The
Electachord is a new, crowd-based instrument for the Apple iPhone.
Nick Kruge – 2010
CCRMA – Stanford University
Intended usage
and vision:
The Electachord is not
supposed to be a mass marketable product, rather it was conceived mainly for
use in the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra, or Mopho. The main drive for this
instrument was to find a way to play coherently yet improvisationally with a
large group.
Design
concepts:
It is in general quite
difficult to improvise with more than two or three musicians, particularly if
they are all complete strangers. One of the beauties of the super smart phones
in this case is their ability to transmit messages almost entirely silently.
For the iPhone in particular, there is not even the typing sound of a keyboard.
While I do not mean to say that this replaces the need for more conditioned
improvisation, I do feel that it represents a new paradigm in the subject. When
music making is not quite in control but not out of control either, a new gray
area opens up, and The Electachord explores that area.
Further
thoughts on Democracy in Music:
Upon opening up the subject
of democracy in music, I find great conversation without fail. This is perhaps
because it is a new concept based on two very, very longstanding ideals. At
first, the two subjects may seem quite different but after a few minutes of
discussion, one comes to realize that they share many similar notions. One main
one leveraged in this assignment is the notion of steering a large group of
people, but maintaining a feeling of control for the independent user. There is
something about democracy and human nature that makes you feel okay even when
you do not get your way, knowing that at least it was a fair process. A less
altruistic concept the two share might be the fact that it is not a perfect
system. Reputations may enhance the probability of some ideas being heard
others. Furthermore, reputations can be fabricated, bought, and sold with
enough money, leverage, and political know-how.
System
Architecture:
The Electachord at its
current state is a simple realization of what, for now, is a simple concept.
The user can play notes using the accelerometer (this simple UI for
music-making was to allow the entire screen for messaging and voting). While
playing, the user can nominate a new chord or run for soloist by clicking the
respective button. This will start a voting process to all users currently on
the system at the current geographic location. The messaging, voting, and
tallying system is all processed through a php server cloud, and the phones
simply poll the server looking for recent messages.
Limitations
and future work:
This project is very
exciting because there are limitless new and relatively sane features that
could be added. One key one, which will hopefully be implemented by the next
Mopho concert, will be the ability to tap in to the local area network and use
OSC to send solo control messages to all local phones. In this way, a soloist
could be naturally amplified by the sound coming out of every phone in the room
in small amounts. One of the slick beauties of this idea is that it would be a
volume for the soloist that naturally expanded to suit the size of the group,
and would not require an external sound system or any more equipment than the
phones and a LAN. Other concepts include a more advanced voting system based on
Roberts Rules.
Thank you for
checking out The Electachord!
Deliverables: