V2.11 Northwest CyberArtist Newsletter December 1994

Of'cf'mbf'r. 199-4 The Sound OfA Waving Hand Virtual Musical Instruments. Volumf' Two. Numbf'r Elf'Yf'n By Axel Mulder A particularly interesting feature of synthesizers (digital signal processors) is that they allow for control of much more aspects of sound than the human interface (controllers) of current synthesizers, mostly based on existing acoustical instruments, give access to. The bandwidth of the available knobs, buttons etc. is too limited. Also, sound generation has be come a matter of very abstract and loose interaction between a human and matter. On the one hand human movement can be registered in various ways and processed digitally, whilst on the other hand sound generation can be digitally controlled. This new paradigm has given musical instrument designers the possibility to reconsider their design philosophy quite radically. I call Virtual Musical Instruments the set of gestures that a performer can program to map onto specific acoustical or musical effects, using advanced gesture tracking technology. My efforts to think of new ways to interact in real-time with sound began (this was in early 1987) as a physics student with the development of a hand gesture interface based on piezoelectric technology. Sensor data was mapped to MIDI parameters to control simple synthesizers such as a Roland 010 and later on a Waldorf microwave that I could use from STEIM in Amsterdam. ThE' Northwest CyberArtist I called this project MiMIDI (from mime to MIDI). MIDI data clogging/delays and lack of real-time patch programming on the 010 frustrated my efforts. I needed to find appropriaat algorithms to move from one timbre or patch to another in a continuous, meaningful fashion. My experiments included mapping various hand motions to note-ons and-offs, MIDI controllers and system exclusive parameters that alter values of the patch itself (with the aforementioone problematic results). See Mulder page 3 C McMrll'YlIY December Meeting: Monday, December 5th 7:30pm THE ART INSTITUTE OFSEATTLE room 608 2323 elliot avenue December's Guest: Axel Mulder Demos his Body Suit 1Editor.s Corner Steve Turnidge You'll see a new look emerging in the newsletter this month under the skilled hand of Bradley McMurray. Bradley has volunteered to be our new art director, and we greatly appreciate his participation. He is making a positive change in the world. (Especially my part of the world!) .,.; ::-. fT' ntellgetd VVIZ om How to Join the on-line CyberArtlsl'L1st: send email to listproc@u.washlngton.edu. Leave the sublcct line blank and include only the following In the message body: subscribe cyberartists youmamc flow to join the on-line P,lcclron;c Cafe Interest group List: Same as above with the following in the message body: subscribe ccafc your name How to join tre North\\CSt EJcktro·]ndustr1al Coalition List Same as above with the follOWing in the message body: subscribe NEe youmame Call me at work If you have any problems getting signed on. Please pass thiS onto all others interested in these topiCS 1----..dWiiidM. Gall;;;,.,.,---·1 Iemaire@cac,wa'lhingtoll.oou, (206)\43·5970 z I'm seeing people as Idea Generators these days. Every human is traveling through time and space spewing out ideas in all directions. Sometimes these ideas cause actions. The idea "I think ['II put my socks on now" causes that action to happen. Ideas add up and blend together. Different people agree or disagree on ideas. When people agree on ideas, the agreed upon aspects reinforce each other. These aspects often cause action. When many people agree that an idea is a good one, that idea begins independent life. Ideas can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively. There are people who put their ideas across very loudly and forcefully. There are those who allow the merit of an idea sell it, to generate reinforcement. When you bring several humans together in support of a single idea or group of ideas, they resonate together, and action follows. Some groups, (such as most political partiees) have a relatively small number of true idea generators, and a great number of idea resonators. These people are passive radiators who, upon receiving an idea, take that idea to be their own. Think of what chaos emerges from a large number of true idea generators, each recognizing a different aspect of the shared culture and reality. This creates a thick stew of ideas as causes and effects. You may have heard of Lorenzs Butterfly Effect from Chaos theory. The