With me as your Master Canner.
Click on me to hear "canbient music." Click again to stop.
With me as your Master Canner.
If you have already visited my canning page you already know what this is about. Now by taking advantage of the new Beatnik "sonification" software I am able to "interactivate" my page so that you can play virtual cans. You can not only listen to cans being played but can join in as well! Where did I get this crazy idea?While at Stanford, CCRMA, I developed an interactive hyperinstrument using Max Mathew's creation, The Radio Drum. This device is constructed of two batons that are radio signal transmitters, and a flat surface that is the antenna that tracks the batons. By programming the interpretation software almost anything can be done with this device. One can conduct a MIDI symphony, create random music, or make a completely new three-dimensional virtual instrument. Such things are called hyperinstruments. What I chose to do is mix a performance of playing real cans with playing virtual cans.
The Radio Baton set-up for a performance of Bob Can Do It!The final composition, named Bob Can Do It!, made use of many samples painstakingly recorded using the microphone setup detailed on the other can page. These samples were then made into a SoundFont and placed in a user bank on the computer. The radio-baton program I created placed "hot-spots" around the antenna so that when the right-hand baton gets close to a spot, the sound is triggered. The left-hand baton controlled volume on the y-axis, so that as I slid it away from me the samples became louder. On top of this I placed several cans around the playing surface. These acted as conductors, making the baton appear closer to the antenna and thus tricking the computer into triggering a sound.
Bob demonstrating he indeed Can Do It!The performance of the piece takes on a magical quality: gently tapping the top of a can with the baton would conjur a sound, as if a magic wand gave life to the can and made it speak. The audience may or may not realize that the sound was created from the cans in the first place; and to prove such I physically played the cans with the baton stick (as seen in the figure above). The first movement of the work consists of this magic and prepared the audience for the next and final movement.
For the second movement I programmed the system such that when I hit a certain computer key, it would begin recording my actions with the radio batons. I would tap out a bunch of notes at some rhythm, turn the recording off, and the rhythm would loop while I physically played the cans with a drum stick and my hand. I have generated an accompaniment while I play the cans on top of it.
Alas, the program I created has been lost on a bad disk; and so the performance will never take place again (unless I have the time and equipment to reproduce it). But here, I have tried to reassemble the piece, where you may create your own accompaniment, and play along with it. So please, won't you join me on the next page.
