PART 1 - Developments leading to the dissertation performance work
First semester
Theoretical studies in the first semester focussed on the investigation and categorising of available sensor systems, different existing sensors and a primary conceptual philosophy around interactive music performances and mapping. The main conclusions from the first, theoretical, semester were firstly that there are still lots of reasons and possibilities to design interactive music performances due to the limited availability of and access to existing systems and to a lack of education, expertise and support in this field. Secondly that it is extremely important that artists from different art disciplines start collaborating more intensely as the interactive (sound) performance field is becoming more complicated every day. Interactivity demands a reasonable amount of technical knowledge and expertise from the involved artist(s) as well as the required artistic talent(s). Thirdly it emerged in the first semester that a skilled ability of and structured freedom for improvisation is a substantial part of interactive performances. These issues are discussed in further detail in part two of this writing.
Second semester
The work in the second semester centered around widening my practical horizon. I collaborated in several multi-disciplinary projects and research practices that required different sensor technologies (due to the nature of the project) and the writing of different software in MAX/MSP to design a specific concept for the choosen sound source: live musicians, environmental and/or sampled sounds. A short investigation of realtime interactive video effects using Jitter was also accomplished.
Conclusions from the second semester were, firstly, a need to develop a custom build sensor system for the collaborative MA dissertation performance Stelarc’s ‘Muscle Machine’. There was no (wireless) sensor system available for such an innovative project and thus a decision had to be taken to build a customised sensor system. Secondly, I also felt there was a need to deepen the philosophies around ‘mapping’ ; how to process the acquired computer data to sound in an artisticly satisfactory way. I will write about different issues regarding ‘mapping’ in part two of this dissertation.
Conclusions from the second semester were, firstly, a need to develop a custom build sensor system for the collaborative MA dissertation performance Stelarc’s ‘Muscle Machine’. There was no (wireless) sensor system available for such an innovative project and thus a decision had to be taken to build a customised sensor system. Secondly, I also felt there was a need to deepen the philosophies around ‘mapping’ ; how to process the acquired computer data to sound in an artisticly satisfactory way. I will write about different issues regarding ‘mapping’ in part two of this dissertation.
Third semester
Following the conclusion from the second semester, I worked on designing a couple of electronic circuit boards in the third semester, starting with firstly modifying the Doepfer ‘Pocket Control’ to trigger several light dependent resistor (LDR) sensors and secondly designing a custom build Basic Stamp electronic board triggering an ultra sound sensor.
Pocket control with LDR sensors Basic Stamp with ultra sound sensor and MIDI
Although it was a challenging prospect to try to build the customised (wireless) sensor system for ‘Muscle Machine’, I decided, due to my limited electronic knowledge, time limitations and deadlines, to occupy myself only with the basic design and development of the sensor system besides the sound composition and MAX/MSP programming. This involved researching the (in this case) gestural and musical aspects of the performance. I collaborated for the actual electronic engineering design. I started to program a basic MAX patch library to be used for the 'Muscle Machine’ and collected a wide range of samples. This made it possible to experiment with different sound transformations and algorithmic effects. On the following pages I will describe the working process and the acquired conclusions.