Songs from my analogue utopia
Abstract
In Songs from my analogue utopia, I explore the self-organizing coordination dynamics of analog oscillators and the Utopian potentials of analogue communication. In analogue communication, synchronization results from the mutual interaction of two or more processes, not a single process is dominating the other. It is in the mutuality where I see the Utopian potential of analogue communication. I undertake this exploration on the screen of an overhead projector, where I place little motors driven by analogue oscillators. The motors hit on rubber bands or other objects which are equipped with piezo-pickups, rendering the rhythmical hitting of the motors into sound and into a shadow play.
Full text
CHRISTIAN FAUBEL, Technische Hochschule Köln, Germany Additional Key Words and Phrases: Neuromorph hardware, Polyrhythms, Projection, Shadow play, Robots ACM Reference Format: 1 PROGRAM NOTES In Songs from my analogue utopia, I explore the self-organizing coordination dynamics of analog oscillators and the Utopian potentials of analogue communication. In analogue communication, synchronization results from the mutual interaction of two or more processes; not a single process is dominating the other. It is in the mutuality where I see the Utopian potential of analogue communication. I undertake this exploration on the screen of an overhead projector, where I place little motors driven by analogue oscillators. The motors hit on rubber bands or other objects, which are equipped with piezo-pickups, rendering the rhythmical hitting of the motors into sound and into a shadow play. 2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION Songs from my analogue utopia is an ongoing research project into the interaction dynamics of neuromorph analogue oscillators. I use these analogue oscillators to drive little robots that are mounted onto the screen of an overhead projector, which renders the movement of the robots into a shadow play. I presented an early version of this setup at the Nime conference in 2014 [ 1 ] and a deeper exploration of the possibilities on how to create polyrhythmic structures at the Nime conference in 2021 [2]. I am passionate about developing systems that produce structures that seem to be following a musical score, but that are effectively emerging in the here and now. Even though some of the structures such as, for example a 3 x 4 polyrhythm produced through the coupling of analog oscillators, are very stable; nonetheless, they are always open to variation and disturbance. During a performance, I am searching for the sweet spots where rhythms interlock and structures appear. The setup can work very well in a club setting, and I am hoping to bring people to dance to my robots. 3 PERFORMANCE NOTES As i am using an overhead projector, i will need a surface to project on, a table to place my setup and the OHP to be placed at a distance of approx. 2-3 meters from the projection surface. The table should have a size of minimum 120 cm x 60 cm. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Copyright remains with the author(s). Christian Faubel. 2024. Title: Songs from my analogue utopia. 1, 1 (September 2024), 2 pages. Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression NIME’24, 4–6 September, 2024, Utrecht, The Netherlands Songs from my analogue utopia
2 Christian Faubel Fig. 1. Robots hitting on a sound comb. 4 MEDIA LINKS •Video: https://vimeo.com/367880723 •Audio: https://tanukitunes.com/library/tracks/124672/ REFERENCES [1] Christian Faubel. 2014. Rhythm Apparatus on Overhead. In NIME 2014. [2] Christian Faubel. 2021. Emergent Polyrhythmic Patterns with a Neuromorph Electronic Network. In NIME 2021. https://nime.pubpub.org/pub/g04egsqn.