Butterfly Effect states that a butterfly stirring the air today in Tokyo can transform storm systems next month in New York. (See the book "Chaos" by James Cleick for more informatioon. Extending the notion of "sensitiiv dependence of initial conditions" (a different way to state the Butterfly Effect) to the concept that "ideas create actions" and the chaos of multiple idea generators implies that thoughts and ideas of individuals change the world dramatically, in often unpredictable ways. As CyberArtists, I feel our primary cause is to be Local Universe Problem Solvers, to make the world a better place, to make a positive difference. The way every one of us generates ideas and acts every minute affects reality in a noticeable way. Each of us has a significant effect on the world. It is our responsibility to understand and attempt to control the effects our actions cause. Bob Moses Productlon Manager Internet: bobmoses@pan.com Bradley McMurray Art Director Bret Battey, Researcher Internet bret@eskimo.com John Beezcr, On-Line Czar Internet: bisquik@eskimo.com The NortlN'cst CyberArtist is free for those who ask to be addlrl to the mailing list. TIle Northwest CyberArtist is publishlrl monthly by Northwest Cybel'Artists, First class postage paid at Sealde, WA Corporate Sponsorship Provided By: lONE WOlF R~AN-:-=E] ThP Northwpst Cybt'rArtistff~ Mulder from page 1 1:( Later on I built an instrumented bodysuit that registered human joint angles using the Nintendo Powerglove flex sensors. Two performannce were implemented in the summer of 1993. In one performance the values of the joint angles of the performer (Egmont Zwaan) were used to drive a Lexicon LXP 5 effects processor that processed the voice of the performer. During the performannce the performer lost track of what he was actually controlling, Le. he was more involved with his movements than the aural result and /or there were too many parameters to control more learning is needed). Also, the mapping was too simple, too direct, Le. some parameters were too sensitive to movement. There was no compensation for interaction between various acoustic effects, that resulted in changing sensitivities of the parameters. Last but not least the LXP 5 had some problems processiin the amount or combinations of MIDI data. In the other performance only a few joint angle values of my own movements were used to drive the effects processor. The performance included Mari Kimura playing a Zeta MIDI violin and a dancer (Anita Cheng). The effects processor transforrme the violin signals. The dancer interacted physically with the author and symbolically with the violin player, so that all performers were communicating. I found the most interesting result that I was dancing and not playing an instrumentwhhil in fact I was. This illustrates the possibilities for merging dance and music as one art form, as it used to be (and still is) for many African tribes. The translation of the joint angles into the parameters of the LXP 5 was simple -there was no algorithm involved. Due to this simple mapping the Virtual Musical Instrument was not very intuitive. However, the aim of user adaptivity was achieved: it was possible to map any movement to any parameter of the LXP 5. Also the real-time capabilities of the sound processing device were fully used. ThE' NorthWE'!'>t CybE'rArti!'>t I am currently setting up an environmeen that includes a second version of a (self-made) instrumented glove, again based on the Powerglove sensors, interfaced to an SGI with LifeForms, Le. articulated figure animation software, and MAX, i.e. object oriented dataflow software designed for use with MIDI. LifeForms can display a graphical hand, while MAX can map features of the hand movements to sound. I want to write specialized objects for MAX that implement models for auditory perception, motor control and their relation. The resulting environment will allow me to simulate gestures and their mapping to sound and as such help me design Virtual Musical Instruments (and do my Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University). One of my aims is to experiment with the translation of gesture and posture data in a connectionist fashion to sound and timbral parameters (d. CNMAT). I find this a very interesting approach as it allows (to a certain extent) for building on neural models of auditory perception, neural models of kinaesthesis and movement, and their relation. Other ideas that may be worthwhile exploring are control of a singing or speech synthesizer by