Category: LookingOutwards-04

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PyroGraph is a machine programmed to take in an image, generate and draw it using dots in a style similar to pointillism. It correlates the sound of the room to the greyscale of each particular dot and the dot is then created by a moving tip that burns 450 into the paper. The dot’s greyscale correlates to the noise of the room. PyroGraph is interesting because it recreates and stylizes an image through public involvement. I wonder why the artist/programmers chose to have the machine react to sound. Since this project was inspired by traditional thermal printers, incorporating sound seems disconnected from tangible print. If it’s a reference to the processing noises old thermal printers make, that would make sense but I wish it was explained explicitly.

This project heavily follows the practices of pyrography: the art of burning wood to create an image. There are differences in style. For instance, PyroGraph requires the machine to draw in dots whereas a traditional pyrographic artist could easily burn lines for realistic textures. However, it’s still revolutionizing the practice, not only through computer-generated burning but also shifting the act of burning from an artist to a generalized public. It’s subtly interactive.

PyroGraph – Drawing machine that listens and burns

hdw – Looking Outwards 4

“77 Million Paintings” is a sound and art digital software by Brian Eno. This artwork was made by compiling Eno’s past 296 works into a generative code that not only combines up to 4 of them visually at a time, but also generatively pairs music with his artwork. The title was named after the different number of artworks that could be made with said code, 77 million. This work is supposed to highlight Eno’s work with experimenting with light and generative music. Eno also shows this work through art installations at vaarious museums around the world. His work was inspired by minimalist musicians such as Phillip Glass and Steve Reich.

https://vimeo.com/638631
Example of some of his works.

Brian Eno’s work comes in a CD format with 2 disks, the first containing a software of randomized music and images, the second of which containing an interview.

Randomly generated images of his code.

Looking Outward 4

 

658 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, cardboard boxes 70x70x70cm, Zimoun 2017

What is so fascinated about this artwork by Zimoun is that it looks really neat and simple at first. The form and the scale of this art attracts my attention. Withe the huge amount of boxes piled up and tons of sensors and cotton balls, audience are amazed by the scale. His idea is really surprising as well because the he wants the audience to focus more on the sound effect with such simple and accessible material. The use of daily life materials, like cotton balls and cardboard boxes, connects people more with the artwork itself. The cotton balls are connected to mottors that create the sound. Although the motors that connect to the balls are low-tech, the deep, pounding sound that is produced by them resonates throughout the exhibition space.

“As you walk through the labyrinth of boxes, the constant humming and vibrating builds, and can be felt both behind and inside you”.

This artwork tries to encourage people to pay more attention to the beauty of sound. Sound can also be appreciated as art, which is the main idea of Zimoun’s art.

“The purpose of keeping the visual aspect of the art basic and subtle is to allow the person to take in all the auditory effects and be free from distractions”.

Sound Art at Beall

http://www.zimoun.net/2017-658.html

 

rgroves – Looking Outwards 04

In the summer of 2016, Icelandic ambient rock band Sigur Ros livestreamed a 24 hour journey around Route One, Iceland’s beautiful coastal ring road. The whole video was accompanied by new music from the band – well, new music in collaboration with a generative music program called BRONZE. BRONZE was created in 2011 by Mike Grierson, a scientist at Goldsmith University, and musician Gwilym Gold. It takes a recorded piece of music and is able to infinitely regenerate it in unique transfigurations. As the original recording is played over and over on this platform, it’s impossible to tell when each reiteration starts and ends because segments may be played in a different order, instruments may be amplified or eliminated, some sections are shortened and others elongated, etc. The music becomes ephemeral, as “the chances of hearing the same version of the track versus the chances of winning the lottery don’t even compare,” according to Gold.

This experiment worked extremely well with Sigur Ros’s ethereal sound. The entire spectacular 24 hour journey is available online, but here are the middle 9 hours!

And here is a link to an album by Gwilym Gold, which is only available on BRONZE and no permanently recorded version exists , so you truly can’t hear the music the same way twice. You do have to download a mobile app in order to listen.

http://bronzeformat.com/

LookingOutwards-04-Chickoff

This is Ambient Synthesis, a sculpture which emits sounds of varying frequencies according to its light stimuli. It was created by Amanda Ghassaei in 2012 who graduated from Pomona College with a BA in Physics and Minor in Chemistry.

