2nd presentation

This is a summary of what we've been up to since Oct. 17. Images are slides from the 2nd crit on Nov 11.


- The initial idea was to have sevaral distinct sounds and music clips that would corespond to the images as playback. Furtanetly, Duncan thought it would be better to have a continious piece, which proved to be right- it had quite an effect..
We went for Biosphere’s, Fluviamorphologie (can be listened to from http://www.biosphere.no/mp3.html), because of its mix of natural and artificial sounds which to us resemble flowing water and electromegnetic field interferences.


- Have you ever noticed, that a change of a song during a party can change the flow of conversation between people within seconds? What triggers that?
We decided to move the affective music player concept from the individual to groups of people. Specifically, to social occasions.


- Concept sketch of affective music playback for a dinner party. People’s ‘emotions’ are monitored by common objects they use during the social activity. A champagne glass with a skin resistance sensor hidden in its ‘neck’ and a wireless data transmitter on the basis. Similar concepts for cuttlery and table-cloths. The collective data is gathered by a software on your PC which controls the music being played. The algorithm is based on a simplified ‘happy/sad’ concept which is being controlled by the song’s pitch and tempo.

Design Objective: make the technology less intrusive (hidden?) and most intuitive (take advantage of usual human habits) as possible.



‘Deposite your feelings..’
Affective music player concept for clubs. Distribute physiological data-sensing pols around the dancing area. By touching them, people give their body-input, which is assembled and affects the music being played. This enables interaction with the sounds, the space and possibly with other people as well .



- You can probably tell more form what a person listens, than how that person looks like..
We liked this idea very much. Duncan thought it would be a nice idea if you could listen into what the iPod next to yours, on the street or in the tube, is currently playing. Pretty much like the sharing option on iTunes, but you only listen to what the person next to you is listening at that moment. Is it sneaking into other people’s personal moment or is it actually sharing?
Next day, we found out that MIT Media Lab Europe has already realized this idea. It’s called TunA and information can be found here.. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61427,00.html