Day 425 @ ITP: The Temporary Expert

Addressing my “publics” who are:

• People who use public transportation daily

• Office workers or people who work indoors

• Hospital patients

• Highly sensitive people

• People who can’t be out in the sun in the winter

• People who aren’t outside for most of the day in any weather

My medium so far is a pair of posters that could be hung up in a lobby of an office building or in place of advertisements on subway platforms.

Questions: Are they too didactic? How to call people to action without seeming didactic? Is it better to ask questions rather than “give answers”? Should I take a more speculative or fictional approach, and how.

How can my research inform ways to instill this message from a science-based perspective/idea but without words (except for perhaps a well-placed title)?

Day 419 @ ITP: The Code of Music

Midterm Project: Tone.js Synth Interface

Sketch: https://editor.p5js.org/ivymeadows/full/SkhkB4EnX

Code: https://editor.p5js.org/ivymeadows/sketches/SkhkB4EnX

CONCEPT

I mentioned in an earlier blog post for class that I have always felt limited by how it seems necessary to have several hardware synthesizers in order to be able to get a certain combination of sounds, which is cumbersome and expensive.

Software also has its own limitations of a prebuilt interface that you work within.

For these reasons, experimenting with customizing an interface and its sounds was appealing to me, to see what I could come up with without restrictions (besides the restriction of coding, which is a restriction of its own for sure, but I did learn a lot!)

VIDEO

TECHNOLOGY
This was created by combining HTML events with CSS and P5.
All the sounds were made using Tone.js.

REFLECTION
There are still some clicks/pops and glitchy sounds happening with the Tone.js sounds, and I’m not sure why. I learned a lot about using HTML events while creating this interface and would like to explore that more. The sounds are still not where I would like them to be, and I would have liked to add more sliders to affect filters on the sounds, but I ran out of time. I do however feel that I have more tools now for experimenting with Tone.js and it took me a long time to get to this point.

For the final, I am torn between improving this sketch or working on a hardware instrument. I am leaning more towards creating a hardware instrument with customized sounds, but if I do that I would continue to work on Tone.js experiments on my own.

I would carry on some elements from this midterm, such as 3 options that are tones (with the added option to manipulate them), 3 options of arpeggiations, and 3 of percussion, or something consolidated from this idea. It would be to create one piece, but then could be an instrument for creating other pieces in the future by swapping out the patterns/sounds.

MIDTERM PLANNING SHEET (click to enlarge)

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Day 415 @ ITP: The Temporary Expert

Daily Practice for Seven Days

For this I decided to radiate myself with different colors of light every day for five minutes with two different kinds of light, or at least two different colors. The non-changing factor would be that I will be listening to Psychologically Ultimate Seashore with earbuds on my phone. I will also be sitting in a normal fashion and fully clothed except for my face and hands/arms exposed.

Day 1)
10/24/2018

Gels on lamp

Color gels in the Dinshah chromatherapy set.

I did this first experiment in my studio with a 200W bulb and two gels from the Dinshah gel set. According to Dinshah’s system a few of them are meant to be layered in specific combinations to produce certain wavelengths. For this however I decided to play with randomness based on feedback I got during our brainstorming, so I wouldn’t start by being biased towards feeling one way or another and experiment purely with color and different light sources without having a specific healing purpose or bias as a jumping off point.

I blindfolded myself and shuffled through the gels like a deck of cards, choosing one at random. I then put it in the gel holder in front of the light source and sat facing it for five minutes. Before starting each of two random colors I logged my mood and energy level, on a Y axis of calm <—> nervous and an X axis of tired <—> awake.

The first color I chose at random was one of the two yellow gels, this one more orange-y yellow. From behind my blindfold I could have sworn it was green for some reason. It felt warm (the light was also literally warm) and energizing/comforting.

I was surprised to see it was yellowish-orange, but not totally surprised because of the warmth it exuded, but I still wasn’t sure if the warmth was just from the light itself.

The second color I chose at random felt different. I almost felt uneasy at first. It was not as warm feeling. I saw blue rectangles dancing behind my eyes, then assumed it was probably a blue gel. It was. My mood and energy level did not change from after the first trial to after the second.

