Public timeline
Notices
-
As the semester comes to an end, so does my FINA course. Therefore this will also be my last blog for this course. FINA is about networking and what better thing to blog about other than my MUSI561 project. I will be working on how to produce an app for MUSI project where people will be able to post tweets and then have these tweets be converted into OSC messages where every message will play some kind of instruments. Consequently allowing people from all over the world to play an instrument over the network. This is just a small idea of how people might be able to network with each other.
-
This will be my last MUSI561 blog because yesterday I had finally finished my text to OSC messages!! We played around with some beats that correspond to Beijing's AQI OSC messages, and it sounded great. The main goal was to have the listener tell when the AQI is high or low with nice background music to make things a little more interesting for the listener. Of course I have to test my project out with some of my colleagues and see if they can analyze Beijing's AQI from the music. I need to determine how well my music is sonified. The main point of this project was to get a specific noise corresponding to specific values, and how can I make this demonstration interesting for the listener. There's a lot of way to demo this to people, whether it is through sound or video, the options are endless. And since I am dealing with OSC messages then others can use my data to also easily work on how they would like to demo such information. Therefore my project is officially over now, and I will continue to improve on it during the free time I have. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I would like to thank Alex for all his help, the many hours he spent with me with my project and the music! I would also like to thank Afshin for his comments and input regarding my processing programming. Last but not least I would like to thank Ken for his help, for a great semester and for giving me this opportunity to work on such a cool project.
-
On my way home after working in the syneme lab tonight, I couldn't help but think about a sonification networking program. So I guess this post will be a mix of FINA501 and MUSI561. I think and ideal name for this software would be Sonification Networking! Anyways, my ideas are about communicating data with people around the world using graphics and most importantly sound. My MUSI561 project will contain code that will transform messages into OSC messages, but what if that idea is extended, where the program allows the user to easily convert a message into OSC and then the user can also easily select from a wide variety of sounds to fit in his or her sonification project. Consequently the user can transfer his or her project through the network; whether is it through email, drop box or any other means of transferring files. Sonification Networking would be a programming language, therefore everything would be in text. And can thus easily be transferred. However, as long as the receiver has the Sonification Networking program on his or her computer then they can easily open and run the program. For example, Sonification Networking (SN) can read wind data off of the Environment Canada website, where they record wind speed constantly. So as SN begins to collect the data, sounds will be produced instantly by SN, and this will communicate weather in a very interactive way. Or SN can produce graphics that will be shown to musicians across the world, where these musicians can play music according to the graphics display! In a nutshell, you might have musicians in China play an orchestra according to weather patterns, in say, Calgary, all in live time. I wonder how intense the music would be if a tornado would hit!
-
Noises off: Sound Beyond Paper. Webpage: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/288 This paper talks about the need for #sonification, which I have spoken about on my previous post. When looking at my project I have a set of raw data (i.e. 400 numbers composed of 2 to 3 digits). If I were to show someone these data on a spread sheet, line graph or a pie chart, how effective would my data be in communicating the dangers of high #AQI? Charts and graphs might be effective to someone who deals with analyzing data on a day to day basis but, it might just be another bland graph or a bunch of useless numbers to someone else. Therefore, noise can, in fact, replace graphs and other similar means of communication that might not be clear to everyone. So, when I am done my MUSI561 project, I am hoping to accomplish a sonified project that will communicate the air quality to the general public. When looking at raw data it is like watching a black and white movie with no sound, so it might not be very interesting for many people. But sound communication works for everyone, anyone who can listen to the various sounds and pitches when the AQI goes up or down they can immediately tell if the air quality is safe or unhealthy (and sometimes off the charts!). Last week I worked on different kinds of music I want to be playing during the reading of the AQI (wit the help of the syneme lab assistant, Alex). We were thinking of ways to communicate levels of AQI, for example, we might a low pitched sound for high levels and high pitched sound for low levels. Or I might compose a song that will constantly be playing, while the data is being read, and as the levels go higher I will add drums to the background that will play faster or slower depending on the levels. This I think will communicate the best with listener because it will keep the listener in suspense to hear what the next part of the song will sound like, if it will play faster or slower.
