Gian Pablo @ ITP

Neon/Music is a performance piece, that analyzes light, motion & color in a video stream and uses this to generate music.

I was inspired to do this because it is the reverse of my usual situation as a VJ, where I try to match images & video to the music. Here, I am starting from the video composition, and generating music.

I chose to work with videos of neon signs from Tokyo, since they have an interesting rhythmic structure, and look nice on big screens.

The project was implemented in Max/MSP/Jitter - here is a screenshot:

I performed it twice, on April 28th and 29th, in two different versions. On the 28th, it was shown as a video tryptich, spanning 3 screens. On the 29th, I showed it on a single screen.

It works quite well, the connection between video and music is clear. However, I am interested in improving the quality of sound, by using an external synthesizer program. This will also allow me to give more of a spatial sense, by panning the sounds associated with the videos to the left and right.

Posted by Gian Pablo at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've chosen to explore manipulation of time as a subject, and picked three examples.

The first is Leif Inge's 9 Beet Stretch, consisting of Beethoven's 9th Symphony stretched out to play over 24 hours, and pitch-shifted to restore the original sound. Stretching the sound out this way focuses attention on timbre, and perceiving the rhythmic structure of the original piece requires some concentrated effort!

The second is a 30 minute chanted version of "Om Nama Shivaya", a Hindu religious song perfomed at a very slow speed. In contrast to the first example, I have sped it up 4x and corrected the pitch as well. In a reverse of the first example, rhythmic elements now predominate over the gradually evolving tones of the original version.

Finally, I will reference Marcus Coate's Dawn Chorus, an attempt to simulate birdsong with human singers. A variety of bird calls were recorded, and slowed down to 1/16th of their normal speed. These tones were then sung by a group of human singers, and the resulting video sped up 16x, to restore the original pitch.

Posted by Gian Pablo at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I want to put together a single project that will cover my final for Live Image Processing, MIDI and Digital Synthesis, and Audio Art.

I am particularly interested in:

1) Rhythm
2) A/V Synchronization
3) Generation

So at this point, some kind of robot percussionist that triggers video clips in sync, with some kind of "steering" by the audience.

I will draw upon the 20+ hours of video that I shot in Tokyo before leaving. Maybe use audio samples from that as well.

The concept will be something like "A Random Walk Through Shibuya". Shibuya is a neighborhood in Tokyo popular with teenagers, famous for neon, nightclubs, loud music, and outlandish behavior.

Through a combination of randomness, sampled sounds & video and pacing, I want to capture the experience of just wandering through this space.

Posted by Gian Pablo at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This is an interesting companion piece to Cage's "Credo", being roughly contemporary. It is far more specific than Cage in terms of practical recommendations, and hence is somewhat dated, especially when he outlines the components of a Futurist orchestra.

He is right on target in his description of the classical music world, however, I am struck by his omission of the world of popular music. Also absent is a consideration of traditional or "primitive" music, which relies on very simple instruments, and hence is closer to "noise".

As with the Cage piece, I am struck by how Russolo homes in the emotional impact of the music as a key factor. He is calling for music that can evoke the emotions of a modern city dweller, perhaps different from those of a wealthy bourgeois of the 19th century...

I found this an interesting piece, and will certainly keep it in mind for my field recording exercises!

Posted by Gian Pablo at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"The Future of Music: Credo", by John Cage, is a fascinating piece of writing, even more so considering that it was written in 1937.

As far as I can tell, all of the basic premises of his piece have been proven true. The use of noise, the use of non-musical sounds (samples), percussive music, etc are all widespread practices.

However, these practices have not taken off in the world of academia or musical education, but in popular music, and from there, are making their way into the musical "canon". The music that most dramatically exemplifies Cage's credo is not the somewhat sterile world of "experimental" music, but the thriving world of dance music.

There is an entire genre that refers to itself as "noise" music, elements of which have appeared in techno and trance. (For more, see Ishkur's Guide). The use of non-musical sounds, or sampling, is now extremely widespread, especially in rap and hip-hop. Purely percussive music based on samples is also popular, see turntable-based scratching and sampling-based music (the Akai MPC 1000 is a crucial landmark).

It is interesting that all these innovations have appeared precisely in dance music, since it represents a reconnection of music with its roots. A lot of the "classical" music which is typically consumed sitting solemnly in an auditorium was originally meant to be danced, as a celebration, or a kind of meditation. The sort of detachment from the audience that we see in the "classical" music world is a form of stagnation. Hence, it is not surprising to see Cage's prediction materialize in environments where people engage physically and profoundly with the music!

Posted by Gian Pablo at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Listening far:

I stood on a busy street corner, possibly a bad choice. Immediate first impression is how loud traffic sounds are, and how persistent. It is mainly a combination of engine sounds, and the sound of tires on tarmac. There are other traffic related sounds as well: brake squeals, backup warnings, horns.

I notice pretty quickly that it is almost impossible to try to listen to distant engine sounds or tire sounds, if there is another similar source nearby. In fact, it is quite eerie that a car a block away seems completely silent if there is another car nearby. Moving sound sources seem easier to track and locate than those that are standing still. Backup warnings, however, are very distinct and can be isolated and located quite far away. Curiously, occasional bird song can be picked up. This is strange, I don’t imagine too many birds winter in New York.

Trying hard to pick up distant sounds, the only thing I can really come up with is a sort of distant low-frequency rumble, which I imagine is an aggregate of mostly traffic sounds.

Listening near:

I go to a nearby café and get a coffee. Lots of sounds here, but all of them easy to separate. Music is playing – a rock & roll ballad of some kind. People are talking, each conversation easy to locate in space and isolate. The coffee machine is operated sporadically, with a tinkling of porcelain and the hiss of a steam jet. The cash register is constantly in use, though the most distinctive sound is the cash drawer opening.

It starts as a dry click, then a rising squeak, a low thud as it hits its stop. Jingling as the cashier digs for coins – they never take just the coins they need, instead they take a handful and count out the ones they don’t need, dropping them back in the drawer with a characteristic sound. A hiss then thump as the drawer is closed.

Posted by Gian Pablo at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a reaction to "Quantum Listening" by Pauline Oliveros.

Oliveros describes a process of active, consciousness listening as a way of understanding the world, rather than the passive listening which all of us engage in most of the time.

I was struck by the "musical" structure of the essay - it has a basic rhythm (the layout) and themes (quantum listening), on which she improvises and digresses (eg. microphone on mars, hearing loss, the nature of industrial sound). As such, I found the piece to be more readily comprehended by thinking of it as a song, and hence not "reading" but "listening" to it. It is a little hard to follow as a conventional essay - maybe it is a transcript of a lecture?

In India, I had some exposure to the concept of "seed mantras", sounds that represent basic aspects of reality without needing any linguistic or onomatopeic context. It seems that Oliveros is travelling on a convergent path!

Posted by Gian Pablo at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)