For my second project, I created a video and sound remixing drum machine using Pure Data, and using the “meme of memes” on the internet: cat videos. I chose 5 viral cat videos, some of the most popular on Youtube, and used Pure Data to create a drum machine that  would remix them together and incorporate sound.

I primarily used the ‘switch’ function in Pure Data to change between the five different videos, and I made the drum machine interactive in different ways to produce different remix effects. Using the space bar starts the video remix, which begins simply just switching between two videos with a cat-meow drum beat. The user can then use the bracket keys [ ] to increase or decrease the tempo, which also increases and decreases the speed of the video switching. The s, d and f keys are linked to three other videos, and when pressed activate a different cat meow sound and cause the new video to be remixed into the visuals. Finally, pressing the a key starts a random function that randomly adds the three s, d and f videos into the remix.

The result is a remix of cat meme videos, with accompanying drum-machine like cat meow sounds to provide a beat. It’s somewhere between amusing and obnoxious, which is somewhat like the overabundance of cat videos themselves!

In the first part of the video, you can see the activation of the drum machine with the space bar, and the individual uses of the s, d and f keys. Towards the end of the video you can see the a key being used to activate the random cat drum beat function for a somewhat more ‘musical’ result.