Maciek Jasik
“There's no show without an audience,” says Dan Deacon, an electronic musician known for finding new ways to include his fans in his performances. A few years ago he created an app that responds to inaudible ultrasonic tones; when he plays those notes over the sound system, phones in the crowd light up in different colors, like pixels on a giant screen. The phones become as integral to the show as the DJ himself. Deacon isn't the only artist who's tapping into the smartphone to elicit creativity from an audience. We asked him to name other apps that blur the line between creator and consumer.
Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers
These two apps (Trope is a follow-up to Bloom) begin with a droning sound, which users punctuate by tapping the screen to trigger different “moods,” or tonal shifts. Deacon says he gets lost in it: “I can listen to this for hours.”
Jon Nash and Michael Petruzzo
Users post anonymous geotagged messages for others to find and read. Deacon likes exploring the “emojis and poetry or weird shit” users leave scattered around like digital graffiti—it can create an instant community out of a bunch of strangers.
Jake Lodwick
Deacon is a fan of this “simple, rudimentary sampler pad.” Created by Vimeo cofounder Jake Lodwick, it makes Reggie Watts-style beat-mixing easy. “At first I was like, oh, another sampler. Great,” Deacon says. “But then I realized it wasn't for musicians. It's for everyone.” The app is elegant in its no-frills simplicity and intuitive in ways that pro audio samplers aren't—just tap a pad while making a sound and you've created a sample. It even comes preloaded with samples from professional musicians like Watts or Tegan and Sara—built-in inspiration.
