Music-in-Motion

Will have fully updated by Monday 6/12 at 11:59am PST.

Introduction

Music in Motion is an interactive sound-art installation that uses the motion of balloons through a performance space to modulate and move the 3D placement of synthesized sounds in realtime. MiM utilizes a webcam and a Max patch utilizing the cv.jit Max library to determine the location and color of balloons thrown by participants. The position data is sent from Max to Ableton Live where it is used to artificially pan synthesizers using first-order ambisonics panning plugin of Envelop for Live, as well as modulate synth pitches, filter sweeps, and other effects in realtime. Different balloon colors are tied to different notes and timbrel. In an ideal installation, MiM is tuned such that participants are clearly aware of how the motion of their balloons changes the sound in the space––a participant could throw a balloon and hear the perceived sound source of their balloon’s instrument move away from them in motion with the balloon.

Motivations

Software

Max 7
Ableton Live 9
cv.jit library for Max
Envelop for Live (E4L)
Jack OS X

Hardware

MacBook (running previously listed software)
4 output audio interface (Komplete Audio 6)
Webcam (mounted 6.5-8ft high using stand)
4 loudspeakers (and 4 stands positioned in a ~12’x12’ square configuration)

Installation at Bing, Final Thoughts

Picture from outside corner of the installation, looking inward. Between the two rightmost speakers is my computer and audio interface on a table and the webcam mounted on a stand.