Physical Space - GPS Beatmap

This video shows a GPS receiver, such as one you'd find on a sat-nav, hooked up to a computer. The GPS sends co-ordinates as to the whereabouts of the car which are then send to the computer. The computer interprets these messages and uses Max/MSP to create a mash-up of loops. How it works is explained in the video. This instrument can also be used on foot, by plane, train, any transport vehicle. The project uses physical space in several ways.

GPS Beatmap from Jesse Stiles on Vimeo.

Generally speaking physical performances spaces tend to have room for the performers and room for the audience, or the listener, who has paid to see the performance. This is the case for concert halls and gig venues alike, but this is not always the case. This project slightly breaks the boundaries of this phenomenon.The question to ask is "who is the audience?" In this case, the most obvious answer is that its the person sitting in the car, listening to the music. This may only be one person, and could only really be a maximum of four people, four audience members. The performer, in this case, is the behind the steering wheel, driving the car.

One might say that the performance space, or the "stage" if you will, is the inside of the car, a very small environment. Another way of thinking of it, however, is that the performance space is enormous. They are using satellites to receive information about their location on the earth. One could say that the stage is the entire surface of the planet, perhaps the biggest stage possible.

A different direction the performer(s) could have taken would have been to have the car running in the city, picking up passengers and running a sort of taxi service where members of the public could come into the car and listen. This isn't what happened though. The performer(s) chose to do so in the Bonneville Salt Flats. Perhaps this is so that the car can be manipulated as easily as possible, without having to deal with traffic and roads or perhaps it is so as not to annoy other members of the public with loud music. We don't know, but what we do know is that it is being filmed, which suggests there is a different audience that is a lot bigger, but less obvious. I am referring to the audience in cyberspace, the people watching the video online. This includes myself and anyone else who has stumbled across this video and decided to watch it. Given that the main premise of this project is the unconventional use very recent technology, it seems appropriate that the internet is where most people will see/hear this.

Another interesting point is that, although I said earlier that the performer was the person driving the car, are they necessarily in "control" of the music? Sure, they are controlling where the car goes which is affecting the music, but there is really a "piece" being performed? The performer is presumably just driving around at random and discovering what different sounds they can make in different places. Is it more of a musical "toy" where even the performer is just as surprised as the listener? Given that the driver doesn't really know what's coming next in the music, it could be said that he or she isn't really the performer at all. Perhaps the computer is the performer, or the artificial artist. Then again it is a set of pre-programmed loops so perhaps the creator of the patch is the artist and the performance is just whatever pleasure anyone gets out of using it.

No matter how you see it, this is indefinitely more complicated than the standard performance in a concert hall.

My New Idea

I decided that the project I was originally going to work on seemed a bit too ambitious. Aside from the fact I wasn't entirely sure what the patch would actually do with the signal, It was likely not to work to end up not working. I still wanted to use the Light Gun however, and so began to think of another way I could use it. I decided to only use the gun for the buttons that it had and not the ability to aim, so that at least if it didn't work i could use another external peripheral device that would do a similar thing.

I brainstormed for a while and came up with an idea which ended up being a sort of musical game. In the game, at the middle of the screen would be a frame and there would be a picture of a composer flying across the screen and stop when you shoot with the gun. The object would be to try to get the composer to land in the frame and music would start to play (written by said composer). Depending on how close you were to getting the picture to stop at the correct place, the music would change. If you were very far off the music would sound wrong - perhaps being out of tune or some parts playing in the wrong key or different parts not being in time with one another etc. If you are close to the target, it would sound slightly better, and if you are perfectly accurate, it would sound perfect.

Here is the Max/MSP patch unfinished as it currently is:



In order to execute this idea I had to learn about how the lcd object works, how to make sprites move across a screen, how to get break up midi information and edit individual parts and how to split Midi into different channels using Max/MSP and Logic.

I have also bought one of these:



And hopefully soon I'll be able to use it for connecting my playstation controller to the PC and using the "HI" object in Max to get data from it.

Audio Speed Manipulation Patch

This is a video of me explaining a patch I made in Max/MSP. The patch records sound into a buffer and then uses an external midi keyboard to manipulate the speed of playback.

Playstation Light Gun

I've been toying for a while with an idea I've had for my final performance. I'm wanting use the plastic toy gun controller that you get with arcade-style shooting games on the playstation. It would be great to use as an instrument, varying the sound that is made, depending on whereabouts on the screen you shoot.

I wasn't sure exactly what I would be using the controller for, but decided to do some research as to how light guns actually work. One of the most important pieces of information that I discovered was that they only work with CRT (Cathode ray tube) televisions. In this particular type of television, an electron beam starts at the top and gradually works its away down the, going from one side to the other. The gun itself doesn't actually do any "shooting" but instead contains a photodiode, which "senses" light. When you're playing the game and you pull the trigger, the screen momentarily whitens. The playstation then calculates where you fired the shot based on the time difference between when the trigger was pulled and when the gun sensed the light coming from the television.

