Category: LookingOutwards-04

Looking Outwards 04

Graham Murtha

Section A

In the project entitled “Material Sequencer” by Mo H. Zareei, mechanical processes and rhythm are synthesized to create a sort of exposed metronome. Many people own metronomes, but no one considers the complexity of the functions working inside the little box. This project provides a visual for users, as they are able to experience the mechanisms required to make consistent or dynamic rhythms. While watching demos of the machine in action, I noticed that the variability of the system took up the majority of the working parts. The metronome has a dip switch that, when pressed, alternates between 8 different rhythmic patterns, as well as a dial for tempo. The circuit board tranfers both of these inputs from the user and transfers them to a Teensy 3.2 board, which interprets the 8 patterns as on/off functions. In this vein, the machine conspicuously displays how programming plays a large role in a machine as simple as a metronome. The project also has a heavy emphasis on materiality- connecting raw materials that have been musically utilized for centuries with the new era of mechanism and programming.

Material Sequencer – Physical materiality of sound

Light and sound

This project is all about sound visualization. Amay Kataria visualizes sound by constructing 24 light beams arranged like a synthesizer. Each time there is a sonic input, the corresponding light turns on by performing different notes, the light flickers and continuously changes its pattern. The light and sound are tied in a way that, fundamentally, they are all waves that mark their presence in the outer world. Besides, it also connects to the inner world, which is people’s minds, since user inputs control all patterns.

Performers controlling the installation

The artists showcase his artistic sensibility by developing a system that mimics the human brain, which receives inputs from multiple sources and stores it in the database, which is interpreted and expressed through light and sound. Personally, I like how the system takes into account all users’ input at the same time which emphasizes each individual as a part of the community. It connects individuals in an anonymous way that highlights the hive-mind of humanity.

LookingOutwards – 04

Christian Marclay is an artist and composer with a strong interest in collages. In 2018, he used Snapchat videos and audio to compose and visualize a series of projects made up of a collage of video cuts. In one project a collection of phones hanging from the ceiling; as people speak to them the software matches the frequency of their voice to Snapchat videos and displays them on the screen as a reply. In another, a piano’s keys are connected to sound clippings from Snapchat videos, and as a player presses the keys videos and their sound display on a large screen. All the projects in this collection are interactive; I think this makes it more interesting because Snapchat is an app most people are familiar with and his project series allows them to use it in an entirely different way.

Ryoji Ikeda – Test Pattern (2008)

Test Pattern (2008) is an audiovisual installation created by Japanese sound artist Ryoji Ikeda in collaboration with Tomonaga Tokuyama. The program behind Test Pattern picks up real-time audio signals and converts their sound waveforms into eight synchronized barcode patterns. Its results are then displayed on LCD screens accompanying 16ch sound systems that projected Ikeda’s futuristic, data-driven tunes. Flashing across the screen at speeds that peak at hundreds of frames per second, Ikeda’s installation is one that challenges the boundaries of human perception. While Test Pattern’s soundscape was originally composed by Ikeda, the installation was able to exist thanks to the work of Tokuyama, whose algorithm mapped sixteen channel sound signals onto a grid matrix, turning into blindingly hypnotic strobe flashes. In an article from Hero Magazine, Ikeda was described as a “cosmic polymath,” sonic scientist,” and “matrix shaman.” I can’t help but agree- As an artist, I’ve always been mesmerized by the idea of subliminal audio and creating work that exceeded human sensory limitations. Ryoji Ikeda’s Test Pattern is a direct testament of this– a direct testament to the possibility of a paradoxically serene audiovisual experience that brought its audience into fleeting moments of sensory transcendence.

https://www.ryojiikeda.com/project/testpattern/

Ryoji Ikeda, Test Pattern (2008)

‘FORMS – String Quartet’ by Playmodes

Alexia Forsyth

Section A

‘FORMS – String Quartet’ is an automated emulation of string musicians. Not only is the music beautiful, but the visual display is stunning and captures the essence of the song. The artists use a color code that identifies the instruments on the score and randomizes them. The generator is known as “The Steaming Bot”. The graphics are then transformed into sound. “The Steaming Bot” uses compositions from John Cage, Gyorgi Ligetti, Mestrews Quadreny, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Every part of the network ensemble plays instrumental roles such as rhythm, harmony, and texture. The artist explains, “Images become sound spectrums, making it possible to hear what you see” (Playmodes 8). Their artistic sensibility is shown through the visualization of the musical cords and their relation to the cords.

