder’s flora. be sure to check the on-demand archives and upcoming calendar.

also this weekend is a lines community performance, this time with a focus on live coding.

community

last month a group of designer-programmer-musicians got together and created norns.community. it’s a large and growing wiki for searching and sharing scripts. when we first conceptualized norns we thought the focus might be on scripting for oneself, but increasingly scripts have become tiny art objects in search of people to play them. this new site showcases the generosity and care of a talented group of people building their own visions of sound machines.

ok. off we go.

brian