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Day 2) 10/25/2018

Video color meditations

For the second day I decided to use some color meditations I created over the summer based on the Dinshah color system. I resumed listening to the ocean recording with earbuds. I decided to go with yellow to indigo, to mimic the transition from yesterday.

This time I kept my eyes open. I didn’t see a way to pick at random or a need to anymore. I decided I would rather experiment with different light sources vs one light source, at least for now, to try to get a feel for the differences between them.

The first color, yellow, felt similar to yesterday — not the literal warmth though because it was from my computer screen. I found that my mood changed to be calmer and my energy level went up after five minutes of partially looking at it and partially closing my eyes.

The second color, indigo, also seemed to feel similar to yesterday’s session with the blue gel — I almost felt uneasy at first, it was not totally draining just more cold. . At the end of the second trial I felt about the same as after the first.

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Day 3) 10/26/2018

Household lighting

For this trial I decided to use two lamps/light sources that I often have as light sources in my home. One was a table lamp with one 53W Incandescent bulb in it, and the other a 90W yellow LED flood light which is more of a mood light.

The first bulb I used was the incandescent bulb filtered through a lampshade. At first it created a red sunlight-like glow behind my eyes, and then it became a bright white. I felt twitchy while sitting in front of it and just wanted it to be over. Afterwards I felt slightly more tired and nervous than before (when I was calm/awake.)

For the second part I used the LED bulb. It was much brighter than the first, almost like sunlight. I mostly closed my eyes. I didn’t mind it. After it was over I felt much more calm and more awake than before I started.

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Day 4) 10/27/2018

MindPlace light glasses

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First I chose a program at random (#2). I closed my eyes as instructed and saw red and blue lights flickering which over time created a bordering on-analog-VR-like experience. It was almost claustrophobia-inducing, but I was also feeling energized by it.

After five minutes were done I felt more awake than I did before I began, but also more nervous than I did when I began.

For the second round I chose program #21. This one had more green and yellow lights, felt more open and less claustrophobia inducing. It felt more like being washed with rather than bombarded by stimuli. After five minutes were over I felt only slightly more calm, and much more awake.

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Day 5) 10/28/2018

Laptop screen VS Laptop screen w/Orange glasses

Laptop screen through UV blue light blocking glasses.

After a day of staring at the screen doing coding homework, I decided to for today’s experiment to test pure laptop light VS laptop light as seen through UV blue light blocking computer glasses.

For the first five minutes I stared directly at a white screen (with the f.lux app on) I did not enjoy looking at it, and I closed my eyes for part of it to avoid staring at it directly. After the trial was over I felt more tired and more nervous than I had before I began.

For the second five minutes I stared at the same blank screen while wearing the UV blocking computer glasses. I enjoyed looking at the orange light and kept my eyes open the whole time. Afterwards I felt more awake and calm than I did before I started.

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Day 6) 10/29/2018

Verilux Happylight VS NYC Subway lighting

For the sixth experiment I decided to compare two lights which are similar in that they are artificial but different in their purpose and in the intention for their use. The HappyLight on the one hand is meant to charge and focus the users’ energy; it is marketed as an “energy lamp.” On the other hand, the subway light seems to be purely practical in its intention and usage. I’ve always suspected these bare fluorescent bulbs were harmful to our health.

For the first five minutes in front of the HappyLight, I felt comfortable — I looked at it partially and closed my eyes partially. I liked it. I felt the light in my core, somewhere in the chest area. Afterwards, I felt more calm and more awake than I did before I started.

After five minutes under the subway lighting, I felt dull. I didn’t enjoy it. Given, I was waiting for the train. When five minutes were up, I felt around as calm as before, and more tired.

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Day 7) 10/30/2018

Last day: Daylight.

A processed photo revealing rainbow light from the sun??

Today I just did one trial, with natural sunlight. It seemed like a natural place to end up. I realize there were also other factors at play, but this one was by far the most effective of them all. I felt the most literal warmth, and a warm, orange-yellow light.

This obviously is more light and heat than any one lamp could produce. There were also the other sensory factors like breeze and temperature and ambient sounds. After five minutes I felt much more calm and slightly more awake than before.

