Tim Stutts: ITP Project Blog

Testing out the joystick interaction, i’ve realized the most satisfying graphical implementation is where there is a one-to-one relationship with the controller parameters and what is occurring on the screen, else the the user is left confused as to what they are actually manipulating visually. As an excercize I’ve constructed a grid with set orginins. The incoming values from the Arduino are applied to parameters that offset the x and y position of linked transluscent quadrangles. When the joysticks are released the orginal grid shape is reestablished, though artifacts of the previous quadrangles remain.

Watch a video of the grid in motion here.

I have yet to find a method–even through the use of arrays–that would compress the exisiting code in a way that would still makes sense visually. view the current source code here.

I am currently assisting Cory Arcangel on a project where instructional music video for guitar and piano is borken up the into various notes and their accompanying video segments to build a library of MIDI-triggerable pitches that span a chromatic scale over many octaves. Orginally Cory was planning on using a Perl script to generate an EDL that one could be loaded and rendered within Final Cut, but Max/MSP Jitter, with its interactive video capabilities, seems to be a more viable solution. The end result will parse a MIDI file in Max/MSP Jitter to recompose the entire fugue for Goldberg Variations entirely from training footage. Each of four the voices will be given it’s own video projection and sound will probably be quadraphonic.

In the meantime we are working on a monophonic version using Paganini. I wrote the current patch to disect a video of me playing the bass and singing up a two octave chromatic scale. The patch can load type 1 MIDI files, accept user input, or load note values from a step sequencer. Values that are outside the two octave range are transposed, so that everynote falls into range. Here is a video of this in action! Rawk!

Meditation 2 uses arrow keys < > on the keyboard and x and y mouse position to control parameters–currently unassigned–in Max. The active set is highlighted in yellow. Could be useful somehow. Download patch here.

M.E.L. or Malleable Electronic Lawn ( the interface formerly known as “Lawnboard” ) is looking sexy. Some recent progress made on the device includes completing 100+ wirings, almost completing the Arduino code to control the multiplexers, upgraded the Arduino to an Atmega 168 for added memory, and working with Luke DuBois on an interactive graphical representation in Max / MSP Jitter. Eventually I would like to model and control a rhombic triacontahedron, a polyhedron that has 32 vertices. Each joystick axis would control the polar coordinate of a vertex. Other tasks still to come include collaborating with Andy Doro on a secondary visualization in Java / Processing and constructing the tactile elements to fix onto the joysticks. One recommendation I’ve gotten is using thin wooden dowels surrounded by soft PVC tubing, which I will likely put together over the next couple days.

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This patch created in Max / Jitter takes a video I created from a photograph I took of the Lyric Diner and reveals it in blocks by row. The rate of the second row is half that of the first, then a third of the first, and so on, while the framerate remains constant. The coll object, with it’s ability to stash an array of data, was especially useful for streamlining the process. Download the patch and related files here.

Photo I took of the Lyric Diner located at East Gramercy, Manhattan

Non-Max users can view the resulting video here.

Peter Gabriel has been a huge influence on my musical approach. Countless melodies featured in my poppier track are subconscious variations of his awesome hooks. I decided to put the track up after a scenic train ride through the English countryside, closer than ever to his own Realworld Studios.

This track was made by cutting up samples from “Big Time” and triggering them via soft sampler. The video is a screen capture of a piano roll style MIDI sequence that triggers the elements heard in the track. Color processing and perspective adjustments are added to enhance the presentation.

In the future I’m envisioning a project where MIDI data from a session in Logic or Protools is passed into Max/MSP Jitter via Rewire and processed visually onto live images or vector graphics.

View video here.