[eu-gene] sonification

[douglas repetto]

I'm teaching a couple classes in Berlin this spring/summer, one called 
Feedback and one called Transduction. It occurs to me that they're both 
related to Phil's recent call for non-software-based generative art and 
the sonification thread. Descriptions below if you're in Berlin and 
looking for things to do this spring! (I'll ask you all for feedback 
suggestions in another email.)

One question I like to ask about sonification/visualization projects is 
whether they're actually sensitive to the _content_ of their inputs.

I think of things like iTunes visualizers as basically tuned filters -- 
it really doesn't matter what you feed into them, they're going to ring 
as long as there's some energy in the appropriate part of the spectrum 
(literally or metaphorically). You can't undo a filter -- you lose 
information when a signal goes through it, and lots of different signals 
can cause the same or very similar outputs. The effect of the filter's 
parameters overwhelms the content of the signal.

So what's the alternative? One problem with systems that are sensitive 
to the content of their inputs is that they're a LOT harder to create. 
The more tweaking you do to your system to make it sensitive to the 
content of particular inputs, the closer you get to a more traditional 
notion of composition. I think that in many ways tone poems were vaguely 
generative examples of this 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_poem) -- one particular painting 
or poem or ? generates one particular musical work.

The contemporary work that I find most interesting tends to be somewhere 
between these two extremes. Somehow generative and "live", but at the 
same time not simply a filter. Messa di Voce is a lovely example:

http://www.flong.com/projects/messa/

douglas

(Berlin classes below)

+++++++

Feedback
This class will examine the physical, electrical, and conceptual aspects 
of feedback that are at the core of many mechanical and algorithmic 
music/art-making systems. It is a very hands-on, process-based course, 
and we will build physical, electrical, and virtual feedback systems, 
play and invent feedback games, and create artworks that use feedback as 
an organizing principal.
http://www.ak.tu-berlin.de/menue/lehre/sommersemester_2011/feedback/


Transduction
In this class we will treat sound as an intermediary, translating back 
and forth between text/image/motion/thought and sound. We will explore 
the practice and pitfalls of mapping information from one domain to 
another, and will approach current trends in data visualization and 
sonification with skeptical eyes and ears. This will be a largely 
code-based class, and students will learn basic techniques for the 
collection, analysis, mapping, and synthesis of data in a variety of 
media and formats.
http://www.ak.tu-berlin.de/menue/lehre/sommersemester_2011/transduction/


>> To add a critical voice, Sarah Angliss offers some insight into data
>> sonification:
>>   http://madartlab.com/2011/03/15/eulernumberfish/
>>
>> alex
>>
>> --
>> http://yaxu.org/
>> --
>> 'No, no, no. Generative spam is more markov-based.'
>> To unsubscribe from eu-gene visit
>> http://www.generative.net/mailman/listinfo/eu-gene

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