During our discussion today in class after I did this last sitting, I was helped to realize that all my trials up until today were done inside. Natural daylight so far was by far the most successful of all of my “trials” so far. We also talked about the need for S.A.D. lamps in the winter when it is more difficult to have time outside in the sun.

This led me to think focusing on some speculative sculpture or public art piece that is proposed to be done in the winter could be fitting for this, when it is harder to be outside in daylight. Also in places where it is not possible to actually go outside very often, what could be done to improve the lighting in those situations for overall health.

My research consultation with Margaret at the library pointed me to many clinical trials on PubMED about the specific effects of blue light on humans.

Working with yellow/orange light as a counterpoint to blue light would be something interesting I think for me to work with design wise from a scientific/psychological standpoint.

Day 413 @ ITP: The Temporary Expert

Final Project Research

PUBLIC ART & COLOR/LIGHT STUDIES

Hypothesis

Public lighting isn’t doing much for us as it is. This is because most wavelengths of widely used light sources in public spaces (such as fluorescent bulbs) emit harmful wavelengths that are damaging to our physical wellbeing. This also is true in most offices and workspaces, where you can do little to control your environment.

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Method

Some countries around the world are funding public art installations which deal with this issue both directly and indirectly, and I will be researching these as well as interviewing people working in various intersecting fields related to color and light and public art, as well as conducting a series of light trials and interviews.

After doing this I will create at least one speculative design for a public lighting and art installation based on the above research.

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Research

I found this (possibly questionable) Dinshah therapy system - I ordered the gels and a light.

Even if he was a quack, and it’s possible he truly believed in color therapy but was never legitimized because the pharmaceutical industry took control of deciding what was or wasn’t legitimate medicine, they are still colors that will provide a strong starting point for practical experiments.

My research will include interviews with others on color and light and their relationship to it, as well interviews with experts in the field on working in public art and with color, and on light/neuroscience.

I be researching the light emitted from bulbs and screens of various kinds and the effects different kinds of light have on humans along with the research on colors, intersecting both together (color & light) where I can, as well as focusing on psychological, neuropsychological, and neurophyaical effects of color and light, and the effects of light radiation on the body/skin.

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Brainstorming Analogies

People are like plants; we need full spectrum light from the sun.

Balancing your mood is like mixing light to try to create a full spectrum. If you are missing a color, you will feel “off.”

On top of that, specific wavelengths can be targeted on the electromagnetic spectrum to work on certain imbalances of the energy or body. Just as radio waves are used to send radio signals, infrared waves (which are invisible) and the color red (on the visible spectrum) can be used to target certain areas of your body and heal.

Each wavelength on the electromagnetic spectrum can potentially be used for a purpose, and color is itself a form of radiation that we can put to use in our environments for improved health and mood, which would in turn be beneficial for society. At the very least, we could think about the lighting we currently use more critically, and perhaps integrate color therapy into hospitals, airports, and other public spaces that can induce stress.

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Potential Experts

• Sonja Blum (ITP Professor - The Neuroscience of Color — on light and its neurological effects on the nervous system) (Marina’s rec) (need to e-mail)

• Yeseul the resident who works with color (Marina’s rec) (need to schedule office hours)

• Eric Rosenthal (Engineering teacher / Basic Analog Circuits / Computer Vision - on light/color and its radiation/properties) (interviewed on 11/12, recorded it and need to transcribe)

• Julia Vogl (http://www.juliavogl.com/) - London-based artist working in public light and civic engagement using applications of color and light in temporary and permanent installations (interviewed on 10/29, did not record but took typed notes, will organize notes soon)

• Graham Coreil-Allen - Baltimore-based artist working in public art/civic engagement (interviewed on Friday 11/2, did not record but took typed notes, will type up notes soon)

• Light therapy practitioner Samyo Delgarno (http://mfieldtherapy.com/) on the instruments he uses and how the engineer he works with decides to make them (have started talking to him about this)

Non-experts but color enthusiasts/volunteers for interviews/trials

K.B. (interviewed)

K.R. (interviewed)

M.K. (confirmed for interview)

Need to find more scientists, and perhaps Margaret will be able to help.