All of the sculpture’s data is interpreted by a MaxMSP application which uses the Max visual programming language to connect an object to virtual patch cords to create sound. What I find most interesting about this project is that it gives the environment and light around the sculpture a voice. This is contrary of videos of landscapes that are coupled with music that may not reflect the actual state of the animals and nature being filmed.

I’m very curious about what other factors of an environment, besides light, could be used to create sound. It would be interesting to see a sculpture respond to natural disasters, temperature, or the amount of movement around it…what if a specific sound were emitted if a creature were within a certain range of the sculpture? The sculpture would then be notifying you of something that maybe you can’t detect with your eyes, unlike light. It would then serve as a guardian, informing you of how large the animal is that’s approaching, and perhaps let you know whether it is a threat.

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Table d’Harmonie is created by Pascal Broccolichi and using black corindon powder and speakers. When resonance is reached between the sound and the powder, the powder amasses into small mounts of circular craters around the speakers. The theory of “granular synthesis” is applied to help program the sound to create desired shapes. The project is interesting when trying to visualize sound in a physical form and translating something that has no visual cues into something physical through the medium of different materials.

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This is a project that comes to me as unique. I enjoy watching movie on AIs or reading articles on AI’s learning capabilities. This is Sonic Pendulum by Yuri Suzuki Design Studio. At first pendulum seems to be essential part of the project, but it is not. Pendulums are generating calming ambient sound, but the algorithm is using space and crowd in surrounding to create new composition of sounds. Most impressive part is that if this was normal project, they would have used algorithm to be fixed, which will generate similar sound over periods of time; however, team trained the AI to create infinite composition, which is site and moment to moment specific. This project shows that it is not only possible to make program react vibrantly with surrounding, but also possible to adapt and trained to generate new type of compositions. 

atraylor – Looking Outward 04 – Section B

Ales Tsurko’s microscale is a web-based album that takes Wikipedia articles and transforms them into real time generative music. The articles are processed as step sequencers and the individual letters represent a sequencer step. When a letter is read, it plays a sound. Tsurko’s  concept is to transform meaning while the text is morphed into sound. He also is playing with the idea of dynamic music, as his project is published on an interactive web-page, rather than something that is composed and recorded once.

When I listened to microscale, I heard the audio form of chainless bicycles, anthrax, and vodka. There are several different track titles that have different atmospheric moods in which the text is interpreted.

I admire this piece because I’m interested in the transformation of words to something less tangible. I like that words can incite emotions and responses that are unique to the individual. This project is a way for words to be transformed beyond their meaning.

The web interface of microscale

Connie – LookingOutwards – 04

My previous LookingOutwards example for week 3 would have also fit perfectly for this week’s theme but the Turkish artist, Memo Akten, has many other interesting projects that combine interactivity, music, and smart algorithms. Another of his projects is Webcam Piano 2.0 (2010).

This is a class(-ical) example of creating sound and music through an unconventional means. Users are able to generate beautiful music through an algorithm, made with openFrameworks, that tracks their fingers, hand gestures, and other body movements. The updated 2.0 version introduces additional features including finer, more precise movement tracking and even interpreting the movement to create music that reflects different emotions by playing a different musical mode and changing color scheme. I find this project particularly beautiful, especially the 2.0, because it makes musical expression more accessible to those who may not be classically or technically-trained on the piano, or even in music, yet gives users an outlet to express themselves and their emotions through the fine-tuning of reading their facial expressions or body language.

Users playing around with the Webcam Piano. Image Credit: http://www.memo.tv/webcam-piano-2/

*Unlike some other of his works, the code for this project is unavailable.

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Sonic Pendulum is a soundscape created by Yuri Suzuki Design Studio and QOSMO in 2017. The artificial intelligence part of Sound Pendulum utilizes the atmosphere around it to create sounds of harmony. These sounds are created using speakers and pendulums. The pendulums allow the doppler effect to help dictate the music. Every sound it creates is a response to what is around it, so the harmonies never repeat and continuously alter. I admire this project because of its interactive element and its mellifluous element. The environment can easily soothe a stressed person (I wish I could benefit from its atmosphere at this moment). A deep learning algorithm was used in this project that was trained with compositions and could be changed given the people and noises around it. The project embodies the artist’s ideas of order coming from chaos.

link