Teaching Assistant for Anne Burdick’s topic course; New Modes of Reading and Writing.

Maintained and managed the class blog and assisted students in presentations and project development. This also included some programming, and manual labor. The class blog will be made public upon request.

My initial attempt at laying the foundations to my thesis.

Music is no longer in the hands of musicians. With the rapid advancement and accessibility of technology, music has been undergoing major changes. Artists have usually been the driving force of speculative music, but in the last 10 years we’ve seen the rise of multi-media artists, new media artists, designers, industrial, architectural, interaction, media, … the list goes on. All of whom are scratching at the surface of music, sound, and noise.

What is the role of the Media Designer, in Music? To answer this question we must define the set of filters bestowed upon a Media Designer. A designer equipped with idiosyncratic lenses on culture, design, media, and technology. Some of the topics explored is the search for sonicality. The connotations and implementations of technology on instruments. The results and affordances of interaction, and the typology of musical objects, and sonic presence.

See full paper here.

Small exercises moving towards the development of my thesis work and ideas. Autonomous brainstorming.

Book Collages

The Machine is an attempt to combine the interests of 4 media designers into one seeing machine.
In collaboration with Mike Manalo, Brooklyn Brown, and Buddy Bojorquez.

In this collaborative attempt we embarked on a mission to amalgamate four different interests which resulted from the workshops and lectures with Geoff Kaplan, Irene Kotlarz, Norman Klein. All of which revolved around the topic of Seeing Machines. The class itself, “Seeing Machines” was a course to discover and argue how digital imaging today can be understood more profoundly through new eyes: new points of origin, and the metamorphosis of old visual codes; to locate our emerging contemporary visual grammars. The Machine is a prototype, utilizing different layers of presence to create an immersive experience; The Motor or Zoetrope, The Sight Holes & Granular Phenomenons, The Sound.

My contributions to the project were to explore the visual grammar discovered in my initial Phonon project and to create not only a visual moment but a sonic moment as well. This sonic moment was achieved by utilizing Buddy’s audio of a lawnmower, specifically the process of starting one, and making it last forever. Giving the audible dimension an undulating pulse which represents all points in time, from starting the lawnmower to making it run. This became the sonification of The Machine, and extends a small moment in time, and condenses it into a limitless loop of infinity and perpetuating phenomenon.


Entry Points

The Motor/ Zoetrope



The Sight Holes



The Granular Phenomenons



The Sonic Extension & Compression



The Machine



Inside The Machine


In retrospect this project is a prototype which could evolve in many directions. For my personal interests, I would like to expand on creating more Granular Phenomenons, and Sonic Extensions/Compressions. However, there were other aspects of the project which could entail a more fruitful and contextualized experience. We could have contextualized The Machine more as an organic or trapped object. Which either exists on this planet or not. Further deepening the fictional context to sensationalize the event. Another aspect of the project which revealed itself as an accident was the visuals created by pointing the camera used for The Motor/Zoetrope onto the screen of the computer, creating a visual feedback loop. Despite this looking interesting, it lacks a lot of context at the moment and can only be described as an anomaly in the system itself. However, we embraced this and perhaps could possibly expand on this idea in the future.



The Anomaly

The exploration of materiality can lead to unforeseen design solutions, and creative directions. From the granular level of materiality can spawn a multitude of contextualizations which serves to communicate and embody complexity in a simplistic voice. From materiality, to texture, to context, to criticality.

Final Video / Fictional Documentary

This project initially started as an exploration of scientific research. With my interest in sound I was lead to the science of vibration, specifically the mechanical vibration of sound. The search within this area of science led me to the work of Dr. Hans Jenny called Cymatics. Cymatics positions itself to be the most natural and “true” way of representing the phenomenon of vibration and specifically sound, through the application of different sonic frequencies on materials and substances, like power for instance. In turn, visualizing the power of sound to control, create, and destroy natural patterns.

The first pass revolved around the idea of creating a palette of vibrations. Imagining what an artist’s palette would look like if their medium was vibration.



Sample Palette 1



Sample Palette 2


This initial phase lead to the idea of creating more palettes and developing an interface which could potentially be used.

Video of the IRC Interface. This was developed in flash using animated gifs as references.

The interface immediately developed into creating a narrative or fictional documentary which serves to embody the materiality research and the latent roots of a critical statement on the science of sound and vibration.