Papers/articles to find and read/include in my research

• Olafur Eliasson - papers on the psychology of color in his work)

• James Turrell - papers on the psychology of color in his work)

• On psychology of color in different cultures in general

• On the physiological effects of light

• On light and color radiation

• On light and color used in medicine

• More questions: Does light therapy work on all skin types and colors? How important is this in its efficacy? Is the psychological effect of different colors visually universal, or are there cultural meanings which intercept the pure psychological reaction? What, if anything, about color and light is universal? If nothing, what else can I bring to this project that is universal?

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Bibliography

Books
Light: Medicine of the Future: How We Can Use It to Heal Ourselves NOW by Jacob Lieberman

Let There Be Light by Darius Dinshah

Websites/Articles
“The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations”

Post-Margaret appt:

PubMED (clinical trials)

The effects of low-intensity narrow-band blue-light treatment compared to bright white-light treatment in seasonal affective disorder.

Blocking nocturnal blue light for insomnia: A randomized controlled trial.

Potential for the development of light therapies in mild traumatic brain injury.

Clinical recognition of hypoxaemia under fluorescent lamps.

Acute exposure to blue wavelength light during memory consolidation improves verbal memory performance.

Premenstrual mood and empathy after a single light therapy session.

Randomised controlled trial of the efficacy of a blue-enriched light intervention to improve alertness and performance in night shift workers.

Blue-Enriched Lighting for Older People Living in Care Homes: Effect on Activity, Actigraphic Sleep, Mood and Alertness.

Effect of exposure to short-wavelength light on susceptibility to motion sickness.

Effect of blue-blocking glasses in major depressive disorder with sleep onset insomnia: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

The effects of spectral tuning of evening ambient light on melatonin suppression, alertness and sleep.

Blue-Light Filtering Spectacle Lenses: Optical and Clinical Performances.

Effects of smartphone use with and without blue light at night in healthy adults: A randomized, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled comparison.

Reading from an iPad or from a book in bed: the impact on human sleep. A randomized controlled crossover trial.

Exposure to Blue Light Increases Subsequent Functional Activation of the Prefrontal Cortex During Performance of a Working Memory Task.

Blue-blocking glasses as additive treatment for mania: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Effect of phototherapy with turquoise vs. blue LED light of equal irradiance in jaundiced neonates.

Afternoon nap and bright light exposure improve cognitive flexibility post lunch.

Sleep and circadian rhythms in hospitalized patients with decompensated cirrhosis: effect of light therapy.

Effects of a chronic reduction of short-wavelength light input on melatonin and sleep patterns in humans: evidence for adaptation.

Effects of blue light and caffeine on mood.

Randomized controlled trial of light therapy for fatigue following traumatic brain injury.

In-car nocturnal blue light exposure improves motorway driving: a randomized controlled trial.

The color red reduces snack food and soft drink intake.

Light therapy for seniors in long term care.

Effects of changes in colored light on brain and calf muscle blood concentration and oxygenation.

Low-intensity blue-enriched white light (750 lux) and standard bright light (10,000 lux) are equally effective in treating SAD. A randomized controlled study.

Bright light treatment in elderly patients with nonseasonal major depressive disorder: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Impact of blue vs red light on retinal response of patients with seasonal affective disorder and healthy controls.

Qualitative analysis of therapeutic light effects on global function in Alzheimer's disease.

Amber lenses to block blue light and improve sleep: a randomized trial.

Patterns of depressive symptom remission during the treatment of seasonal affective disorder with cognitive-behavioral therapy or light therapy.

Low-intensity LED therapy (658 nm) on burn healing: a series of cases.

Randomized, blinded, controlled trial on effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy and exercise training in the fibromyalgia treatment.

Clinical efficacy, onset time and safety of bright light therapy in acute bipolar depression as an adjunctive therapy: A randomized controlled trial.

Evaluation of a randomized controlled trial on the effect on return to work with coaching combined with light therapy and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy for workers with work-related chronic stress.

