Curious Sound Objects, the art show for multi-sensory interactive art objects, recently had Vol III at the Aeronaut Brewery in Somerville, MA and f00f was there to report back to us!
Initially, I expected the, "sound objects" to evoke a feeling of playing with a squeaky door. It sounds great to the person producing the sound. It was similar to this except with the feeling of a 12-wheeler passed by every few seconds. The aeronaught brewery is an interesting place but a bit overwhelming in volume.
As I explored the area, I noticed how subjects began their discovery of what the non-obvious "objects" do. They were left alone to figure out all that was before them - reverse engineering it, while encouraged a discussion between participants. Figuring out what an object does becomes more difficult when the result is delayed from the input.
The Strange Attractor object raised my curiosity. It looked insipid at first glance, but the closer I looked, the more my curiosity grew.
A 2 directional pendulum hangs while four magnets deflect its path. If the tip passes over some points, certain notes get played. Because of the nature of the pendulum, it appears that this setup generates an unpredictable series of notes and timings in playback. It utilizes a chaotic process as input for a musically created algorithm.
I am unsure of the true chaotic/strange attractor nature in terms of mathematics (see Strange Attractor), but it appears to be similar. Small initial variations lead to a vastly different path. I wonder if sounds could be created from other complex mechanical processes like a double pendulum or a 3-body planet system.
It's funny how one small thing leads to another. If I hadn't watched Viheart's "How to Toothpaste", I probably would not have heard of this event. I've always wanted to try acrylic painting, so after seeing Viheart having so much fun with her toothpaste art, I thought to myself, "Why can't I have fun painting too?" Naturally, I checked out an art supply store in central Sq, Cambridge, and found a poster for Curious Sound Objects on the board. #audiovisual , #ButterflyEffect
Written by: f00f
You can discover similar events here.
