pot-a-pot
Cher Amis,
I would like to double up Guillaume’s Pot de départ tomorrow evening at 6:15 with my own farewell.
Together we will make a glouglou plusplus so please come prepared 
I have really enjoyed my time on sabbatical in the Sound Perception and Design Team and look forward to continuing and developing the friendships, discussions and ideas that have been generated through this stay into the future.
With fond regards,
Stephen
Pierre, Marcus and Lee, through blurry eyes
Sonification Workshop Berlin
Sonification Workshop
Friday 15-Monday 19 June
T-Labs, Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7, 10587 Berlin
Mathias Rath and Thomas Hermann organised the meeting at the T-labs telecom research building which is situated at the noisiest roundabout in Berlin. How do they get any work done here with the distraction of the Berlin skyline, the soccer-table game and the excellent coffee machine on the 19th floor cafeteria deck ? We found out the building is modelled on a ship as we moved betweendifferently themed cabins during the four days of the workshop, or was that workship ?
The twenty deck-hands in the workshop self-organised into four main project groups
* I was involved with the group exploring aesthetics in sonifications of elite rowing data.
* sonification of spatial gestures on mobile phones
* sonic spirit level
* sonification in support of shape feedback
brainstorming in the tiergarten biergarten
Rowing Team on the Coffee Deck
Wilkommen aboard the S.S.T-labs
The animated portholes
high flyers
beam us up Mathias
Agora Festival
This fortnight is chocque-a-blocque each evening with performances, concerts and installations as part of the annual Agora Festival here at IRCAM. Lots of people here have been involved in various aspects. Im off to contribute as a member of the audience right now 
sonic picnic
sonic-picnic
Tuesday 2 – Friday 5 June 2009
IRCAM Sound Design and Perception Studio
This workshop will explore the design and production of interactive sounds through physical computing, rather than digital synthesis.
This will involve hands-on programming the Arduino and various sensors and actuators, and using Modalys, Rhino3D, Grasshopper and other shaping and 3d printing softwares.
Some project ideas:
* Micro-Intonarumori – motorised ratchets, mallets, scrapers and other physically produced sounding objects, modelled on the Futurists.
* sound of shape – physical modelling of 3d auditory shapes using Modalys
* shape of sound – generation of physical shapes from auditory sources in Processing, Sketchup etc.
* digital flesh – integrated sensor/actuator interfaces using piezos and speakers.
* digital ocarina – breathe and fingers to micro-synth.
* patsy growls and purrs in response to various forms of petting.
Olivier Houix + Rhythmic Motorshield
Stephen Barrass + Bend/Waveshield
Nicolas Miisdaris - sonic level
ICAD 09 Sonification Contest
14 people contributed 21 entries to the Sonification contest at ICAD 09 in Copenhagen. There were 18 entries in the artistic category and 3 in the scientific category. In the final judgement only the scientific entries were considered. The judges were divided so the pieces were played to the conferees and the decision was made by show of hands.
Congratulations to Sam Ferguson who took the prize of a MAX/MSP license for his piece HarmonicExons.
My piece YeastLur was modelled on the music of the Viking horn called a Lur. Nice try but no MAX license …
I actually meant to enter it into the artistic category, given the lack of any objective evaluation, but missed ticking the box. I suppose it was somewhat scientific in that there was an explicit rationale for the decision to organise the pitches so that the start codon produces a distinctive downward fanfare. The testable hypothesis would be that subjects can recongise boundaries between introns and extrons from this fanfare. But if you look at the data more closely you realise that this is a gross simplification. There was also an artistic rationale for the choice of the Lur music in the context of a concert in Denmark. But many of the other sonifications also had explicit rationales.
The concert raised the question of the distinction between scientific and artistic sonification. And what does judgement by popular appeal have to do with either? Perhaps DESIGN provides a more suitable framework for understanding the multifaceted issues of form, function and popular communication through sound in sonifications. Design provides a framework for evaluating the usefulness of the sonification for a specific purpose. It also provides an openess to aesthetic aspects. As the foreword to the Brit Design Awards 2009 says, although satisfying the brief is paramount the cultural and social meaning of a design can also be critically important.
In an analysis of the 30 sonifications submitted to the Listening to the Mind Listening concert of sonifications at ICAD in Sydney 2004 we found four major stages in the design process, and significant differences in the perception of functionality and aesthetics depending on whether the reviewer of the sonification was a sonification researcher, computer music composer, or a general listener.
ICAD 2009 Copenhagen
The view from the front, presenting the opening paper at ICAD 09 in Copenhagen.
Neils Sunde - an amazing keynote described using sonification to position electrodes during brain surgery. Different parts of the brain make different sounds, and diseased cells can be distinguished by firing rates and patterns. (As an aside check out the trumpetting cupids all around the ceiling...)
Panel on Sound Identity. Mikael Fernstrom, Derek Brock, Mitsuko Aramaki, Brian Gygi, Cynthia Grund, Stephen Barrass.
Panel on Emotion. Anders Friburg, , Kristoffer Jensen, Sandra Pauletto, Stephen Barrass.
CAD/CAM knitting
Last week I was in Copenhagen and attended some seminars at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture which is directed by A/Prof. Mette Thomsen.
“CITA is an innovative research environment exploring the emergent intersections between architecture and digital technologies. Identifying core research questions into how space and technology can be probed, CITA seeks to investigate how the current forming of a digital culture impacts on architectural thinking and practice.
