RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita — Spatial Listening of Zoomorphic Musical Robots

Margaret Schedel, Brian Smith, Robert Cosgrove, and Nick Hwang

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Contending with ecosystem silencing in the Anthropocene, RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita is an installation-scale instrument featuring an ensemble of zoomorphic musical robots that generate an acoustic soundscape from behind an acousmatic veil, highlighting the spatial attributes of acoustic sound. Originally conceived as a physical installation, the global COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a reconceptualization of the work that allowed it to function remotely and collaboratively with users seeding robotic frog callers with improvised rhythmic calls via the internet—transforming a physical installation into a web-based performable installation-scale instrument. The performed calls from online visitors evolve using AI as they pass through the frog collective. After performing a rhythm, audiences listen ambisonically from behind a virtual veil and attempt to map the formation of the frogs, based on the spatial information embedded in their calls. After listening, audience members can reveal the frogs and their formation. By reconceiving rhumb lines—navigational tools that create paths of constant bearing to navigate space—as sonic tools to spatially orient listeners, RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita functions as a new interface for spatial musical expression (NISME) in both its physical and virtual instantiations.

Citation:

Margaret Schedel, Brian Smith, Robert Cosgrove, and Nick Hwang. 2021. RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita — Spatial Listening of Zoomorphic Musical Robots. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.21428/92fbeb44.9e1312b1

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{NIME21_79,
 abstract = {Contending with ecosystem silencing in the Anthropocene, RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita is an installation-scale instrument featuring an ensemble of zoomorphic musical robots that generate an acoustic soundscape from behind an acousmatic veil, highlighting the spatial attributes of acoustic sound. Originally conceived as a physical installation, the global COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a reconceptualization of the work that allowed it to function remotely and collaboratively with users seeding robotic frog callers with improvised rhythmic calls via the internet—transforming a physical installation into a web-based performable installation-scale instrument. The performed calls from online visitors evolve using AI as they pass through the frog collective. After performing a rhythm, audiences listen ambisonically from behind a virtual veil and attempt to map the formation of the frogs, based on the spatial information embedded in their calls. After listening, audience members can reveal the frogs and their formation. By reconceiving rhumb lines—navigational tools that create paths of constant bearing to navigate space—as sonic tools to spatially orient listeners, RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita functions as a new interface for spatial musical expression (NISME) in both its physical and virtual instantiations.},
 address = {Shanghai, China},
 articleno = {79},
 author = {Schedel, Margaret and Smith, Brian and Cosgrove, Robert and Hwang, Nick},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.21428/92fbeb44.9e1312b1},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/twzpxObh9jw},
 title = {RhumbLine: Plectrohyla Exquisita — Spatial Listening of Zoomorphic Musical Robots},
 url = {https://nime.pubpub.org/pub/f5jtuy87},
 year = {2021}
}