This project and class in general, is essential to my Media Design experience. Having been one of two classes to push me beyond my comfort zone and into a more explorative mode of design. A project which culminated into synthesizing my programming, animation, storytelling, and design and communication abilities into one project. Enhancing the skills I already possess as a designer and utilizing them in an unknown format — the fictional documentary.

Looking beyond this project I would like to take different approaches to discussing the complex topic of; the science and metaphysics of sound and vibration. Perhaps, executing the video in an alternative context or creating different experiments with less humor. I also walk away with an ability to quickly prototype scenarios and interfaces and embedding them in context to communicate their abilities, rather than spending large amounts of time developing the actual system.

Early Sketches and Tests

Luigi Russolo invented the Intonarumori: a set of instruments which conveyed the sonic landscape of his techno-culture. What if his Intonarumori had a visualizer? What would it have looked like?

This short project was completed with the curatorial pursuits of Irene Kotlarz. The brief was to provide a seeing machine utilizing light, and shadow.

My approach to the brief was a response to the types of animation machines we were learning about. Specifically, my interest was drawn towards the machines which played music and displayed an animation.

One of the aspects of the nature of sound with animation always turns sound into being an accompaniment. A dimension not really needed but present for the sake of being able to hear something enhancing an object or event. For my seeing machine I wanted to display that was you see is what you hear. Using vibration to move throughout the system, I attempted to create a prototype of a machine which would expand on the work of Dr. Hans Jenny called Cymatics.

With my obsession with the folk instrument called the “Hurdy Gurdy” I proposed to create a rough prototype called the Hurdy Gurdy Light Machine.

The words we hear and speak may not be from our own minds and thoughts. In a heavily mediated world, how will technology play a role in the authorship of knowledge, data, and communication?

In collaboration with Matthew Manos, we joined our interests in music, poetry, google voice, and image captcha’s to create a poetry collective known as, the Oumedpo. Resonating with the work of the Oulipo and their methodical, mathematical tactics to writing. Matt and I devised a system of writing and performance to blur the lines of creativity and authorship in the realm of poetry.

For my half of the project I focused on the system of Google Voice. Which is a speech to text translation service provided by Google. With its sole purpose to transcribe missed calls or voice messages into text and email format, Matt Manos performed experiments using existing songs which the system would transcribe into words. I saw this as an opportunity to utilize my guitar playing and interest in music and transpose it to exploring methods of reading and writing electronic text.

I executed my experiments by composing small guitar songs and solos, and sending them through Google Voice for translation. The first round of recordings only provided minimal results, therefore I began to discover the specific type of notes, attenuation, and timbre the Google Voice system could handle. The system does not only translate but also determines infliction and volumetric dictation guides. The different values of gray in the text is a result from Google’s insistence of the word being correct. This gradation of values was utilized in the reading and performance of the text. Where lighter words were spoken softly and the darker ones with more presence.

After many different attempts and recordings, and learning of the system, I resulted in composing four poems. These poems were brought into reality by performing a reading at the Cobalt Cafe. In later conversations with Matt we would have liked to take the project further into performing more reading, publishing a collection of poems, and orchestrating/writing a small play.

Sample Audio Clip:

In a massively connected and sensored world, spaces and moments of sanctuary would no longer exist. Our connections to holy traditions and religious beliefs will be mediated, interrupted, and ultimately destroyed.

My project strives to imagine a holy relic, in this case the bible; which in all possibility could one day transform into a digital artifact. A notion not far fetched with its recent digitizations and release for portable, mobile and digital reading devices. Holy moments are our sanctuaries, and the bible serves as a tool for reflection, guidance, and peace. However, in a Ubicomp world, this version of the bible undergoes unwanted connections, transmissions, and updates.

In context with the bible I decided to render its ubiquitous connection useless by transmitting video feeds of news related to holy or religious conflict in the world. At the turn of every page would give the user an unexpected feed and disrupt the process of reading. In my attempt to create something useless I feel like I may have uncovered something useful. The material of my project uses the existing format of the printed book, which in so many ways is fading away some how. However, in a ubiquitously connected world perhaps this connection could prove itself useful. Maintaining the old and implementing the new, as a layer on top or to the side.

Utilizing the ReacTIVision software and their fiducial system I was able to render the incoming OSC into the NETLab toolkit‘s Hub, which in turn enabled me to “change the channels” while turning the pages of the physical standard book. I also had to purchase Osculator to enable the connection.