CITA examines how architecture is influenced by new digital design- and production tools as well as the digital practices that are informing our societies culturally, socially and technologically. Using design and practice based research methods; the aim is to explore the conceptualisation, design and realisation of working prototypes. CITA consolidates new collaborations with interdisciplinary partners from the fields of computer graphics, human computer interaction, robotics, artificial intelligence as well as the practice based fields of furniture design, fashion and textiles, industrial design, film, dance and interactive arts.”
Mette concieved the concept of knitting architectural structures with a computer. Under her guidance the group has rapidly expanded to 20 researchers over the past 3 years and is attracting increasing interest and funding. The studio is full of hands-on works in progress. Dr. Martin Temke was shaping a barnacle like object designed to be attached to a ceiling and reflect laser lights. Jacob was working on a recursive algorithm to produce an exhibition stand with a mixture of functional surfaces interposed by organic forms. In the corner were some 3D prints of a bridge algortihmically produced with the Generative Components CAD/CAM software. Other software for parametric design and digital fabrication include rhino, grasshopper and catear.
A/Prof. Thomsen is an invited speaker at the URBAN ISLANDS Intensive Design Studio on Cockatoo Island in Sydney 13 – 25 July 2009.
Brit Insurance Designs of the Year
These projects prove that meeting the needs of client and their brief are an essential aspect of design, nevertheless it is not always the most critical. Technical innovation is equally imperative, as is getting to grips with the cultural aspects of a project. It is not always what objects do but their meaning is also important.”
art+com - Kinetic Sculpture for the BMW Museum
“Previous designs by Japanese industrial designer Tokujin Yoshioka has been described as ‘quintessentailly Japanese’, characterized by a melancholic minimalism. The Venus Natural Crystal Chair presents a new experimental body of work, seeming to take Yoshioka to a more optimistic place. The Venus Chair is constructed from natural crystals, whilst submerged in a water tank. These conditions are ideal for the crystals to grow whilst attached to a fibre structure. The shape of the chair then evolves as the crystals multiple Challenging the way in which the making of objects is reliant on man-made applications and processes, the Venus Chair conforms to the power of nature."
Cloud, Digital Sculpture for British Airways, T5, Heathrow, London
chalayan
The Chalayan exhibition at the Design Museum in London. The laser dress shot out rays that seemed to tie to the surrounding walls, impossible to photograph. There were several sound and DNA influenced designs. Worth the trip all the way to London specially to see it!
Genometrics (Autumn/Winter 2005)
“Genometrics evolved from the idea of how different individuals living in London would fit into London life depending on the reaction of their DNA sequences to the London soundscape through a specifically designed programme. Each letter of their DNA sequence was mapped out on the garment and sensitised to reaact to different sounds in the soundscape.”
Kinship Journeys (Autumn/Winter 2003)
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Geotopics (Spring/Summer 1999)
Geotopics reflects on the role of topographical features such as borders and rivers in shaping wars and cultures. Articles of clothing were generated as a result of moving from one place to another, where a piece of collar was visible on one side but had disappeared on the other. The show finale was formed by two monumental dresses, one of which was a chair integrated into a garment so that the modem and the chair appeared to be a single entity.
- aa
This weekend I was invited to speak by Prof. Holger Schulze for the Aural City Hearings that are part of his Sound Studies programme at the University of Art in Berlin. Last time I was here in Berlin a convoy of semi-trailers enveloped Berlin in doof doof for the Love Parade with levels of acoustic energy to sync your internal organs to the beat, so Aural City seemed a fitting theme.
My presentation links to the theme through a scenario that imagines a soundtrack of emotions generated from the financial markets at the big end of town mixed in with the trams, bawling crowds and backfiring of cars in the streetscape below. This idea, combined with the research on emotions in everyday sounds at IRCAM, has motivated the development of an emotional level in my design methodology …
This is an interactive mindmap of the presentation where you can click on the links to hear examples.
The following presentation by Prof. Thomas Dullo described research into Urban Sound Branding in which involved a study of residents living close to large scale sound producing events in order to learn how to manage and reduce perceptions of noise and annoyance.
Ernst-Reuter Platz
Prof. Alex Arteaga presented a 13 year project in which architectural elements will be designed to reduce the noise levels around the noisiest traffic roundabout in Berlin. This stimulated a lot of discussion which included fond memories, nostalgia and some resistance to the idea. Someone said it was the only place you could truly be alone in Berlin surounded by the blanket of noise.
The next day I went and lay on a park bench in the middle of the roundabout on a sunday afternoon in the beautiful spring weather. The all-encompassing ambience of fountains and traffic is open and spacious, an alternative aural reality that removes you from the everyday, a lot like the sound of waves at the beach.
During dinner Prof Schulze told me about a book series on Sound Studies that he has established, and his plans for an international Journal of Sound Design. Georg Spehr has just published a book on Functional Sound in this series that collects together the current research in this area from Germany. They also pointed me to the upcoming publication of Michael Bull’s Auditory Culture Reader and Jonathern Stern’s Sound Studies Reader as resources for teaching Sound Design. Max Schneider pointed me to Sound Cloud which is a site that allows you to annotate the timeline of online soundfiles.
In return I pointed them to some of the Australian activity in the area such as the online journal SCAN which is publishing an upcoming special issue on sound design, and Nigel Helyer’s Sound Culture site.
