LookingOutwards-04 – Page 4 – [OLD FALL 2019] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Nadia Susanto – Looking Outwards – 04

Apparatum, created by panGenerator, is a custom made apparatus with a digital interface that purely emits analogue sounds. panGenerator was inspired to build this machine because it was a reminder to the heritage of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio which was one of the very first studios in the world that produced electroacoustic music.

An overall view of the Apparatum with a user

Boguslaw Schaeffer’s “Symphony – electronic music” along with Oskar Hansen’s “Black Room” inspired the technical pieces of the machine and the aesthetic appeal of it. In the video below it is shown that a piece of paper comes out with the audio symbols, and this was created by Schaeffer who conceived his own visual language of symbols that were cues for the sound engineer to produce.

The build of the Apparatum itself was very complex with many components including tape samplers and optical generators. What I admire about this is that the physical machine is art in itself especially with the black and white aesthetic, but with the audio features its incredible to see a machine create sound like that.

A closer look into the detailed components of the Apparatum

A video demonstrating the components of the Apparatum, how the machine is used, and the results from the machine.

For more on the full story, click on the link below.

https://www.creativeapplications.net/sound/apparatum-installation-inspired-by-the-polish-radio-experimental-studio/

Ian Kaneko LookingOutwards-04

This weeks project comes from our very own CMU, specifically the experimental sound synthesis class. Two years ago, they did a project in collaboration with Phipps Botanical Gardens to create an intriguing soundscape a temporary butterfly exhibit.

I don’t know much about the specific algorithms that were used. However, I do know that they didn’t want to simply create ambient music that would stay on loop. Instead, they created soundscapes that constantly changed with the motion around them, meaning the same music would never happen twice.

The creators were still able to put lots of creativity into the music, even with the more unpredictable aspects of the project. Through the careful design of the synthesizers used, the tempo, and texture of the music they were able to orchestrate the exact feelings they wanted to evoke in the listeners.

Video by CMU detailing the project

Jasmine Lee – Looking Outwards – 04

A great example of music and computation is Wintergatan‘s Marble Machine. The music is visualized physically using metal marbles running on a track. These marbles are carried up using a wheel (physically operated by the musician), dropping onto various surfaces such as vibraphone, bass guitar, and cymbals. Other instruments, such as the the kick drum and snare drum are emulated using contact microphones and other software. The music “scores” are actually two giant wooden wheels arranged with LEGO pegs. These pegs, when turning, knock into specific keys which then trigger the release of a marble above a certain vibraphone key.

The person responsible for the machine, Martin Molin, designed and built the machine with the use of a 3D printer and a CNC machine. While not purely a computational project, this project involves the use of computers for the purpose of emulating drums as well as overlaying the music tracks onto each other. It is also computational in the sense that this machine and its parts all had to be carefully calculated and coordinated in order to work. What I admire most about this project is the way in which Molin chose to design the machine. It could’ve been very possible to manifest it as a linear marble track, but Molin chose to design a self-contained machine in which the loop of the marbles is closed. It is also amazing to see the actual physical movements behind the sound that is being produced.

Wintergatan sells blueprint posters of their “Marble Machine” in light of their success with this project.

Jamie Park – Looking Outwards – 04

Video of Weather Thingy on its official website

Adrien Kaeser demonstrating Weather Thingy (2018)

Weather Thingy, 2018, by Adrien Kaeser

Weather Thingy (2018) is a controller that builds sound using real time climate-related events. The device, composed of weather station on a tripod microphone and a custom built controller, transforms climatic data into midi data, which is then interpreted by programmed instruments. The user can also manipulate the midi channel to modify the effects. The most significant part of Weather Thingy is that it is updated live. When you watch the demo video of the device, wind, sunlight and water have different impacts on the music, creating a unique melody that could not be heard on any other time of the day.

According to the author of the post, the device is coded with Arduino, C++, and midi protocol. Although I have no experience using the three languages, I am thrilled to know that one can use coding to generate sound. Overall, I think it was very creative of Kaeser to convert weather data into melody. It must have been a lot of work and effort with a proper understanding of music, and I admire Kaeser for it.

Joseph Zhang – Looking Outwards – 04

Demo of Weather Thingy

Quite contrary to its comical name, Weather Thingy is a custom built sound controller that modifies the sounds from musical instruments by utilizing data from real-time weather events.

This project was created by Adrien Kaeser, a current Media and Interaction Design student at ECAL in Switzerland. The device is able to amplify or minimize the data from any one of its four sensors and add that information into any musical composition to distort it. The device was made primarily with Arduino products and coded with Arduino, and MIDI protocol.

The internal hardwiring of the device’s components

I find this project very fascinating because of its ability to take such qualitative data and make something so empathetic from it all. People often distinguish science and emotional art; Adrien was able to combine both.

