Pharos Designer / Capitol
The footage of the first version of my piece for the Capitol was interesting. A few things worked well, but a lot didn’t. I’ll be re-making a bunch of it this/next week based on what worked. I think some of the transitions could be even slower, with some areas, such as the random flickering on the ceiling, removed altogether. An idea I had was to start with some slow, fading lighting, slowly transitioning into strobing/fast downward ramp patterns towards the end. Potentially also using the screen to display some colour washes in the most intense points. More experimentation is needed.
Browser-based work
I’ve made the decision to cut the browser-based works down to one piece—Phase, due to taking on another collaboration, a second one with Pat. More on that later. I still have plans to complete the other works, but will keep them as a personal project, rather than submitting for the assignment.
Phase is coming along nicely; I developed an early, yet silent, prototype on Saturday, which works well and looks great. I’ll be adding sound hopefully before the presentations on Thursday, where I’ll include a video of it in action.
It’s also requiring me to develop my p5js skills a bit more, mainly in terms of creating a more refined user interface, but also that it requires me to think a bit more efficiently about using classes/objects, which I touched on in Bounce. I’m working towards this method for the buttons as well, having a definited button class that has different uses depending on conditions set when initiated. For this, I’ve been mostly referring to the p5js reference documentation, but I’m also going further into generative art, with the aim to extend the visual content of my browser works in general, studying texts such as Generative Design Revised: Visualize, Program, and Create with JavaScript in P5.js (Gross et al. 2018). Such texts are not only technically useful, but also provide inspiration by showing how techniques can be combined to create artistic results, which I sometimes have trouble with when simply learning the techniques in isolation.
Collaborations
I’ve taken on another of Pat’s projects; her optical fibre sculpture looks amazing and I definitely want to create some abstract sound for it. My first pass was received well:
Though, I have realised that the parts I initially thought were a bright pulse fading to a dim constant light, are due to the camera automatically adjusting exposure levels, so some of the bursts in my sound won’t really match up when viewing the work in a physical space. As the above has been controlled by a relay, it’s currently limited to simple on/off lighting, so that makes it a little more tricky to create a heightened experience. Pat has experimented with using a projector as the light source instead though, so that would make things easier to sync up and create a more dynamic experience.
I’ve also been iterating on Pat’s Capitol Theatre work, which may go in a few directions at once, changing rapidly to maintain an exhilarating experience. Here’s the latest clip, just of drums for now, but an exercise in complexity:
It’s heavily inspired by Iglooghost, who, in my opinion, creates incredibly ecstatic and exhilarating music, even when the melodic content is on the darker side.
I tried unsuccessfully to create similar music a few years ago in another musical project, but have always wanted to revisit his work, so I’ve been spending some time analysing what makes it such an ecstatic experience for me, and I’ve narrowed it down to a few things:
- Lack of repetition: There is always something changing in these pieces, mostly the intricate drum programming, but also the melodic content popping in and out among the more constant bassline progressions.
- Contrasting sounds: Iglooghost plays with pairing delicate, natural sounds with intense, synthetic sounds a lot in his music. This is a fairly standard trope of IDM, but in his music, it’s taken to more of an extreme, including field recordings, quiet vocal samples, and quick foley sounds alongside drum machine, breakbeat and synth sounds more commonly associated with genres like footwork and breakcore. This also relates to the above point, where occasional melodic runs add a burst of energy, in contrast to the quieter sounds.
- Fast tempo: This hardly needs an explanation, but the use of fast tempo, while also using a lot of half-time elements (e.g. a half-time snare/clap) allows for some of the more intricate drum programming to evoke a feeling of “what the hell is going on?” and being overwhelmed, and even mesmerised by the level of detail. I tried to replicate this at a slower tempo, but it doesn’t quite work very well, unless using faster note divisions.
References
Gross, B, Bohnacker, H, Laub, J & Lazzeroni, C 2018, Generative Design Revised: Visualize, Program, and Create with JavaScript in P5.js, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.