Clonal Colonies + Complex Systems at Code Control

I will be demonstrating how I implemented and used variable-coupled map networks to create the music for Clonal Colonies at the Code Control European Max/MSP conference. Saturday, March 23, 17:30.

KMH + Fylkingen + Technarte Bilbao

I will be presenting a concert of my video works at Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden, at 19:30 on April 4, 2013. The following day will include a master class and seminar at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

I will discuss the technique and aesthetic of Clonal Colonies as part of Technarte Bilbao in Spain. 26 April, 11:00.

Screenings in Miami

Street: Festival of Music, Art and Performance in Miami presents Sinus Aestum on December 6, 2012. 

Clonal Colonies: Fresh Runners is part of MADATAC 04 in Madrid, starting December 10, in Programme #4.

Upcoming Screenings: Louisville, Bulldog Bytes, CSUS Festival of New American Music

The following venues will be screening Clonal Colonies in the coming months:

November 5, 2012
CSUS Festival of New American Music

Sacramento City College
Sacramento, California, USA

March 26, 2013
Bulldog Bytes Concert Series
South Carolina State University
Orangeburg, South Carolina, USA

Sinus Aestum will be screened Nov 7, 2012 at 

University of Louisville School of Music New Music Festival

Louisville, Kentucky, USA 

Forms (process) by Memo Aktin, Quayola +

Forms (process) from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

This provides some exceptional food for thought regarding the khyāl gesture mapping challenge. Akten and team demonstrate powerfully that there is a sweet spot to be found between a direct mapping of body motion and a more abstracted visualisation.

Why is this so effective?

The multiple layers of material originate from the same physical motion, but have independence from each-other and from that motion.

The original motion is, in a sense, providing the impulse that shapes the behavior of different systems. The resulting system behaviors don't just "track" the motion directly, but also clearly reflect the velocity and trajectory of that motion. These velocity patterns cause changes in the behaviors that echo past the time sequences that shape them. Like the "memory trail" one might have of the original motion, the systems emphasize that the dynamics of the motion have perceptual implications beyond the specific narrow windows where they occur.

Because these layered systems both have their own behaviors and are impulsed by the same original motion, there is an engaging "counterpoint" arising between the different layers, all pointing clearly back to the character of the originating motion — even while that original motion has been eliminated from the picture. (I have a long-standing fascination with the idea that audio-visual complexes could achieve coherence due to their relationship to an underlying system that is neither audio nor visual and is not directly perceived).

It is interesting that the left particle system helps emphasise the body mass and its distribution, while the other systems seem to emphasise more the trajectories of points on that mass. I find having both there quite compelling; they tell different aspects of the story.

In the right-hand system, the spline curves seem to shift even after they have been drawn, perhaps even more so with wide arcs of high velocity. It seems likely simply that those points take on an initial velocity and trajectory and that velocity decays over time. Lovely idea.

I'm still scratching my head a bit on the center system — though some kind of spring model seems at play.

If one applies some similar techniques to the khyāl gesturing, it seems that there is a risk that the time independence of the visual systems could blur, rather than highlight, the motion-to-music relationship. But this is certainly worth experimenting with.

Further, it is worth considering what other higher-order aspects (beyond velocity) in the originating motion could fruitfully be applied to shaping system behavior.

Colonal Colonies in Cartes Flux 2012

Clonal Colonies Movement I will be screening in Cartes Flux, Espoo, Finland, 15-22 October 2012

Duplicating Objects in Blender 2.6 Python Scripting

Duplicating objects with Blender 2.6 Python scripting is not quite as straightforward as one might hope, and for me a web search failed to return a simple, clear solution. If found my best solution by searching through the Blender scripts addons folder for files containing the 'copy()' function.

One has to create a new mesh, then copy the data of the source object, then link to the scene. Here's the short function I'm using to do this.

# The following function is adapted from 
# Nick Keeline "Cloud Generator" addNewObject 
# from object_cloud_gen.py (an addon that comes with the Blender 2.6 package)
#
def duplicateObject(scene, name, copyobj):

    # Create new mesh
    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new(name)

    # Create new object associated with the mesh
    ob_new = bpy.data.objects.new(name, mesh)

    # Copy data block from the old object into the new object
    ob_new.data = copyobj.data.copy()
    ob_new.scale = copyobj.scale
    ob_new.location = copyobj.location

    # Link new object to the given scene and select it
    scene.objects.link(ob_new)
    ob_new.select = True

    return ob_new