Interactive Audio-visual Installation Research Articles

Bathing in Lightness

Bathing in Lightness is an interactive audio-visual installation that intends to re- flect our relationship towards the machine as such, regarding the way we tend to perceive the apparatuses around us as living beings with a life of its own. The installation features a swarm intelligence inside a virtual – yet physical – goldfish bowl, that is exploring its tiny universe while trying to communicate with the outer world. The swarm imagines its own interpretation of reality, while reflecting the presence of visitors moving in front of the piece. Build out of a commonly sensed longing for analogue, thus easy understandable mechanisms, the installation’s basic component represents an archetype of electric machines: the incandes- cent light bulb. Thereby the installation acts as an analogue interface through which the visitor can make contact with a virtual being while breaching the digi- tal realm, provoking to contemplate on her/his relationship towards the artificial entity. Along with a calm and soothing sonification of the swarm’s movements, we are allured to rest in front of the piece as we would by warming ourselves at a cozy campfire, remembering us of ancient and more leisurely paced times.

Polícia, Bandido, Cachorro, Dentista

O artigo descreve o desenvolvimento da instalação audiovisual interativa Polícia, Bandido, Cachorro, Dentista inspirada na obra do músico e compositor Sérgio Sampaio. Exibida no Museu Nacional da Republica em Brasília, a instalação permite ao público a mixagem audiovisual por meio do toque sobre objetos de metal. Construída inteiramente com tecnologias open source, a obra converte ready mades como panelas e baldes em instrumentos de mídia que atuam sobre som e projeção de vídeo em tempo real. A partir da noção de metamídia e remixibilidade profunda, o artigo destaca como o processo artístico inspirado na Cultura Maker e DiY experimenta o uso de software, interatividade e mídias audiovisuais.

The Lives of Others

“The lives of others” is an interactive audiovisual installation that is based on a voyeuristic approach of the binomial inside / outside and private / public, between the finished product presentable to the public and the mechanism that generates it. This mechanism consisting of physical devices and logical-mathematical instructions usually remains in the private sphere, is the interior of the work that is not seen, which belongs only to the creator / author. “the lives of others” quest for demystify the separation of the visual apparatus and the mechanism that generates this external system, making both visible and bringing to the public sphere the elements usually hidden.

An interactive audio-visual installation using ubiquitous hardware and web-based software deployment

This paper describes an interactive audio-visual musical installation, namely MOTUS, that aims at being deployed using low-cost hardware and software. This was achieved by writing the software as a web application and using only hardware pieces that are built-in most modern personal computers. This scenario implies in specific technical restrictions, which leads to solutions combining both technical and artistic aspects of the installation. The resulting system is versatile and can be freely used from any computer with Internet access. Spontaneous feedback from the audience has shown that the provided experience is interesting and engaging, regardless of the use of minimal hardware. Subjects Human–Computer Interaction, Multimedia

Strata Sequence: From Musical Rocks to Palaeo-Soundscapes

Strata Sequence is a body of work comprising a range of creative outputs, including compositions and installations. The work represents a series of collaborations with museums and festivals related by the theme of geology. The first created work, Living Waves, is a multi-channel composition interweaving field recordings from the Lake District with readings from the writings of John Ruskin alongside recordings of a specially created lithophone (the Brantwood Musical Stones) played by Dame Evelyn Glennie. An interactive audio-visual installation, Strata, was subsequently created utilizing the Xbox Kinect sensor with custom software created in MAX. This allows participants to play a virtual version of the Brantwood Musical Stones via hand movements in front of a video screen, and is designed for touring. An on-line geological soundmap of Cumbria is also being created to represent sounds above and below the ground. The final part of the sequence is the recreation of a Jurassic soundscape entitled Re-imagining the Jurassic. This was created for a 16 month exhibition at Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum called Scarborough’s Lost Dinosaurs.

CulturalNature Arga #2

CulturalNature Arga#2 is an interactive audio-visual installation intended to explore the concept of landscape as a verb (to landscape) questioning and reflecting about the semiotic discourses associated with this concept. The landscape as something natural, static, peaceful, silent, etc. is a semiotic discourse with roots in a past related with the representation of a point of view, not only perceptual but also conceptual, ideological. These representations enformed the visual culture leading to a particular discourse. The installation proposes a reflexion about the way different elements associated with a particular territory shape this territory's landscape, giving it a dynamic existence, a product of cultural activity. Like J.T.W. Mitchell, here, the landscape is seen “…as a process by which social and subjective identities are formed.” (1994)

Mimi4x: an interactive audio-visual installation for high-level structural improvisation

We present Mimi4x (Multimodal Interaction for Musical Improvisation), an interactive audio-visual installation that engages members of the general public in high-level structural decision-making in musical improvisation. Through a Musical Instrument Digital Interface controller, the user manages four instances of the Mimi 1.5 improvisation system. The visuals in each Mimi system animate the generation of new music, depicting the recombination of musical material and the flow of generated music in time. A composer prepares original music material for each Mimi to use in its improvisation. Through Mimi4x, the user is directly involved in the improvisation/composition process and takes on some of the role of the composer. The user chooses which Mimi instance performs and when, and can adjust the recombination rate for, and playback volume of, each Mimi instance during performance. This simple method of interaction is accessible to all users regardless of their musical background, yet gives the user significa...

Nanoessence: God, the first nano assembler

The Nanoessence project aims to examine life at a sub-cellular level, re-examining space and scale within the human context. A single HaCat skin cell is analysed with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to explore comparisons between, life and death at a nano level. The humanistic discourse concerning life is now being challenged by nanotechnological research that brings into question the concepts of what constitutes living. The Nanoessence project research is based on data gathered as part of a residency at SymbioticA, Centre of Excellence in Biological Arts, University of Western Australia and the Nanochemistry Research Institute, (NRI) Curtin University of Technology. The space of the body can be seen at an atomic level as having no defining boundaries. More generally, molecular self-assembly seeks to use concepts of supramolecular chemistry, and molecular recognition in particular, to cause single-molecule components to automatically arrange themselves into some useful conformation (reference Wikipedia). Nano assembly, or bottom-up approach, is the construction of a supramolecular chemistry by the assembly of nanoscopic particles, or even atoms and molecules. The proposal for nanotechnology to reshape nature atom by atom develops an interesting debate as to the constitution of life. The Nanoessence project aims to construct a physical experience to examine this scientific and metaphysical world. Nanoessence is an interactive audio-visual installation. In the Nanoessence installation the viewer will interface with the visual and sonic presentation through his or her own breath. In the context of the project breath has a strong conceptual and metaphorical link to a Biblical inception of life. The project attempts to maintain a high quality of authentic data to engage the viewer in a sensorial qualitative experience of quantitative data.

One River (running . . .): Hybrid Space – Open Composition for an Immersive Environment

The theoretical and practical concepts presented here pivot around the composition and design of an interactive audiovisual installation, presented at the Surrey Arts Centre in 2005: One River (running . . .). This immersive media environment is a new form of participatory documentary that reflects the contemporary Surrey community it is presented in. This open composition takes advantage of a set of braided computational media and narrative processes as a dramatic model and integrates computation as a medium for composition, expanded immersive environment, performance and improvisation. The concept of braided processes provides a model for braided conversations and provides an open frame-work for describing an integrated relationship among various independent elements that comprise the complex media braid within the One River (running . . .) environment and is discussed in detail in this paper.