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Marc Böhlen JT Rinker Universal Whistling Machine Canada http://www.realtechsupport.org/new works/uwm.html marcbohlen@acm.org

U.W.M. (2004) Whistling is a communication primitive in most human languages. Whistling is a kind of time travel to a less articulated state. Inhabitants of Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, use a whistling language, el Silbo Gomera, to communicate from hilltop to hilltop. Their powerful whistles travel farther than the spoken word. We share whistling and song with many animals. Mammals and birds carry the means for whistling in them. Just as we carry physical remnants of our bodily evolution in us, we carry the capacity for whistling in us. U.W.M is an investigation into the vexing problem of human-machine interface design. Whistling is much closer to the phoneme-less signal primitives compatible with digital machinery than the messy domain of spoken language. As opposed to pushing machines into engaging humans in spoken language, U.W.M. suggests we meet on a middle ground. Whistling occurs across all languages and cultures. All people have the capacity to whistle, though many do not whistle well. Lacking phonemes, whistling is a pre-language language, a candidate for a limited Esperanto of human-machine communication. Beyond alternatives to computer interfaces, U.W.M. also offers the potential for a new approach to human-animal communication. U.W.M. is capable of imitating certain bird whistles as easily as it can synthesize human whistles. Could this lead to new forms of human-machine-animal exchanges?

BIOS Marc Böhlen offers technology support, the kind of support technology really needs. His practice fuses analytical techniques common to the engineering sciences with historical grounding typical of the humanities into a kind of practical philosophy of the everyday, seen under the constraints of automation technologies. Marc’s work has been supported by grants from Arizona State University, the University of California at San Diego, Carnegie Mellon university, and the Canada Council for the Arts. Marc has presented papers and exhibited artwork nationally and internationally including at the New York Digital salon, the Warhol Museum, AAAI, CHI, ACM and IEEE. Recent speaker engagements include talks at the University of Munich (Institut für Informatic), the IPLAB (Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm), SmartGraphics2004 (Banf New Media Center), amongst others. Marc is currently on faculty at the Department of Media Study at the University at Buffalo where he directs students in the art of mediarobotics. J.T. Rinker is a PH.D candidate in Music Composition at the University at Buffalo where he studies both acoustic and electro-acoustic composition. He is also an adjunct instructor in the Department of Media Study at the University of Buffalo. His interests in interactive computer performance/installation and real-time audio signal processing have led him to expand his research to include machine vision and robotic art. T.J. received his Masters of Music in Music Composition from the University of North Texas, and served as a staff member for the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia at UNT. He received his Bachelor of Music from Esat Carolina University.