A/V Systems

stringTheory from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

stringTheory is an experimental program I made that is not as much data vis as it is abstract data. Using the concept of String Theory (theoretical physics) to visualize my email, the program first shows everyone that has sent me email in the last year as particles within a group of atoms. Each node when rolled over shows the numer of emails this address has sent me as well as playing a tone based on this number. After clicking one of these nodes, that person’s messages are abstracted further as particles (protons & neutrons maybe? that doesn’t quite work yet but its loosely based…) which contain particles of the subject of the email. Rolling over one of the messages displays the message’s subject and plays a tone for each letter, with the timing based on the overall length of the subject and the tone of each letter based on both the message length and a value I’m giving to each letter.

The project uses PHP to collect my email to a MySQL database, then openFrameworks is used to grab a php file which generates XML from the database. This XML data is then used to drive the visuals.

The audio is generated by pushing OSC commands from openFrameworks to SuperCollider. The tones are somewhat harmonious but I’m just getting started with SuperCollider and I’d love to see what I can do with this data once I get a better understanding of the full power of super collider.

Overall I can already think of a lot more interesting things I could do with this but I’m super happy with the results so far….

Here are a couple mini projects/experiments with openFrameworks I’ve been working on recently. I think I’m finally starting to grasp the whole code driven audio thing, although its still a bit fuzzy to me as far as music theory and making things that sound really good. I think these could definitely be either revisited or expanded upon in the future (hint: final project?)

Circular Type Audio Experiment from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Vibrating Shapes Creating Audio from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Drop Sequencer v1.0 from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here are two simple and one more advanced sound visualizers I made using openFrameworks and the FFT and Aubio C++ libraries. Really getting into this stuff now that i’m getting my head around it a little more, wish I could put more time into it but it tough. Hopefully make something really cool soon now that I’m understanding it.

Audio Driven Animation from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Square animation using openFrameworks and Aubio from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Aubio/FFT Audio Visualizer from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

I’ve been really bad with documenting the stuff I’ve done wtih openFrameworks this semester (mostly due to time constraints), but I recently caught up with it all and I have a couple videos of stuff I’ve done this semester.

Enjoy!

Granular Synthesis Animation from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

FFT Audio Visualizer from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

FFT Volume Blowing Daisies from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Blowing Discs using FFT from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here is the first assignment for A/V Systems. We were given 9 images and had to create sounds that would lend themselves to an image. I chose to use garage band since I have very little experience (practically none) with music or sound, and I actually found it kinda fun and easy to use. Started off pretty simple but got a little complex with a few tracks. Definitely enjoyed it.

Sound w/ Images from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Awesome video we are watching for A/V Systems…really crazy professor dude who explains things super clear. Check it out if you’re interested, but its sorta long (like hour and a half)