to build:

• download this
• run tgz -xzvf sss.tgz
• open up xcode projects and go wild

to play:

• explore the background hexes by tapping a finger here or perhaps a finger over there. the trained ear may notice that the hexes follow the wicki-hayden note layout, where the circle of fifths is mapped along the SW to NE diagonal and fourths along the SE to NW diagonal.
• to explore the current sound buffer, press two fingers to the screen.
• to launch a projectile, drag a finger through the sound buffer band that you just made. the further you drag it, the faster it goes.
• if you drag fast enough, you may even pluck the buffer band!
• when you launch a projectile, you imprint three notes on it corresponding to the hexes beneath the your three fingers. when the projectile hits something, it will play one of these notes (and light up it's corresponding hex) at random.
• if the sound gets too dense, just shake the device or press five fingers to the screen.

notes

aside from building the slingashot, and getting a reefered up hexabackground running, i wanted to explore the idea of creating a musical and physical entity. in this case, the projectiles have definite physical traits and interact with their surroundings as you may expect, but they also have musical traits. each projectile is born with the pitches that correspond to the hexes from whence it came. initially, each projectile played this triad at every collision. with a couple of 'em bouncing around, this got a bit nasty. i then decided to randomly select one note to play at each collision. when two projectiles bounce off each other, each one selects a note to play, and they also play the pitch of the hex that they collided on.

in the year 2000, i would have included more instruments and added some sort of control over params that govern the world and allowed the projectiles to carry other musical parameters and allow them to procreate and spread their parameters.

video