Sound And The City: Grid Music And Notation

Over the past few weeks, I've taken the idea put forth with orchestraSeating, and modified it significantly.  The modifications have been an effort to reduce the deployment overhead, increase the quality of musical delivery, and make for a musical system that was less spatially specific.  The result is a new version of the installation that I call, for reasons that will become obvious, Grid Music.

orchestraSeating was built around the premise of physical sensors, in a specific site, playing back multi-tracked versions of classical orchestra music.  While this premise is interesting, it is lacking on a number of fronts.  For one, it begs for a site-specific, resource-heavy installation (for example, the cafe at Alice Tully hall, above).  For another, it constrains the piece to the domain of classical music, and therefore requires that the installation and the piece has some level of synchronicity.

A grid overlaid on the Alice Tully seating plan

By contrast, gridMusic uses a grid overlaid on a public space to fuel a generative music engine.  The engine uses an overhead camera in concert with the grid to monitor activity, and then follow a set of rules related to that activity.  The rules are "activated" by movement within the space, and once activated, they cause playback of recorded clips, which yields the generative composition.

Much like Terry Riley's "In C", there are a set of clips (in this case, 20) that the algorithm has to choose from.  Also similar to Riley, the parts must be played in order.  However, the manner in which they are selected is based not on the personal preferences of the players, but by movement within the grid.  When movement is detected in a square of the grid, that square begins playback of Part 1 will continue looping until movement ceases in that square of the grid, and then begins again.  When movement restarts in a given square of the grid, that square is advanced to the next part.

This set of rules allows for easy visualization and state of the piece.  In other words: notation.  The squares that are active are colored, and indicate which clips are currently playing.  Every time any square on the grid changes, a new file representing the grid is saved, complete with a timestamp.  With the traversal of the various grids and their associated time stamps, one can easily discern the composition that was played back at the site for a given performance.

Because of the visually pleasing nature of the grid, it would not be unheard of to involve the grid in some way at the site.  This could be done as a projection or display on a monitor, and would perhaps help to invite the participation of individuals as they acted in the space.

As activity increased, the grid would become progressively more active, with colors varying and changing as per the algorithm's specification.  This would create a lively, interactive visual that would compliment the audio portion of the installation.  Moreover, if the composition were broadcast live to the web, it could be similarly accompanied by the progression of the grids.

As each square reached it's final "switch" from the black "part", it would return to it's original white, inactive state.  It would remain this way until all the squares came to rest, at which point after a duration of 5 minutes down time, the piece would begin again.