Cybersonica

Chelle, Jamie and I went up to Cybersonica a couple of days ago. Due to other commitments we couldn’t go to the evening events or the stuff held over the weekend but the work we saw was still worth the train ticket. It was held in the basement of Phonica Records just behind Oxford Street and in the stairwell leading down was a piece called Untitled Sound Objects by Pe Lang and Zimoun which are loads of little “pistons” that start to work when someone enters the stairwell. We had more of a look on the way out and I tried to see what kicked it off but couldn’t work it out.

First up was Mind Your Head by Philip Marston. This was a low hanging fluorescent tube which you moved around whilst wearing a pair of headphones connected to an EMF pickup. As you moved around the light so the frequency of the sound in the headphones changed. Very spooky, I didn’t realise how much EMF came out of a flourescent tube.

Next was Looparena by Jens Wunderling. This consisted of objects on a touch screen which in turn were agents for 8 MIDI instruments. As you dragged the objects around the screen so the sounds changed. This was a really great piece to play about with although it took me a while to get the hang of it. And it was written in Processing – wonder if Jens will release the code. Following Looparena was Tape by Someth;ng. This was a big transparent plastic panel with a tape loop inside. You recorded a sound and then were able to distort the playback by using a couple of levers that allowed you to control the speed of the tape even to the point of doing some scratching. It’s been years since I’ve seen real tape so it was nice to have a bit of a play.

After Tape was Schizoporotica by Troika which out of everything was my favourite. This essentially was a black box which allowed you to pick some pre-recorded tunes like Van Halen’s Jump for example. You then ripped chunks out of a card and fed them into the box which “read” the tears and altered the music as it played. One of the guys there opened the back up to let us have a look inside and I would love to tell you what we saw but it’s a secret, I’m sure you understand. This took me back to punch cards (yes I am that old!) used to program old school computers and I could have quite happily played on it for the rest of the day.

Next up was iScratch by Shosei Oishi. This was an iPod that allowed you to scratch music being played using the thumbwheel. Unfortunately this had to be reset a couple of times whilst we were there but I think I still managed to get a feel for it.

Then it was EtchASound by Seulki Kang and Kenichi Okada. Inspired by the Etch-A-Sketch toy this consisted of 4 microphones and by using your voice, you drew 2-d shapes which after a while the computer then changed into 3-d. I liked this as well coz I had a Etch-A-Sketch when I was younger and I was probably just as bad at controlling it as I was the EtchASound.

Finally downstairs was Shadow Monsters by Philip Worthington which I think is fair to say was probably Jamie’s favourite. Using the idea of making animals with the shadows made by your hands, this then added hair and teeth and stuff to turn them into monsters. Very clever and I think my little girl would have loved to play with it.

Unfortunately the room next door was being used for a fashion show which meant we missed a couple of exhibits so it was back upstairs to look at Freq2 by squidsoup and Death Before Disko. Freq2 captures the outline of the persons body and uses that to playback sound. As it was in the window facing the street, everyone walking past were “captured” so it was difficult to have a play with it and the glare on the screen made taking photos a bit difficult but hopefully you’ll get the main idea.

So, after a pint of Pride and a burger, we made our way to the Science Museum to visit the 20 Years of Pixar exhibition. After paying student rates to get in we made our way upstairs. Got told that we weren’t allowed to take our bags in, take photos, shoot video and all mobiles had to be put on silent. Fortunately breathing was at our descretion. Down to the basement to check our bags into the cloakroom and then back up to the 1st floor and we were allowed in. The room is choc-a-block with sketches and storyboards and models showing the development of the characters – I didn’t realise that they made models of each of the characters to see how they would look in real space. This was all very impressive but 2 things made specifically for the exhibit blew me away. First was a modern-day Zoetrope. A Zoetrope is a drum with equi-distant slits cut into the sides. Inside the drum are drawings with each one being slightly different than the previous. As you spin the drum and look thru’ the slits the drawings become animated. The Pixar version was a large disc with various models of characters from Toy Story on it in slightly differing poses. The disc was then spun really fast, so fast in fact that the models became a blur. Then a strobe flashing at 18 times a second is turned on and hey-presto the characters became animated. I must have watched it 3 times from start to finish and I really wish I could have had some photos or a video to show you but it was just brilliant.

The other piece I really liked was a film called Artscape. This was an 11 minute cartoon but it was made up of 4 different films running on a different computer each, synched up and projected onto a screen. What this did was to give the impression of depth so you felt that you could just put you hand behind a rock or tree that was on the screen. On the way out you could have a quick peak at the equipment used which was some pretty powerful, high end bits of kit but I’m sure it ought to be possible to do something similar with a couple of laptops – I think I smell a project forming.

After that it was back to Oxford Circus for a Frapachino and a lemon and poppy seed muffin before hitting the Apple Shop to update our wishlists. it was surprisingly quiet for 5 o’clock but then again I guess it’s not exchange student season yet is it. We had a play on some Intel powered Macs, stared in awe at the 30″ monitors and then went upstairs to have a look around. There’s a small theatre up there where they give lectures on all things Mac. The one being given at the time we were there was how to use iTunes. Now I’m probably being a triffle bit hard here but if you need to sit thru an hour long lecture on how to use iTunes, can I suggest that you carefully pack your Mac back into its box and send it back coz you’re obviously too stupid to own a computer.

And with that we made our way back to Paddington to catch our trains home. Cybersonica is on until 26th May so there’s about a week left and it really is well worth the trip. Next year I’d like to try and visit it over the weekend to take in the conference as well. The Pixar exhibit is on until 10th June.

1st clip of Freq2
2nd clip of Freq2
Clip of Untitled Sound Objects
Link to my Flickr photos