Before we begin all the code for this final project can be found here: https://github.com/cambodia21/final .

Gustavo and I's final project original focused on music and kinetic art. Though we had ambitions to create a visual representation of sound through a pendulum wave machine, this proved impossible due to unforeseen circumstances. However, our final project continued to focus on music as kinetic art and various was to represent it as such.

Some of the previous work we did carried over, particularly getting familiar with the minim library. To begin with we needed to import the library and utilize the Minim class, which provides the methods to gain access audio resources. First you must declare a variable of the type Minim before your setup() function and then instantiate a minim object. The variable of the type Minim was "Minim minim;" in our code. In the setup() we used minim = new Minim(this); to initialize a few things and let Minim access the data folder. We then of course loaded the files in:

  rsong[0] = minim.loadFile("kw.mp3", 1024);
  rsong[1] = minim.loadFile("msd.mp3", 1024);
  rsong[2] = minim.loadFile("kill.mp3", 1024);
  rsong[3] = minim.loadFile("tl.mp3", 1024);
The songs were loaded in with a specific index number assigned to them. Later on you can access that song by selecting that key. For the various effects we used we created a five booleans, by having a specific key trigger a true statement for one boolean and false statements for all others. Because the program begins playing music at the start with
song = rsong[(int)(random(rsong.length))];
song.play();
to be able to play a song later you had to tell minim to song.pause() and select a new song. This is not the same as song.close or song.stop. These either close out the entire audioplayer or stop minim as a whole. The "face" is was created as a class because it made the program run much faster, and it was much easier that way. The constructor takes x and y coordinates. There were two methods in the face.pde, one to create the eyes which do not react to sound, one that creates the mouth which does react. Here is an example of the face reacting:

Here we see the mouth changing in amplitude

Here we see the mouth in a default ellipse with no amplitude input

We include many more "traditional" visual representations of music such as lines and bars:

We also played with adaptations of these two original themes, arranging the bars around a circle for a "sun" effect

Finally we had a free for all combining waves into a ball shape and allowing the beat to expand the wave lengths and change the shape. The background and color change at random

This project contributes a range of ways in which Minim can be utilized to visualize music. It offers a singular grouping that exhibits some of the capabilities of Minim. To the audience it offers a fun way to interact with (by selecting various representations and songs) music as well as an experience. To see more work done by me, check out the rest of my blog. And for more on Gustavo check out his space at http://gustavofernand3z.blogspot.com. 

My part in Gustavo and I’s final presentation was a changing one. With the original idea, music and a pendulum machine, I had done all the legwork and research. Seriously… hours (all for not =[…). I also bought the supplies and built a demonstration of the wave machine for our exhibition night, to show the tangible inspiration. As we had to eventually abandon our work due to circumstances out of our control my role certainly changed. Gustavo and I mutually decided we could do more working with music and the minim library. My legwork regarding the minim library paid off here. As we were on a timeline Gustavo wrote the basic code and I debugged it as he went. After we finished deciding the affects I debugged the program the system. I also wrote the code that allowed for randomly selecting songs. Once that was up and running I worked on making the program run smoothly and efficiently. I discovered a problem with stroke weight and order of selection and fixed the code for that as well. 

My presentation focused on Kinetic Art. This is defined as a form of art that depends on movement for its affect. The stimulus can be either internal or external it need not matter.  My interests are at the intersect of music and kinetic art. Movements propelled by music are extremely compelling.  A wave machine and pendulum movements offer prime demonstration of harmonic oscillation system. Pendulums in a wave machine when displaced from their equilibrium position, experience a restoring force, F, proportional to the displacement, x. The first “wave machine” was designed and constructed circa 1867 by Ernst Mach, an Austrian physicist and philosopher. A wave machine is comprised of a series of pendulums with incremented frequencies. One way to think of the pendulum wave is as a series of points used to sample a wave of increasing frequency. The most popular and compelling demonstration is perhaps Harvard’s example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V87VXA6gPuE. Written descriptions do not do the phenomenon justice.  A wave machine demonstrates visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating and (seemingly) random motion. Harvard’s wave machine, takes sixty seconds to complete a full cycle (to come back to the center).  The longest pendulum executes fifty-one oscillations in this time, as the pendulums get shorter there is one additional oscillation. So, the last one completes 65 oscillations. Though the pendulum machine is a prime demonstration of physics the most important formula to understand how to coordinate the movement with music is the wave period formula T=2*pi*sqrt(L/g)*K(θ). There are many blogs that have gone very in depth in regards to this math, so I can redirect you there http://hippomath.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-your-own-pendulum-wave-machine.html.  For processing code that demonstrates a digital wave machine go here http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/28390.

