Audio Entity (2019)

Sound installation.

Hooking up a LEAP Motion controller to Pure Data is a lot of fun, yet it also seems to provide Pure Data an own will. This project is a take on that. I decided to assign "it" with its own behavioural traits and quirks, as a living sonic entity of sorts. The result is a humming, grumbling, shrieking, purring ‘audio animal’ that moves around the room. Its behaviour comes to the surface when you interact with it, or better: pet it. You can move your hand palms in the LEAP’s field of view to explore what palm positions and gestures affect its ‘being’, and in what way. Stroke, pinch, tick, and mould it to shape and influence its auditory form and movement, and seemingly: its mood.

You can play around with it and let it become as distorted or calm as you like, but be warned: some gestures will result in it doing its own thing, such as uncontrollably running around the room. Leave it untouched for a while, and it is ready to be petted again. Much like a stubborn kitten (too bad these patches aren’t created in Purr Data instead).

Software: Pure Data (v. 0.49.0), Pd Leapmotion 0.1 mac folder with external pd patches, by Chikashi Miyama

Hardware: LEAP Motion controller, MOTU audio interface (set up for 4 channel output),

4 speakers (spatial set up: square), MacBook Pro macOS Mojave (v. 10.14)

Demo video of Audio Entity (2019). Installation originally designed for a spatial 4-channel speaker set up.

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