A series of experiments in computer vision/generative visuals and computer audition/generative music.
#1 Inkblots
The users interact with this system by using the center of their faces, in this case marked by their nose, to draw with a symmetrically generated trail of dots or “inkblots” thus generating organic images. The intention behind this work was to create a contemplative experience. The user can restart the drawing anytime by left-clicking their mouse.
The generated images share some similarities with Rorschach art regarding its abstraction and symmetry. Rorschach art is based on the 1921 psychological test by Hermann Rorschach in which subjects were analysed by their perceptions of inkblots. The psychologist created each of them by putting ink on a page of paper and folding it over to generate a mirror image. The symmetry was purposeful since, according to the author, “symmetry makes conditions the same for right and left handed subjects; furthermore, it facilitates interpretation for certain blocked subjects. Finally, symmetry makes possible the interpretation of whole scenes.”
Try it HERE
#2 Heartbeats
The users interact with this system by clicking on a centralized heart-shaped figure which generates the sound of a beating heart, plus two more hearts, marking that the sound was set off and composing an image of three hearts representative of the amount of different heartbeats that the system plays. If the user clicks once again, the sound of the second heartbeat will start playing on top of the previous one and, later, the third click will trigger the last heartbeat, leading to a triad of hearts beating at the same time at different rythms.
The heartbeat is a binary compass, pulse and rythm the foundations of music and the common feature in music from all over the world and from any culture. The resulting overlap of heartbeats, depending on how long it took for the user to press, could be, thus, seen as generative of music. This work seeks to introduce something so familiar that we listen to since the womb, a hearbeat, as music by itself, and the sharing of heartbeats as the most intimate song.
Try it HERE
December 2022
