September, 2009
Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers
POSTED IN Inspiration, Rants, Video
Here’s the wonderful piece “Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers”. Interesting use of the everyday environment. Definitely an eyeopener when it concerns where sound/music can come from. Kudos for wonderful storytelling.
Sources graded cont.
POSTED IN Reflections
Attached is a rough estimate of the degree of generative potential in the system inputs. An Installation needs to not only work when there are visitors there, but also when there aren’t anyone there – to draw visitors into it. Naturally, this doesn’t necessarily apply if the installation is meant to be surprising, for instance when placed in public spaces.
Reposting the list as a reference:
1. Adjust channel by visitor’s location in room
2. Adjust volume by visitor’s location in room
3. Ambient light temperature affects effects/sound (windowed room or just affected by outside light)
4. Concealed ambience microphone
5. Huge mobile, objects on strings hanging from the ceiling, makes sound when visitors move through them (kinetic)
6. Microphone inside hard object, resonates on touch/hit
7. Microphone on floor
8. Punching balls -> microphones inside record hits
9. Punching balls -> sensors inside trigger sounds
10. Record time-lapse of people in room; generate sound from the pattern that is created
11. Several objects together make sound when moved/shaken
12. Single light source, shadows cast by visitors block out sounds based on which light sensors they trigger.
13. Single light source, shadows cast by visitors trigger effects.
14. Single light source, shadows cast by visitors triggers sound.
15. Sound triggered by touch (button/switch), effect/filter by ambient sound level
16. Sound triggered by touch (button/switch), effect/filter by location in room
17. Sound triggered by touch (button/switch), effect/filter by number of people
18. Tilt sensor in object, generates sound
19. Tilt sensor in pendulum, generates/tweaks sound
20. Video -> Movement triggers sound
21. Video -> Movement creates sound
22. Video tracking, when silhouettes overlap, triggers sound.
23. Visible ambience microphone
24. Vocal microphone
I find it only partly interesting to sort the list in this scale, as the generative potential is as much influenced by the processing of the input as the input itself. It is always possible to create idle modes regardless of the input.
Masked sound – decomposing canvas
POSTED IN Installation, Reflections, Testing
When something, like a person, blocks a light source, a shadow is cast. This shadow is in effect a mask, masking out parts of the visible space, as the absence of light is dark, and dark is invisible (in the extreme). So what happens if you translate the same mechanics to sound? To find out more I did a couple of tests, hooking up a light sensor to an Arduino and connecting it to a program in Processing:
Masked sound explored _1 from Kjetil Austvoll-Dahlgren on Vimeo.
The next logical step was to hide the hardware inside an object and upscale the experiment:
Masked sound explored _2 from Kjetil Austvoll-Dahlgren on Vimeo.
The next test I’m planning to do is hooking up more sensors and placing them in a larger space to explore how this affects the experience of it. Other things that need to be considered are the auditive parts of the piece: what should it be, where is it coming from, should it be generated by the light? Or preprogrammed? Or effects on ambient sound? Should the shadows mask out tracks or effects on a single track?
We are used to adding components to the whole when we wish to make something better in our daily lives (seasoning in food, accessories with clothes, etc). I am going to explore what the effect of decomposing does to an auditive canvas, and how this links directly to the visual canvas i.e. the room/space you are in.
Sources graded cont.
POSTED IN Reflections
Other aspects of the sources worth considering are the autonomous system versus the user driven system, or in other words the automatic versus the manual, or the system as an individual versus the system as a tool.
Sorting to come…
Goodlooking british chaps with cute toys…
POSTED IN Inspiration, Video
Here are some videos of the Modified Toy Orchestra:
About/feature:
Modified Toy Orchestra from Edwin Lee on Vimeo.
Teaser/taste:
Modified Toy Orchestra – Future Of Sound Taster from Illustrious Company on Vimeo.
Performing “Black Star”:
Black Star from cat weasel on Vimeo.
Nice stuff
POSTED IN Inspiration, Video
A couple of videos:
Modus Motus (installation) from Boutique Vizique on Vimeo.
Sources graded
POSTED IN Reflections
I then went through them, sorting them in groups by their estimated transparency in an installation setting:
List of possible input sources
POSTED IN Reflections
As a start I’ve collected some possible ways for the user to generate/trigger sound:
1. Adjust channel by visitor’s location in room
2. Adjust volume by visitor’s location in room
3. Ambient light temperature affects effects/sound (windowed room or just affected by outside light)
4. Concealed ambience microphone
5. Huge mobile, objects on strings hanging from the ceiling, makes sound when visitors move through them (kinetic)
6. Microphone inside hard object, resonates on touch/hit
7. Microphone on floor
8. Punching balls -> microphones inside record hits
9. Punching balls -> sensors inside trigger sounds
10. Record time-lapse of people in room; generate sound from the pattern that is created
11. Several objects together make sound when moved/shaken
12. Single light source, shadows cast by visitors block out sounds based on which light sensors they trigger.
13. Single light source, shadows cast by visitors trigger effects.
14. Single light source, shadows cast by visitors triggers sound.
15. Sound triggered by touch (button/switch), effect/filter by ambient sound level
16. Sound triggered by touch (button/switch), effect/filter by location in room
17. Sound triggered by touch (button/switch), effect/filter by number of people
18. Tilt sensor in object, generates sound
19. Tilt sensor in pendulum, generates/tweaks sound
20. Video -> Movement triggers sound
21. Video -> Movement creates sound
22. Video tracking, when silhouettes overlap, triggers sound.
23. Visible ambience microphone
24. Vocal microphone
Then I’ve sorted them in the grid, like so:
User involvement grid
POSTED IN Reflections
As mentioned before, I believe that it is important to bear in mind the activeness/passiveness of the user generated input and the threshold of use when designing interactive experiences. To explore this I will use this grid:
Al-Khowarizmis Mechanical Orchestra – Video
POSTED IN Inspiration, Installation, Video
I finally found a video of Christian Blom’s “Al-Khowarizmis Mechanical Orchestra”.
It can be viewed here.
