[ANN] Isadora® Real-Time Interaction Software - Public Beta

From: Mark Coniglio (troika@panix.com)
Date: 03/15/02


Hi All,

I am writing to make the first announcement of the public beta test 
phase of my real-time media processing software Isadora®. You can 
download version 0.8.1 and the preliminary Isadora manual from the 
page at

http://www.troikaranch.org/troikatronix/isadora.html

Some of you have seen my project demonstrated at various conferences 
and other gatherings over the last several months, but for those of 
you who haven't, here's a quick description:

Isadora is a graphic programming environment that provides 
interactive control over digital media, with special emphasis on the 
real-time manipulation of digital video. The basic building block of 
an Isadora program are graphic building blocks called "actors". Each 
actor does one core function: plays a movie, manipulates video, 
captures live video, looks for MIDI input, controls a DV camera, etc. 
By linking the modules together you can create setups in which input 
from the real world can manipulate the media in a number of ways.

The reasons that I created this software are threefold: 1) to create 
a tool that would satisfy my own artistic needs as Co-Artistic 
Director of Troika Ranch, 2) to create an environment that is 
powerful but still simple enough in its design and user interface 
that novices will be able understand and use it quickly -- this 
coming primarily from our need for such a tool in our own Live-I 
Workshops, and 3) to have control over the software so that I could 
create as close to a crash-free program as possible.

The response from those of you who have seen it has been positive, 
which is very gratifying to me. So I hope that others here who are 
interested in this kind of software will take the time to have a look 
and let me know what they think.

Isadora will be for both MacOS and Windows. This public beta is for 
the MacOS 9.x version of the program only. The program does run "as 
is" on OS X, but there is no MIDI yet and I haven't seriously tested 
it. I consider the OS X version to be in an alpha stage of 
development. There is also a Windows version on the way. Mr. 
deLahunta of this list has a copy and reports that it seems to be 
working OK. My hope is to make an alpha release of the PC version in 
the next month or so. (If you are really burning to have it, email 
me...) Files created on one platform will be able to be loaded on the 
other.

I am going to start selling the program on the web very soon. But in 
the meantime, so that all of you who are interested might have a 
chance to take a serious look at the software, I am going to provide 
a registration code that will allow you to work with the fully 
enabled version of the program. This code will expire on April 1st, 
2002.

NP6xTS685JpVSzIT7yp8njouSo@BjN

Copy this code from this email, and when you start up Isadora, hit 
the "paste" button to paste it into the registration code field. Then 
hit "register" to enable the program.

If you find bugs, or just have suggestions, please don't hesitate to 
send them to me at mailto:isadorabugs@troikaranch.org

Enjoy,
Mark


-- 
================================================================
Mark Coniglio, Artistic Co-Director | troika@panix.com
Troika Ranch Dance Theater          | http://www.troikaranch.org
================================================================



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