In this first blog for the Einzelprojekt, I plan on discusssing the various fields of study I will delve into for my research project and how they associate with the courses I am currently attending. My focus for this semester is to build a functional prototype, test it and ensure that it runs exactly as I expect it to.
Before we dive deep into it, I would like to give a short recap of my project. The primary idea is to build an interactive visualizer which responds to real time audio data. It identifies vocal characteristics and maps auditory features like pitch and loudness onto visual dimensions such as size, shape, colour and texture.This model will be further developed and used to build an immersive installation where users can modify and create unique audiovisual pieces using the provided parameters.
Speaking of parameters, I recently had a detailed class explaining parameter mapping, a commonly used method for sonification of data. What I found fascinating is the step by step process of data structuring to generate a definitive output, ensuring the results align with research hypotheses. It involves defining data dimensions and mapping them to sound parameters such as pitch and loudness (both of which I will explore in my project). Finding the right dataset, parsing it and normalizing it within ranges suitable for the project are also crucial steps. This requires a lot of iterations and testing, which I’m sure I will have to do in my project as well.
Another interesting class I am currently taking part in is the ambisonics and surroundsound lectures held at the CUBE. We went over the various orders of ambisonics and listened to the differences in each format. I will be working on a soundscape for this course at the end of this semester, which will help me understand the spatial positioning and panning within an ambisonic environment. I won’t be focusing heavily on spatialisation for my project this semester, either way it is incredibly valuable to my research and will provide me with ideas for integrating this setup into my installation next semester.
I am primarily focused on building this prototype using plugdata and TouchDesigner. I am currently working on projects in both software environments for the Musikmaschine installation and the sound & vision exhibition, respectively. I am trying to grasp as much information as I can so I can transfer those same methodologies to this project.
I am really excited to see how this project unfolds. There are bound to be hurdles along the way, but I am positive I will reach my goal by the end of this semester and successfully complete the entire installation by the end of the next.
