48 meter long midi keyboard

[The Tasmanian]

I wanted to share this with my fellow Trockers.
In Hobart the MONA museum opened yesterday (Museum of Old and New Art)
I also gave birth yesterday to a new beast - I have a music installation in the gallery.
It is a 48 meter underground concrete tunnel with 48 custom built speakers built into the floor and hidden from view. Each 700mm section of flooring has load cells underneath that detect your presence and trigger parts of the composition based on where you are in the tunnel - so more people..more music....more sound.
The floor is a 48 meter midi keyboard with sensitivity down to 100th of a gram.
This concrete tunnel is a wild resonating beast - it has no sound absorption and I composed everything around the standing waves - which is close enough to the note D.
So the music and tones excite the resonant frequencies - and the people walking/triggering are interacting with my composition - which then interacts/excites the tunnels resonant frequencies (which then add to the composition)
The subs at around 35hz are incredible in the space...
It was really the hardest work I've ever attempted, as the acoustics were a absolute nightmare - 90% of everything I composed did not work in the space - the tunnels resonance would destroy it. As you guys would know - imagine mixing 48 speakers in a resonant room without any sound attenuation at all !

If anyone gets to Hobart check it out - the whole museum is nothing short of amazing.
Our Myles Mumford did a few days Max programming for the audio to interact with the midi coming off the floor panels - Thanks Myles, and Jamil for programming too - you both rock!

Check it out if you can get a chance to get to Hobart.

[Ben M]

Very cool Chris. Well done on realising such an interesting project. You are the proud papa of a 48 meter long baby.

Some friends are down there this week for the Mona Foma. They go each year and love it.

Do you have any web links of your install?

I've always liked this one in Stockholm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
It's great to see people, art and technology interact (and have fun).

Ben

[mylesgm]

It was indeed a wild ride, but heartily enjoyed. Should have seen the faces of the people wandering through on the opening night party. Actually I would have liked to also as I can't remember because well... I got a little drunk.

Chris' work is very cool indeed though and the max patch is quite a beast, it allows multiple triggering from each panel, has over 100 30 minute sample players and some pretty impressive routing, analysis, and control modules as well.

The museum is actually unbelievable and I'm sad to be leaving, but I will be returning as a punter to just experience the fascinating, surprising, challenging and awe inspiring art that is there. Cant encourage people enough to go but probably dont take the young kids.

[NYMo]

Hi there,

Congrats guys...Im off to Tasmania the week after next.
Ill be sure to check it out !

Cheers
John NYMO Nyman

[rob]

excellent work Chris and you too Myles!

I was reading about this just yesterday and the whole concept and philosophy of David Walsh absolutely floats my boat. I detest the intellectual clap trap that surrounds art. I know what I like and what I like I don't attempt to analyse.
Ann Maree and I are considering going down to Hobart specifically to check the MONA out, sounds fantastic.

If we get there we'll jump up and down on your "keyboard" like mad motherfuckers!

Reading of this adventure has reminded me of a sound installation I did for the Adelaide Festival of arts back in the early 80's. Myself and a handful of composers from the conservatorium's Electronic Music Dept created 16 channel compositions that were feed to 16 separate speakers hidden in the tropical garden conservatory which had just opened in the botanic gardens. This is a large arched glass and steel glass-house filled with a pond, plants and trees. In this case we were dealing almost with the opposite of your situation. Whereby you could only hear small sections of the compositions depending on where you were at any given time. The fun part was that every time you walked through the gardens the compositions changed.
Certainly a refreshing diversion from rock n roll!

[The Tasmanian]

Sorry Rob - its just note on - note off - even though the technology spits out velocity via midi I never got to get into velocity through lack of time and the acoustics are so bad that I needed most sounds controlled (compressed) to a level to be able to decipher the information as a listener above the overwhelming standing waves within the space.
Stroll though and save your energy (you might break it too!!)

