Kasia and I threw ourselves into an idea immediately. The idea was an interactive poster which plays sounds through a speaker. The poster uses conductive inks, crocodile clips, an Arduino and a speaker. When a person touches the touch point on the poster, the ink, because conductive and activates the mp3 file on the Adruino to play through the speaker.
The data being sonified is from an image taken at a nightclub. The poster would be situated at the entrances/exits of clubs where people can check out other nightclubs in the area they may wish to visit. This idea was about helping users decide what club they may want to visit next on their night out. The sound that plays is a representation of the atmosphere present in that specific club. How we made this was by finding an image showing the inside of the club and uploading the image to this site https://www.dcode.fr/binary-image which generates the averages for the top five colours present in the image.
We found it quite difficult to decide how and what data we wanted to collect from the images. First we tried by taking the binary values of an image and sonify that however, it proved very difficult as there were so many numbers. It was also very difficult to set up the text file for MAX 8. In the end, we decided to take an average of 15 numerical values for the text file.
This data was then complied into a text document to be processed using MAX 8 sound software. The image below shows how we did this. Numbers 1 through 15 would be a different beat represented through the number beside it.
As we wanted the sound output to actually sound like a beat that would play in these clubs, we downloaded some club music off the internet which would be used as the sound frequency template for the new beat generated in MAX. This is done by loading the text data file on MAX 8 and then also loading the mp3 file of the music. We used the 7th exercise file given by Oliver to achieve this. Below are some of our outcomes:
The data sonified below represents DOGSTAR Brixton club.
The data sonified below represents XOYO Shoreditch.
The data sonified below represents The Electric Ballroom Camden.
We felt the sounds above weren't good enough to use as they didn't sound like a beat you would actually hear in a club. So we edited the sounds using Audacity, making them more 'ravey'. The three examples above were edited using effects like fade in/out, phaser, changing the tempo, speed and pitch. These are the results:
Kasia and I then went on to design the poster. Since it will be displayed in a club, we want it to be noticeable so A2 is a desirable size. We decided some of the graphical elements on the poster will be the shapes of the buildings and the River Thames for a general reference of distance. Here is the planning we did:
The lines seen leaving the poster is actually the conductive ink trail. It was important to us that we found a good way to incorporate this within our design. We feel the posters below do a better good at this, especially the poster with the illustrated hands. We experimented with different words across the centre, typography and colours.
Our first real attempt was the design above. It was printed in A3 for practicality as we would want the real thing to be bigger. It reads 'Where to know?', asking the person which club they would like to experience next. They are enticed to approach the poster through the vibrant colours, when they also realise they can interact with the poster by touching the conductive pads to hear a sound representing that club. The image above shows some annotations Kasia and I made as it's not perfect. We definitely need to go back to Illustrator to refine it. For example, the conductive ink trail was too thin and too close together.
Feedback
To put it blunty, Oliver did not like our idea. Some of the main points he raised were about the choice of interface, pointing out:
It doesn't need to be conductive ink, it could just be buttons instead. Is ink and circles the best way to do that?
Furthermore:
The sounds aren't that different from each other as the images used for the data look quite similar. There is no real way to understand anything form the sound. What are intentions for the user to understand from these sounds?
Oliver made some good points. Everything we have planned through this poster is possible through a digital interface. An interface could also be accessed wherever the user is, before they leave home for the nightclub. A poster limits what we can do with the project. It's safe to say that Kasia and I will go back to the ideation stage.
Reference list:
Image in Binary 0 1 (2019). Image to Binary Converter - Pixels - Online Software Tool. Available at: https://www.dcode.fr/binary-image (Accessed: 21 February 2019).
Mkweb.bcgsc.ca. (2019). Image Color Summarizer - RGB and HSV Image Statistics. Available at: http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/color-summarizer/?analyze (Accessed: 21 February 2019).
Bibliography list:
Joshua (2018). Conductive Paint Sound Effects. Available at: https://browndoggadgets.dozuki.com/Guide/Conductive+Paint+Sound+Effects/38?lang=en (Accessed: 21 February 2019).
Brown Dog Gadgets. (2018). Conductive Paint and Arduino Sound Effects!. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyhEqpjYNks&t=20s (Accessed: 21 February 2019).
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