AlloSphere Research Factility - Interecting Science, Engineering and New Media

California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara
"The AlloSphere is a unique, one-of-a-kind scientific instrument that is a culmination of 24 years of Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin's creativity and research efforts in media systems and studio design. She approached the design of the AlloSphere in much the same way that she composes a piece of music...
The AlloSphere space consists of a 3-story cube that is treated with extensive sound absorption material making it one of the largest anechoic chambers in the world. Standing inside this chamber are two 5-meter-radius hemispheres constructed of perforated aluminum that are designed to be optically opaque and acoustically transparent.
There are currently two projectors, soon to be multiple high-resolution video projectors, mounted around the seam between the two hemispheres, approaching eye-limited resolution on the inner surface. The loudspeaker real-time sound synthesis cluster (around 500 individual speaker elements plus sub-woofers) is/will be suspended behind the aluminum screen resulting in 3-D audio. Other clusters include simulation, sensor-array processing, effector-array processing, real-time video processing for motion-capture and visual computing, render-farm/real-time ray-tracing and radiosity cluster, and content and prototyping environments."
See: http://www.allosphere.ucsb.edu/index.php

VIDEO EXCERPTS

View videos on their media page illustrating work "that allows the AlloSphere Research Facility to function at both the atomic and macroscopic levels. Scroll through the video player to view incredible visualisations. Sample video excerpts from some of their projects.

>>Artificial Nature/Biogenerative Art
>>AlloBrain
>>Multimodal Representation of >>Quantum Mechanics: The Hydrogen Atom
>>Artistic Patterning and Structural Growth New Atomic Bonding: Multi-Center Hydrogen Bond. An Interactive Visualization and Multi-modal Representation of Unique Atomic Bonds for Alternative Fuel Sources

Video Excerpt from the TED conference. (Technology, Entertainment, Design)
"JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the AlloSphere, a new way to see, hear and interpret scientific data. Dive into the brain, feel electron spin, hear the music of the elements ... and detect previously unseen patterns that could lead to new discoveries."
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joann_kuchera_morin_tours_the_allosphere.html

Contact - Augmented Acoustics

Felix Faire (UK), a Parametric System Designer had designed some very interesting interactive installations. One of these, Contact is an interface with which to manipulate and visualize sounds. Beautiful results. View Contact: Augmented Acoustics CONTACT: Augmented Acoustics from Felix Faire on Vimeo . "CONTACT is a tangible audio interface to manipulate and visualize sounds generated from interaction with a simple wooden surface. Any physical contact with the table generates acoustic vibrations which are manipulated and visualized LIVE as they occur using several communicating pieces of software. All code will be opensource and available on github. Bartlett School of Architecture Msc AAC Tutor: Ruairi Glynn" More information: http://www.coroflot.com/felixfaire/profile Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/felixfaire

D.D. Jameson - Colour Music (1844)

D.D. Jameson devised a systematic approach to create a colour music score for a specially adapted piano. His scores took the information from a piano music score and applied it to a sound-music colour scheme and translated it into a colour score. The colour score communicated the musical information - such as notes, rhythm, durations. His score was to link to a special adaptation of a piano music instrument that would have the keys prepared with the relevant colours. The musician could then play the piano by following the colour music score. Not only were the piano keys to be coloured according to his colour to tone analogy system but the score was to also communicate other aspects of the musicianship such as: the intervals of the music, the notes and their octaves, by mapping the height of the colour to the octave of the note and the width of the colour to the duration of the note. "A pianoforte having been prepared in the manner described, any air may be slo...

International Call for Works - VISUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

I am very happy to announce the call for works for visual music films for a visual music festival devoted to contemporary practice to be held at the University of Kentucky, US. Why I am very proud is one of my former students is involved in organising this, well done Kristine SCFA Visual Music Festival 2025 @ The University of Kentucky Call for visual music films, Deadline is 15th December 2024 General Rules: • The films must be made entirely with abstract imagery, avoiding representation. That is: no cars, no people, no landscapes, no texts, etc. • You can use any technique you’d like: drawing, video composition, cgi, scratch, op-art, stop-motion, camera-less… • The soundtrack cannot feature any words, in any language. If you’re using a song, this must be instrumental or feature non-narrative voices, (no lyrics). • Maximum running time is 8 minutes. • Open and/or closing credits are welcome. • Films must have been produced after 2017. • We kindly request authors to enter their fi...

Visual Music

Search This Blog