Hello internet people,
After looking at the bulk of posts we have up here it's come to my attention that we have a good amount of data but not much in terms of explanation.
In this post I'm going to attempt to give you an overview of this project and just where we are in terms of design and assembly.
Introduction
To get a good idea of what this project is about, we have written a descriptive proposal that covers all aspects, technical and artistic, of the installation in progress:
“SaraSong is an interactive installation that uses color-pencil pictures drawn by participants on a special robotically-augmented paper canvas to create live visual and auditory compositions that reflect on the cyclical nature of life on earth. “
SaraSong Proposal on Google Docs
The Past
Over the last two months, the IPA-IQP team has been able to implement a few of the main elements described in the proposal:
The wooden stand that will serve as the user’s drawing surface and hardware mounting platform has been fully designed and assembled.
The Java framework for generating multi-channel midi sequences from the webcam color/luminance data has been designed and is now in a workable state with more features currently being implemented.
The current audio synthesis program, Jeskola Buzz, has been explored by the team and an initial instrument/sample-bank setup has been created for testing the midi output from the music generation Java program.
And finally, the hardware for the vertical plotter [hector clone] has been machined and installed on the wooden stand. In addition, the code for controlling the movement of the plotter’s payload has been written and is in workable condition.
The Present
At this point, all of the team members are on a much needed holiday break. Even so, some work is being done to add additional data massaging capability to the audio generation framework as to widen the auditory possibilities that we can test and some designs are being laid out for the second [eraser] vertical plotter. Also, a few members are working on condensing the large amount of behind-the-scenes data and information that has been accumulating in preparation for a public release near the end of the year long project.
The Future
As of January 14th, the team has started an aggressive campaign to finish all the design work and ultimately, fully assemble all physical elements so more time can be dedicated to the computer-side data manipulation and audio generation to make sure that all user-experience elements can be accomplished.
One part of this project that needs more work is what you are reading now, the blog. We are currently discussing how to better keep the public updated with our progress and hopefully create a dialog with interested readers. With our work falling in so many domains and the amount of time we have to create these posts being very limited, other expressive venues are being explored.
Keep an eye out for more updates in the coming weeks!
Lastly, near the conclusion of the project, a comprehensive set of design data and documentation will be released to the public with the hope that our work will live on in the public arena though derivative works by other artists and students.
~ Chris
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