Weather Thingy – Real time climate sound controller

Sarah Kang – Looking Outwards – 04

For her recent graduate design project, a collaborative with ECAL (Bachelor Media & Interaction Design), Swedish designer Erika Marthins explored the ways to elevate the every day aspect of food by adding another of dimension of sensory effect. The initial picture of a slab of chocolate on a record player seems like just an artsy edit, but to imagine that the chocolate actually functions as a record was amazing to me. The chocolate record player is one of three desserts explored; Marthins embeds poetry into a lollipop and creates edible robotics.

Déguster l'augmenté ECAL/Erika Marthins from ECAL on Vimeo.

The chocolate record performs the same way as a typical vinyl record. The sounds produced by the chocolate round are made by grooves on its surface and when the record needle comes into contact with the moving surface, one can hear a high-pitched, wavering sound playing. Erika Marthin’s explorations as a designer is manifested through this successful project; she manages to create a poetic experience by achieving her goal to enable the diner to not only hear the sound of the chocolate, but to taste it.

http://erikamarthins.com/

Nawon Choi— Looking Outward 04

Cycling Wheel: The Orchestra

*“Cycling Wheel” by* Keith Lam, Seth Hon and Alex Lai

This performance/installation caught my attention because of the way the artists transformed a non-traditional medium (bicycle wheels and lights) into a work of visual and sonic art.

The artists noted that they took inspiration from Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, an installation piece that originally was made in 1913. I appreciate the way the artists reimagined this piece to be one that is interactive and dynamic. They transformed the mechanics of the wheel to control the light and sound, turning the bicycle wheel into a performative instrument.

Image result for marcel duchamp bicycle wheel — *Marcel Duchamp’s “Bicycle Wheel” (1951)*

I love the way that the artists incorporated both audio and visual elements into this piece and carefully crafted their performance/installation to highlight both elements. The performance was held at night, with the addition of a smoke machine to enhance the visual experience and also creating stunning photographs and documentation.

According to this article, some of the technical aspects of this installation include, a tailor-made control panel software that was created with an open-source programming language called “Processing” that is used to create animations and interactions. It also has three different units that control the music, light beams, and LED strips.

Below is a video of the performance—

Minjae Jeong – LookingOutwards-04-SoundArt

Computational Design of Metallophone Contact sounds by Columbia engineering shows how to optimize a customized instrument with computational design and digital fabrication. For each sound spectrum, the computer optimizes the surface with isotropic scaling optimization. I found this project very interesting because computer technology will continue to develop and will produce more accuracy than ever, which means that musical instruments will eventually be more intertwined with computers. But how will technology have more influence on classical instruments than now? Until when will classical instruments remain as the most prestigious instruments?

Margot Gersing – Looking Outwards – 04

The sound art I was inspired by this week is a project called Apparatum by panGenerator Collective.

Video of the Apparatum project

This project is a machine with an interactive digital interface that only makes analog sounds. It is inspired by Polish Radio Experimental Studio which created the first electroacoustic music. The musical inspiration is from Symphony – Electronic Music composed by Boguslaw Schaeffer.

My favorite part about this project is the combination of a graphic image, sound and a digital interface. I also really liked the interactive component of the project. The machine is based on magnetic tape and optical components that are controlled by a graphic score which was made on the digital interface. The software used to create the interface is electron (node.js) and teensy 3.2.

Article 1, panGenerator

Lanna Lang – Looking Outwards – 04

Yuri Suzuki’s “Sonic Playground” // 2018

“Sonic Playground” is an installation of six interactive sound sculptures that transmit and manipulate sound depending on where you’re standing, listening, or speaking. The software used in this project was Grasshopper as a plug-in for Rhinoceros 3D, and both programs aren’t acoustic software, but in certain situations with certain frequency ranges, it can be done using ray-tracing techniques. What inspires me about this project is the child-like fantasy with its playfulness and nod to the talk tubes on playgrounds from childhood, and how Suzuki plays it up with physics, engineering, and computer software, using the shape of the parabolic dishes that require time to find the exact spot where you can hear the reflection of sound at its optimum.

Suzuki makes this installation effective by using the raytracing tool to replicate the design of the internal surfaces of a concert hall to maximize the sound that reaches and envelops the audience. However, I wish that the artist made the appearance a little more interesting and different than the talking tubes that can be found on playgrounds, or somehow appeal more to the adults than the children in a way that brings the adults joy in reminiscing their childhood memories.

Suzuki was inspired by the public space in Japan and the UK and how strangers don’t tend to start conversations with strangers, and he wanted to create an experience between people who must communicate through audio. He was also inspired by the sound mirrors in Kent that were originally built by the UK’s national defense force in the early 19^th century.