I’m building each instrument individually in Isadora. I want to make sure they all work on their own and then I’ll start to try out different configurations in Isadora to put them together and create the audio visual jamming tool. In my work, I create by layering video, images and sound – so thinking about the individual instruments as the creators of a layer makes sense to me. So that the tool will contain instruments that offer different ways to create layers that form the projected output. Of course, some of the instruments use layering themselves . . . layers within layers, then. All good.
I want to focus on getting each instrument to be as simple as possible in terms of the Isadora set-up and also what the physical interface looks like. In Isadora they need to run using as little computer resources as possible, so everything runs smoothly together. As physical interfaces they need to be easy to understand and access – I feel like it’s important to make them friendly looking, like something anyone can have a go with.
I’ll include images of the Isadora setup, the physical interface and an example of the output, as I talk about the instruments. At this point, I’m looking to see how I can put things together and identify any potential problems. The output of the jams is to video which will be projected in the jamming space. All thoughts and comments (including ‘What on earth do you think you’re doing?’) warmly welcomed. Here’s the first two instruments:
The Video Mixer
Mixing layers of video is core to my own practice, so first up I wanted to make an instrument to mix videos. This is an instrument to mix 8 videos. The videos are short loops – so the imagery is focused on symbolism, colour, form and texture, rather than narrative, although short spurts of narrative action would be possible. In terms of participatory projects, the idea is to be able to load participants video into the instrument – after I’ve re-encoded it to play nicely in Isadora.
The hardware is an Akai LPD8 with 8 pads and 8 swivel knobs (this controller has useful software to alter the functions of it’s pads and knobs). I’ve added number stickers to the pads and knobs, as I found myself counting to ID controllers when I was trying the interface out. I do think this helps and I also plan to make a printed layout card with space for a thumbnail still printout from each video so the player has a real world visual identifier for each video.
In Isadora I’ve set-up the knobs to control the opacity of each video and the pads to switch a Desaturate filter on and off (fully saturated / 50% desaturated). Once I start to explore using the instruments together, I’ll need to consider where the videos sit layer wise with the other still image and generative elements. Building this has also highlighted that running eight videos at once is resources intensive, as I go forward I’ll need to consider options around reducing the resolution of the videos or reducing the number of videos in play at any one time.
The Image Mixer
An instrument to mix 8 still images. Here I wanted to make something that can enable collage creation, I wanted the images to be able to sit on top of each other, but also alongside each other. Like the videos, participants will be invited to get their images into the instrument for jamming. I make the images 1920 x 1080 px at 150 dpi (to allow for zooming)
The hardware is a Korg NanoKontrol2 with 8 sliders, 8 knobs and three press buttons for each slider/knob. This controller also has some buttons on the left hand panel which I may bring into play as I experiment but I haven’t as yet – I may decide to cover these buttons somehow if they’re not going to be used, to simplify the interface. I’ve numbered each track (or image) for clarity.
In Isadora I’ve set-up the sliders to alter the opacity and the knobs to alter the size of each image (from 30% to 200%). To discourage too much intense focus on exact positioning, I’ve decided to make the position selector a button (‘R’) that selects a random position. The ‘S’ button switches blur on and off and the ‘M’ button switches a 50% Desaturation filter on and off. I’ve made image 1 a base layer image that can’t be zoomed out beyond 100%, so that, as long as this instrument is being used, this image will form the canvas.