hand or arm gestures or even whole body movemennts The speech synthesizer may also be replaced by a granular synthesiize processing a text sample, a vocoder or an effects processor (as above) with voice input. It would be possible then for instance to present a poem with very strange and strong expression, both gesturally and acoustically. I am investigating use of the above instrumented glove to control a granular synthesis system developed by Barry Truax and Harmonic Functions in Vancouver. It would also be quite interesting to use an instrumented suit to control percussive synthesizers. The fact that disco, house, Mrican and many other dance forms involve mostly repetitive movements may allow for interpretation or recognition in terms of the so-called dynamic pattern approach in human movement control. As for the performer, he or she might become involved in an intense audio-kinaesthetic experience. A future musical ensemble may consist of a drummer or percussive controller, various timbral (sound) controllers, various melodic controlleer (musical structure controllers), a spatialization controller and an effects controller. All the movements of these performers would be choreographed to achieve a maximum performance effect. Each performer would control a sound source in a very personal, skilled and accurate manner. A ballet with a choreography that would-be merged with an orchestra and its score In the presentation on 5 December I will talk about the issues involved in designing Virtual Musical Instrumeent and demo an instrumented glove that I recently made from Powerglove flex sensors and that is interfaced with Max (MIDI processing software). I hope to have the neural net object of Max interfaced with the glove so that some gesture recognition is possible. If you want more info before then, my 3 most recent publications are available through anonymous ftp at: fas.sfu.ca:/pub/cs/graphics/vrni/. Axel Mulder, School of Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Email: amulder@sfu.ca I wasfortunate to attend the opening ofNamJune Paik 's "Electroninc Superhighway" show in Ft. Lauderdale. !fyou like Paik, you'd love the show thooug his work has hardly changed in thepast decade... One ofthepieces is a 10unger demrated with multiple tv screens to represent a lounging tv watcher, with keyboards andafax machinefor appendages, called the Couch Potato. You can sendafax to the Couch Potato on 305 760 4446 -itprints out in the gallery. -Pierre De Vries 3• ~~ner Notes (8y Bill Ritchie) 9411071930 CybcrAns Northwcst This group mcclS eacb ftrst Monday night to share their work. which includes elecltOflic music. kinetic and inlcractivc sculpture. It's a sclf-organizing group. and they inltOducc themselves and what they do. Dob Moses described his bird cage and laser music device. Another one was a bird fceder with tacky LEDs. '(bey'rc planning a CD/ROM lha! will describe U1cir history. video. There's wearable microprocessors. a lot of people looking for networking, writers, composerrs light artists, and producers. Lyricists. arrangers, ralcnt-scoulS. exhibit designers, and a non-dCSlruClivc videotape editor, TV show producers and direclOr from B.C. called "High-tech" something. lbe fIrst presenter said the Japanese arc looking for people with talent arconcepts. plus there's someone doing a Vinual toCcm pole (in Alaska) needs toucb-screen help. (Sec the newsletter ror Jose's address). "Are you paying anention. Gay?" He was reading a newspaper someone had len, open to a review or a weekend art and Icchnology show. "Umh," he said, so quielly she didn't hear him. "be music rambled on. Tbis is whal you' rc advocating, so you should be paying attention," she was lhinking. BUllllen, il was all so familiar, 100 ramiliar. II musl have been fun to create. Maybe 10 watch. 'Ine music ended. People clapped, Gay clapped, smUing, glad il was over. Same as lhe video before. Mostly guys here. "I'd like to show Rolling Sorcerer," he and she arc lhinldng. A high tech juggler piece: II can teU whelher a ball is a hard hit or sofl, a juke box, money input device, and a rriendly Mac lhat starts Ihe show. The presenler is going wild althe blackboard with his drawings, crases and goes 10 the next phase, cnter the video. lbcn he has to conven this 10 a song. When the juggler gets back from Europe, he resumes work. Enter computer No.2. He erases every stray mark and starts to explain the composing phase. Each event, 4 e.g.. ball hits Ihe hand, ann moves, left hand, right hand, measure the milliseconds and lurn Ibat into a tempo, like a metronoome "Gay, aren't you thinking how UJis presenter is a perfonncr? Someone phase in the music. Remember DolognaY' Dalmley!" says Gay. "Jealous?" 