My Birdcam!

 

Final Project

The final project is available here: Audizer

Final Modifications

I ended up implementing a few design changes as a result of the feedback. The first major change is the ability for the user to change the voice of the treble or bass notes on the fly. Because voices are a little tricky to program in Flash, only three different voices are available, but I think it add some interaction people were asking for.

I contemplated taking out the technical information about the notes being played and how the image was analyzed that displays on the inside image screen. I decided to leave the information, but move the interactive portion to the right side, and the purely informational pieces on the left. I think this brings more balance to the overall look of the project.

I also include an artist statement now with an explanation of the project, which the testers asked for. The artist statement is rather long so I chose to put it on a splash page before you actually launch the piece. This mirrors the style of other pieces I’ve done. In the artist statement I also take the time to talk about using the project and hopefully that will clarify things for some of the users.

Final Thoughts

I think the project turned out well. I'm proud of it. I do notice the online version, because it's processing so much information, tends to hang up at certain points on my computer. This does not happen when the project is opened locally. In an installation type setting, the project should run smoothly.

The final project is available at Audizer

Prototype / Testing

Here is the report I turned in.

I summed up my results as follows:

Overall, I think the testing went well. I got some good feedback concerning the usability of my application. I have mixed feelings about what and how much of the feedback to implement. Audizer is meant to be a little bit abstract and mostly an art piece - less about the human-computer interaction side in a traditional sense, and more about creating a generative art piece. The human-computer interaction, I feel, is more about image selection and the actual creation of the image itself, rather than the user's ability to manipulate the sound data further after Audizer does it's thing. So what I gleaned most from the testing was that I needed to explain the project better.

The results are based on this survey.

If you fill out the survey you should be able to see the full results.

The project must be hosted online to function properly - the current link is:

http://deptof.com/scad/705/audizer/audizer4.html

Sketches

As I wrote on the board, the color data in the sketch is real color data extracted from the mona lisa. Part of my "sketching" this week was experimenting on the computer. As such, not all of that is reflected in the pdf. Some of it is available here - open the html files by clicking on them.

Sketches


Also, here's the pdf version.

Proposal - Audizer

Audizer was born from a conversation during this class concerning what various works of art would sound like if they were converted to song form. I'll use Adobe Flash to create a program, with interactive dynamics, that will convert the pixels of a scanned work of art into a music or audio representation. Audizer will use various measurements in the conversion like the repetition of color, percentages of color, color averages, and color differences.

Design Statement

Audizer will be a digital interactive exploration of a work of art in audio form. For instance, converting the Mona Lisa into a song. Audizer is meant to be viewed as an installation piece, but for this class will be viewed in website form.

Audience and Context

The audience of Audizer is really anyone. Ideally the person viewing the work would have some previous knowledge of the works featured. Adults 20+ with some college education would be the most likely viewers, but others should be able to enjoy or appreciate the work.

Motivation

My personal motivation in creating the piece is the same curiosity my classmates showed when the question originally came up (I wonder what this piece of artwork would sound like?). I really enjoy programming in Flash and pushing the generative qualities of the technology. So that's the carrot - curiosity and a passion for programming in Flash.

Here's a link to the pdf version of this proposal.