group interaction

[Michael Felix]

andrew sent me the following:

Everyone programs their own song. When no one is present, your song plays. It is unique to you. When others are present, you only play parts of your song proportionally, e.g., when there are two others (total of three) you play 1/3 of your notes, and are quiet for the rest. Whenever your note plays everyone else is silent; this is synced by a shared clock

i think this is splendid! i like the idea that there's a shared clock; maybe we could map its tempo to the average velocity of the group?

• • • •

some documentation the jeenode's wireless radio library: http://cafe.jeelabs.net/sw/library_-_rf12/. also, tested the new speedometer library and it detects the magnet correctly but doesn't properly communicate the speed. hopefully we can meet up soon and prototype it out (andrew mentioned wednesdays?)

—mfelix

[Ezra Spier]

Great idea! 

One idea I had that goes along with this is that rather than think in terms of songs, we could think about compositions as combinations of musical phrases (chunks that define their own duration, tempo, effects, etc). That way, we could use our realtime data to influence the music note-wise, phrase-wise, or session-wise. We could also use these chunks as the building blocks of Andrew's idea – rather than arbitrarily cut out 1/3 of a song, for instance, the "network" would be able to build group compositions with unequal, even dissonant parts. Might be cool, might sound awful. Just a thought.

It also opens up the possibility of using some sort of simple wireless protocol to transfer these chunks from one device to another, sort of a synthesizer version of horizontal gene transfer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer). 

Anyway, I'll start familiarizing myself with the wireless library. 

I'd love to meet up soon to work on any or all of this! (And especially to fix the libraries we wrote so they actually work.) Wednesdays are usually good for me, but I'm out of town next week Wednesday-Saturday. If we have time this week, I'm busy tonight and Saturday day but otherwise pretty open until Wednesday. 

E

[Michael Felix]

i agree that the song-building process should be composed of an amalgamation of a lot of tiny interactions. average acceleration and velocity can be mapped to more global-level controls like tempo and timbre, while smaller, more localized interactions (like turning, rapid acceleration/deceleration) can be mapped to more immediate audio feedback. i'd prefer the mapping-audio-to-movement process to be focused on providing expressive, usable feedback rather than sound for the sake of sound.

i've already outlined a few modes of bicycle-based interaction, but any other ideas y'all have in this space would be much appreciated.

how about a meetup sunday morning around 11:11? i can make waffles!

—mfelix

[Andrew Kurtz]

"i'd prefer the mapping-audio-to-movement process to be focused on providing expressive, usable feedback rather than sound for the sake of sound."

yes.

"how about a meetup sunday morning around 11:11? i can make waffles!"

ultra-yes.

[Ezra Spier]

Agreed completely.

And I'm always a fan of 11:11 waffles. Anything I can bring?

E

[Michael Felix]

not unless you guys want anything fancy like juice or whipped cream. i'll cover the waffles and coffee!

see you there,

—mfelix