From mid semester to now there is no doubt that my processing skills have grown enormously. I decided to readdress the midterm project and create something better than I could before. The entire work has space theme, and I stole a background from an old poetry project to create stars. It is worlds better than the one I had before. To see the code go to https://github.com/cambodia21/midterm.git

These ideas are in not particular order

1. What do you Need

Audience members can select from several options such as patience, love, hope, motivation, confidence. Once the audience member has made their selection a program will display a collage of images, sounds, and quotes relating to the subject matter. 

2. What do you want to give

This is the reverse of the first piece in that audience members can select what they want to give to others in life. First they will select from options such as patience, love, hope, motivation, confidence. From within this option they can select five various actions that embody this. An example of this for "love"would be selecting: cooking, hug, cleaning, accompanying on an errand, and massage. Once they are done selecting five actions from the options they can indicate they are finished, then the program will create a visual collage of images associated with these actions. Giving the audience member an illustration of how to give into the world what they want to. 

3. Emotional Barometer

Audience members can take a picture of themselves on a webcam with a facial expression that best embodies their current emotion. After taking this picture the program will ask them to select an option for how they feel (sad, happy, angry, bored, etc). The program will then combine these photos and project the images onto the wall. However, the hue it is projected in (red, blue, green) will be decided based on calculating the predominate mood from the answers selected. Example: if for some reason the answer is angry all those pictures will be red, if the answer is happy the color all those pictures will be yellow, and so on. The most powerful emotion will be the one shows up the most, literally projecting the mood of the room. 

4. Less personal emotional Barometer 

The program will ask them to select an option for how they feel (sad, happy, angry, bored, etc). As before a color will be associated with each emotional state. Based on the highest answer the are will be cast, by a projector, in that light

Cambell Boucher is an artist, focusing on interactive designs and history. Her latest piece, "Create a Masterpiece" is centered on the idea of logarithmic art (in the form of projected instructions to follow). This piece, like the majority of pieces is focused on expanding the experiences of her audience members through interaction. Cambell is looking to combine momentous points in the collective human experience bringing that experience into the present with active participation. She sees this as a means to honor the past and incorporate it as part of contemporary life.

Time travel

This project is to explore the melding of imagination, wishful thinking, and projected images. The premise would take up an entire room. Where in audience members enter through in a staggered fashion. The environment would be immersive, before the audience member enters they can pick a favorite era of history or event. Once they enter the room they would find themselves in a projected environment that shows what it was like to be a part of this moment. It won't be interactive, as the purpose is to be washed in the moment rather than take part in it.

Staycation
This project is a slightly different take on Time Travel. Rather than hurdling into the past audience members can choose a restbit from reality. There will be one chair in the center of the room where one can rest and relax. After they are settled into the chair a chosen environment from a few options will surround them. Sounds and scenery will appear and the audience member can decompress.

Create a Masterpiece
All these projects focus on projected reality and experience. Instead of focusing on surroundings I would like to focus on an activity. The inspiration for this comes from those projected pumpkin carving kits one can find around halloween. A program would find the main lines and general colors in a piece of art. It would then project them in stages onto butchers paper. The outline would come first, then the color, then perhaps some smaller details such as texture. An audience member could then take part in creating art by choosing one of the pieces and recreating it. Each piece would be unique because of the hand that creates it, but uniform. The final installation would include a video montage of the various works that were created.

My project too a Bob Marley quote I love and put it to the song Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. The Nouns are made larger and red to emphasize them, the adjectives are made pink to show how they correspond. The idea was to make the poem appear like the text scroll in Star Wars. The movement proved beyond my coding skills, but I was able to add in random star points that twinkle in the background.

