As a special gimmick for my birthday party i used the elements of [Audiosphere] to build a web o 6×6 speakers on a wall in my room. The sensation is, of course, a different one and since its now totally at hand, I will do some more experimenting in the next weeks.
the cable length of the sphere didn't fit, so it doesn't look perfect yet. I still like it :)
Having introduced the [Diskokugel] project at Berlins biweekly [puredata] [user group], I was asked to build an installation for the finalizing event in Berlins [LEAP] gallery. Being busy doing technical coordination for the [Über Lebenskunst Festival] this was quite a task.
I used the five prototype circuits to build a walk-in sphere of 40 speakers. The speakers were attached to nylon strings stretched from the ceiling to the ground, so you could bend them aside to step in. In an effort I provided a crude interface in PD that provided a joypad for people inside the sphere to select different programs, such a random, sound going in circles, etc.
Contentwise, we had placed a call for content, which resulted in one piece that was handed to me and which worked quite well. I have yet to get the adress of the composer to thank him again ;)
The result was quite to my liking and so was the feedback (apart from nobody understanding the interface, but in the end that didn’t matter much). The sphere was fun to use. I personally found it pretty dizzying standing inside the speakers while the sound came from a different direction every 25 milliseconds. Unfortunately, as of now there are no pictures to show. The installation stood at LEAP only for two days, in which I had forgotten to bring my camera. Hopefully I will find someone of the PDCON who made good ones.
[UPDATE: pictures of the building process and a picture from a mobile phone (thanks ckp and astring!)]
a picture by astring
in action. the nylon-strings could be bent apart to step inside. (pic by ckp)
arrangement of the circuits
some notes
more notes
YESSSS!
Ok, so after 4 days of soldering witness the new version of “Diskokugel” with speakers attached. I am quite satisfied with the looks.
out now: 0.2beta
The longer you look, the more patterns you'll find...
The wireframe. With the the background cancelled out it's more comprehensible.
Doing all the soldering I had plenty of time to contemplate on the design so far:
The wireframe has quite a few disadvantages considering the further construction. It is not very exact, not very stable and I haven’t figured out a way to construct and attach proper enclosures for the individual speakers to prevent the acoustic cancelation of lower frequencies.
I could fill the whole thing with polyurethane foam and carve it out like a pumpkin, but that’s not what I’d call elegant. So I am considering to somehow build the thing on a plastic basis. Cast it, mill it with a cnc-mill, whatever…
Anyway, I will leave this problem be for now and rather start working with the existing model. That means:
– get an Arduino
– connect it to the existing circuit and PD
– put it all into the ball and check out what it can do
All that in probably two weeks, because now I need a vacation from it all.
My brain hurts from trying to figure out how to equally spread circles on a sphere. So far, i arrived at a solution that surrounds a pentagon with 5 hexagons, the former made of 5 the latter of 7 speakers. Here you can see the first model, soldered of wire. As you can see, I miscalculated the size of the pentagons, so the only contain 3 speakers. This will be corrected without delay, since shortly after these pictures were taken the whole construction rolled of the bed it lay on and burst into pieces. Have fun imagining my face after that…
Diskokugel 0.1 alpha
soldering 0.1 Alpha
Christian und ich haben den ersten Prototypen einer Schaltung getestet. Die Schaltung steuert 8 Lautsprecher über ein Schieberegister. Die Schaltung funktioniert soweit und das Ergebnis macht definitiv Lust auf mehr :-) Sowohl mit Sprache als auch mit einem simplen 440 Hz Ton lassen sich schöne Effekte erzielen und ich habe auch gleich ein paar neue Ideen bekommen. Wie zu erwarten war, sind natürlich auch neue Probleme aufgetreten. Mit den meisten habe ich gerechnet. Z.B. werden wir unsere Schaltung dahingehend ergänzen müssen, dass das Umschalten der Lautsprecher dann passiert, wenn sich die Phase des Audiosignals bei 0 befindet, um ein Knacken beim Umschalten zu verhindern. Das wird nicht unproblematisch sein, da schon der geringe Offset des momentanen Vorverstärkers dafür sorgt, dass die Lautsprecher auch ohne eingespielten Ton beim Umschalten hörbar knacken.
Together with a friend from the sublab I started a new project. It’s a mirror ball that consists of approximately little speakers instead of mirrors. All speakers will get the same audio signal but can be switched on and off individually. This way, it is possible to let a sound travel over the balls surface. If synchronization works out, another audio file could be played with each switching to another speaker. The whole thing will be controlled with PD via USB.
Right now we’re working on a test circuit for 8 speakers. Once it works I will upload it here, hopefully with proper documentation.
Dive! IIis a closed circuit video installation aiming to illustrate my personal views on the element water and some of its characteristics.
EyesWeb-patch for an interactive installation. A live recorded video loop can be manipulated in length and speed by body movements.
Entwurf für ein universelles Interface im “Lisztraum” des Weimarer Kunstfestes. Als Raumteiler gespannte Klaviersaiten werden mit Sensoren ausgestattet, um verschiedene Funktionen zu erfüllen. Unter anderem die eines neuartigen Musikinstruments auf der Basis des 1919 erfundenen Theremins. (more…)
Video project in an old army base Nohra/Weimar