▸ WIP · NOT YET SUBMITTED · Squeaky Wheel Workspace Residency 2027 · due 2026-10-02 · this page is the public draft of the proposal
Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center · Buffalo · workspace residency · artist track · draft

Note(s)pat(ial) Native
Buffalo.

A spatial sound piece whose loudspeakers are discarded laptops, each booted from a USB stick into AC Native — staged in Buffalo on machines found in Buffalo, and filmed for the first time.

Proposal by @jeffrey (Jeffrey Alan Scudder) · aesthetic.computer

Status
Draft · not yet submitted · due 2026-10-02 · decision Dec 18, 2026
Venue
Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo NY · digital lab, editing suite, cameras · partners: Buffalo Game Space, Silo City, Central Library Launchpad
Session
June 11–26, 2027 · two weeks · 25–30 hours a week
Support
$1,000 stipend · accommodations · up to $400 travel · up to $300 artist fees · $150 skill-share fee
System
AC Native · a bootable operating system that turns a laptop into one instrument
Piece
Note(s)pat(ial) Native · premiered CultureHub Los Angeles, Sept 24, 2026, on six surplus laptops
Call
squeaky.org/workspace-residency
Source
fedac/native/

§Application at a Glancethe Google Form, answered

Squeaky Wheel's form fields and the draft answers, at the guide's target lengths.

Track
Artist — sonic arts, performance, and in its resting state a game.
Project title
Note(s)pat(ial) Native — Buffalo: a spatial piece for surplus laptops, and its first film
Project description~500 words
A fifteen-minute spatial piece in which the loudspeakers are a fleet of discarded laptops, each booted from a USB stick into AC Native and each rendering one voice locally, placed among the audience; a performer turns the field, changes its speed, and hands voices from machine to machine. Premiered at CultureHub LA on Sept 24, 2026. In Buffalo: week one, source six to eight surplus laptops locally and stage the piece for the room; week two, make the first proper film of it with Squeaky Wheel's cameras and editing suite. The fleet stays with a partner as a playable installation; the USB image and score are published open-source.
Time plan~300 words
Days 1–2 artist talk and a community call for laptops; 3–4 boot, assign voices, stage; 5–6 re-place the composition, rehearse; 7 open rehearsal doubling as camera blocking. Days 8–9 two-camera shoot plus multitrack; 10 an afternoon in Silo City's Marine A if it can be had; 11–13 cut and mix in the editing suite; 14 skill-share, hand the fleet to its partner, publish.
Portfolio
culture-hub-2026 · notepat · AC Native source · the CultureHub performance recording (after Sept 24).
Equipment
Sony FX6 + A7III, tripods, Zoom recorder, Focusrite interface, the editing suite, one projector; a room with power for eight laptops; Buffalo Game Space and the Launchpad as surplus sources and the installation's home.
Skill-shareoptional · ~300 words
KidLisp — a one-line program that draws and sings. Two hours, 8–16 people, ages 10 and up, on the Digital Lab's Macs with no install: ten words, three programs each, then sound, then every piece played back on the surplus laptops in sequence.
References
Casey Reas (UCLA Social Software) and CultureHub Los Angeles, or a CV.

§Pitch

The loudspeakers are old laptops, and the old laptops are the point.

AC Native — the laptop as one instrument.

AC Native is an operating system I build that boots from a USB stick. Put it in almost any laptop from the last fifteen years and the whole machine becomes a single voice: no desktop, no apps, one part of the piece, rendered locally, on time. The machines agree on a downbeat over a network the piece carries with it, so the work needs nothing from a venue but power.

The piece exists.

Note(s)pat(ial) Native premiered on September 24, 2026 at CultureHub Los Angeles on six surplus grade-school laptops with the audience seated inside the array. Twelve moving sound bodies orbit, approach and recede; one performer turns the field and hands voices between named, second-hand computers the audience can point at. Squeaky Wheel is the second room, and the first camera.

Week one: Buffalo's discard pile.

I source six to eight laptops in Buffalo — school and library surplus, Buffalo Game Space's shelves, whatever the artist talk brings in — boot each from the same stick, and stage the piece for the room I am given. The method is the claim: an instrument assembled from a city's own e-waste in a week, played, and left behind as a playable installation.

Week two: the film.

The piece has only ever been recorded on a phone. With Squeaky Wheel's cameras and editing suite I make its first document: a two-camera performance with the audience inside, close coverage of the handoff gesture, a binaural mix of the multitrack, cut to a short film that can travel to festivals and to ICLC 2027 in Antwerp.

§How It Reads on the Rubricmerit · achievability · potential

Artistic meritA spatial composition where the diffusion bodies are discrete objects among listeners, the handoff between machines is the performable gesture, and the hardware's history names the parts.
AchievabilityThe software ships and the piece premiered in September 2026. Two weeks is exactly one source–boot–stage–film cycle; the only support needed is laptops and a room with power.
PotentialThe film goes to festivals and ICLC 2027; the fleet stays in Buffalo as an installation; the USB image and score are released so the next city can do the same.

§Two WeeksJune 11–26, 2027

SourceArtist talk and a community call for laptops; Buffalo Game Space and the Library Launchpad for surplus. Days 1–2.
Boot & stageEach machine booted from the stick, read, named, assigned a voice; the fleet staged in the room; the composition re-placed. Days 3–6.
Open rehearsalAn invited audience inside the array, which is also the camera blocking. Day 7.
FilmTwo-camera shoot, multitrack, an afternoon in Silo City's Marine A if it can be had. Days 8–10.
Cut & mixThe short film and the binaural mix in the editing suite. Days 11–13.
Hand overKidLisp skill-share; the fleet to its partner; USB image and score published. Day 14.

§Statusdraft