Sketch for Impression 3 drew my attention immediately. The work captured the enthusiastic mood of a party while reducing the affair down to bare necessities. Sketch for Impression 3 is a chalk drawing down by Kandinsky (in many ways the father of abstract art) in representational style. He made the piece to capture the experience of attending Arnold Schoenberg's Munich concert January 1911. Here the concert is reduced to minimum outlines, enough to document what was there.

I like that there is a bare minimum of detail, leaving one to imagine the rest of the detail. For me Sketch for Impression 3 acts as mental scaffolding for my mind to build on. Every time I look at it I add more detail, the color of dress, what type of chandelier is hanging, the intimate lighting.

Clearly Kandinsky's work succeeds in carrying across what it was to be at Schoenberg's Munich concert over a century ago. It presents ideas about a heterosexually dominated culture, where in those dancing together were only men and women. It seems to show them deeply entranced with one another, by the tilt of their had and body postures. Before experiencing this piece I had a more is better view of artwork. The more detail, the more impressive something was. However I've really enjoyed how my mind has been free to fill in the details.

My interpretation of Kandinsky's work next to his

int width=600;

int height=400;

void setup() {

  size(width, height);

  smooth();

}

void draw () {

  background(200, 183, 156);

  //ceiling

  beginShape();

  vertex (60, 0);

  vertex (200, 150);

  vertex (520, 0);

  fill (200, 183, 156);

  endShape();

  // floor

  beginShape();

  //left side

  vertex (0, 380);

  //center corner

  vertex (200, 300);

  //right side

  vertex (570, 390);

  endShape();

  //corner

  line(200, 150, 200, 300);

  //ligthing chord

  line (270, 0, 270, 140);

  //chandelier top

  bezier(205, 160, 260, 130, 280, 130, 335, 160);

  //light 1, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(210, 160, 212, 170, 219, 170, 216, 160);

  //light 2, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(218, 164, 222, 174, 226, 174, 223, 164);

  //light 3, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(220, 155, 225, 170, 230, 170, 235, 155);

  //light last, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(320, 155, 325, 170, 330, 170, 335, 155);

  bezier(280, 155, 290, 170, 290, 170, 300, 155);

  bezier(270, 155, 280, 170, 280, 170, 284, 155);

  bezier(250, 155, 260, 170, 264, 170, 270, 155);

  

  //piano hood

  beginShape();

  //left top corner

  vertex (250, 190);

  //top right corner

  vertex (280, 190);

  vertex (370, 320);

  vertex (290, 300);

  vertex (250, 190);

  fill (0);

  endShape();

  //piano body

  ellipse (342, 328, 70, 34);

  beginShape();

  vertex(344, 300);

  vertex (320,342);

  vertex (237,320);

  vertex (237,300);

  endShape();

  

  //wheels

  ellipse (310, 343, 12, 12);

  ellipse (250, 328, 12, 12);

  //man in fron of piano

  beginShape();

  vertex(367,370);

  vertex (367, 270);

  vertex (350, 290);

  vertex (360, 370);

  endShape();

  fill (200, 183, 156);

  bezier (367, 270, 395, 250, 360, 250, 360, 275);

  //woman

  fill (200, 183, 156);

  bezier(360,380,356,350,370,290,330,270);

  bezier(335,270, 327,280, 350,300, 350, 380);

  //woman's head

  bezier(335,270, 320,250,360,245, 340,270);

  bezier (340,255, 358,245,350,230,340,230);

  //main woman

  bezier (220,270, 210,290, 210, 300, 200,350);

  bezier (200,350,220,370,230,330,232,350);

  bezier(232,350, 216,340,216, 320, 220, 270);

  bezier (216, 270, 220, 266, 222, 258, 234, 254);

  ellipse (220, 270, 10, 17);

  

  //main man

  fill(0);

  //body

  bezier(190, 270, 180, 290, 180, 300, 200, 370);

  //leg

  bezier(190, 300, 175, 320, 175, 340, 170, 374);

  //arm

  bezier (180, 290, 190, 300, 192, 310, 220, 306);

  fill(200, 183, 156);

  ellipse (190, 270, 10, 16);

  fill(0);

 //chair

 bezier (30, 270,20, 300, 20, 340, 30, 370);

 beginShape();

 vertex(30, 320);

 vertex(60, 340);

 vertex(55, 350);

 vertex (30, 350);

 endShape();

 line(50, 350, 50, 370);

 line(60, 340, 60, 370);