[dafyd]

That sounds very interesting I will be checking out Mona next week.
About 10years ago I did a project for the city of Melbourne in partnership with the chinese museum where we constructed parabolic sound domes that triggered different sections of an extended soundscape including dialogue along 100mts of laneway.
It also never repeated itself.
Graham Thirkell helped with the technical aspects of the domes.
The wind played havoc with false triggering and I think pressure pads were the way to go but they would have been too easy to vandalise.
The triggers went to a multichannel playback unit.
Scoring the music and working with the chinese players was a highlight.
My inspiration for the soundscape was 'Different Trains' by Steve Reich.
Hi Rob

dafyd williams
http://www.psychosonic.com.au

[Ben M]

pressure pads were the way to go but they would have been too easy to vandalise.

Nice to see you along on the T'rock forum Dafyd.

Probably the trickiest part of public installations is securing the technical makeup of the install.
Vandalism or misuse plays a big part in how it's arranged.

[Hud]

I got to travel to Hobart for work last week.. was only there overnight, but I managed to get to the Mona for about 90mins before they closed

Suffice it to say, 90mins isn't quite enough for the Mona! Impressive from the outside, but really mind-blowing inside..
Stuff that makes you say 'wow, that's clever and really cool', or 'wow, that really makes me feel uncomfortable'

Was absolutely spewin because I asked about the keyboard and they told me it wasn't open that day.. I'm definitely up for a return trip to see Chris and Myles' installation, and just to spend enough time there. V cool thing to be a part of

[Text_Edifice]

Congrats! Sounds like an amazing project.

Look forward to seeing it on my next Tas trip.

[mylesgm]

Sadly the tunnel or "keyboard" is currently decommissioned as the adjoining section of the museum is incomplete but soon it'll be back up in action for your auditory and sensory pleasure...

[The Tasmanian]

I think it re-opens in the next 2 weeks

[vanderlae]

The floor is a 48 meter midi keyboard with sensitivity down to 100th of a gram.

A fly weighs about 10mg on average, and being the bottom of the threshold, hopefully MONA has a screen door?! Seriously though, this is exciting and well done, Chris. I love to hear about things like this, it must have been an amazing project to work on. Excellent.

[The Tasmanian]

Gents
Mona commission number 2 is now running as of Saturday - the first low frequency piece runs at 12-1pm each day and the new one is 10am-6pm.
If you get to Hobart check it out - and the insane art gallery and all its amazing wonders.

Also a thank you to 2 forum members here who helped out - Jamil on Cubase programming - and Myles on Max programming - also AEGRES the unstoppable hardware makers and designers making my vision work in the physical department.
Check it out if you can get a chance!

[obutcher]

How long will it be running Chris? I'll be down that way in January!

[The Tasmanian]

There's no end date - its running permanently
Let me know what you think

[Alistair]

Will be down for Mona Foma in Jan, will check it out then if I can beat the crowds!

[obutcher]

Will do Chris. Mona looks to be an interesting place, am pretty keen to check it out. Might wear my turtlerock t-shirt the day I go in case there are any lurkers around

[wez]

Mona commission number 2 is now running as of Saturday - the first low frequency piece runs at 12-1pm each day and the new one is 10am-6pm.

Will this one make me throw up as well?

;-)

[jkhuri44]

^ my shitty programming should be enough to make you puke Wez!

[The Tasmanian]

Thats funny Wez!
This one is 180 degrees opposite - its dreamlike escapist electro - hardly any bottom end - so its for the ears and brain as opposed to the low frequency one which is literally designed to sonically go inside your body - Like a surgeon or a gynecologist or a......beer.
The first commission freaked a lot of people out - they had never experienced sound inside their body's before.
So if you want to be invaded - go at 12pm!

[Mitch Kenny]

Reading the mention MAX programming took me back.... The memories of it are so distant I can't remember if they are fond or otherwise.

Would love to see the installation. Sounds like a great idea

[heathen]

Chris you're some type of mad genius, probably a good thing you got into music instead of designing WMD. Hope you programmed a secret brown note in there Jamil.