Light therapy for multiple sclerosis-associated fatigue: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Dopamine and light: effects on facial emotion recognition.

Google

Blue Light May Help Alzheimer’s Patients

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Interviews

1. K.B.
   - Based on past experiences they do not like fluorescent lighting or having to work in it for long periods of time and prefers natural light if possible, or low lighting indoors.
   - In terms of colors they are attracted to red/orange/yellow.

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Misc. Questions

1. Color (Light) and Sound

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Does sound help to supplement color therapy? How can it complement colors across the electromagnetic spectrum? Are the sounds that are most similar to their corresponding color over the spectrum related in their healing properties?

This theory is different than the one based on energy centers in the body (or chakras) but more based on math across the electromagnetic spectrum.

2. Light/Color and Public Art

Where in the world is this being implemented already? What publicly funded artwork (and lighting) is playing with these ideas, even if it’s not directly with the color healing relationships to the body? How does public art affect those who see it? What semi-public art is doing similar things (in publicly accessible, paid-entry locations)? Try to find reviews, reactions to these installations.

1000 Opinions by Julia Vogl This hyperbolic bar chart and colour field painting reflect the public's opinion of where they would allocate a spare million of public spending. I surveyed 1000 people throughout London, a 100 people in 10 different communities, asking them to select one area from the London Greater Authority Budget list. The options were: ARTS & CULTURE (hot pink) BUSINESS & ECONOMY (gray) HEALTH ( seafoam green) HOUSING ( sky blue) EDUCATION ( royal blue) ENVIRONMENT ( turquoise) SAFETY & POLICING ( yellow) SPORTS & OLYMPICS ( orange) TRANSPORTATION ( red). I then made a steel mechanism that with the banners functioned as massive roller blinds. Each day of the show the banners were lowered or raised to reflect a different communities results.

http://www.juliavogl.com/portfolio/public-works/1000-opinions/

Sun Stomp

Premiering at the 2018 Light City Baltimore festival, Sun Stomp was a solar powered light and interactive audio-visual environment that for eight nights activated McKeldin Square. The monumental scaffolding sculpture featured an interactive projection on one side and an array of sixteen 290 watt solar panels on the other. Electrical energy collected during the day and was stored as chemical energy in a battery bank which provided electricity to a colorful array of LED neon lights illuminating the structure after dark. Participants were invited to stomp on the bleacher footboards to trigger sun-inspired visuals and amplified sounds of the Sun sourced from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Passersby were also invited to peer into the custom built “Power Shed” to learn about the solar technology and AV controls energizing the project. Foot-stomping powers combined, participants visually and experientially conjured the awesome and beautiful power of the sun.

https://grahamprojects.com/projects/sunstomp/

Choose your own Adventure transformed Baltimore’s Charles Street Bridge into a colorful playscape of pedestrian pathways and hanging beach balls. The project was commissioned by Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts for the free 2018 Artscape festival. Spray chalk lines marked a site-based map converging under a forest of beach balls hanging from an open air structure. The streetscape-enhancing project was a collaboration between Baltimore-based public artists Becky Borlan and Graham Coreil-Allen.

Choose your own Adventure took inspiration from the natural paths taken by street-crossing pedestrians, the Jones Falls and train tracks below, and the joyful experiences of summer-inspired toys. Hundreds of thousands of festival goers interacted with the kinetic environment of over four hundred colorful, translucent beach balls and a line striping street mural covering over three thousand square feet. Numerous beach balls featured hand-painted instructions offering choices for adventures beyond. Adventures included “Write a Poem in the Dirt”, “Change your name for the summer,” and “Take the first train to the end of the line.” Through tactical urbanism and creative design, the installation previewed possibilities for completely transforming the Charles Street Bridge into a playful, poetic, and pedestrian environment.

https://grahamprojects.com/projects/adventure-artscape/

“Georgetown will light up this winter with nine public art installations” (2017) https://dc.curbed.com/2017/11/27/16686450/georgetown-glow-artists-2017

LIGHT: Installations by Bruce Munro, Opens at Longwood Gardens https://longwoodgardens.org/news/press/2012/06/09/light-installations-bruce-munro-opens-longwood-gardens

Longwood Gardens “Nightscape” - Set over Longwood Gardens' expansive grounds in Kennett Square, PA, Nightscape combines the projection mapping technology of Klip Collective with the sounds of Sun Airway, Pink Skull and more, and leads guests on an immersive and imaginative nighttime journey. Over two seasons, Nightscape has attracted nearly 300,000 visitors.

