See
Video and Installation projects realized at the University of Louisville Computer Music Studio
Reflections
interactive installation
Zachary Thomas, sound and programming
Anna Buky, Rachel Waters, visuals
Reflections is an art and sound installation which interacts with its inhabitants through reflective mediums. Mirrors surrounding the participants create fragmented and nested images while the sound of the space is processed and reintroduced via a four channel system. The installation uses only content introduced to it by the participants to create an interactive environment. Audio from the space is constantly collected and analyzed, informing a generative algorithm which processes the incoming audio in real-time. The sound itself determines how it will be processed and distributed in the spatial field. As the space attempts to qualify the sounds within it, new spatial, temporal, and timbral structures will emerge in the music.
Stars: Sound and Science
interactive installation
Joseph Burchett, interactive installation, composition and outreach program
A project funded by the NASA Space Science Student Ambassador program, Stars: Sound and Science consisted of a musical composition, interactive installation (shown here housed at the Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium), and a scientific lecture geared toward the general public. The central, unifying concept of these elements is that of asteroseismology, the study of pulsating stars. Astronomers are able to observe complex periodic variations in the light from a star and use these measurements to determine physical properties such as age, mass, and size of the star. These cycles may take anywhere from hours to days to complete, and the installation and composition uses actual data from observed stars scaled to the range of human hearing (20 – 20,000 Hz). Serving as an installation interface is an adapted Hertzsprung-Russell diagram which characterizes stars by their temperature and luminosity but contains marked regions where stars pulsate so that users may choose and “hear” different classes of these fascinating instruments in space.
This is all the NOISE we make
sound installation
Adriana Guzman, Joey Crane, composition and programming
This sound installation seeks to draw attention to the everyday sounds we hear in the music building, trying to involve them in an artistic and musical environment. The installation plays pre-recorded samples in a random way, along with silent intermissions. The sound material includes various samples of steps and closing doors, and instrumental and vocal sounds. There is also a microphone recording live sounds produced in the space. These sounds are fed into the computer and reproduced later. The software used is MAX/MSP.
Transitivo
A Memorial to Honor the 27500 Men Who Died while Constructing the Panama Canal
Audio Visual Installation
Students of the Hite Art Program under the direction of Professor Mary Carothers
Sound: Professors Krzysztof Wolek and John Ritz
Transitivo is a memorial created to honor the thousands of men who perished during the construction of the Panama Canal (1880-1914). These men's efforts mark one of the most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken throughout the course of word history. Because of their dedication, the Panama Canal links the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and has replaced the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southmost tip of South America.
Shakra Study I
video
Lexi Bass, music and video
The chakras, in Hindu and Qigong mysticism, are force centers; wheel-like vortices of subtle matter corresponding with seven points on the physical body which are believed to be focal points for the reception and transmission of energies. Beginning at the base of the spine, the lower chakras deal with basic human needs and pleasures working up the spine to the genitals, the solar plexus, heart, the throat, the third eye, and eventually concluding in the ethereal extra-sensory crown chakra. Each chakra is associated with a color and natural element, connecting its body to its physical home on Earth. I wanted to create with my piece, Chakra Study 1, a sense of movement up these spiritual centers of the body, a sanctuary or generic religious space one could find within oneself in our electronic Western society. I chose to include subtle references to religious musical imagery, both Eastern and Western, to evoke a feeling of religion or spiritual connection without labeling a god or belief system. These references are not explicit. The droning introduction is achieved electronically, while the choral movement in the latter half is an emotive improvisation in pure phonetics. For me the process of connecting to my own energy was integral to the cohesive result.
Lexi Bass
Aurelia
Interactive Sound Sculpture
Leah Sproul Pulatie, sounds and programming
Collin Lloyd, glass, film, and carpentry
Aurelia is a set of glass sculptures that act as projection screens for different films that the user may change with the press of a button. As the films change, so do the sounds associated with those films. The user is meant to explore the sound and visual sets to create sequences that are most appealing to them. There are 5 different pre-set sound banks that we have put together, but the user may choose to play the sounds and visuals as they wish.
East of the City, Edge
paper, photograph, glass, poetry and sound installation
Alexia Serpentini, airplanes and photography
James Young, sound and electronics
Julie Wade, poetry and voice
Sarah Pitt, model
East of the City, Edge is a work of transitions: from one to the other. The subject in the photos contemplates the words and sounds around her, perhaps remembering. The intention of the artists was to give people the opportunity to create their own stories. The work aims to create a visual/aural narrative within a generally static system: an installation. To accomplish this, the corridor becomes an interactive space; the linearity of the hallway coincides with its narrative path as the audience becomes a key player in the progression of the piece. The artists created an unobtrusive yet immersive environment that provides only fragments and hints to a greater story. We want the walker to feel as if they have accidentally stumbled upon and have become a part of this synthetic unreality, and to create a surreal experience for them, fabricated out of this mundane, everyday hallway.
East of the City, Edge, video documenting the installation process.