-
As per suggestion from Ken I have looked into Spivaks #bottlenose social media network. I have recently signed up to use this site, so I have a little bit of hands on experience with it. Bottlenose is a real time social media networking site that is continuously updating its news feed in accordance to what and who you are following. You can keep tabs on your favorite celebrities, politicians, sports and events. All which are updated in (almost) #realtime. Updates can come from a variety of existing social media platforms, including facebook, twitter, and linkedin. The bottlenose system is said to be capable of visualizing live trending topics through people's conversations and types of messages. Therefor could be seen as an incredibly useful tool in marketing. I couldn't get a read on what type of age group this product is being geared towards, but it may be at a disadvantage to not include some other social media sites such as: #instagram, #tumbler and other popular blogging sites, these should be seen as influential to newly tending topics. However I may just not have the hang of the program just yet.
-
Finally getting back into this!! I first thought to refresh my memory where I left off with research on the #novaspivack blog, with a brand new entry regarding how "Twitter is no longer a Village" http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/287 To sum things up the blog entry brings up some very important points about how twitter is no longer an intimate social networking site, but rather a highly commercialized place where opinions are thrown out there. It has become all about people and businesses expressions and a lot less listening. It seems as though people are following too many people and generally don't care about what other people have to say, or more so that people are saying too much that it is too difficult to keep track of the communications. #Twitter was originally created to be a small one-way communication network where people just said what they were doing, it soon began to develop into a larger two-way networking experience that was overly busy with cyber interaction between individuals and businesses. Twitter has now, for the most part, become overpopulated. Where many and most tweets go unnoticed, unless you are famous or are paying for the visibility of your tweets, but as Spivack states, who is really reading them?
about 4 months ago from web -
#Sonification is the communication of data without the use of speech, according to this paper: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/286 . Reading through the first parts of this paper, I immediately saw how my project will be designed specifically for the goals of sonification. I will portray a sound and visual graph that will play move and play different kinds of sounds and pitches with respect to Beijing's #API (Air Pollution Index). And very similar to what the paper mentions, I will portray scientific data using only sound, hence my conversion of raw data (API numbers) to OSC messages. As a physicists and a computer scientists, I must read and analyze many different kinds of data. When the data is placed on a graph (shows a shape), I become more indulged in my analysis of the data. If sound can also play a role then this will inevitable make the study more intuitive and interesting. Although my project can be strictly shown in text-only (such as the U.S embassy's tweets) but, I am curious to see how people will analyze data differently from my project which has sound and movements (a sonified project) to just text. I will perform a psychological tests on some physicist when my project is done to see the difference!
-
To refer back to FINA 507, I read a paper by two researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara called: Challenges: Automated Design of Networking Protocols webpage: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/285 . So this paper talks about how the change in technology requires some kind of networking protocol. For example, networking design should have a set and defined way (a procedure) that one may follow, in order to keep up with the accelerating advances in technology. This reminded me of the time when we were working in the syneme lab, trying to study how a collaboration over the network runs with people scattered all over the world. I wonder if there is a set defined way that everyone adheres too, a #designCycle?
-
My project for MUSI 561 will be called Air Quality Orchestra, and will be hashed as #ApiOrk. To start my project I will begin by finding an #ifttt (if this then that) recipe that can connect twitter, where I will be collecting U.S embassy tweets, to #OSC. This recipe will help me in creating a sound pitch for every quantitative data that I collect from the tweets. For example, if I collect a data point of 300 PM and another data point at 500 PM then the 500 PM will have a higher pitch. And with this fluctuation of data points I will create an air quality orchestra, in addition to visuals by using #processing.
-
I read something very interesting today on one of the major news broadcasters. website: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/283 The story talks about how polluted Beijing is. This should give some in-depth insight for my independent project. I will use the data given by the U.S embassy in China and convert it to #osc. I want to try and create a musical by using a visual programming language, #processing. I want to create something similar to this: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/284
-
#Postdoctoral Scholar position: Music Composition and Performance for Network and Interactive Systems at the University of Calgary. 2 yrs. http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/282
-
Live performance or #telematic performance is usually used by artistic performances, such as, concerts. We used #jacktrip in the lab as our audio network performer. It was interesting to see how this software was designed to fully support producers who might be working on a project together but are in different parts of the world. In general, this software needs a bit of practice to get use to but, once one is proficient it can be a great tool for live team-work collaboration. I wonder if this kind of telematic performance would increase in the future. If so, I think music in general would be more multi-cultural. Musicians would be performing all together at the same time but in different parts of the world only by a click of a button. Live-time interaction is a necessity in today's world, with a lot of communication currently taking place between individuals or groups across the world, may it be an on line class or a conference. #vdmx was a pretty good tool for such a task. Syncing live audio and video to produce real-time #telecommunication .
