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Lightflowers/RS2K5
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bbinkovitz



Joined: Jun 12, 2006
Posts: 338
Location: central ohio
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:58 pm    Post subject: Lightflowers/RS2K5
Subject description: this topic was split from the "midi vagina" thread in /discussion/diversity in electro-music.
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kkissinger wrote:
bbinkovitz wrote:
kkissinger wrote:
Haven't heard of a MIDI bra. How 'bout a theremin bra...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FWwvZVuaAsM


wow. bizarr-o.

wait, wouldn't that not work? because a bra is already close to your body? i'm confused.


My guess is that it is an optical theremin rather than an rf theremin. Perhaps someone here already knows the answer to your question. In the meantime, I'll see if I can find out.


ah! yes. i didn't think of that. that would take some crazy precise calibration of the light sensors and a light source aimed pretty much straight at the chest all the time, no?

Quote:

Of course, such technology would not be limited to a bra... one could place optical sensors just about anywhere to control sound, lighting, etc.

How did you do the motion-sensing-outlet boxes at EM2007?


the hardware in those things is blindingly simple. we wired some photo resistors (2 in each lightflower) up to a phidget interfacekit 8/8/8. we calibrated them as best we could, which was not all that precise, but was ok for our purposes.

smokris wrote some custom quartz composer plugins that integrated the phidget with quartz composer, allowing us to map the output of one of the cells in each flower to control the volume of samples and the other to control some type of processing filter (they varied).

the samples were all sequenced in renoise and the computer just played our 40-minute sequence of samples over and over, so you wouldn't always get the same sound by doing the same thing with the same flower, although all the samples were similar things in 3 different categories (spoken words, brake whines, and honking were used for one movement) to give some continuity.

there were also light sensors on each of the 3 slots of the plinko machine. when a ball passed through slot number n, flower number n would turn on (and so would the light above it). the default state when turned on was sample volume off, processing off. by covering the sensors with varying degrees of shadow, participants turned on the samples and the processing. when the light was off the instrument was also off to prevent the samples from playing because of the lack of light. this was all programmed in quartz composer.

the audio output was sent from the computer back into the flowers themselves, where we had mounted crappy computer speakers inside the plexiglass lids, making for insane weird distortion from vibrating plexiglass on metal.

Last edited by bbinkovitz on Wed Jul 04, 2007 8:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
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kkissinger



Joined: Mar 28, 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

bbinkovitz wrote:

Quote:
How did you do the motion-sensing-outlet boxes at EM2007?


the hardware in those things is blindingly simple. we wired some photo resistors (2 in each lightflower) up to a phidget interfacekit 8/8/8. we calibrated them as best we could, which was not all that precise, but was ok for our purposes...


Hi... should have responded sooner. Thank you for the explanation of your motion sensing equipment. They were very effective in your set.

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-- Kevin
http://kevinkissinger.com
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bbinkovitz



Joined: Jun 12, 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

kkissinger wrote:

Hi... should have responded sooner. Thank you for the explanation of your motion sensing equipment. They were very effective in your set.


thanks. you couldn't tell in our performance, but some pretty cool things actually happened when you got the edge of a shadow over the sensor, especially with the effects controlling sensors. the whole thing sounds pretty cool when played through decent speakers, as it was when we tested it. however, since it was built for an art exhibit rather than soley as a performance tool, we opted for the conceptual and practical advantages of the whole package being a self-contained unit.

we might rewire them at some point, perhaps take out the speakers and install more effects sensors instead of the speakers, then have the whole thing output to real speakers. i want to do this, but i'm not sure what the other members of ruori plan for this setup. our stuff tends to get re-cycled (most of the components of the lightflowers were cannibalized from the rs2k, which was played in the 2005 performance by ashley shining flashlights at light sensors lined up in a clear box).
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smokris



Joined: May 22, 2004
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 8:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

bbinkovitz wrote:
our stuff tends to get re-cycled (most of the components of the lightflowers were cannibalized from the rs2k, which was played in the 2005 performance by ashley shining flashlights at light sensors lined up in a clear box).


Here's a little tour of the construction of the rs2k5: http://softpixel.com/~smokris/rs2k5/

And here are a couple of photos of us using it during the 2005 show:

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.
Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.
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