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social sqncr

bruzed — Sat, 22 May 2010 19:21:14 +0000

Description

social sqncr is an interactive audio-visual installation that aims to make people more aware of the act of creating their public identity.

To create their ‘identity’, participants use their bodies to physically interact with a pseudo-musical instrument projected in a physical space to create virtual musical creatures based on their movements. The instrument consists of eight zones that participants interact with which influence the shape, movement, and aural properties of the resulting entity.

Once complete, the system captures an image of the participant to attach to the creature which is then set free into an eco-system inhabited by similar entities. The entities react to one another, much like human beings in a social network. Participants can cause environmental disturbances by physically interacting with the projection.

The physical movements required of participants ensures a high level of investment in the process, causing a heightened awareness of their creation, and thus themselves. Watching their entity interact with other entities is a reflection of their own interaction in their social networks.

Technical Detail

The visuals for this project were coded using openFrameworks, “an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding,” and openGL (Open Graphics Library). Some of the code for flocking, particle interaction, and openCV (Open Source Computer Vision) tracking is based code from Zachary Lieberman.

The audio is coded in SuperCollider, “a real time audio synthesis programming language”. Some of the code for effects, scales and synth definitions are based on examples on the site and the community.

Two Macintosh Intel G5 towers were used power the installation. The two computers were hardwired to a closed network with static IP addresses for communication and debugging remotely. One computer ran the SuperCollider application and the other ran the openFrameworks application. OSC (Open Sound Control) is used to communicate between the two applications.

Hypnagogia

bruzed — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:18:03 +0000

Description

Hypnagogia is a term coined by Alfred Maury for the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep (i.e. the onset of sleep) - en.wikipedia.org/?wiki/?Hypnagogia

It’s possible to experience weird hallucinations during this state which is what our animation is built around.

Technical Detail

Clips were generated by translating the illustrations into sound. This was done by exporting the illustrations as PCX (from Photoshop) and importing them into Audacity as raw audio. This was then layered with environmental sounds, sound programmed in SuperCollider and sound generated by custom software. The result was further manipulated by adding effects. It was produced with Ableton Live.

ShredBoard

bruzed — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:42:47 +0000

Description

ShredBoard is an instrument that uses the conventional keyboard and mouse as input. The keys z-/, a-’, q-] and 1-= are mapped to the notes of four guitar strings starting at E, A, D, G for each row of keys. The mouse is mapped for use as an effects pedal. There are 2 effects – ChillZoid – a clean, ambient effect and MightySTOMP – a distorted synth effect. Parameters for each effect can be adjusted with 3 knobs to produce a variety of tones.

Technical Detail

The software is an AIR application written in ActionScript 3. The sounds are produced in SuperCollider by sending OSC messages via flosc. The flosc AS3 classes were modified for certain OSC messages to work correctly with SuperCollider.

Social Creatures

bruzed — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:44:24 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Social Creatures
Nick Hardeman and Bruce Drummond, 03.23.10.

Social Creatures is an interactive audio-visual installation that aims to make users more aware of the act of creating their public identity. To create their ‘identity’, people use gestures to select a particular form and then interact with a pseudo-musical instrument. The instrument consists of eight visual zones that influence the shape and aural properties of the resulting entity. Once complete, users can name the entity using a mobile device, and then set it free into an eco-system inhabited by similar entities. In the eco-system, the entities react to one another, much like human beings in a social network. Users can use a mobile device to command various entities or cause environmental disturbances through simple gestures.

The physical gestures required of the users ensures a higher level of investment in the process, causing a heightened awareness of one’s creation, and thus oneself. Watching the entity interact with other entities is a reflection of our own interaction in our social networks.

Latest technical prototype, concept statement, look and feel prototype and interaction model for thesis.

Midterm Presentation:

The dystopian window

bruzed — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:29:22 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

This piece was done as a final project for the avsys class. The concept is meant to be an installation piece that reveals a dystopian vision of the future when someone walks by. The camera senses motion and plays back a high pitched distorted sound and a dark image. The frequency of the sound changes depending on where the motion is detected, this is indicated by vertical colored lines that go across the screen as one moves. The project was built with OpenFrameworks and uses SuperCollider for audio.