The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/05/the-amazing-psychology-of-japanese-train-stations/560822/

Nightscape: A Light And Sound Experience Returns To Longwood Gardens On August 3 (2016) https://www.uwishunu.com/2016/07/coming-attraction-nightscape-light-sound-experience-klip-collective-returns-longwood-gardens-august-3/

3. Color and Food

Does the food we eat affect our mood similarly to how colored light affects our mood? What does the color of food tell us? What does it not tell us? Not sure yet if this will make it into the final project or not, but it is of interest.

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Lo-fi Prototypes

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Further Research

My Pinterest on light art has been started here.

Day 412 @ ITP: The Code of Music

Assignment: Sampling + Effects

Sketch: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/611509

*Note: Sometimes when loading the sketch I am getting a error saying there is a Script error on line -1 (?) then if I reload a few times it works. What does it mean?

PROCESS
I spent some time wrangling this one, and would have liked to have sliders and on/off switches involved to change the effects (as seen on the Tone.js examples page for GrainPlayer) but was having trouble assigning the sliderValue to one of the parameters in the GrainPlayer. If I integrate this into an interface with other functions later I will work on integrating that. I ended up playing with a few different simple elements of sampling and effects and combined the Tone.js GrainPlayer with the Tone.js Sampler to create a simple scene using a track I made last winter in the background being manipulated by mouseX and mouseY, if you click the mouse you add frogs and also reverse the audio, and if you hit a,s,d,f you trigger frog sounds manipulated through the sampler. I also got a nice effect of just the song through the GrainPlayer here, though the audio has a lot of glitchy clicks.

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RESPONSES

1. Keezy Classic

   I found this super fun to play with. Do SP-404 samplers work like this?? I liked how I held one key down it stopped the other samples. This could definitely be fun to make compositions with, especially with the option to add your own samples (it seems you can do this with the built-in mic, maybe there is a way record directly into the phone too…? Probably not)

2. Sampulator

   This was also very intuitive and fun to play with. I also liked some of the sounds, and steered clear of others. At first I thought if you held down a key it would repeat at the tempo in a signature, but it does not. I think that would be a cool function to add, though, especially for the kicks and drum parts. I also later realized you can record separate tracks and play them back…a great tool/toy! If it offered the option to export a sample that would make it a real musical instrument? I also just saw that you can “shop samples.” I would prefer to make my own similar version with uploaded samples, but it’s definitely inspiring.

Day 408 @ ITP: The Temporary Expert

Solar Energy Calendar (A Field Guide)

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All 12 months

Solar Energy Calendar & Field Guide - Further Afield…

Many thanks to Matt Weaver, Alex Nathanson, Jay Babcock, Evie Elman, and Marina Zurkow for their advice in the making of this project.

Related projects and links:

Solar Power For Artists
www.solarpowerforartists.com

E-Foraging
www.eforaging.com

Sun Stomp
landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/5882
facebook.com/sunstomp/

Video
Saul Griffith: “Infrastructure and Climate Change”

Petition (in under a minute!)
>> SEND A LETTER TO YOUR LOCAL PAPER FOR NYC SOLAR <<

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REFLECTION

While finalizing this project my goal was to iterate on it and not just create a glorified first draft.

With this goal in mind along the way I really valued and needed all the input and reactions I could find from experts and non-experts alike. I tried to combine it all as best I could to transform the project into something more evolved from the first and second drafts.

That being said, I think it’s still not 100% done, especially now that I look back on it a few days later.

I would be open to iterating the project further, especially if I were to actually disseminate it out into the greater world somehow or give them as gifts to friends and family (seeds and all) which I think I might like to do. For one, I would make the calendar part take up half the page or as much as the image/text so that is more usable, and I am open to any other suggestions or feedback on how it could improve.

