SoundCtrl – Q&A with Scott Snibbe (Snibbe Studio) + Release of Biophilia App Album for Android

By Dana Sedgwick

Today marks the long anticipated release of Björk’s Biophilia App Album for Android. A 2012 FlashFWD winner for Best in Mobile and Tablet, the Biophilia App Album is actually a collection of 10 apps which each correlate to a song on Bjork’s multimedia album of the same name. The apps are also the foundation for the Biophilia Educational Program, a series of interactive workshops to bring science and music instruction to students around the world.

The lab behind these and many other incredible interactive apps is called Snibbe Studio, led by Scott Snibbe. We had a chance to catch up with Snibbe this week to discuss the Android release (made possible with help from San Francisco-based startup Apportable), and dive further into how “interactivity” melds with media, how apps can elevate this goal, and what to expect from Snibbe Studio later this year.

To purchase the Biophilia App Album for Android, visit the Google Play store.

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SoundCtrl: At Snibbe Studio, you “believe interactivity is capable of no less than bringing our dreams to life.” While some argue that the influence of technology has made art (esp music) more artificial and isolating, why do you advocate that tech can be immersive and even organic?

Scott Snibbe: There’s nothing intrinsic to any medium, or anything at all, for that matter, that’s inherently isolating or connecting. It’s how you use them. People had similar concerns about electronic instruments when they first emerged. We believe technology can be used to enhance people’s ability to create, communicate, and connect with each other. Particularly as the world moves into a maker and remix culture, music and video are the next steps. First it was Tweets, then photos, and next comes …? That’s what we’re working on right now.

SC: As a part of a rising cast of influencers I would describe as creative technologists, you created your first app back in the 1990′s nearly 20 years before smartphones appeared on the market… why apps? What do they offer that music or video alone cannot?

SS: Apps offer interactivity. Humans are interactive. When another person doesn’t respond at all to us, or talks incessantly without listening, it’s rather annoying. The next evolution in media is towards interactivity, where media (music, visuals, images) become interactive and social, the way humans themselves are, and expect others to be.

SC: Playing devil’s advocate for a second… should music really be interactive? Don’t artists record their music specifically so that it can be experienced in the way they intended, over and over again?

SS: For 29,500 years or so, music was interactive and participatory. So much so that when we listen to music, three parts of our brain all light up at the same time: the parts for dancing, making music, and hearing it. But the first two have gradually been removed over the last 500 years, and the last 100 was a novel period with completely recorded music, “one way media.” I believe people will look back at this period as a historical blip. Music was meant to be interactive and participatory. And artists enjoy giving their listeners not just a pre-recorded perfect track, but, perhaps, the feeling of what it’s like to be a musical artist, to immerse them in the creative and social experience they go through when creating performing their own music.

SC: Last year, you joined us as the honoree for Best in Mobile & Tablet at FlashFWD for the creation of Björk’s Biophilia app – to me, this project remains the pinnacle of multi-media and multi-sensory invention. Can you remind our readers about how that came together and elaborate on the Android version released today?

SS: Björk’s Biophilia was the world’s first “App Album” a completely interactive audiovisual-tactile experience where every song has a different visual and audio interactive existence. Some songs are like games, others like interactive music videos, and others like visual instruments. The concept sprung from Björk’s mind, as a project to combine music, nature, and technology. She’s always believed that technology (mostly electronic music) could be a way to bring people closer to nature, and to each other, and her songs bear that out. Every song has a natural element: viruses, dark matter, the cycles of the moon, and so on. And every song has a musicological element: generative music, scales, arpeggios, etc. Technology marries these two elements in each song into an interactive whole.

This week the Android version is released, which fans have been asking for since the project launched. We were able to create the Android version in a unique way, by working with a company called Apportable. They have a system where they have completely re-implemented all the iOS frameworks, so that the same app actually compiles and runs on Android. We were incredibly grateful to that team, and relieved to give up on much more elaborate plans we had for porting the app to Android. We hope people enjoy the Android version, and, in particular, that it enables Björk’s educational programs using Biophilia to be used by more people around the world.

SC: Since Biophilia, you’ve created similar immersive album experiences for Passion Pit’s Gossamer and most recently, for a collection of Philip Glass remixes called REWORK_. In a practical sense, do you think this new type of album can help the industry recover from the collapse of recorded music sales?

SS: I don’t think the app album helps the music industry recover. The phenomenon that’s going on in the music industry is much bigger: people are moving away from purchasing individual pieces of content (songs and videos) towards subscription services, or ad-supported services. Even a paid app is still fitting into this older model, which I believe will be around for some time, but will gradually diminish in favor of subscriptions and ad-support.

SC: Snibbe Studio recently closed an angel investment from Matthew Papakipos, Engineering Director at Facebook. Can you tell us a bit about the immediate and longterm projects the team is working on?

SS: The project we’re working on is still “stealth,” however, what I can say is that it’s a way to mash up the kind of things we’ve done with visual music to date, and turn these into a giant worldwide community where everyone can participate all day and night. Stay tuned, as this app will come out sometime towards the end of the year!

SC: You’ve had your fair share of amazing projects and artistic partners. Who are some exciting innovators that inspire you and recent products that you admire?

SS: To begin with some of the newer people on the scene, I’ll start with two of my favorite creators, the duo Theo Watson and Emily Gobeille (Design I/O). I saw a preview of a John Lennon app they are going to release this Fall, and it’s just beautiful. I also love Robert Hodgin‘s work, Memo Akten’s, and Quayola. The artists that inspired me the most when I was young (and still do) are James Turrell, Len Lye, Joseph Cornell, Oskar Fischinger, David Byrne, and Laurie Anderson.