voca1
Interactive Exploration
Trailer Music: Iglooghost
voca-1 was my thesis project at Ringling College of Art + Design.
Voca is based off the question of “What if an alien computer found itself on earth and wanted to understand music?”
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I wanted people to think about the relationship between computers, themselves, and art.
The installation would allow people to mix, match, and play loops of audio, even allow them to record their own audio to add it to the “memory banks” of Voca.
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The UI would give feedback on the audio that was playing, displaying key and tempo as the computer understood it. Eventually it would give the user a rating to tell them that what they just created was, for example, “30% music”.
The percent rating Voca gave the user at the end was randomized and not based on any analysis unlike the other metrics. The rating was supposed to confuse and maybe even anger the user if it was too high or low, leading them to the question: “Should a computer even decide what gets to be music?”
Voca is based off the question of “What if an alien computer found itself on earth and wanted to understand music?”
_
I wanted people to think about the relationship between computers, themselves, and art.
The installation would allow people to mix, match, and play loops of audio, even allow them to record their own audio to add it to the “memory banks” of Voca.
_
The UI would give feedback on the audio that was playing, displaying key and tempo as the computer understood it. Eventually it would give the user a rating to tell them that what they just created was, for example, “30% music”.
The percent rating Voca gave the user at the end was randomized and not based on any analysis unlike the other metrics. The rating was supposed to confuse and maybe even anger the user if it was too high or low, leading them to the question: “Should a computer even decide what gets to be music?”
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Process
This was the first full-scale interactive project I’ve made. It was a big challenge to build something in a completely new medium, and with a different way of thinking. I’m proud of what I created, messy nodes and all, and I’m looking forward to exploring more in this artform.
The interactions were handled by Touchdesigner through Kinect skeleton tracking while audio was handled through Ableton Live’s TD link features.
Credits:
Special Thanks: Jill Taffet, Ed Cheetham
Voca1 by: Matt Lupo
Special Thanks: Jill Taffet, Ed Cheetham