Ritualistic Performance System Research

Goal: To create a ritualistic performance system using spacialized audio signals and real-time video manipulation. Ritualistic performance system to consist of water-based video controller and gestural audio looper and controller.

Background:

The performance system is part of continued research in creating an audio/visual experience combining spatialized field recordings, the voice, sensors, video, and software. In its current iteration, I plan to work with water and conductive tape utilize proximity sensing as a way to incorporate real-time changes to video content. For the audio, I plan to use a series of natural and machine-made sounds alongside some other more musical components. I also plan to continue working with a performance mask with an embedded microphone and sensors.

water controller prototype

mask prototype

mask sensors

WK1 -- Brainstorming + Testing

Water sensor to control visual content
Mask to control aural content

Performance Site -- Listening Room
Okay to burn / use scents?
Dry Ice?
Max capacity in Listening Room?

To do:

Bare Conductive Touch Board + Water Sensor Testing in Max 
Arduino code + upload to Touch Board
Max MSP/Jitter + Touch Board testing
Add water sensor input to video mixer patch
Collect Field Recordings
   Fire / Machines / Energy Facility / Electrical Drone Sounds

WK2 -- Testing + Collection

Water Sensor Testing in Max MSP/Jitter [1]

I managed to get data into Max from the Bare Conductive micro-controller. After a few minutes the microcontroller seems to get overloaded and freezes. If I reload the Arduino code onto the board data starts to work in Max temporarily. This issue seems fairly consistent. My laptop also seems to be having trouble processing video and receiving data at the same time. The latency of sensor data into Max is painfully slow while video is running. Sensor response is proficient with no video processing.

I will need a new laptop. This is not a surprise.

Readings:

Keywords in Sound, Chapter 15, Resonance, by Veit Erlmann 
Keywords in Sound, Chapter 17, Space, by Andrew J. Eisenberg 
The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment & the Tuning of the World, 
by R. Murray Schaffer, Chapter 12, Symbolism

To do:

Research options for new laptop (2015 Macbook Pro) + Stanford support
Mask controller into Max MSP/Jitter
    Build simple looper w/ adc
    Test Teensy + MIDI
Edit field recordings 

WK3 -- More Testing + Collecting

Simple Audio Looper Interface for Testing | Max MSP/Jitter + MIDI Controller --

I built a simple looper patch in Max in order to start manipulating and listening to field recordings from my recent sound hunts. Lately, I've been interested in machine sounds that have similar qualities as sounds from nature... like how cars sound similar to the ocean, or certain electrical resonances sound like cicadas and crickets.

 audio test -- [2]

Readings + Inspirartion:

"...the wind began to funnel down from the high southern pass, gaining more force with each passing moment...The effect wasn't a chord exactly, but rather a combination of tones, sighs, and midrange groans that played of each other, sometimes setting strange beats into resonance as they nearly matched one another in pitch... strangely dissonant. While never unpleasant, the acoustic experience was disorienting." (Kraus, pg 37)

The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places, by Bernie Kraus

"conscientious listening shows that geophony -- natural sounds springing from nonbiological subcategories such as wind, water, earth movement, and rain -- has an effect not only on individual voice expression but also on the performance of all animals in a habitat taken together. (Kraus, pg 39)

To do:

Purchase 2015 Macbook Pro
Mask controller into Max MSP/Jitter
    Test Teensy + MIDI
SLAC audio recordings
Visit Listening Room
Create composition map