Brief

Create a 24 hour concert using your 'Nerve system'. [abridged]

Description

12 virtual automata drummers improvise for 24 hours. The improvisation is scored in realtime and printed out every 5 minute in A3 format. Each print is manually hung up on the walls surrounding the concert space and the audience are free to pick a score as a souvenir. After 24 hours 288 has been produced and fill the space like an echo of the concert.

The system generates rhythms using a realtime kinetic simulation. Virtual rigid bodies are suspended in simulated springs and vibrations are continuously applied. Collisions are detected and trigger synthetic sounds that depend on the qualities of the impact.

Concept

How does a talented drummer know exactly when the next hit should occur and what accent and velocity it should have? In terms of programming this is very complex question that may never be solved. Nerve does not provide any final answer but it illustrates two important fundamentals in what we commonly define as music; vibration and kinetic energy.

Somewhere in between order and chaos we find the complexity that is needed to stimulate our senses. Occasionally, the Nerve system produces such complexity by chance. All I have done is to set up the parameters so that the chance is maximised.

About the score

In contrast to most graphical scores where the Y-axis indicates the pitch of the note, I have used the Y-axis to show the distance from the impact to the center of the drum. In effect, the Y-axis indirectly shows how much energy there is in the system; how violent it is so to speak.

Process

The base of the system was conceptualised and prototyped while I studied at Designskolen Kolding. It was later developed to fit the concert at the SPOR festival.

Evaluation

This project is very much open ended and Im waiting for the right moment to take it further.

Tech

Oh dear. The physics simulation is created in Unity. Collisions are detected and impact information is send to Max/MSP and routed to the Sculpture plug-in in Logic Pro for sound and to Processing for live scoring. Processing also renders out PDFs on the fly.