Sonic Construction 2 (new work 2005)
Duration c. 15 min
Max/MSP/Jitter, Firewire video camera (iSight), Glass, Water, Sugar, Coloured Dyes 2ch or multi-channel (configurable) sound, data projector.

Excerpt1 (1' 24" 22Khz mono Mp3 227kb)
Excerpt2 (0' 45" 22Khz mono Mp3 134kb)

In this performed work, movent detected by a firewire video camera is used to generate a sound environment based on real-time fof synthesis and spatialisation. The slow and evolving movents of coloured dye in thick and viscous sugary water is used as the gesture or movement source.

The amount of movement, Cartesian coordinates and colour are used as time changing parameters used to control the fof synthesis and also determine the spatialisation characteristics. A fof ('Fonction d'onde formantique' or Formant Synthesis) can be thought of as a grain representing a fundamental period of a signal corresponding to a formant. Density, formants, grain characteristics and frequency are derived from the gesture input from the video camera.

The performance begins with silence and an empty glass of water. As the first drop of dye is dropped into the water, the first fof sound event is generated, determined by the characteristics of the drop (speed, colour, shape) and spatialised in response to the shape unfolding of the coloured dye.

Other works related to this:
Sonic Construction 1
premiered at Sonic Connections 2004, Friday 10th September, University Of Wollongong.


Images from Sonic Construction 1 Sonic Connections 2004
Photography: Stephen Gard
Setup: glass, liquid, dyes, camer, laptop.

Performance Start:
Clear liquid, no sound

 First Drop: Red dye
     
Red drop expands

 Second colour added - blue Blue drop expands
     
Blue, red & yellow - colours starting to merge

 Green added More blue added