Thesis question: 

  • How do audio streaming platforms / internet infrastructure change the perception of music in modern culture?
  • How can technology aid a collaborative design process / form new relationships / interactions that are shared in a physical space?

 

What?

The form I would like to choose for my thesis is not a frictionless interface, where users have to do the bare minimum in order to satisfy their needs at the particular moment. It lies in the intersection of three avenues: interface that combines the physical and digital world, storytelling / performance and promoting community connectedness afforded by decentralization. 

 

Why?

This project is important to me because it explores new tools and decision-making frameworks for sustainable and collaborative design processes in the field of music industry and sound design. I believe that pluralism of ideas is fundamental to democracy and unfortunately, today’s digitization often leads to singularity and separation between the physical and the digital world.

 

 Goals

To foster a design process which will enable users to form relationships and interactions within the decentralized system where decisions are made collaboratively through voting and forking proposals.

Create an online streaming platform where users gain access to content by transforming kinetic energy into a fuel for the infrastructure.

 

Inspiration

A project, where a musical composition is deconstructed into separate parts that are represented as objects in a physical space.

While “full immersion” is the ultimate goal for many virtual environments E.R, leave the visitors’ presence split in dual presence between the physical and virtual realms.

Sound installation, where everyday objects are connected in space through sonic transducers.

This book explores Mouffe’s writings on agonism, evolving decision-making protocols within collaborative processes.

Cooking music through mixing chemical compounds. 

Interactive AR sound app, which turns microphone input into a spatialized visualization. 

Interactive design studio in New York.

Influential vinyl sleeve designer, most known for his work relating to Factory Records in Manchester.

 

How do you envision realizing this project?

First, I have to do more research about musical interfaces and get a better understanding of how DAO’s function. I really would like to create an interface that is tactile and is connected to the digital space at the same time. 

I’m planning to experiment with physical computing and AR technology to create a decentralized system of nodes to engage users in creative practice. In terms of physical computing, I’ve already started to build a circuit to generate and store power through a bicycle light system dynamo and my next step is to try and connect it to a website which will only load after enough energy is stored. This week I did an experiment with Pepper’s ghost which could be perceived as an analog form of AR because I am not sure which tool is the best choice for combining visuals and sound. 

 

What are your areas of strength?

My strengths are producing electronic music and enthusiasm for learning new skills. 

 

What areas do you need to work on? 

I think I need to work on the concept and the storytelling aspect of the project. Right now I feel like my project is design-oriented and I would like to take it one step further so that users will experience it with strong emotions. 

 

Technologies you want to explore in more depth?

I want to explore Raspberry Pi, hyper local network based on cryptography and AR technology (Cider, Unity, ARKit, OpenFrameworks).

 

Tags

“Pluralism”, “decentralized system”, “democratization of sound”, “collaboration”, “design process”.