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

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.

Right now we’re working on a test circuit for 8 speakers. Once it works I will upload it here, hopefully with proper documentation.

There is a human urge for freedom and security. It is a fundamental contradiction that keeps us occupied permanently. In mundane situation, political decisions or relationships – we’re constantly forced to make a compromise and sacrifice one for the other. I associate this contradictional urge with the characteristic of water to embrace the human body while not holding on to it.

The contradiction that exists  on land doen’t exist under water. I can move freely in all three dimensions without the fear of falling.

The first of two rooms in Dive! II is supposed to make people aware of this characteristic of water.  With a projection of a water surface viewed from below, it simulates a surrounding under water. The absence of weightlesness as the main difference between simulation and reality is supposed to emphasize this characteristic.

In the second room a big water basin is used to demonstrate that our body is alienated from the element. What we were missing in the first room is a utopia we will never experience in its pure form.

With these two rooms Dive! II creates two worlds, one above and one below the water surface, that can communicate through the element. Thus it is possible for the visitor to get involved with the installation in a playful way.

> Diplom Thesis (.pdf – 4,7 mb german) (Layout: Ricarda Porzelt)

> Sketchbook (.pdf – 38 mb)

EyesWeb-patch for an interactive installation. A live recorded video loop can be manipulated in length and speed by body movements.

Timebouncing is the result of the class “eyes open” by Lars Wieneke. The class was an introduction into the free software EyesWeb and explored the possibilities in processing optical signals. I designed this installation and wrote the required patch.

The installation works on two levels. A person can record a video, using body movements to control the recording. In a second step, it can manipulate speed, length and position of the recorded loop with body movement and position.

A complete description of the installation and a documantation of the patch can be found here (.pdf german).

Ich sponn diesen Gedanken weiter und überlegte mir Möglichkeiten, wie man noch gleiche Voraussetzungen in Bezug auf das Spielen eines Instruments schaffen kann. Mir fiel das Theremin ein, das erste elektronische Instrument, das bis heute durch seine ungewöhnlich Spielweise von wenigen Musikern gemeistert wurde. Es wurde 1919 von dem russischen Physiker Lev Termen (später Leon Theremin) entwickelt. Die herausragendste Eigenschaft dieses Instruments ist wohl, dass man es beim Spielen nicht berührt. Es besteht aus zwei Antennen, die die Entfernung der Hand ertasten und damit den Klang in Höhe und Lautstärke verändern.
Gespannte Klaviersaiten schaffen eigene Räume

Hier mein Vorschlag für ein Objekt, dass sowohl den strukturellen Anforderungen, als auch dem inhaltlichen Ansatz gerecht werden soll:

Im Lisztraum sollen beliebig viele Klaviersaiten gespannt werden. Senkrecht, waagrecht oder schräg im Raum, können sie zur Aufteilung dienen, in Richtungen verweisen und Nischen oder Freiflächen deklarieren. Die Klaviersaiten können mit Sensoren ausgestattet werden, die, wie das oben erwähnte Theremin, durch Annäherung funktionieren, oder aber auch mit Tonabnehmern ausgestattet werden, so dass sie wie die Saiten einer Harfe gespielt werden können. Im Fall einer Berührung soll jedoch nicht nur die Anschlagsstärke als Information zur Verfügung stehen, sondern auch die Stelle, an der die Saite berührt wurde. Diese drei Parameter, Anschlagsort, Anschlagsstärke und die Entfernung vor und nach der Berührung, sollen dann nutzbar sein, um eine Vielzahl von Applikationen steuern zu können.
Theremin Eigenbau

Ich würde diese Parameter gerne zur Klangerzeugung verwenden. Mein Motiv ist dabei an den oben erwähnten Aspekt von Liszts Leben angelehnt. Es soll ein Instrument geschaffen werden, das in seiner Spielweise so unkonventionell ist, dass es jeder mit den selben Vorkenntnissen für sich entdecken. Natürlich ist eine entsprechende Ausbildung bei jeder Art von musikalischer Betätigung von Vorteil, der Bewegungsablauf soll jedoch mit keinem klassischen Instrument direkt identisch sein. Ich möchte auch nicht ein einzelnes Instrument mit vielen Saiten in den Raum stellen, sondern vielmehr viele einzelne in größerem Abstand, um das ganze als ein kollektives Ereignis zu gestalten, bei dem der eigentliche Reiz erst durch das Zusammenspiel vieler Teilnehmer zustande kommt.

Dive! was created as a self-contained video project, a mixture of video production and installation. I wanted to visualize a text I had written about the characteristic of water to carry us without holding on to us. For the production I designed two rooms in an old russian army base to look as if they had been under water for a long time. In these rooms lay a person completely isolated from the world and its surroundings, wishing to have been born in a different element. A water surface from below was projected on the ceiling.

My intention was to have various photographers and camera men find their own perspective on the place and the situation I created. The so created material was supposed to be open for all participants for each to create their own work from it.

The fundamental idea of Dive! was also basis for my final university project and thesis Dive! II.