www.x-tet.com » Flash

Sound Garden

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:48:53 +0000

Asynchronous improvisation by me, you + others. Following Perturb, Sound Garden is the second work in a series of musical installations that explore the relationship of people, location, and audio relative to technology. Sound Garden was composed for Arts Week 2007 at Indiana University, Bloomington. The project originally ran from 21 February to 7 March, 2007. Most recently, Sound Garden was part of the 2009 SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Arts at the University of Minnesota, February 17–22, 2009.

Launch the Sound Garden project site

Sound Garden online and in the press:
“Cultivating the Sound Garden” from the IU News Room
Attention from networked_performance
Post in the Audio Cookbook

Composition-Instrument Studies

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:46:30 +0000

A musical exploration of space, with reference to Henri Bergson, Guy Debord, Kevin Lynch, and Henri Lefebvre. These studies require the arrow keys of a standard computer keyboard and the Flash player.

Launch first study: Dérive
Launch second study: Mazes

This research has taken me to some unexpected and very interesting places. “Psychogeography” in the writings of Guy Debord (1955) and the idea of “city imageability” by Kevin Lynch (1960) have helped me come to the latent realization of a conceptual spatiality in the way I organize sounds in a musical work. My approach is to first conceptualize the core ideas of a project as different sounds. I then arrange these within a conceptual territory (similar to Henri Lefebvre’s socially produced space (1991)) that is then given over to exploration. Debord’s psychogeography, Lynch’s imageability, and Lefebvre’s social space are all constructions of consciousness. They may make reference to actual physical space, but they are immaterial. These spaces are only real to us as a means of facilitating communication and understanding. I am interested in making music that can be experienced in this way. By conceiving of a subject spatially I find the freedom to explore that subject in all its nuance and complexity. When rooted in sound, spatial concepts can acknowledge potentiality. Movement through space then becomes a kind of instrumental performance where the openness and emergence of true interactivity is articulated through sound, as music.

Perturb

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:24:53 +0000

An asynchronous improvisation by me, you + others at the SoFA gallery in Bloomington, IN. Sound material is to be provided by those who vist the piece. Join in the performance with your own short recordings, samples, soundscapes, and found sonic objects.

Launch Perturb project site

A(rt) Life Study

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:22:54 +0000

A(rt)Life is a new project, initiated Summer 2005. This study uses the PSO algorithm and explores the connection between swarm dynamics and specific parameters of a music composition. Unlike my other PSO-related works this example is only available as an MP3.

Play max.s.o.mp3

AUTOMATIC BODY

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:21:54 +0000

Automatic Body, done in collaboration with Yacov Sharir, is an installation driven by swarm dynamics where individual behaviors are translated into sound and dance. The media has not been optimized for the web, so please excuse the sluggish playback.

Launch AUTOMATIC BODY

Particle Swarm Optimization [2]

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:20:54 +0000

Complexity via simplicity: This piece uses the particle swarm algorithm of Kennedy and Eberhart to make generative music. PSO[2] was premiered at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing, China in conjunction with “Consciousness Reframed 2004: Qi & Complexity.”

Launch PSO[2]

Word is Virus

norbert — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:17:10 +0000

This project is based on the cut-up techniques used by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs. Burroughs gave a lecture where he discussed his and Gysin’s experiments with cut ups at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in April of 1976. This piece takes that lecture and cuts it into an ever-changing variety of permutations. The lecture is heard in accompaniment with a soundscape and is intended for continuous listening.

Launch “Word is Virus”

“Clapping Music” Variation

norbert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:32:48 +0000

This is a variation on “Clapping Music” by Steve Reich. I am interested in Reich’s concept of the “gradual process” and wanted to try an experiment: Could I create a performance of this piece for the web? In my variation you can assume the role of audience or performer. To be in the audience you need only listen. To be a performer, click the word “manual” and use the triangular button to advance through the various phases of the composition. To return to an audience perspective, click “auto.”

Launch “Clapping Music”

Note: due to errors with onSoundComplete() introduced in Flash Player 9 “Clapping Music” Variation no longer plays correctly. Thanks to these guys, repairs have been initiated, but my file won’t work without a major overhaul…

Particle Swarm Optimization [1]

norbert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:19:14 +0000

PSO[1] is my first composition that used the particle swarm algorithm of Kennedy and Eberhart to perform music.

Tonal Clusters

norbert — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 05:08:08 +0000

This project was completed in May, 2004. Music, as an element of interactive design, shares an equal significance with color palette, typography, imagery, layout, and animation. This piece explores that relationship through the use of non-linear musical composition.

Launch Tonal Clusters