Video 1: Allium (my electronic music producer/DJ alias)
Allium LED stuff and music
One of the many things I have been doing this past year/semester is working on projects and releasing them under Allium and playing all of my music at shows around the state as Allium.
When I'm performing, I wear this mask I made out of cardboard and painted that has a 4x8 LED matrix attached to the front controlled by an Arduino ESP8266 microcontroller.
I've been able to figure out how to send BPM input from most standard venue Pioneer CDJ's through my laptop and to the Arduino enabling me to create animations that sync dynamically with the current BPM of the track I'm playing.
More recently I've been working on this prototype above that allows me to sing while the mask is attached to my face. I have a newer version (see image below) in which I was able to install a very small condenser microphone inside the mask and made an arm module with a button attached that lets me toggle the vocal animations on and off. I am still developing this and I am thinking of 3D printing a sleeker mask and incorporating more LEDs and adding more LED pieces across my entire torso as well as developing a wireless setup.
Also, nightclubs get dark so its nice to have lights attached to my face so I can see what I'm doing when I'm playing my music.
Video 2: Rezz Live VR Concert
The live VR concert given by the popular electronic music producer Rezz is an example of a collaborative effort I would like to be part of.
VR environments might be outside the scope of ECM but I love the idea of designing some kind of full-scale audiovisual environment that participants can experience together or collaborate toward some kind of goal with one another in. I thought of this specific VR live event because of how much further the visual artists were able to go in a theoretically unlimited virtual environment as well accommodate an audience of 75,000 and not have to consider the space limitations of a world where objects occupy physical space.
(an interview of Rezz after the event can be found here)
I love the idea of exploring VR as a performance tool. The ability, as you said, to create performances that are physically impossible potentially makes for very powerful musical experiences. Perhaps in the context of this class the performer could be in VR, and their interaction with the virtual world influences the music or the visuals experienced by the audience. With the large screen in Davis used to display what the performer sees, the audience could still to some extent experience the virtual creation.
ReplyDeleteI'm such a fan of masked performance and hidden identities and I think there's lots of opportunity to combine that with protest! Christopher also brought up a great idea about VR in Davis specifically, and I know there are some folks in the class who could help figure out how to make VR a possibility for this course/performance.
ReplyDeleteVR as a mode of performance is something I definitely need to explore more! It also seems like a great medium for active collaboration through visual art and lighting design. I enjoy the idea of composing an atmosphere for the audience as you're simultaneously playing a score.
ReplyDeleteI love your natural marriage of electronic sounds and acoustics sounds. Your voice fits well with the uke and all the processing, its powerful. I think your mask with the uke is such a unique aesthetic as well. The uke sounds and looks so quaint and natural and your mask is so future-industrial and your voice is kind of that gateway in between. So good. VR as performance tool is so interesting. I've always wanted to get into that mode of things but I'm scared if I'm being honest. It's such an ambitious and unique idea you have to go for it.
ReplyDeleteThe energy and rhythm of your compositions really makes me want to move, which is about the highest compliment I can give as a dancer! I really enjoy the idea of simultaneous things in vr/real life, especially how that could intersect with the mocap capabilites of our performance space.
ReplyDeleteI think it'd be super cool to somehow create a VR experience of a live performance. I imagine there's a way to create a audio visual reactive VR experience as a collaboration piece. Is that tech available?
ReplyDeleteIt's really cool how much independent work you've put into your mask design and music. I think the attention to detail really shows. I also love the second video - I can't imagine what kind of CPU power is needed for that style of visual!
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I am very impressed with the work you've done on your mask and the plans you have for it. I would be really interested to ask you more about it if you are up for it.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I am glad you included the VR concert as your second example. My experience with VR is very limited and I did not realize these kinds of experiences are being created/experienced by so many people.
Much of what you wrote goes over my head! But I'm so impressed by your sound and visuals. Yes to what Christopher said above; I think it would be exciting to see how audio and visuals could coexist in Davis. What you mentioned about participants being able to experience something together or collaborate to achieve a certain goal sounds like a situation I would simultaneously pounce on to be a part of and cower away from as an audience member.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I think you're incredibly skilled. I'm so impressed with the gear you've created to suit your aesthetic. I'm really interested to see how your work can go and the sort of environments, audio and visual, that you could create, both supernatural and hyper-realistic. Those are just my thoughts. I don't have a lot of experience with this style of music making, but I do have a close friend who dabbles in voice synth which isn't exactly the same, but I see them as cousins.
ReplyDeleteI've always been really impressed with how you're able to continually innovate yourself as an artist and find new ways to present your music. I love how your work expresses yourself as an artist in different forms.
ReplyDeleteBoth your video and the one you shared are of worlds that I have never really explored before, and they seem so exciting and innovative, I now want to learn more! It would be so great to incorporate what your working on into one of these projects because of how I believe it is, but also because I think there is a definite outlet between masking and protest that could be explored.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in what 'glitches', small failures, or what Steve Benford calls 'seams' in interactive systems reveal to us, and so I found the beginning of your video really interesting—the false start, the adjustment, then the performance. It's a good exercise to thing about whether that can become a resource you use or whether it's something you want to mitigate. E.g., does "Tessa puts on the mask and transforms into Allium" become part of the performance? Does the 'seam' reveal the inherent humanity of the cyborg?
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