 //woman there

 //piano player head

 fill(200, 183, 156);

 ellipse (255, 280, 12, 15);

 //piano player

 fill(0);

 beginShape();

 vertex(260, 290);

 vertex(250,290);

 vertex(235, 310);

 vertex(255, 310);

 endShape();

 line (255, 310, 270, 290);

}

Golan Levin

http://www.flong.com/storage/images/self/golan-levin-2-lg.jpg

Levin's website: http://www.flong.com/

Golan Levin is an artist and engineer hybrid. His work utilizes modern instruments, such as software, robotics and cognitive science. This is no surprise as he worked at MIT in academics in addition to being a researcher focusing on computer tech and software engineering. Levin's pieces can be considered performance art, engaging audiences in various ways and many times forcing their participation. 

He is pushing the boundaries of what is art. Levin is an artist that truly uses the tools of today. Many of his pieces focus on interactivity, using the full body to better explore an aesthetic experience. Two of his pieces that I found captivating focus on inverting spectatorship. Double Taker aka Snout is an eight foot robotic nose http://www.flong.com/projects/snout/. Snout is the robotic equivalent to Ten Second Tom from Fifty First Dates. He is continually shocked and surprised to see his audience members. The other piece I found entertaining to say the least is Opto-Isolator http://www.flong.com/projects/optoisolator/. This piece boils "gaze" down to its bare-bone components, an eye and blinking. The eye is programmed to incorporates familiar social behavior, such as becoming shy when you stare. This is just a really cool example of art looking back. 

Aaron Koblin

http://specials-images.forbes.com/imageserve/04ED7bEbh2eYB/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000

Koblin's website: http://www.aaronkoblin.com/

Aaron Koblin is a media artist who works primarily with visualizing data sets and crowdsourcing. Currently he is employed as the Creative Director at the Data Art Team for Google. Much of his work focuses on GPS and other forms of locative technology to depict humanity. Some of his work has included music videos, such as Radiohead's House of Cards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQBy) and The Johnny Cash Project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lp3RpC-60U). 

Those projects that look at and depict mass data sets are the ones I find particularly fascinating. Koblin captures the ebb and flow daily life in North America by looking at traffic patterns across the night sky http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ystkKXzt9Wk. You can literally see the East Coast come alive. Another piece that really gets at humanity is Koblins visualization of SMS messages in Amsterdam, one can aesthetically understand what it looks like for people to reach out and connect with technology http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WKuSBbleYuE.

Theo Jansen

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAoTZniQaUITB340B9OPPkpBc7MNQAlgbbQ_krb8NBHpybaIyrsS1ItOUkC5Zzx2pBPnt_1c4-_P16e8nxMWFEsCmlFr0Oio_RZNG77fh0ZOAIBAWp8erESmHs8HwTVMBiYftflN4RRO4/s640/theo_jansen.jpg

Jansen's website: http://www.strandbeest.com/

Theo Jansen is a bit different from the other two artists I have discussed. Jansen has created children for himself. I don't mean this in a biblical sense, rather in the tool bench sense. His children are Strandbeests, who in habit the beaches. They are creations made from tubes that are powered from the wind. They are evolving through generations and becoming autonomous slowly but surly. 

Strandbeests can seem a bit off the beaten path as far as art is concerned, but truly these are masterpieces. This is a prime example of how computational art is not limited to the digital screen, it does not always have to include software and electronics. Instead, Jansen employs pneumatic computers and a pseudo genetic code which determines the next generation.  

My first taste of computing and the arts came in high school, when I took graphics and of course fell in love. Continuing on from level 1 graphics, I took and completed up to level 4. Learning how to edit and create in CS3 (Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign). As well as the physical components, like how to run a printing press, make screen sprints to create our own shirts, pick vinyl... pretty much a smorgasbord of experience. In college I have added to my repertoire a bit through various ISTA classes. I've taken classes on basic HTML/CSS, programing in Python, and with Kelland Thomas I worked with Processing in a cursory way. My major is Anthropology, so my experience outside of these classes have been next to nothing. There has been some art history if you count archeological classes touching on cave paintings but nothing intensely focused on the subject.