'Ibe drawings become tinier, lillie numbeersI-2·3-4· orr to the side. lbe last chord just recedes until the juggler moves on. "Gay, the peace dividend. What did you expect?" "'ilia! piece look 15·20 hours of program· ming," Ulc prescntcr said. Thc music played about 15 seconds. 'Ille audience liked it. 'Ibey wanted it longcr, Ihcy wanted more. Bret works as an operations analysIs. Dob Moses offered rree usc of a device he made. Einar Ask came, wilh his kids, 10 show a video or play tape. it's upbeat, all the music is very beat. ';Say, Gay, is UJis available at Entros?" The musical water fountain gavc a pianist a chance to actually makc music. Db, lbcse Ulings arc SO expensive. The designer was ancr a high-tech victorian CybcrAn, he said, but the press didn't know that. He'd like to contact arehilects, landscape designers and home owners mat could have them in the backyard and be run with a CD. Craig Rosenberg was in. still at it. The leader lells us Einar is going to help willl lIlC Ilcwslcucr. He plays bass guitar ,Old gave us a sample. The sealS arc hard. We're aU racing lhe same direction. Jimmy Free explains the life ofa composer plaayin at church, commercials, kids' music, music for CDIROM, New Age... ';Don', forget where you live." Dale, rrom McGill, worked in computer applications and pcrfonnancc, A saxophoooisl be WfQle ror sax and e'midi guitar. The problem, he said, is called the "slavery of the lape." He analyzed the Tuvian Ihroat singers and made his saxophone emulate them. Yes, Ihcre is such a Ibing as lhe International Electronic Music Festival, available on CD from San Francisco. "Gay, it's like a nighl club here," A rcal club, he's thinking. lSEA 95 Montreal 307, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, bureau 515D Montreal, Quebec H2X 2A3Canada Tel.: 514-990-Q229 Fax: 514·842-7459 Email: isea95@er.Uq-am.ca~ E IA E The Sixth Inte national Sympgsium on Electronic Art SE.6.)~J(eplace in Montreal Sept 17·24,1995, on the theme Sens emergents I Emergent Senses. Artists, scientists, scholars and educators from throughout the world will discuss the emerging new art forms, the social, cultural and ethical implications of these developmennts and the new parmerships that are being created behveen artists and technology. The program will include a conference of invited speakers, panel discussions, and artists'presentations; exhibitions of new visual and media arhvorks in various museums and galleries; workshops, on a variety of topics, including robot sculpture, virtual reality, copy·art, multimedia and hypermedia, nehvork·art; music and performance art; an "electronic cabaret"; an evening of electronic cinema and on-demand screenings; and a market for new media art productions, offering publications, artist books, tapes, CD-ROMS, etc. December 31,1994 Deadline for proposals: Exhibitions, Performances, Network projects, Workshops. March 1, 1995 Deadline for Papers, Roundtables. and Poster sessions. April 24, 1995 Deadline for Electronic Cinema. June 1, 1995 Deadline for the "new media market" All proposals may be submitted in English or French. The full Call for Proposals can be found at the LEA ftp site. The file name is isea95.call. The Northwl'~t CybE'rArti~tYour idea started in the living room. I must stresss that this is the vel)' early stages and there is no assurances that it will be workinng but tJy to tune in and let me know.192.147.170.91 The New Kid HEY-I'd like to thank Steve for all his past and future work on this newsletter. I look at the NW CyberArtists as an extended educational experience, a new student body holding classes all around the world and my contributtion to this newsletter as my tuition. I encourage you all to keep attending, and to contribute art, articles, you name it. Bradley McMurray AD Kevin McCoy AGGREGATE TV This message is to 11et people know that I am in -~ he very early stages of a Net-based Ambiant TV site. It runs off of Cornell University's Internet video conferencing software CUSeeeMe If you are a CU-seeMe user and want to see the periodic test broadcasts, connect to this 11' address: Ivan made changes here. John Beezer Instead, let's talk for a while about what would be cool to see in a web site and about some goals we might be able to accomplish with it. I think this is an excellent chance for many of us to present our work (graphics, music, writing, video, interface design, photography, etc.) to the world and to link up with other interesting groups. I can't wait to see what we do with it. t?'