Emonic Environment
:: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Emonic Environment?

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What do all the names mean?

Emonic Environment - see above.
Emonator - a hardware/software gesture controller in an evolutionary fashion and used for audiovisual control. More details here

Where do the names come from? What does the logo mean?

The Emonic Environment and The Emonator are all courtesy of the Emonic Collective.
The emon is a unit of meaningful abstraction of audiovisual content that aquires significance when connected in an active network to other emons.

Do you attempt to replace Max/MSP, Reaktor, TV?

No. We do however aim to provide you with something these interfaces don't have, namely, life (evolution) as expressed by the evergoing change of the source media and its structures.

What does the Emonic Environment mean for file sharing?

It means good. Essentially a side objective of this project is to render copyright meaningless in the context of active creation. The Emonic Environment uses no source media without modifying it in one way or another. Furthermore, each exchange of EE networks between users results in all of their media becoming available to all the other users of the same server. Thus we hope to facilitate propagation of Source Creative Media(tm) in a new powerful way.

When will the Emonic Environment be done?

It is available for download now. New versions are released with average frequency of one minor revision a week. Future versions of the EE will have an automatic update feature that will alert you to the availability of a new version.

I'm an artist. Why should I be interested?

For all the wrong reasons. If you are looking for a sequencer it's not it. It will allow you to create art, but practices of art mastery as defined in the European tradition are meaningless here. The idea, put simply, is that you are NOT in control. Instead, you are playing (or some would say 'creatively fighting') with the machine, exposing new combinations of media, looking at the resulting structures, interrelationships of structural and media properties, and trying to make sense out of it, only to be again led into the endless change of what you've just created. It's fun, and it certainly changed our view of what artist's role will be in the years to come. Give it a try?

I'm a music fan. Why should I be interested?

You probably know it all about programs like ACID, FruityLoops, Max/MSP, Reaktor for audio, Jitter and NATO for video, and many others. They are all excellent programs and allow you to do lots of interesting audiovisual manipulations. These programs however don't offer you a way to get beyond the media that you currently have (e.g. they don't go on the net and find some new media for you). Furthermore, once you used one of these programs to create a piece, that piece is fixed. What's bad with a fixed piece? It's great if your objective is producing a CD record; if however you want to create something that is alive, changing every time you run the program, something that will lead you to explore new combinations of media, solo or in a joint venture with other users, you won't get much help from these programs. This is where the Emonic Environment comes in. Want to know more? Read the articles or just download the program and play with it!

I'm a developer. Why should I be interested?

If you have a program that performs audio or video manipulation you will soon be able to hook it to the Emonic Environment. Why would you do so? Simple - by hooking our systems together you will be able to bring evolutionary change, multi-user control, and many other new features into your program and we will be able to give our users an ability to perform new exciting types of audiovisual manipulation provided by your program.

I run a music label. Why should I be interested?

By running the Emonic Environment you can give the much needed exposure to the artists you represent. By engaging with the materials initially created by your artists, people become used to see you as their media provider. Your role is thus more essential than ever, for you are no longer a middleman but a creative filter associated in public's mind as active source of new media for them to play with. We are currently working on a distribution model that you might find quite different from what you've seen before but beneficial to you and the artists.

I run an mp3 site. Why should I be interested?

Up to now people were able to download songs from you. How about giving them some bonus to play with? By running the Emonic Environment server (available in both built-into-the-client and standalone versions) you will be able to give your visitors ability to do something with all these songs other than just listen.

I'm a couch potato and I love my TV as it is. Leave me alone.

OK. But do you own a cell phone? If yes you might be interested in checking our upcoming project, Cellular Emonic Tone.

Why should I trust you that the Emonic Environment is clean from viruses, trojans, etc?

The Emonic Environment is developed by the Interactive Cinema Group at the MIT Media Lab. We take your privacy seriously and do not perform any non-advertised operations on your computer or within your computer network. The only information currently provided by your copy of the Emonic Environment back to us is the IP address of your server, should you choose to run one.
If and when the software is modified to gather any additional information, you will be:
- notified during the update procedure
- an option will be provided to turn off providing such information
- this FAQ will be modified accordingly.
Furthermore, the source code for the EE is going to be released into the public domain in the future, so that you can see for yourself. But seriously, no hacks or anything of the nature is in the program, we have better ways to spend our time.

I want to add to the Emonic Environment. How do I go about that?

Given that the EE sources are not yet public domain, you would have to contact us. We are working on an API that will allow people to write their own processing units for the EE.

Can I get the source code?

Not yet. See the question above.

I'd like to use the Emonic Environment in a non-profit context. Can I?

Yes. The Emonic Environment is notice-mention-ware, which is to say if you use it, please send us a note and credit us in your (non-profit) performance, webpage, etc.

I'd like to use the Emonic Environment in a commercial context. Can I?

Generally yes, but there are a few things that should be negotiated first. Please contact us.

Is there a more detailed description of what the Emonic Environment does?

Please see the User Manual for details of program operation and the Publications for higher-level view.

I have a question that isn't answered by this FAQ. Where can I turn for help?

Please make sure to first check the User Manual for any questions regarding different functions of the program.
For a more academic perspective of where the Emonic Environment is leading to, please consult the Publications area of this site.
To contact us, please email emoninfo a-t media d-o-t mit d-o-t edu.

How current is this FAQ?

It was last updated on April 7, 2003.

Disclaimer: This FAQ's questions are heavily modeled after the ones of the Ogg Vorbis's FAQ