Recycled Sound

January 31, 2010 | Filed Under | 2 Comments 

Recycled Sound

site specific, outdoor installation by Ben Johansen and Jonathan Snow (sculptor)

Click here to go to my blog posts pertaining to this installation. I will be posting on my blog as we make progress.

The installation will have its premiere in the TWU Arts Triangle Walking Tour March 25th from 5-7pm.

Together, with Jonathan Snow, a colleague of mine at UNT, we are working on an outdoor art installation incorporating sculpture, light, sound, and interactivity.

Below is Jonathan’s first draft of the installation (click on the picture to view it larger).  Imagine from a 20 to a 40 foot distance from the center sculpture to the furthest sculpture surrounding it:

“Recycled Sound” sculpture is designed in such a way that the center sculpture allows participants to “steer” sound and light around them using a mechanism that resembles a steering wheel. Sound from solenoids and light from LEDs emanate from inside metal sculptures surrounding the center sculpture as participants interact with it. Different combinations of movements of the center sculpture produce different feedback. Communication between the center sculpture and surrounding sculptures will be done via RF transmitters/receivers, thus no wires will be seen. The forms will be constructed from steel donated to UNT from a factory (each piece has great negative space from whatever the factory was manufacturing).

We will be using both recycled and purchased materials.  All electronics (microcontrollers, solenoids, batteries, etc.) will be purchased new and all visual aspects will be purchased used from salvage yards.  Sounds will be created by using the bars from an old percussion bell set and by striking the sculptures themselves.  I will be using the Arduino open-source electronic hardware and software exclusively.  We believe in fully documenting our projects online at benjohansen.com so others can learn from what we have done. I am pushing the boundaries of inexpensive RF receivers, transmitters, and the open-source Arduino in hopes that others can create art on a smaller budget.

Please checkout the my blog to see how each individual aspect of the project is progressing. Click here to go to my blog posts pertaining to this installation.

Thank you!

third obstruction

February 19, 2009 | Filed Under | Leave a Comment 

Abstract: Having to remove the computer from my project inclined me to redirect my original idea away from fixed media toward real-time performance. The philosophy of the initial project remains the same: the environment the audience finds themselves in will seem to be mystical or magical and the sounds and sights of the box will be magnified by this fictional environment. In Light Box LIVE, an electronic musician (or three) will be in total control of the entire performance instead of a computer running Max/MSP/Jitter.

Technology and logistics: The light-box’s opening and closing and RGB LED is to be controlled by using MIDI (a controller with buttons and sliders) through the Arduino by uploading code to the Arduino (information about code can be found here, information about hardware can be found here). In order to create visuals in real-time, a video camera will capture the face of the box in order that the live feed can be projected on a screen. The camera’s ability to focus in low-light situations is not important; the camera simply needs to zoom in enough to fill the screen with the box’s radiating colored light from the internal RGB LED. An overhead projector is also to be used in order to improvise with food color and water created visualizations. In this way, the performer can mix between the two projectors as a dj does between  turntables. A microphone placed in front of the box will pick up the sounds of it opening and closing. The musician can run the mic’s signal through various rack mounted effects units as well as sample the sound and manipulate it in real time on a sampler-keyboard or controller (such as a Kaoss pad). The sound can also be diffused through an octophonic speaker setup directly through the mixer (I cannot seem to find any hardware ambisonic panners). This project could even better immerse the audience into a “magical” environment by adding more projectors and more performers working on creating sounds by sampling the box. Performers must remain as invisible to the audience as possible in order to keep from taking away from the drama of the fictional environment being created.

Light Box Construction

December 9, 2008 | Filed Under | Leave a Comment 

This page explains how to construct wooden box that opens and closes with a solenoid and that houses an RGB LED.  I plan to use the boxes as percussive, visual instruments in a composition for various handmade electronic instruments.

CREATE CIRCUIT

I chose to isolate the power used to activate the solenoid from the control source (the Arduino and computer) by making an optoisolated DC switch.  I modified the schematic found at THIS website which contains a great explanation for how the optoisolator works.

I added the resistors and connection for the RGB LED on the board as well.  Here is the schematic for the RGB LED circuit (found in the comment by todbot on THIS page, the RadioShack LED I used and the finished board (I’m also including the pictures of the breadboard layout).

I cut the lead all the same length so they would fit in the solderless socket I put in the board (I included the socket, which is really an 8 pin IC scoket [RadioShack 276-1995], instead of soldering the LED in the board just in case I gave it too much power and burned it out during the experiementing stage of the project).

BUILD THE WOODEN BOX

I cut the 1/2inch thick MDF board for a four inch tall six inch square box (4x6x6) – so that is =

(2)5×4

(2)6×4

(1)5×5

(1)6×8

cut the box where the ethernet cable jack (RJ45) will be mounted (I used ethernet cable because I had a need for 8 wires – I would like to make all my electronic instruments using ethernet cable to keep things consistent)

drill pilot holes for the screws before gluing (the first box I did I did not use any screws, I used dowel rods and glue instead – this meant a great deal of time had to be set aside for the box to dry while being clamped; with screws no clamps were needed and I could continue working on the project)

the box all glued and screwed together

add hinges and top

cut out a piece to hold the ethernet jack secure in the box(as seen below)

glue a piece of wood inside the box (using dowel rods) to mount the electronics on

make sure the dowel rods and screw lay flat with the bottom

mount the electronic board with a screw; cut a hole in the back wall, feed the wires form the solenoid through the hole and connect them to the blue socket

drill holes in the back wall at an angle for the solenoid mount

add bolts, add a drop of Locktight and add washers and nuts

add solenoid mount and solenoid (I used a very powerful Guardian solenoid = LT8X16-I-12VDC)

drill holes in the top and connect solenoid piston with insolated wire (I put a rubber washer where seen in order to keep the top from hitting the metal of the piston and making extra noise)

because I did so much experimenting to find out what works the best, I needed to fill the holes with wood filler before painting

painted completed box

ethernet cable plugged in

this is how I routed everything to ethernet cable – I would like to find an easier way to get ethernet to a breadboard

here is the setup plugged into my computer (I ended up having to use two power sources (one for each of the two boxes I made) because I didn’t have a high enough amperage DC source

Things I changed about the final product:

I first tried to mount the solenoid on the inside of the box with a spring on the outside so that the solenoid pulled the box closed rather than open

this didn’t work for a number of reasons – 1) the solenoid would burn up if I wanted an especailly long moment with the boxes closed, 2) it is difficult getting the box to pull closed perfectly and not pull too far or not quite enough, 3) the spring is not consistant – the resistance of the spring differs when open and closed, 4) the spring makes noise

Max/MSP

I hooked the boxes up to my Axiom49 through Max/MSP using THIS patch (you must also have THIS arduino.pat object in the same folder before opening the patch) and loading Pd_firmware.pde on the Arduino from THIS website.  By doing this I can control the brightness and color of the LEDs with sliders and the box opening and closing with the assignable buttons below the sliders.