For the past several years I've been collaborating with nbaldrich and others to create performances, videos, and interactive media installations.
Aural Ecosystem
(in collaboration with N.B. Aldrich)
The Aural Ecosystem applies the generative structures of nature to audio synthesis, creating an 'ecosystem' that develops over time. Synthesizers created from 'genetic' code undergo lifecycles in a multi-speaker 'habitat' with both individual and community characteristics evolving based on peer-to-peer relationships and environmental stimuli.
Up to 24 speaker/sculptures form housings for individual 'critters' who call out to find potential mates. Ambient light helps provide each individual with stimulus to be more or less robust within the context of a variety of internal (individual) and external (environmental) conditions.
Over time, individuals can 'breed' with others who share similar characteristics, spawning offspring that combine elements of their parents. Through this process, an emerging 'ecology' is generated that has its own system of varietal successes and failures, its own population oscillations - in short, its own 'nature'.
Aural Ecosystem premiered in the SOUNDMARKS exhibition at Art Interactive in Cambridge, MA from June 8 to August 18th 2007.
RECORDINGS from the exhibition space (recorded several hours apart):
- Variety (2MB MP3, 2min)
In this sample, several distinct sounds have emerged. Gurgling, whining, and hissing sounds oscillate across the space. - Noisy Close-up (1.5MB MP3, 1.5min)
A "close-up" recording of one voice, which contributes occasional gurgles as its neighbors ebb and flow. - Buzzy Close-up (2MB MP3, 2min)
A buzzy tone from one voice joins multiple pitched whines and a bed of distant rumbles from the other side of the space.
The Observational Soundscape
The Observational Soundscape is a series of sound installations developed by nbaldrich and myself. In terms of this work, observe means both to sense through careful attention and to celebrate through practice. Each installation is designed to be spontaneous audio accompaniment for an accessible place and is not intended for private or paid-admission spaces. Each installation will be adapted to the chosen site. So far we have installed it at the University of Maine, Cooper Union in NYC, and Bates College in Maine.
Using a video camera and microphones, our custom computer software converts the activity of a space into a continually changing soundscape whose form and content reflect the visual and aural phenomena observed in the area. Every detected change in the physical space impacts the piece in some way: sometimes generating audio material and sometimes creating structural variation.
The software translates the trends of color, density and motion from the video camera into the timing, pitch, and spatial characteristics of an audio environment. In some versions of the installation there are microphones which allow ambient sounds to become part of the material used by the instrument. The result is broadcast through 4 speakers in the space.
The Observational Soundscape I: Orono
Memorial Union, University of Maine
The first version was installed at the University of Maine at Orono in May 2005. The atrium of the Memorial Union bloomed with sound as people passed through the installation area while a computer screen showed a visualization of the movement sensed by the piece. Read the campus press release. We are grateful for the support of the Maine Arts Commission in the construction of this piece.
The Observational Soundscape II: Cooper
Cooper Union School of Art, NYC
The second version was installed in a sunlit hallway at the Cooper Union School of Art in NYC in September 2005. This version was much more sensitive to the colors of moving objects and it featured a different visual display which showed the cumulative color trails of all of the people who walked through the space. These trails were constantly analyzed to create long-term variation in the soundscape itself. This version was sensitive enough to react to the occasional rays of sun projected on the floor, responding with quiet unexpected compositions.
The Observational Soundscape III: Bates
Olin Arts Center, Bates College
The third version of the installation was part of an exhibition called Activator at the Olin Arts Center, Bates College Maine. We rebuilt the synthesis engine to incorporate the aural history of the space (in much the same way that the color trails of the previous version recorded visual history). Whenever nearby sounds reached a certain threshold they were recorded into a digital archive where they stayed for up to seven days. When the camera saw movement, the software picked a sound from the archive and subjected it to processing and spatialization based on the color and density of the motion. The color of the current object was compared to the historical average to determine which sound was picked. Colors that broke the continuity of their surroundings triggered sounds from farther back in time, mirroring visual discontinuities with temporal ones.
Hi-Res Images for publication. (opens a new window)