Rudimentology

"Rudimentology" took place last Wednesday and featured all of the projects within the Performance Technology class this year; including my own "Wii Ball" installation. As well as this, "Rudimentology" featured a Theramin controller, an RjDj iphone installation, an acoustic/electronic drum composition, a light sensor keyboard as well as a bliptronome composition device. The following information outlines the success of my installation as well as the developments and alterations that I would make for future preferences:

Wii Ball

The Wii Ball station at Rudimentology

My completed installation was the Wii Ball in which I have been working and developing on over the past year. Through using a software named OSculator I was able to connect a Wii remote controller to Max MSP through bluetooth signals; the effect of this meant that I was able to manipulate the functions of the controller into a patch designed into Max MSP. Regarding the software OSculator, I had a number of problems with this software during the development of the Wii Ball, this was mainly due to the demo version that I was using as the software would stop the bluetooth signals from the Wii remote controller to the Max MSP patch. As a result of this, this meant that I needed to purchase OSculator in order to keep a a regular signal between the controller and my patch (thankfully OSculator ask for donations towards their software, this donation cost £7). The patch that myself and Simon had developed over a few months used and manipulated Tam's electronic drum composition. The patch in itself used the information of the pitch/yaw/roll movements in order to trigger of a number of loops that I had edited that were from Tam's Log Pro file. From this, this meant that when the Wii remote controller was thrown in the air  a small loop would be produced when passed number 0.52 in the  Max MSP patch. As well as this even when moving the ball in a numerous ways this affected the loops produced and the buffer object within the Max MSP patch. The following picture shows my final patch that I used for the Rudimentology workshop:

This patch above shows the numerous amount of objects that myself and Simon used in order to achieve loops being triggered when the Wii remote controller was thrown. Nevertheless, one thing that was essential that I needed for my installation was a ball, after having difficulty finding a suitable ball in order to fit my Wii remote controller into this was soon resolved as I ended up purchasing a  gerbil ball in which I compacted it with bubble wrap.
When setting up for Rudimentology, I had my own workstation which featured my Wii Ball, my patch and my laptop which was connected to two Edirol Speakers as well as to a DI Box for the end performance. When Rudimentology was opened to the public a number of people were playing around with my Wii Ball and were fascinated with the loops being produced from the ball, unexpectedly people began playing ball games which I thought was great, the video below shows people interacting with my ball (roughly at 1.05):

As a result of taking part in Rudimentology, I realised that there are a number of alterations and changes that I would make to my own Wii Ball. The loops that I edited were slightly too long when triggered, as a result of this, I would make the loops shorter so that they were more effective. As well as this, instead of have a gerbil ball, I would prefer to place a Wii remote controller into a softer material as throughout the day, the gerbil ball was not as durable as what I would've liked it to be. After having a discussion with Simon he also suggested that the when the ball is held still, maybe this could stop all of the loops so that it was silent instead of a continuos sound of tam's composition. Nevertheless, interaction wise, I was thinking that it would've been a good idea to make a game for people to play with using the ball and the loops triggered.

Rudimentology Performance 

Rudimentology was split into two sections, the first section was a hands on approach for the public to see how we had produced installations and the technological approach to each of these installations. As well as this, the second section was a performance that was revolved around Tam's acoustic/electronic drum composition which featured Daniel on the bass guitar and Ivor on the electric guitar as well as the Wii Ball, Theramin and the RjDj. The physical set up for this performance featured the acoustic drum and the electronic drums in the central stage whereas each of the other installations were situated around this. The idea of the performance was to start of with the each of the installations playing a "remix" idea of Tam's composition which would then be stopped whilst Tam and members of the group would perform his piece.

At the start of the piece myself, Ivor and Mike started of the performance. Mike had created a patch in Max MSP which was controlled by  a Moog Theramin, the idea of this was to manipulate the composition through specific hand movements on the theramin. As well as this Ivor had created a number of scenes in the iphone application RjDj which used a number of loops from Tam's composition but altered them through using a number of effects and audio signals from the the microphone which was attached to the iphone. Each of these installations was connected to the PA so that the audience were experience a number of sounds being produced at different points. These installations were soon faded out so that the drum composition could begin. Regarding this, the electronic drum pads were connected to a patch made in Max MSP which produced sounds that were created by Tam in Logic Pro 9. This composition featured the electronic sounds as well as rhythmical grooves on the acoustic drum kit which were accompanied by a bass guitar groove and a melodic chord progression on the electric guitar.

As a result of this, Rudimentology was a great success which showcased the installations and creativity of the students who had taken Performance Technology HND 2. I myself enjoyed developing an installation for this showcase and from this, Rudimentology acted as a learning curve so that I realised the problems that were raised from my Wii Ball and from this, this can allow me to develop this installation. 

Emerging Technology and Physical Space with Geo-Location

Geo-Location is the term by which an object such as a mobile phone, an Internet connected device or a radar can be identified in real world geographical location. This is an example of emerging technology in todays society which has already been established as a desired feature in a number of technological devices such as mobile phones and tablets such as the iPad.
Nevertheless, the process of Geo-Location within internet connected devices can be performed by the Internet Protocol address,  a Wi-Fi connection, a Mac address and even embedded software numbers. Regarding programmes that use  geo-location, when a user accesses  Google Maps on an internet connected device,  the location of the user can be displayed and accessed through the information produced by the IP Address . (The picture above displays Google Maps ability of geo-location).

With the ability of tablet technology using geo-location as a feature within many applications, an example of this is the Inception app which itunes released in order to enable a user to enhance a unique experience of the film. This application based on Christopher Nolan's film is an application that pushes the boundaries on similar film applications due to its ability to make the listener feel as if they are experience similar dreams to Leonardo DiCaprio in the film thanks to a numerous use of musical effects as well as featuring Hans Zimmer soundtrack. This is achieved as the application uses the numerous  gizmos and sensors built within an iphone or ipad, the effect of this is that the application uses the surroundings of a user to create distorted/augmented  effects which are similar to the surreal dreams within the movie. Nevertheless, the input for this application is through the microphone as this turns all the surrounding noises into distorted and augmented sounds.  As well as this, the application features a number of dreams which enable several requirements in order to access them, from this, each dream features a range of augmented and discordant effects in order to make the user feel as if they inside the inception reality.  The effect of this means that this inception application creates a composition which is unique to each user and that the overall sounds produced is not a conventional performance instead it uses the physical space to create a unique performance. 

In conclusion geo-location is an example of emerging technology which is enhancing technological developments in todays society. Regarding the use of geo-location, electronic devices such as the iphone and the ipad are using this in order to produce thought provoking applications such as the Inception app which produces a composition based on the location and surroundings of the user. The effect of this means that applications such as this pushes the boundaries of music performance and does not use a conventional stage/audience set up/