Source Code and Files (does not have FLV or Osculator Files).

This project is an investigation on how the The New Ecology of Things can utilize the natural tendency of people to think of their surroundings as if they were animate — that is, objects and spaces have motivation, intention and/or consciousness.

Context
Tonalis Luminous (also known as tink-tinks). Was discovered in 2011, in the city of Pasadena, California.

Tink-tinks are a tonal, light sensitive flower. It is the first of its kind in the species of the tonalis luminous. The original native range radiates from pasadena and spans through the entire region of southern california.

After months of research. Discoveries were made which give the tink tinks their classification.The first is they give off sound, which gives each and every tink tink their individual quality. And the second, is their response to light.

Tink tinks have 4 moods which we believe connects them to their original seed in pasadena california. These moods have respectively been labeled as morning, afternoon, night and sleep. The tinks behavior and rhythm is determined by these four moods which also determines the type of interaction and relationship one has with them. Some have turned this process into a professional practice known as tone pruning.

Special tools have been developed in order to tone prune the tink tinks. Reason being, almost all tonalis luminous plants have a special bud which we believe is its receptor for light. Touching this special part may cause harm to the tink-tink and especially yourself.

Please use the tink tink hats when handling.

Demo Video

Project Description
Tonalis Luminous is an exploration of animism at the swarm level. It is an attempt to express animism through a group of simple objects. Simple objects which express their inner lives through the use of sound — where the individual tone and rhythmic behavior of individual objects collectively define a larger sound, presence, and mood. Bestowing the Tonalis with the personality of being vocal and being fed with light, the tonalis shifts through different tonal moods throughout the day. Some of these moods may sound extremely similar but they will never be the same. The aspect of pruning the individual plants was implemented as a mode of interaction and conversing with the tonalis. Similar to how we water our plants and talk to them, the tonalis has a simple mode of interaction by controlling the amount of light each plant receives. Pruning individual tonalis can set the collective whole into a new rhythmic territory, only to have them sway back into its natural state or mood. Each mood has its own affordances of interaction, in this respect I also use the tonalis to explore the possibilities of having one simple mode of interaction controlling a large complex system of simple objects. The system requires active listening, where the pruner must be in constant attention of the tonal quality of the whole and each plant individually.

Inevitably, the Tonalis Luminous is a prototype into exploring the possibility of having musical objects bestowed with qualities of animism. What would it be like to interact, perform, and play with an instrument that had moods, intentions, and a sense of having an inner life? What would the music world be like if one were required to develop a relationship with thier instrument in order to achieve a quality of sound, affordance, and creative possibilities. Delving even deeper with questioning what if an instrument had access to history and shared memories with their owners?

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Process

Servo Test: The initial idea was going to utilize servos to control the direction the plant would be facing. I would have liked to implement this idea to have the plant move towards the light, just like plants normally tend to do.

NETLab Hub and Digital Out Widget Test: The meat and potatoes of the project depended on the NETLab toolkit’s digitalOut widget to send signals or pulses to the Arduino to trigger the solenoids.

Building For Demo 1

Sound Garden Monitor 1.0: I developed a small 8 step sequencer in Adobe Flash, to send signals to the digitalOut widget using the NETLab toolkit. It was good for testing purposes and my first demo, but it didn’t fit the programming criteria, as it didn’t handle each pod or plant individually, but more as a whole. I had programmed the system to respond per column not per row.

Solenoid Test: After some searching for the perfect solenoid I found the one I wanted to use at All Electronics in Van Nuys. And with the help of Alex Braidwood pointing me to this Instructables tutorial to hook it all up.

Building Demo 1: The first demo revealed some key components of the project. The project was beginning to break out into a more spacial presence, begging to be larger. The interaction needed to be more defined, or signified. The context needed some layers, perhaps designing or making more contextual props… And the process to understand the behavior of the system needed major refinements. Asking questions or building modes of interaction. Driving me to program several different states of the system, all utilizing the simple interaction of covering a light sensor.

Faking It: Envisioning and enhancing the system to be more robust and responsive. Testing the system’s physical efficiency and affordances. How big can I make this thing? How small should it be?

Sound Garden Monitor 1.5: A newly redeveloped sequencer enabled me to control the system at the granular level. Creating event listeners for each plant and updating the system as a whole by individual cascading and instants updates. I also implemented a time keeper or clock, so the plants would know what time it was and could change into their corresponding states.