REACTIVE GRAPHICS

JITTER

Today we had a lecture on Jitter, the visual side to Max/MSP. It was the first time I'd seen it in action and got very excited at the possibilities of using it in our project! There are several different ways we could use it...

We could have pre-made video affected in real time by Jitter who's parameters are being controlled either by us, or, more interestingly, by modified instruments/toys via an arduino.
The parameters could be adjusted by audio input - so the music we are playing will affect the visuals. We could make certain things happen when the volume is high or low, or when frequencies change. Loads of options!
We could take live footage of the audience/surroundings and have this affected in real time, again with the parameters controlled by us, or by hacked toys.

There are many more possibilities, these are just a few ideas. I'll try get a demo of some basic jitter skills posted in the next week as i learn how to use it.

NINTENDO!!

My cousin dug out his old nintendo (nes) which I believe is very hackable. I will be able to get it from him in a week or so and get mucking around with it. This could provide a great source for visuals while we are playing. I love the idea of combining this with Jitter somehow... so Jitter is effecting the live feed from the NES. Again, it would be great to have to parameters controlled by something else which is going on i.e. REACTIVELY.

This may be an interesting section to use with the arduino... so we could have a program written on Max which is controlling the 'hacks' on the NES, that way we don't have to be constantly turning knobs and flicking switches. ALSO we could have hacked toys whose output can adjust parameters on Jitter which is effecting the live feed from the NES. Sorry if that sounds complicated... I'll find a better way to explain it. Hope this isn't being over-ambitious; I really want some stunning visuals which are REACTING to the performance!

MORE PICS + VIDS

For the final submission in April I think it would be really good to have a structured documentary taking us through the project from humble beginnings to (hopefully) an electrifying end! It would be good to make this as professional as possible, with a detailed narrative and fluent progression... as opposed to a collection of little videos we've made over the course of the project. Of course we can still include these little videos (of which im sure there'll be many) but we could have a voice narrating over the top / on-screen text to help explain what's going on. This would be a really good way to present our progression, and the documentary to climax with a high-quality video of our final performance. As Eleni suggested, putting this on a DVD with a menu would make it even better.

So, with this in mind, let's make any videos we do from now on as informative and semi-professional as possible. Also, we should look into sourcing a good camera (or cameras) for the final performance.

Thought i'd throw in a picture of a toy I opened up, and also 2 videos Clive and I made. I've found that this blog won't ever finish uploading a video from my machine, so I'm having to upload them to YouTube, which takes forever. Plus it adds massive black bars down each side. I'll have to start compressing the files... more stuff to research!