Monthly Archives: April 2023

Contemporary Issues in Sound Art

Cybernetic Serendipity

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In this lesson, we discussed Cybernetic, a groundbreaking computer art exhibition held in London from 2 August to 20 October 1968, which was a concentrated presentation of so-called ‘cybernetic art.’ After the class, I got to know more about Cybernetic Serendipity.

The Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition is divided into three sections:

  • Computer-generated graphics, computer-animated films, computer-created and played music, and computer-based poetry and text creation.
  • Control facilities for artwork creation, environmental control, remote-controlled robots, and drawing machines.
  • Demonstrations of computer applications and a working platform reflecting the history of cybernetics.
  • Gordon Pask was one of the first cyberneticists, psychologists, and educators. His research includes biocomputing, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, logic, linguistics, psychology, and artificial life. He expanded the field of cybernetics research to contain the flow of information in various media, and Gordon Pask exhibited one of his response devices, Colloquy of Mobiles, at the Accidental Discovery of Cybernetics. Mobiles.)

One of the more fascinating features of the exhibition was the Sound Activated Mobile (SAM) by sculptor Edward Ihnatowicz. When the viewer makes a sound to it, the flower turns to face the source of the sound.

Hungarian-born French artist Nicolas Schöffer is considered the founder of cybernetic art, and his most famous work, CYSP 1, was on display at the exhibition. The name was CYSP means Cybernetic Spatiodynamic, taking the first two letters of both words. CYSP 1 was the first ever cybernetic art sculpture created in 1956. It is equipped with mechanical and electronic controls, with small electric motors driving the various components. Crucially, it contains photo- and sound-sensing devices so that when the environment changes, the sculpture changes accordingly.

The now familiar computer graphics also had a place in the ‘accidental discovery of cybernetics’, with works and theories that focused on each but replaced the draughtsman with a machine.

Ivan Moscovich’s pendulum-harmonograph is a semi-automatic plotting machine. The pendulum length is adjustable, giving it a variable factor.

Ivan Moscovich’s plotter did not involve a computer; it was just machinery. And it was the invention of Desmond Paul Henry, the first British computer graphics artist, who belonged to the cybernetic arts and presented his drawing computer in a special exhibition edition.

By 1968, pioneering musicians were already fruitful in their experiments with electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and others being at the forefront, with noise and effects entering modern music through various methods, including digital means, which had a place in the ICA’s ‘Accidental Discovery of Cybernetics They have a place in the ICA’s “Unexpected Discoveries in Cybernetics”. Their uniqueness and diversity are to be the subject of a separate article. Another literary form, dance, was also present at this show. Because of the constraints, computers were mainly involved in the choreography, which the dancers then performed.

Collaborating

Wwise’s audio signal streaming

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In this week’s Wwise study, I learned about the logic of Wwise’s audio signal flow. I found it very difficult to understand this part of the study because I needed to organize the various objects in the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy. Because if similar things are put together, you can use the properties of the container to apply features like pitch randomization to all objects quickly. And if you are involved in a huge project and need to go through many objects, managing these audio objects is a perfect place to start.

So I needed to create the Actor-Mixer in order to manage these objects better. At first, I thought that the audio signal of all the objects in the Actor-Mixer would be one way, and the volume fader on the General setting of the Actor-Mixer would be the total volume after merging. But then I realized that Actor-Mixer doesn’t do any mixing, and the sounds contained in it are not mixed together.

In practice, the numeric properties of an Acter-Mixer object, such as Voice Volume or Low-pass filter, represent a bias that is applied to the corresponding properties of all the objects in the Actor-Mixer. For example, if this Actor-Mixer has a Voice Volume property of -3, then the Voice Volume of each object it contains will be reduced by 3dB, although you may not see this reduction when looking directly at the objects inside. Because this effect is cumulative, if an Actor-Mixer is loaded into another Actor-Mixer or any other object with a Voice Volume parameter, such as a random or sequence container, the offsets on all the objects involved will be added together to determine the volume value of the source sound each time it is played. Volume value each time the source sound is played.

Collaborating, second year

The game sync of Wwise

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In the last lesson I learnt that a game call is a message passed between the game engine and the Wwise audio engine. So far, we have used simple Event game calls to represent various situations that occur in the game (such as Wwizard throwing an Ice Gem). However, there are times when more details about a particular game situation need to be communicated. For example, what kind of ground the player is walking on, how much life (i.e. HP) is left, whether the player is currently dead or alive, etc. All of these conditions can affect the sound we want the player to hear.

In Cube, the Wizard is constantly on the move; sometimes chasing monsters, sometimes dodging attacks. But as with many first-person perspective games, I could never see the player’s feet. But does this mean that he doesn’t have feet? Of course not! There is an implied job for the audio department to help the player believe that they are actually standing firmly on the ground in the game and not floating in the air. To do this, I can add the sound of footsteps to the player’s movement behaviour.

To achieve this, the game needs to tell Wwise when the player is moving. This can be achieved using simple Event game calls. However, there are many different ways to implement this. For example, sending a game call when the player starts moving, and another when he stops moving. The way this is done in Cube is that each footstep of the player is sent as an event. If no footstep event is sent over, it is assumed that the player is not currently moving.

I learned three types of game sync, switch, game parameter, and state. The switch is the ability to change the sound of a character’s footsteps on different textures, for example, from grass to wooden floors. This can be done with a switch. The game parameter is a parameter that can be determined in the game, such as lifetime value. The state is a transition that allows the character to go from or to death, and usually, the combination of state and switch, I think, is closer. This is because when the player’s life level reaches a certain low, the game will automatically sound a heartbeat to alert the player that the life level is low. This state can then be combined with parameters and controlled with RTPC curves.

Contemporary Issues in Sound Art

Sound Arts Lecture SeriesDerek Baron

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Derek Baron is a composer, musician and writer based in New York. They have released a number of solo recordings of chamber, computer and concrete music on record labels such as Recital, Pentiments, Penultimate Press and Regional Bears.

I listened to his work To the Planetarium, a piece that Derek composed during pandemic. At the very beginning of the piece, the word goodnight is played irregularly through the left and right ear vocal channels, which gave me a sense of dreamy disorder. He also has many recordings of interviews and some instrumentation in this work. The texture of the sound always reminds me of an ethereal dream world. And it makes me quiet to listen to his work, which I feel is more like a recording of all the meaning in life. I feel that I can record sounds in a similar way and spread and express my thoughts.

Another of his works, Curtain, starts with a slow rhythm of flute, violin, guitar, keyboard and bass clarinet, then the music becomes more gentle and passionate. This beautiful melody with a touch of melancholy makes me feel very comfortable when I listen to this piece.