(' Once we start to get an idea about what we want to accomplish we can start considering feasability, who's going to do the work, etc. Like everyone else in Cyberartists, I'm franticly busy most of the time. When I get a little time, I'll try to write a "Basics of HTML" post for people who want know more about the subject. BreakIng Kid's Show Needs Ideas You visit the video location. KlRO TVs kid's show BRAINWAVES is looking for ideas to fill a 30-minute show all about future technology. We would love to hcar about any computer related projects that you think might interest kids aged 8 to 14. We're also looking for groups of kids involved with computers in the same age range. Please calt Tami Rodgers at 728-6654 or E-mail bb380@scn.org, or fax728-5806 WiUl ideas. BRAINWAVES is on Saturday mornings at 10:30 on channel 7. Well...1ike J mentioned (quite eloquenntly I'm sure) at our last meeting, Northwest Cyberartists has been offered a web server to use free-ofchaarg through a company called Northwest Link. I think this is an opportunity for us to accomplish a number of things. Those of us involved with htm! and the web have a chance to experiment and learn more about designing web sites. NW Cyberartists has the opportunity to establish a stronger net-presence-possibly even a showcase. And individual members have the opportunity to establish personal web pages and/or links to other sites that may be of interested. For now, J propose that we use the mailing list to discuss the possibilities in a semi-hypothetical manner. Let's not burden ourselves with the assumptiio that if we suggest something we'll end up having to do it (in fact, that is how I became supreme commander of NW Cyberartists on-line activities). ~Sllrfing----, TIll.' Northwp!>t CybprArtist 5Center (ever try to load out with the Secret Service blocking every exit to your venue within a IO-mile radius?). We were covered by most of lhe local TV stations, a couple radio stations, and most of lhe newspapers. All but one liked us (the one dissenting opinion was that we lack an aesthetic-which is true in some cases). More imponant than the fame and fonune was the actual experience of sharing our unique assonmem of live multimedia interactive whatcvcryouwannacallit art witb thousands of people. Special thanks go to future hail-of.famerCybcrArtist Craig Andenon, for giving an awesome workshop about producing music and sound for multimedia. Last weekend I went to the Lighting Dimensions International rLDn trade show in Reno. LDI is a buge lighting show, with a big trade Ooor full of amazing lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, etc., and workshops tcacbing you how to do just about everytbing relmed to staging productions and operating equipment. I spoke in a workshop aboul "Show Control". I showed some video footagc from Bcyond Fast Forward and last year's Syncstbetics show. People lhought it was prelly cool, and after the workshop I was approached by several people who have opponunities for CyberArtists to get involved in projects with kids, churches, and a couple multi-7jllionaire celebrity anists. Again, if you're interested in getting involved in a project. call me at bobmoscs@pan.com. One of our local TV stations (I'll keep their identity confidential since I'm nOI sure if they want 400 CybcrArtists calling them) also contacted me a couple weeks ago wanting some CybcrArtists to do a taping for one of their Saturday morning children's shows. We had to pass for now. since we are so busy with other projects. But again, if you have something kids would enjoy, contact me at bobmoscs@pan.com. /\s. you can sec, I have far too many projects and desperatcly need help with them. This is a desperate pica for help. Can you hear me out there? There arc more opportunities than there are people. Get involved. and have fun! CYBERARTS INTERNATIONAL IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF MILLER FREEMAN INC. NORTHWEST CYBERARTISTS AND THE NORTHWEST CYBERARTIST LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF NORTHWEST CYBERARTISTS AND OF THE DESIGNER. Northweost CybeorArtists 10802 47th Avenue West ~ ~ Mukilteo, WA 98275-5098 '{~" ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED irt Is this Junk Mail? Please Mark "RETURN TO SENDER" and drop in the mailbox; Thank You! 6 FIRST CLASS MAil Tht' Northw~t Cybt'rArti!>t