This week was all about max/msp. I got myself up to reasonable speed with max and have built a basic circuit that takes in readings from sensors, midi-formats them, and sends them out via midi to max. Once they get to max, i take the values in off channels 0 - 15 and send them through various filters. I was happy to get some noise out of my circuits this week.
Once I was able to get the readings from arduino to max, I focused on manipulating the midi data so as to get the kinds of textures/sounds that I'm looking to sculpt out of the data. I'm still working on that now.
Next week, I plan to continue working on the sound, and also doing the following:
- build the loom with sensors tentatively placed. I will be building a warp-weighted vertical loom.
- build the loom
- BUILD THE LOOM!!!!
- complete my max patches
- get the materials i'm going to actually be weaving with
This week, I didn't have any major hangups. Now that I actually have data coming in and pushing sound out of the patches i'm using, I am feeling good about getting the max/msp stuff done. I expect next week will be full of issues, since I will putting together a kind of prototype for two wednesdays from now.
Showing posts with label weaving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weaving. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Loom: Update 1
So I've broken the task of building this loom down into a few categories of attack:
Material (yarn)
Loom (building + augmentation of...)
Hardware (sensors, circuits)
Software (music mapping and programming)
Performance
This week I took on a few of the tasks under the Software header. I mapped out how I would use the loom for actual sound production and worked on some test patches in max/msp.
I also decided on what kinds of sounds I am going to produce. I'm going with deep synthy sounds, contrasted with fuzzy, crackly, scratchy sounds. Although it's nothing I'm completely intentionally doing, I'm well aware that many of the sounds I'm going with reference wool, hair, and other organic fibers.
As far as mapping goes, I'm tentatively going with this plan: I'd like the warp (vertical strands) to alter the sounds I've already laid on the canvas (which will be controlled by the weft, or the horizontal strands). The shuttle will either operate as a beat keeper, or it will act as some kind of interrupt as it slides across the warp. Actually, it will become percussive by default, as it affects the warp threads. I'd also like to have panning mapped literally going from left to right across the loom.
This next week, I want to continue working on my patches. The max/msp part feels like the largest challenge so far, since it is the part I'm the least familiar with. I will also try to build out a 'test loom', which will just be warp and weft threads hand-laid out so I can try to mock up what I ultimately want to do with the final loom.
The biggest challenge is working with max/msp. I'm fairly new to this program, and it can seem like a beast, and therefore hard to get started with. I'm overwhelmed by what I can potentially do, and by deciding what I exactly need to do. For now, I'm just accepting midi-data in from a test circuit, and producing sounds with that data.
Material (yarn)
Loom (building + augmentation of...)
Hardware (sensors, circuits)
Software (music mapping and programming)
Performance
This week I took on a few of the tasks under the Software header. I mapped out how I would use the loom for actual sound production and worked on some test patches in max/msp.
I also decided on what kinds of sounds I am going to produce. I'm going with deep synthy sounds, contrasted with fuzzy, crackly, scratchy sounds. Although it's nothing I'm completely intentionally doing, I'm well aware that many of the sounds I'm going with reference wool, hair, and other organic fibers.
As far as mapping goes, I'm tentatively going with this plan: I'd like the warp (vertical strands) to alter the sounds I've already laid on the canvas (which will be controlled by the weft, or the horizontal strands). The shuttle will either operate as a beat keeper, or it will act as some kind of interrupt as it slides across the warp. Actually, it will become percussive by default, as it affects the warp threads. I'd also like to have panning mapped literally going from left to right across the loom.
This next week, I want to continue working on my patches. The max/msp part feels like the largest challenge so far, since it is the part I'm the least familiar with. I will also try to build out a 'test loom', which will just be warp and weft threads hand-laid out so I can try to mock up what I ultimately want to do with the final loom.
The biggest challenge is working with max/msp. I'm fairly new to this program, and it can seem like a beast, and therefore hard to get started with. I'm overwhelmed by what I can potentially do, and by deciding what I exactly need to do. For now, I'm just accepting midi-data in from a test circuit, and producing sounds with that data.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Weaving Sound
For NIME this year, I've decided to create a loom which triggers samples and other various sounds, via max/msp. The exact details are yet to be worked out, as this is the simply the first step taken out of many. After much rumination on how I could combine both fiber arts and sound however, I'm happy to of finally found a direction which feels 'right'.
Looms, of course, are the tools used in weaving. They range from simple, hand-held devices, to lap-sized instruments, to giant, room-filling machines. Typically, there is a warp (vertical strands) and a weft (horizontal strands), that are brought together, transforming wools (or other raw materials) into fabric.
Historically, weaving is an ancient, cross-cultural, (traditionally) organic craft, typically assigned to women and yielding items of both expressive and utilitarian purpose.
I find something attractive in pairing both a usually soft, natural, feminine process with an assumed masculine, electronic process, comprised of components not normally thought of as 'soft' (i.e., wires, sensors, chips).
Juxtaposition aside, I feel there is a connection between weaving and musical composition. Actually, whether or not it actually ends up 'musical' is secondary. Transducing the motion of weaving into sound waves feels natural, almost literal – weaving together notes, samples, and aural textures into compositions of patterns and discrete designs.
Here are some of the different kinds of looms I'm looking at:
Frame Loom
Peg Loom
Heddle Loom
Knit Looms
Looms, of course, are the tools used in weaving. They range from simple, hand-held devices, to lap-sized instruments, to giant, room-filling machines. Typically, there is a warp (vertical strands) and a weft (horizontal strands), that are brought together, transforming wools (or other raw materials) into fabric.
Historically, weaving is an ancient, cross-cultural, (traditionally) organic craft, typically assigned to women and yielding items of both expressive and utilitarian purpose.
I find something attractive in pairing both a usually soft, natural, feminine process with an assumed masculine, electronic process, comprised of components not normally thought of as 'soft' (i.e., wires, sensors, chips).
Juxtaposition aside, I feel there is a connection between weaving and musical composition. Actually, whether or not it actually ends up 'musical' is secondary. Transducing the motion of weaving into sound waves feels natural, almost literal – weaving together notes, samples, and aural textures into compositions of patterns and discrete designs.
Here are some of the different kinds of looms I'm looking at:
Frame Loom
Peg Loom
Heddle Loom
Knit Looms
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