The idea I soon had was to make it so that the person playing the "instrument" would actually just be playing the game, but instead of the game soundtrack (consisting of gun shots and explosions) it would be replaced with the sound of the notes being created using Max/MSP. I could use one of these -

to connect the gun to my macbook.The problem I would have doing it this way is that I somehow need to send the information coming from the gun to both the playstation and the computer, and as far as I'm aware, there doesn't seem to be a way to do this.

I then had the idea to, instead of using a real playstation, use emulator software for the computer. This way I would not need to split the signal, since its going into the computer anyway. I can then use max/msp or another software to perform a similar calculation that the playstation would perform in order to work out where the gun is pointing on the screen. I found this program which I've now installed and its working - Click Here.

The next problem of course is that it needs to be pointing at a CRT television screen. I researched into what kind of cable I would need in order to attach my macbook to a TV. It turns out its harder than I originally thought to do because they don't make cables that connect directly from a mini display port to the red, white and yellow RCA connectors or SCART cable. I have, however looked into it and found a website where someone has managed to do it in a very round about way - Click Here (scroll down until you find the pictures).

Also, having thought about it I've had the idea that I might not even need the game, just pointing the gun at a white screen would have the same effect.

Adventures with PD

I downloaded Pure Data - a free programming software for music - and decided to try to make a simple patch. I found it to be very similar to Max/MSP, only a lot of the features in Max/MSP which make it less confusing (colour, graphics) aren't present in PD. I decided to start with a patch similar to the first one I ever made, and try to develop the idea.

(click on the picture for bigger view) The idea, as seen in figure 1, was to randomly generate a note at a set tempo, and then when one particular note is hit, (after a random amount of time) the note-generator will stop and the next will begin. There are three, set to output left, middle and right. Left deals with the lowest frequencies and right dealing with the highest.

After some time messing with the settings I developed the idea. I wanted counterpoint between the three parts, where the three note-generators would start and stop, coming in and out of each other's parts; this proved difficult. I had to ensure that they would all turn off and on individually and randomly, but not all at once, which would make it completely stop. I realised that I had to be specifically about what message I was sending each toggle box. the message "bang" might turn it off or on, whereas "1" would definitely turn it on (or let it remain on) and an "0" would make it turn off (or remain off). Judging by this, a simultaneous "1" must be sent with every "0" message to ensure that they don't all turn off. I came up with a solution - figure 2. But realising already that my program looked too complex to make out I decided to tidy it up a bit - hence figure 3.

With figure 4 I tried to vary the rhythm of the outputted notes. In order to do this I had to be constantly changing the rate at which the metronome works. I came up with the idea of using another random number generator that picks a number between one and four, which would multiply the speed of the metronome by a number from 1 to 4, 1 being a minim, 2 a crotchet, 3 a quaver and 4 a semiquaver. I also realised that in order for it to work all the note-generators should be working at the same speed, so I created a universal dial, to change the speed of all the note-generators at once.

Below is a Video of the Patch as it stands right now (I'd suggest full-screen view). I'm going to make some more changes then Upload a new Video, probably using midi output in order to create notes, and possibly using a "drunk" box to create more of a melody line, as opposed to just random notes.

Record your screencast online

Cybraphon

Experiment (May Well Arise) from Cybraphon on Vimeo.

Ok, so you may be looking at this and thinking: "is that wardrobe playing music?" The answer: yup. There's several things about the cybraphon that make it interesting. One is that its a mechanical device, programmed by some sort of hidden macbook which uses software called Python and (yes, you guessed it) MaxMSP. It receives MIDI, amongst other information which is then converted to physical movement. This thing has a squeeze box, keyboard, vinyl player, bells and other percussive junk, not to mention its synchronised lighting.

It also has an "emotion meter" represented by an antique galvanometer (a type of ammeter - device for measuring current in an electrical circuit.) With all the egotism and image concern of a human band, it checks its reviews and its comments on all the major sites including facebook, twitter and youtube, altering its mood depending on whether people are saying nice or nasty things about. It then picks from a range of pre-programmed songs, based on how "happy" its feeling.

Further anthropomorphisms include its abilities to know if you are watching. It has motion sensors so starts playing its tune when you approach it.

And finally, come ON! it's a friggin' Cupboard that plays music. It's classy design has won it a nomination for a scottish BAFTA. http://bit.ly/PMOsG

Moog Guitar

The Moog Guitar. No special software used in this one, just the guitar. The staccato mode seems kind of bog-standard, but infinite sustain is interesting, it sounds kind of like a violin. And the mode where it actively mutes the notes could be useful!