Video: https://vimeo.com/553653358?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=7721912

Supersynthesis

Hannah Wyatt Section A

Amay Kataria’s “Supersynthesis” artwork strives for a new form of connection through the unity of light and sound. I admire the interactive element, which allows visitors to first-hand control the wave, sound, and light patterns. Participants make edits in real-time, encouraging constant evolution of the piece, juxtaposing this innate action with advanced, intricate programming. The project assigns 24 pitches to 24 light sources arranged in leds across a physical wave, and Kararia intends to connect the audience with nature/eachother in this format. Through combining the interactions of all people with the website open, Kataria labels this event “communal computing” and as a new revolutionary method of social communication. 

Light & Sound Synthesis: In Conversation with Amay Kataria

Laetitia Sonami’s Interactive Sound Performance

A project of sound art that I found very interesting and intriguing was Laetitia Sonami’s Lady Glove.

She built the first glove in 1991 out of rubber kitchen gloves, five hall transducers glued to the fingertips, with a magnet on the right hand. Touching the magnet to the different transducers varied the voltage that were fed to a Forth board and coverted into MIDI signals that controlled synths and samplers. Her latest glove was built in 2001 with the help of the STEIM Institute. The glove became a thin black mesh glove that had various colorful wires coming out of it. It had five microswitches, four hall effect transducers, a pressure pad, restitive strips, two ultrsonic recievers, a mercurty swtich and an accelerometer. All of the signals are now mapped through a software that I am familiar with, MAX MSP.

MAX MSP is a great visual coding software used by many sound designers to create interactive sound installations and art around the world. I have used it several times and have always had fun results. It can also be used in video projects as well.

The thing that I admired the most about this project was the fact that she made it originally as a joke, and it quickly became not only the defining piece of her works, but also a very interesting and fun way to create sound in real time. She has used the piece a lot in physical performances, often accompanying narration. I admire the ingenuity of it because it is so simple, but very effective in being able to control sounds, and it has limitless possibilities.

The artist did not use any algorithims as far as I can tell. She mostly used changes in voltage to change synths and samples at first. She since uses a software that converts voltage in a more nuanced way.

She created the glove to comment on how heavy masculine apparel have been used in virtual reality systems in 1991. In that, her intentions and sensibilities were very much realized. But the way in which her project has evolved and been used since 1991, it has shown how creative her original project was.

“Lady’s Glove” (1991) by Laetitia Sonami

Blog 04 – Computation & Sound Art

An example of where sound and computation cross that I find interesting is Musikalisches Würfelspiel, which evidently translates from German as “musical dice game”. It was popularized in the 1700s throughout Western Europe, and many versions of the game exist as created by different composers. The gist is that someone can randomly generate a completely unique piece of music by rolling dice. The algorithm is quite simple: in each module of a table is a measure of music, and the player rolls their dice twice, first to select the column, then to select the row. The player continues randomly selecting measures this way until the song is long enough to be finished. Even with a smaller table or shorter composition, this could still produce millions of unique songs. Here’s a video of a version of the game in action. (The video is in German, but you can still see the players rolling a die to select different measures, and you get to hear the final composition.)

I find it cool that artists and composers have been embracing the affordances of algorithmically generated music long before computers were in the mix. Programs like Musikalisches Würfenspiel are a good reminder that artistic thought processes can transcend media in unexpected ways, so keep yourself open to unorthodox applications of your creative thinking.