[LAU] LAC2010, some thoughts

[Jeremy]

rosea.grammostola wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> LAC2010 some thoughts:
> 
> 
> Great organization and kudos for Marc and others for getting this
> conference to The Netherlands. The advantage of having this conference
> in a different country each year, is that more different people are able
> to join and get enthusiastic. 
> 
> The disadvantage of having one LAC each year on one continent is that
> most people are from Europe, a few from USA. You could think of having
> one LAC conference in Europe and one in USA. 
> 
> I've spoken to a lot of kind, special and smart people on LAC, that was
> great.
> 
> I've been inspired by art projects like those of Marije and I saw how
> interesting the combination of technology, computers and art can be.
> 
> The live performances where great. I especially liked the piece of
> Fernando.
> 
> All the performance where 'experimental music' or livecoding. As
> mentioned in the 'future of LAC meeting' I would like to see more Jazz,
> Rock etc. 
> 
> Also most people I met on LAC where developers, I'd like to see more
> users and more workshops like the ones from Lieven, Jorn and the
> beginners workshop Supercollider from Marije and others.
> 
> I agree though that the main goal of LAC should be for developers to
> meet and present what they're doing. But once that goal is set firmly,
> without discussion, I think there should also be more space and
> interesting stuff for users. The mentioned alternatives for users like
> Pixel festival and Creative Commons festivals, don't fill in the need
> for the average Linux audio rocker imo. They are more aiming on
> technology and art or has to little to do with Linux. 
> Maybe the users (LAU, LinuxMusicians, LinuxMAO etc.) should organize
> their own festival and get their place on (or call it around) the
> regular LAC to organize workshops and concerts. 
> 
> Interesting was also the confrontation between the OSX users from HKU
> and the open source advocates. In this I agree both with Fons (and
> others) and Marc. The focus should be Linux audio and so we want to see
> live music made on Linux. But I think it's also a good think to let
> students arts meet open source software and let FLOSS developers meet
> artists who like to make bread with their art.
> 
> Thanks again!
> 
> \r
> 

I'd like to add my own 2¢ by copy-pasting my post concerning LAC2010 on
the LinuxMusicians forum (with some slight differences for the sake of
clarity):

I had a great time listening to all the devs of the software I use and
like so much. Isn't it amazing to go to a conference where major
developers and end-users are attending workshops and presentations together?
I especially liked the Ambisonics workshop of Jörn Nettingsmeier, which
he actually did kind of together with Fons Adriaensen, and the
presentation of Fernando Lopez-Lezcano on the OpenMixer set-up at
Stanton University. And the meeting on the future of LAC, Malte Steiner
criticizing Apple, Jörn Nettingsmeier building bridges and reconsidering
again, Fons Adriaensen making it crystal clear what it's all about and
Rui Nuno Capela modestly and quietly sitting back in his chair.
And wasn't it weird seeing Lennart Poettering defending PulseAudio
almost like a politician? With Pieter Palmers from FFADO wholeheartedly
disagreeing?
Yeah, I had a great weekend. Learned a lot, but I also learned that I
already know so much about all Linux audio related stuff, both on the
technical and the practical side. I wanted to do a presentation this
year but because I'm about to become a dad I didn't contribute anything.
Maybe next year, but it depends where LAC2011 will be held. Probably in
Europe again, possible candidates that were mentioned were Graz, Paris,
Lyon and Parma. I'd like to do a presentation on the practical use of
Linux audio software, but not like Lieven Moors did it. That was an
overview of the possibilities and I want to focus on how to use these
possibilities in a music production.
The organisation also mentioned engaging communities like
LinuxMusicians. They would like to see and hear more music, products and
concerts actually made with Linux. That part was now too much filled in
with stuff made on Macs. And they really want to hear something else
than electro-acoustic music, but more poprock and dance orientated stuff.

There were some drawbacks of course, first of all the Mac controversy as
pointed out by Malte Steiner and second, unsurprisingly for me, the
little number of end-users attending the conference, especially the
Dutch ones. I've asked rosea.grammostola about it and we both agreed
that there are like 5 people actively working with Linux audio over
here. So it's all about awareness (quoting Malte Steiner again), we
should work on that, getting more people to know and like making music
with Linux. Next year I don't want to be the only one that's dragging
around his mobile gear, next year I want to do something with it!

Best,

Jeremy