For this I have combined both Pure Data and Processing to respond to audio intake. This post is extremely late because I had to restart this project due to the fact that it was erased from all documents everywhere. Well it still works about the same as I had presented it in class. I have a attached a link for a zip file that contains its necessary parts.

http://users.wpi.edu/~ahclemens/TooDamnHigh.zip

What the program does is read audio input from a microphone. Then translates the volume into a readable number. That number determines which image of a meme will be shown. The Pure Data meme is the Too Damn High image. The Processing meme uses Dwight from the office. Each program uses a slightly different image change function. For example, Pure Data meshes the images as the volume is in between picture stages. But Processing switches clean and quickly between its choices.

If you want to run the program then you need to have Processing and Pure Data installed along with the OSC in the Processing library. Then its a pretty simple open and run if Pure Data has audio allowed.

Final Project

Hectic life is pretty well devised in my final project. I have recorded a sample of the configuration and setup of my work in the link below.

The outcomes were very successful in its initial runs. Unfortunately, certain bugs and wire configuration have caused some of the file to stop working correctly. But the main cycling of activities and the response in the situations work relatively well for tape and wire hook ups.

I found the large circuit board I made as a great organizer that has allowed the limit of wire issues and kept the area flat. The Makey Makey made the hookup to the computer simple input for the rest of the program. Therefore, more time could be spent on coding design and configuration in Pure Data.

The overall assignment was enjoyable to make and play while also visual interesting. The simple images used and the central coding design makes both parts enjoyable to see. Although the program only has a six activities, the program is easy to expand for later possibilities. I only wish the composition of the project was more suitable for travel and storage so that its life span wouldn’t be so short.

I have derived my idea from a previous project in which I combined PD and Processing. This had allowed two windows to be in use at the same time. I could also send info back and forth with the programs. So my idea is expand that technique and make the program work with itself and the user. From there I had the basic interaction that the artwork would use, but I needed a something to base the interaction off.
In my thought processes of using multiple windows and having lots of activities going on I thought of something people do every day, surf the web. But I can’t make the web so I went with “something people do every day”. The activities we do everyday stress us out, yet we do them and we can’t live without them. If we ever tried to stop doing them we may not survive. In conclusion of my process, I came up with the idea to have the mundane, everyday life become a fun interaction. The person will have to eat, sleep, and survive the world inside the program. If the person gets overstressed by activities then they can try again the next, and the next day, AND the next day…

The program will require a unique set of tools that correspond to the images produced on screen. As you can see in the concept image, the user will be supplied with items like a bowl and spoon to complete the activity suggested on the screen. When the activity completes, then the program either Processing or Pure Data will call switch to the other program and require another task until. The process will repeat until the day ends or the player cannot handle the everyday stress.
The program will have activities in the selected survival categories: eating, sleeping, and surviving. Eating will consist of gaining sustenance. Sleeping will require staying asleep long enough, which may require some rolling. And surviving is simple, don’t get hurt and stay safe; so no staying in any storms and watch out for any animals.

The project will be made in both Processing and Pure Data so that the use of two windows can increase the stress trying to be portrayed. Each window will have images or videos selected by their coding to go off at when the previous one finishes. Luckily, multitasking is just a myth which means only one window will be going at a time. Every event will take in and send out signals such as the length the time the person has been going, the amount of successful tasks, and what program is running. The events will be randomly chosen each day, but they will progress as if the day was getting more adverse.

The project is like the WarioWare in that there a bunch of mini-games that combine for the creation of a unique interaction. In this case, the user will have several objects they may use every day that will interact with the progressing images and videos on screen. Since life is continuous, so is the project. If the person can’t keep up, life will go on without them until they can catch their breath to try again.

Surviving the Everyday

The Everyday Survival Tools (found in: The Everyday Survival Toolkit (owned by: the creator of Surviving the Everyday))

I have chosen a new piece from an artist I have studied before. The artist is Christopher Janney and his latest work is called “Harmonic Convergence”. His work is architecturally based and usually very public. The newest piece is set in an airport, as a remodel of a walkway in the Miami International Airport.

