Human Chimes transforms users into sound that bounce between other users inside the space. The sounds infer interaction with all other participants inside the space. Participants perceive themselves and others as transformed visual components projected onto the front wall as well as sonic formulations indicating where they are. As people move, the sounds move and change to show changing personal interactions. As more users enter the space, more sounds are layered upon the existing body. In this way, sound patterns, like our relationships with others, continuously evolve.

The social work dynamically tracking users' locations in real time, transcoding participants as sounds that pan around the space according to the participants' positions. Human Chimes enables users to create, control, and interact with sound and visuals in real time. The piece uses a multimedia experience to ignite our curiosity and deepen our playful attitude with the world around us.

The work was commissioned in part by the University of Oregon and the city of Eugene, Oregon. The work was presented as part of the (sub)Urban Projections film festival: Nov. 9, 2011.

(sub)Urban Projections Film Festival wanted to include live projection bombing in downtown Eugene, OR, and I was asked to create a standalone computer app that allows a user to paint graffiti upon any projected surface. The human interface uses TouchOSC on an iPad or iPhone, which drives my graffiti computer software. The work was presented each night of the (sub)Urban Projections festival: Nov. 9, 16, 23; 2011, the WhiteBox gallery in Portland, OR Dec. 10, 2011, and the second (sub)Urban Projections festival: Nov. 7, 11, 14 2012.

Play! Sequence is a multimedia installation for iPod Touch, USB camera, and VGA video display and TouchOSC, Max/MSP/Jitter, and Isadora software applications. By creating a multitouch sequencer that controls the playback of audio and video masks, Play! Sequence enables the user to simultaneously interact with the space's sonic and visual environment.

The iPod Touch provides a familiar language for the user and for the nature of the tactile interactions. The user is allowed to create, edit, and delete three synchronous sequences of sixteen steps, thereby changing the evolution and the complexity of the piece over time.

Each of the three sequences represent a sonic timbre and color mask that mirror the user's actions. With each sonic timbre, the user has control over pitch, rhythm, and amplitude. The color masks follow the sounds across the screen, repeating from the left upon the start of each loop. The masks help visualize the user's tactile and sound experience by revealing the user inside the space, and each mask represents one of elements in the RGB color model.

Play! Sequence operates within the framework of natural human interaction, playing off of our curiosity and our engagement with objects that we can creatively control. The user manipulates and interacts with the sounds and visuals in real time, driven by the immediate feedback that the system provides.

Commissioned for the 2011 Fringe Festival, The Goddess Re:membered is a site specific work and multimedia response to The Goddess, a classic Chinese silent film from 1934. The interactive installation is for video projection, IR camera, Max/MSP and Isadora software. Through public interactions of users inside the space, clues to distant memories are revealed through the triggering of color, sound, and video masks.

Interactive Mirror is a public installation for USB camera, video display, and Isadora software. By altering user experience through real-time video effects mirrored upon a video display, the work enables users to play within an interactive environment.

"Patch It In!" is an interactive sound installation focused on illuminating the transformations of space through human presence. The installation explores the physical and aural transformations of space through the activity of the viewer. Prerecorded sounds can be manipulated by the viewer as well as dirt rings existing inside the space. Human interaction and decision informs the work.

The viewer leaves having altered the space in some way, however big or small, whether seen or felt, and they have viewed other’s alterations of space. The installation, once defined by the artist, is ultimately transformed, being defined instead by the multiple interactions of viewers inside the work.

+ Read the entire Artist Statement.

"Boxed" is a sound installation about the journeys of shipping cardboard boxes. The work includes seven vignettes, or rather "boxes," that utilize sounds of packing & shipping cardboard freight as source material. Projected from inside a box, the work fills a perceptual empty container as one listens from within this box to other boxes undergoing various journeys.

+ Read the entire Artist Statement.

The Sound Memorial for the Veterans of the Vietnam War is a six-hour long composition, a reading of the names of the service members who died during the Vietnam War. The Sound Memorial is a fixed media work performed as an eight-speaker installation and is composed from 210+ voices and over 200 hours of recording. The memorial resurrects the service member's names by propagating them within a defined space, allowing the name to reverberate within a room and take on a whole new life. The first audio excerpt is "Height of the War;" the movement attempts to capture the magnitude of American service members killed in action over the course of several months in 1968. Following this movement is the rest of the piece, playing sequentially from the beginning.

+ Download the score.

+ Project Site

simpleKinect is an application for sending data from the Microsoft Kinect to any OSC-enabled application. The application attempts to improve upon similar software by offering more openni features and more user control.

simpleKinect Features

• Auto-calibration.
• Specify OSC output IP and Port in real time.
• Send CoM (Center of Mass) coordinate of all users inside the space, regardless of skeleton calibration.
• Send skeleton data (single user), on a joint-by-joint basis, as specified by the user.
• Manually switch between users for skeleton tracking.
• Individually select between three joint modes (world, screen, and body) for sending data.
• Individually determine the OSC output url for any joint.
• Save/load application settings.
• Send distances between joints (sent in millimeters). [default is on]

Download simpleKinect.

simpleKinect FAQ page

Projects utilizing simpleKinect

Casting. Electronic composition for solo performer with the Microsoft Kinect and Kyma.

Kinect-Via- is a Max/MSP interface series for composers wanting to route and map user-tracking data from the XBox Kinect. The interface series complements four different OpenNI applications, namely OSCeleton, Synapse, Processing's simple-openni library, and Delicode's NIMate. All Max/MSP interfaces communicate using OSC (Open Sound Control) messages and are performance-ready, meaning that all routing and system options may be changed in real time. The Kinect-Via- interfaces offer a tangible solution for anyone wishing to explore user tracking with the Kinect for creative application. The interface currently has over 1000 downloads globally. Note: Tested with Max 5 and OSX 10.6.8.

White paper (.pdf)

Kinect-Via-OSCeleton. (.zip)
OSCeleton application

Kinect-Via-Synapse. (.zip)
Synapse application

Kinect-Via-Processing. (.zip)
Processing library

Kinect-Via-NIMate. (.zip)
NImate application

Projects utilizing Kinect-Via-

Human Chimes. Human Chimes is an interactive public installation. Participating users become triggered sounds that interact with all other participating users inside the space. The Kinect mapping is using Kinect-Via-OSCeleton.

The Beat. The Kinect user's hand and head movements mapped to filters, and at times, hand gestures actuate sound. The Kinect mapping is using Kinect-Via-Synapse. "The Beat" is a composition by Nathan Asman.

Juggling Music (Arthur Wagenaar). Playing music by juggling with glowballs! Demonstration of this new self made musical instrument, controlled by juggling. Also known (in Dutch) as 'De Kleurwerper'.

Wiimote Controllers is a Max/MSP interface for composers and artists interested in getting started with the Nintendo Wii for creative application. The interface may handle up to four Wiimotes simultaneously and is ready to use alongside OSCulator. The interface uses the CNMAT object 'OSC-route'.

Download the interface and bpatcher files. (.zip)