GMU:Speculative Atmospheres II/Cosmo Niklas Schüppel

Speculative Atmospheres ll

Project research

Cosmo Niklas Schüppel

Playback - Where Past and Presence Dance

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In ‘Playback’ a designated place is chosen where the data of natural factors (air quality, temperature, decibel) is collected and its soundscape (the atmospheric sounds) is recorded. The data is made audible in a piece of atmospheric drone-music; here the data of the natural factors determine the aspects of the created sound. This monotonic drone is mixed with the recorded soundscape and is played back to/at the place at a later time. At this later playback-event, the data is collected again and is transcribed into music - live. The participator then can witness the two data-drones (the one from collected and the one from live transcribed natural factors) and the two soundscapes (the pre-recorded one and the one that the place naturally emits) which morph into each other.

Conceptually this project talks about the influence of the past on the perceived presence of the present moment and what happens if past and present are not clearly distinguishable. Through this, ‘Playback’ questions the accustomed view and perception of time as a linear and absolute concept. In this conceptual dissolving of the perception of time (which can happen naturally when the mind drifts into a state of trance, for example by perceiving monotonic sounds) the installation leads the participator into a meditative state where past and present morph into each other. The world of thought is brought into the foreground of perception and the mind is confronted with its own more or less hectic patterns. The participant's thoughts and emotional patterns, created in the past, are now confronted by being held in the present moment. Just like that the space is confronted with its own past. Through this process the participant becomes aware of the interplay of esoteric and exoteric sounds, their different perceptions of time, as well as their relationship of their physical body and the surrounding space.

Technically this is achieved by creating sounds out of the data of Arduino sensors through MaxMSP. The atmospheric-soundscape is recorded with a ‘normal’ microphone. The playback-event would need quite a loud stereo sound system, so that the mixture of past- and present-soundscape can be achieved in a convincing manner.

the arduino code that I am using:

// a place to hold pin values

int x = 0;

void setup() {

 Serial.begin(115200);               
 delay(600);
 digitalWrite(13,LOW);
 pinMode(13,INPUT);

}

// Check serial buffer for characters // If an 'r' is received then read the pins

// Read and send analog pins 0-5

void loop() {

if (Serial.available() > 0){

   if (Serial.read() == 'r') {       
   

for (int pin= 0; pin<=5; pin++){

   x = analogRead(pin);
   sendValue (x);
   }
   

// Read and send digital pins 2-13 // Send a carriage returnt to mark end of pin data. // add a delay to prevent crashing/overloading of the serial port

for (int pin= 2; pin<=13; pin++){

   x = digitalRead(pin);
   sendValue (x);
   }
 
   Serial.println();                 
   delay (5);                        
 
 }

}

}

// function to send the pin value followed by a "space". 

void sendValue (int x){

Serial.print(x);
Serial.write(32);

}