Sound Lanterns

Scott Smallwood

Installation Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2009
• Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Abstract:

The Revo:oveR installation is a collection of six co-located installations exploring multimodal interaction, self-evolving audiovisual fabric, integration of architectural space, and the notion of communal art. The interactive soundscape Elemental and the sculpture entitled Cyrene Reefs are the core aural components of the overall exhibit, exploring the notions of a musical instrument, traditional performance practice, and their ties to the tactile and visual domains. Using motion tracking in conjunction with an overhead speaker array, Elemental harvests the motion of visitors in the exhibit space and augments their location and trajectory with water ripples, thus generating a surreal sensation of traversing waist-deep water. As an acknowledgment of visitors’ communal presence, the collisions among individual ripples produce algorithmically synthesized aural fireworks, resulting in an ever-changing soundscape that transforms architectural space into a musical box of infinite possibilities. Cyrene Reefs complements Elemental as an intricate mythical instrument. Populated with holes and fissures resembling stops of a woodwind instrument, the Reef begs to be explored by hands. Akin to the notion of virtuosity, the Reef reveals little of its true potential to the impatient, rewarding only those who choose to persist

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Smallwood2009,
 abstract = {The Revo:oveR installation is a collection of six co-located installations exploring multimodal interaction, self-evolving audiovisual fabric, integration of architectural space, and the notion of communal art. The interactive soundscape Elemental and the sculpture entitled Cyrene Reefs are the core aural components of the overall exhibit, exploring the notions of a musical instrument, traditional performance practice, and their ties to the tactile and visual domains.

Using motion tracking in conjunction with an overhead speaker array, Elemental harvests the motion of visitors in the exhibit space and augments their location and trajectory with water ripples, thus generating a surreal sensation of traversing waist-deep water. As an acknowledgment of visitors’ communal presence, the collisions among individual ripples produce algorithmically synthesized aural fireworks, resulting in an ever-changing soundscape that transforms architectural space into a musical box of infinite possibilities.

Cyrene Reefs complements Elemental as an intricate mythical instrument. Populated with holes and fissures resembling stops of a woodwind instrument, the Reef begs to be explored by hands. Akin to the notion of virtuosity, the Reef reveals little of its true potential to the impatient, rewarding only those who choose to persist},
 address = {Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania},
 author = {Scott Smallwood},
 booktitle = {Installation Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 editor = {Golan Levin},
 publisher = {Carnegie Mellon University},
 title = {Sound Lanterns},
 year = {2009}
}