-
After learning about #IanniX and its uses, I think this would be a perfect software to use for a time lapse project. Especially with the complex network system in Syneme, where this software can easily sync with #osc (open sound control). So, a project I would consider in this class would be a time-lapse video of different cities, with an audio background. Basically I want to mash up a bunch of time-lapse videos of different cities using IanniX. And for my audio, I also want to have a mash-up of different cultural music with respect to different cities in different countries that are shown. I want to make a video that display's people's movements from all around the world. This, depending on the person, might show the similarities of how humans in general behave in cities, or it might show how different we are as cultures and locations change.
-
Hamza El-Asaad started following Fiona Hamilton.about 5 months ago from activity
-
Fiona Hamilton started following Ken Fields.about 5 months ago from activity
-
Ken Fields started following Fiona Hamilton.about 5 months ago from activity
-
Fiona Hamilton started following Hamza El-Asaad.about 5 months ago from activity
-
Friday January 4, 2013 SO MANY POSIBILITIES!!! After the introduction of audio, I have come to realize that there are endless possibilities and combinations of audio and visual collaborations that can take place over the web. Using #jackpiolet as an audio driver we were able to edit and alter audio between the three of us. The use of the iPad, and iPhone application #osctouch, open sound control, allowed us to physically control visual and audio cues wirelessly, with the use of fader and mixer controls. Find more information about the Apple app OSC touch here: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/277 and how to set up and use it here: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/278 Somehow after getting to know all these new technologies and art forms I remembered the exhibition that Brian Eno put on at the Glenbow Museum almost two years ago, 77 Million Paintings. His paintings morphed with endless possibly and were accompanied along with his ambient music. The thought of his exhibition has sparked an idea for a telemedia project, with the combination of live painting that could be influenced by live music. It’s still in its preliminary through process…more to come.
about 5 months ago from web -
Thursday January 3, 2013 Today’s our main focus was live web, at the end of class Ken made a point of clarifying that live web is just another way of following a group, much like how we subscribe to channels on youtube, only the streaming of data is live. We live streamed video to each to other using #vlc, a video media plyer, connecting using out IP addresses. This could be something that I might want to play with outside of this course. We also touched on live broadcasting, using Adobe Flash to capture the video, and a program called #kaltura was used to stream and distribute the media. We also discussed the concept of generally sharing media content, using sites such as beatport and soundcloud as places to upload, share, listen, as well as distribute music. Two other websites that I would like to share that are my favorite for even just listening to music are #songza, http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/268, where playlists are complied in accordance to choices that you make about what you are doing, what your mood is, and what type of genre you are interested in listening to. The #hypemachine or #hypem, http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/269, is quite similar to could in that any artists can upload music, and in most cases it is available to download free of charge. Sites such as hypem, songza, soundcloud, and beatport all have the option to ‘follow’ groups, artists, and genres, which although it is not live it is a way of subscribing and following a group on the web, and it is streamed through the website, rather from the server that the files originated from. We briefly touched on the topic of #folksonomies, which is the act of tagging, or hash tagging items and information on the web, creating categories and sub categories under tagged titles. I think it would be quite interesting to do some more reading on this topic because I am generally exposed to hashtags through the use of social media such as: twitter, flickr and instagram.
about 5 months ago from web -
Wednesday January 2, 2013 Alright! Here we go! Its January 2nd and I’m already hitting the books. So lets start with basics from today. What is #telematics? A broad definition will describe it as a technological method of crossing the boundaries between art, communication and pop culture. These technological methods include, but are not limited to; installation works, past and present film clips, and online projects. Telematics are most commonly viewed as computer mediated communication networks, using phone, cable, and satellite links to connect geographically dispersed individuals. Today we focused mainly on musical/live art performances between collaborating institutions. The most beneficial information regarding the introduction of telematics and telecommunications came from this website: http://syneme.ucalgary.ca/index.php/url/90. The experimentation with skype as a communication tool, made apparent many issues that must be effectively dealt with when teaming up with other artists for a performance; general computer/network trouble shooting, lagging, and delay. When working live over a network it is practically impossible to exactly time things, due to the delay in audio/video that is experienced over a network. Speaking of the time it takes for information to travel from one computer to another, we used ‘ping’ and ‘traceroute’ controls today to see/calculate the time it takes to relay information to and from another computer using their IP address, as well as we able to follow the network path from our computer. ( I actually have a generally better understanding of this than I thought I would). We continued our day discussing networks and systems, network theory, actor network theory, social network phenomenon, interactive systems, dramaturgy, telepresence, and touched on the theory of 6 degrees of separation. Still working on getting through some more readings prior to tomorrows class.
about 5 months ago from web
All Syneme content and data are available under the