[obutcher]

I checked out your installation a few weeks ago Chris, it was really fun!

Interesting use of the tunnel, and I liked the whole 'more people more noise' aspect of it how it comes to life when people are using it.

How many repeats of certain sounds do you have? My wife and I were running up and down trying to find/set off the low frequency ones, followed by other higher pitched sounds, then different combinations of them just to see what would happen in the space you've used.

Nice work! I've been recommending MONA and your exhibit to everyone since I got back. MONA as a whole is a great museum and a highlight of my Tasmania trip. Anyone else thinking of going there, make sure you go for a wine/beer tasting as they also make pretty good versions of both!

[The Tasmanian]

Thanks Owen. glad you enjoyed it.
Funny that you ran up and down - others have told me they did the same too. Its really pleasing that it bridges being a piece of art and a musical "whole" event - and the fact that people get into to interacting with it.
It really is designed for more the solemn gallery walker (and also I never wanted any hint of novelty to enter the space)
It was a nightmare trying to come up so many cohesive compositions that are musical, work together and then make it work so as I am only part of the final composition at any given moment due to people needing to be triggering the piece.
Also, the pressure was really ON! To be a permanent work in amongst amazing artists like Boyd,Whitely and so many incredible artists from around the globe, it has to be a powerful piece of art, and not too musical - if it sounded too much like a piece of music/soundtrack then mission failed

There are roughly 50x15 minute compositions in this current commission and 100x30 minute compositions in the low frequency piece that runs from 12-1pm. Each speaker/panel triggered is set up to not change to the next composition as you trigger them - all you are doing by standing on the floor panels is basically turning on and off each 15 minute piece (x48).
So its not like triggering a new sample each time. But each speaker/panel has a jukebox programmed in so that when one 15 minute piece finishes the software randomly chooses the next composition. So its has a ever changing randomness - and the punters are blending/mixing bits of the work as they stand on floor panels.
This way the work has a certain flow about it in each of the 48 speakers - I could not go down the retriggered path as the work would then became too random and would have lost its musicality - or "feel"
And a the most important thing to me was In the end people have to feel something from the work.
Art should make you respond to it emotionally (even dislike) - or the work has failed.
Extremely hard work to come up with - to say the least.......

And 400 thousand people experiencing it so far - that puts a smile on my face!

[rob]

and damn .... the tunnel was closed the day I went there! Still, it's fine as it's another reason to go back ... not that I really need a reason to go back. MONA is an outstanding thing!

[Alistair]

I was down there last week for Mona Foma- spent the whole day on Sunday at the gallery. Really enjoyed your work- along with the green laser piece at the end of the tunnel where you constantly have to spin your head to try and read the letters, it was a pretty complete vibe. Nothing like walking through a poo factory into a small dark tunnel with lasers at the end. Super sci-fi!

Unfortunately Mona was pretty busy that day, so I didn't get any time alone in the tunnel, but I did spend 10 minutes just listening to other people trigger it. It's cool to hear they are longer pieces that are switched on and off- I was trying to figure out whether they were just randomly selected short sounds, but there seemed to be too much continuity for that.

[The Tasmanian]

Isn't that laser piece amazing!
Astonishing place - I never get bored there, an incredible vision for one man.

[obutcher]

Thanks for the explanation Chris, it makes so much sense now. We were only in the tunnel for 5mins or so, which would explain why the triggers seemed to make the same noise and like Alistair said, had some continuity to them. I also stood around a bit hoping the tunnel would be empty but it was very busy that day too.

The vibe of the museum was great! So many confronting artworks. I partcularly liked the Jean-Michel Basquiat painting (I'm already a bit of a fan of his) and was very intrigued by the wall of Madonna fans singing her greatest hits. The best part was watching other people's reactions to the exhibits, like seeing old people looking closely at the "Wall of c*nts" or other people taking photos of a machine doing a poo.

[jkhuri44]

wall of cunts is awesome.
need a map for some of those.