Visualize This...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Normally, my eyes glaze over about 10 seconds in to the latest demonstration of some guy’s attempt to break down the barriers between something and something else, but this one caught my attention for some reason. This fellow, Christian Bannister, (here in PDX, natch, although I don’t know him) has made a really cool combination of visualization and instrument.
It’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on exactly, except that it both looks and sounds great. There’s a half dozen videos on his site, plus a certain amount of explanation of what is happening.
(I kited this from Oliver Chesler, who posted it on his Wire To The Ear blog.)
10 comments
This is a massive improvement over presently available SUBCYCLE SESSION navigation options.
I think the difference between this guy and others who come up with a non-standard musical instrument is this guy has actually learned to play his rather then just showing that it does cool stuff.
I agree. I'm not entirely sure _what_ he's doing, but I can tell he's doing something, and it's something that is obviously shit that not anyone could do (unlike, I'm sad to say, whacking "play" on different clips in Live).
(Note that I'm saying that in the guise of a non-programmer/musician. It's fairly obvious to me what is going on; what I admire is the visual complexity.)
-CR
listening to this with eyes closed is not as good as with eyes opened.
_aKido
Hah, and here's me thinking he was reading stock reports..
interesting project. looks way more fun (sounds more fun too) than a reactable thing.
things like this are cool but i can only see them being useful to the people who make them and totally understand them and know how they work in and out.. and maybe bjork. at least for musical purposes.. i'm sure there are other applications for things like this that other people want to use it for.. museum installations or whatever...
"listening to this with eyes closed is not as good as with eyes opened."
= genius comment, rich with implication. merits repeating.
The goal with any new instrument, I would think, would be to reach a deeper (or at least different?) musical communication than current technologies allow, right?
- c
The sound doesn't do that much for me on its own. The visuals...damn. Beautiful. I could see getting lost in that for a few weeks.
So, when will plugins start having interfaces like this?
Also, does anyone know how fast of a system you need to run Processing interfaces like this? I am presuming it is Processing, triggering Reaktor or Max/MSP or the like.
Finally, can the iPhone run graphics like this (i.e. this purty, at fast speeds, 3Dish)?
I'm asking "not very smart" questions about this, I know. The graphics side is all new to me.
I think that this kind of technology and this kind of thinking are the beginnings of something much deeper than what we are seeing here on the surface level.
First of all, it appears that this guy built this thing by himself in his 'basement'. Imagine what a team of designer of this guy's caliber could come up with. Imagine if you took world famous orchestral musicians and designed an instrument with their assistance.
Multi-touch systems are relatively new technology ripe for exploration in interface design. We have really only begun to scratch the surface in their implications. We really don't know how to touch data quite yet, and we are particularly new at being able to manipulate sound visually.
Also the technologies have yet to be really combined cheeply and effectively (I'm remembering the youtube video of the kid from MIT with the Nintendo WII and the IR glasses.)
For the most part our society still thinks in terms of the piano as the only true source of music even though it is nearly 500 years old and long due for an upgrade. Although I would have to agree with that thinking at this point, I also fully suspect that there is a new instrument coming about that is going to make the piano yet another 'wheel' in our museum of technologies.
@Electromorphic
I don't think this guy built this thing by himself in his basement. A look at his website and resume suggests he does this kind of thing for a living-- designs and programs interactive user experiences. Since his educational background is a BA in marketing, and an MFA, I'm betting he had some help with the more technical aspects of it's design, and it also looks like he's probably well funded too:
http://www.secondstory.com/portfolio/lists/credit/christian-bannister/overview
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