Spring 2018 Creative Coding Capstone

ProjectØ - an interactive sound and visual art installation from students of the Spring 2018 Creative Coding Capstone, the first class of its kind in the PCC Music and Sonic Arts Program. Bringing together quiet introspection with shared experience, participants were invited to reshape and collectively influence their environment from inside or outside the installation.
Creating and testing ambisonic (3d) audio content within the confines of a small room... difficult but possible. Pictured are 28 of 32 channels.




An individual IR sensor for the mounted controller
Illuminated hanging gyro sensor filled with neopixels next to a rotary shaft for the mounted controller


A multiplexer to handle the IR sensors
Calibrating the mounted dome controller's IR sensors, which were The sensors were read and scaled with the feather huzzah and m0 chips to send OSC over wifi to processing and MAX on two computers behind the installation.
Keanu Yokoyama testing the mounted controller's IR sensors. Keanu was instrumental in the 3D design and printing of the miniature dome panels as well as the IR sensor units .
Covering the dome in cloth for projections
Construction of the 20' dome with speakers attached to supports
Calibration of projectors, and the ambisonic speaker array in MAX using the angles and heights of each speaker and HOAA ambisonic libraries
Here .processing is producing visual content with particle physics and sending the position data of hundreds of particles to MAX, which sonified the visual clouds parallel to the granular/spectral sampler. Both the visuals and sound were reactive to the sensors within the installation
The hanging ball controller read positional and angular data which controlled the agitation of the floating particles, and thus the swooshing digital noises in the ambient bed of sound.
The sensors and digital messages were scaled to allow wildly varying physical interaction and sounds while avoiding changes that could be too jarring or unpleasant for the rest of the participants, and during the exhibition seemed to effectively allow a diverse audience to feel the intentions of introspection and shared experience.
MAX/MSP patches that I contributed to the project are viewable here:Which utilized a recording of Kevin Gwozdz on electric pianoCredits:Project Manager: Lisa Bennett, Jesse MejiaTeam: Michael Romay, Lisa Bennett, Keanu Yokoyama, Nolan Thomas, Quinn Jarvis-Holland, Shannon O'Brien, Jason Mizzelle, Robert Waldorf, Joel Bocek, Jordan Laurent
Footage: Patrick Dull & Trevin PiehPhotos: Joel Bocek, Keanu Yokoyama, Michael RomaySpecial Thanks: DISJECTA, Darcy Neal, Tim Westcott, Dan WengerAcknowledgements:
  • HOAA library
  • Processing Foundation
  • Daniel Shiffman