by Tommi Koskinen
Description
Grain Room is an interactive audiovisual installation with particle based granular audio. The core concept idea is that small particles can flow into the room and out of it, and sound is generated from the presence and interaction (e.g. collision) of the particles. The particles are visualized on a wall projection surface and the particle sounds can be heard through the speakers. Particles are inaudible when they are not in the room and momentary silences can occur. The audio processing will be multichannel (4 speakers positioned on the side of the wall on the floor level and 4 above them).
The installation starts to live when users enter and exit and move in the room. The flow of particles in or out starts whenever one of the two doors in the room is open. When the doors remain closed the particles are trapped inside the room (if all the particles have not flown out of the room). The opening of the doors is recognized with infrared sensors that are controlled by an Arduino. This data will be sent to Pure Data running on a computer. Pure Data controls the particle engine (generation, amount, position and collision of the particles, and of course the sounds) and sends data to Open Frameworks application to make synchronized visuals for the grains.
I’m planning to publicly show this work at the entrance hallway of Aalto ARTS during the Cumulus Association meeting and MediaLab demo day in the end of May.
Technology
Computer (preferably Macbook Pro or Mac Mini)
Audio Interface with 8 channel output
8 Genelec speakers
2 Projectors
1 Webcam
Arduino with 2 Infrared sensors