iPhone Ocarina: The HASTAC Connection

Belatedly, our household has purchased its first iPhone. At dinner lastnight, at a local restaurant, Ken and our friend Larry comparediPhones, various wait staff came over to show off theirs, it wasinstantly clear this is not a phone. It is a toy, a pet, an agent ofsocial exchange, an outlet for creativity . . .

And imagine my surprisewhen, in playing with one of the most lyrical and lovely Aps of all,the Ocarina Ap, I discovered a Duke connection to our beloved alum, GeWang, one of the students who worked with us long ago about talked with us, from his student perspective, about how the last thing Duke needed was another conventional information science program. We interviewed students about how the next generation(remember, this is 1998 or so!) of technology programs needed to include creativity, art, music, critical thinking, social applications, ideas of social networking and collaboration as instrumental to new pedagogies, AND the development of new medias, all together, seamlessly and interactively.

Ge went on to graduate school in music and computer science at Princeton. Scott Lindroth, one of Ge's advisors, was one of the first co-directors of ISIS. Then ISIS went national, and became HASTAC.

How stunning to watch as Ge moved on to Princeton where he worked on PLOrk (the Princeton Laptop Orchestra) and now is at Stanford where he is part of SLOrk . . . and now here he is on YouTube, one of the creatores of the Ocarina Ap on your iPhone. Congratulations, Ge!

I love this Ap. You blow into the speaker and then can actually finger the buttons on the iPhone and create music using this 12,000 year old instrument, the Ocarina. The demo for the Ocarino has musicians playing "Stairway to Heaven" on the Ocarina and that is pretty hilarious. But even better is listening as the graphics show you the music emanating from all over the world and there is another way that you can play while watching your desktop and your orchestra is comprised of thousands of those around the world, all blowing over the surface of their iPhones and making quite beautiful music together. Stunning.

Shout out to Tara: When will we have a VECTORS Ap on our iPhone? The timing is now! And maybe we can even find a developer who will give VECTORS a sound, a rhythm, and a voice. Next-gen HASTAC Scholarship. I'm ready!