not a blippoo box (2017)

Not a Blippoo Box was an attempt to create a software translation of Rob Hordijk's modern classic chaotic soundmaking circuit, the Blippoo Box. Not a Blippoo Box was initially assembled in Max/MSP as an instructional tool—for the purpose of creating an easily understandable demonstration of the intricacies of the Blippoo Box's interwoven signal flow without the need to take one apart or to read schematics. It was also used in order to teach students about OSC (Open Sound Control) and its potential uses in a networked computer music performance environment.

I developed Not a Blippoo Box around the time I was teaching at the California Institute of the Arts, at a point when I had possession of the late Mark Trayle’s personal Blippoo Box. I spent rather a lot of time poring over its innards and A/Bing between his instrument and my virtual implementation—frankly, mine was never quite as fun/interesting/engaging as the real thing, but it was a great experiment nonetheless.

Ultimately, Not a Blippoo Box served as a way of better understanding some of the chaotic inner workings of the real Blippoo Box, which provided a lot of insight + experience that was later embedded in software designs like TCO and MCI, as well as eventual hardware devices Continual Transition and the map01 Delta Scan Mapping Interface.