I also was inspired in working on this by how reaching out to specialists could bring more meaning to my projects.

Continued:

After I made this I went up to Storm King sculpture park to see their exhibition “Indicators: Artists on Climate Change” which was very moving, and I felt even further inspired by how one could make impactful art about climate change. People sometimes joke about how making art about real-life political issues doesn’t do anything, I honestly don’t believe that. I believe anything that moves people on a level beyond logic is valuable, especially if logic is also still in the mix there somewhere or meaning. For example, Maya Lin’s piece “The Secret Life of Grasses” showing how far plant root systems can go down and suck up carbon was educational. In particular the project “Dear Climate” by the artist collective General Assembly was conveying some of the sentiments I was trying to get at with my calendar but on a broader scale where they were addressing climate change and human impact on the environment and not just the use of renewable energy. (Update 10/25: Marina, I just realized you are also behind this!!! I had a feeling!!! Did you tell us about this already? It makes sense and now I am embarrassed)

I found myself also looking up other projects in this vein afterwards, and ending up finding this project by Dorinth Doherty on the Svalbard seed bank in Norway. The connections are endless, and I think artists working with scientists is an a goldmine for finding more and more connections.

Day 405 @ ITP: Code of Music

Assignment: Parallel Harmony

For this assignment I decided to keep working on my interface from last week’s synthesis assignment, I am familiarizing myself with Tone.js and am excited about the possibilities, but still getting the hang of it, so not building an entirely new interface is helpful to just experiment with the sounds more

For this week I added some new buttons with new melodies and tones to add on top of each other, and played with the Tone.MembraneSynth to add some percussive sounds as well as with changing the timings of the notes and rests between notes, though it still sounds a bit of a mess to my ears. My next goal would be to come up with more of a composition.

Here is the sketch: https://editor.p5js.org/full/rkAZb4p5X

[Note: when I first tried to take a screen recording the sketch suddenly started to sound like garbage. I finally realized it was because I was trying to use a program to record the audio separately and it was getting confused by the sketch also trying to take the audio input from the computer’s mic. So I ended up just using the computer’s built in mic to record the audio, and that worked.]

The interface I realized is loosely inspired by the Buchla easel, and I’d like to model it a bit more after the way the easel looks (without the patch cables, etc but with sliders and knobs/buttons to create effects) and also with creating similar kind of robotic and playful rhythms and melodies, but maybe a bit more ambient/evolving than the slightly jerky sounds in the video below:

I also enjoyed doing the Ableton making music tutorial and the Catalog piece on parsing out elements of music you like. I’ve always felt limited by pre-built synthesizers and it is very fun to try to imagine creating something that does exactly what you want it to do. Feeling the free to borrow elements from synthesizers that already exist to create interfaces with is also helpful.

Day 397 @ ITP: The Code of Music

Assignment: Synthesis w/ Tone.js

PROCESS
For this first real exploration into making sounds using the web browser (without pre-recorded audio samples) I ended up making a playable web synth (somewhat painfully — then joyfully) through cobbling together different types of synthesis and effects, inspired partially by projects that were made in our class, as well as from the Tone.js examples page.

Instructions:
- Press on/off to start playing and to mute or unmute all sounds.
- Press the colored buttons to play different synth sounds. Hold down the orange/green/yellow buttons to extend the pattern. The two pink buttons turn on their patterns permanently, until I can figure out how to turn them off with a second click.
- Move the slider to manipulate the frequency of an oscillator which is controlled by the mouse.

You can play the final sketch here. See the code here.

Final sketch https://editor.p5js.org/full/SkSJnEd97

Some frustrations:

• I had been using openprocessing.org up until now because overall I found it easier to use, but I couldn’t figure out how to add HTML elements or CSS behind the scenes using their editor.

• I ideally wanted to start and stop all the individual synth patterns when hitting the buttons (allowing them to loop when enabled until stopped, and restart when hit again), which should be possible?

• I would have liked to add some rotary sliders/circular dials to add effects to each sound, which I think I now know how to do, as well as a way to fade out the volume rather than turn it off abruptly. But wasn’t able to get there by our class.