The Piece Itself
The piece is a colorful exhibit of stained glass across a stretch of white based interior. This visual allows the exterior light to project a flowing mixture of color across the area. To add excitement to the ambiance the window panes were installed at 45 degree angles to match the crossed beam structure across the walkway. Janney creates a separate atmosphere during day and night times by having the light source switch from natural lighting from the sun to LED lights after dark. The installed lighting is set to change by a computer program hooked to activity sensors so that lighting will produce different moods as the movement level changes in the room.
However, the work adds a more interactive element through its auditory effects. What Janney has put together begins with a sequence of speakers across the room that produces a composition of sounds from tropical birds, the surrounding Everglades and indigenous music in Florida. The mixture of tones across the way changes according to the activity in the walkway. Using video sensors on either end of the crossway Janney allows the sound to continually change on its own throughout the day making each experience a new one.
I summarize “Harmonic Convergence” as a convergence in several ways. The walkway is a symbol for connecting different parts of the airport while bringing the sounds of the nature indoors. Also, the windows matche the original ‘x’ structure of interior beams and light the room with a kaleidoscopic of colors. But most importantly it shows Janney’s convergence of his passion for musical art and his education in architecture. His combinations are good, but acknowledging his older work forms a dusty residue over his mimicking design.

My Critique
This work is inside the Miami International Airport and it replicates his design in another section of the airport. That detail is fair and understandable; however, the use of this type of set up is similar to his creation inside of another airport. The Rainbow Cove that connects the parking lots at Logan International airport in Boston is also a layout using mixture of colorful window panes and indigenous nature sounds. Even though I find it a simple repeat of a previous work that is not the only reason I hold a bit of a disregard for the idea.
Applying nature noises and other Florida native audio is very nice and definitely can set a good mood for entering into the humid heat. This impression it gives is great and the idea is that it should never get old because the composition of different elements may never be repeated. But nowhere was there a check for if the generated sound will actually mesh into a soothing whole. I know flutes and birds sound good separately, yet I feel that some mixtures of screeching creatures and timed melodies may produce an ear ache to such a beautiful delight.

Additional
More info can be found at his own website
http://janneysound.com/urban-musical-instruments/harmonic-convergence/
Janney does many other works using the same use of sensors controlling the ambiance of the area he is given. Almost every project uses musical elements and is made so that the participants are moving.

I attribute the word mosiac with this piece because of the dark lines that appear between the mixing colors. The original intent was to allow the person to click on the sketch to release drops of color. Those colors would then expand slowly across the piece. Eventually multiple drops collide and mix into another color. The process still does this, but the dark lines seperate the area of mixtures from the original color so that a moving mosaic style creation is released on the sketch.
I find the patterns very alluring do to there flowing color patterns as the drops mix. Also, the sharper lines contrast the more organic growth of the drop and their natural color.

Seeing the formation of stacked or expending circles made me think of the formation of waves and bubble. Therefore I made a sketch of a puddle that you can poke or run your finger through with your mouse.

I first thought of making a triangle and doing a rip off of the famous Pink Floyd cover. But I didn’t want that. So my mind went from light deflecting off prisms to light hitting elements in the sky. The natural show is called an aurora and there is one in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres, australis and borealis. The impressive lighting appears due to solarwind hitting which excite the atoms in the air causing the release of light as their excitation state is normalized. The different colors are produced by specific elements or mixture of elements. The main atoms are nitrogen, which releases green, and oxygen, which releases red. The color combinations are more or less likely depending on altitude of the action. Usually red is more common up high and green is more common lower down. I added in this fact into the elements of my sketch.

By dragging in across the night sky you can produce your own aurora in the air.
You can hit the enter key to clear the sky if you want to clear the night again.

I changed my first creation that I had dubbed Winter’s Outlook.
Winter’s Outlook Version 2 has some improvements.

The improved code has:
1) Each color set as a variable
2) The main figures in the image produced through their own functions

It also
3) Responds in two ways to clicking
a – Click and drag allows the snow to pile up
b – Just clicking changes the snow as if its falling

Its inspiration:
I was trying to figure out how to make triangle and rectangle and circles and all those simple shapes to seem more interesting. Then I thought What if I make an object up of itself; sort of like inception for shapes). That reminded me of Suerat’s “Sunday Afternoon […]” which is a pointilism style creation. So I set my basis to make a winter scene using a style of pointilism. I tried not to step out of my coding ability by only using basic shapes.

Its special powers:
I also figured I would add a little flare by having my “snowflakes” be randomly dimensioned ellipses. Also, I spent a while developing the code to be relative to the size of the window and the size of the “dots”. This allows for the image to be different each time but always similar, even if the window size or the “dot” size is changed.

Its progress and debugging
There are a few early attempts to see if I was coding right. If something was wrong I would comment out
everything and work my way done the code uncommenting until I found my issues.