Blocks is an installation in which sculptural and music composition elements are manipulated and combined through the free creative play of participants.
Blocks is a collaborative object and sound sculpture in which participants play freely and creatively with sculptural and sonic materials in an environment which allows freedom to experiment, and a space to think and listen. In Blocks the visual and tactile dimensions of the sculpture are linked to the sonic dimension, such that structures invented by rearranging the sculptural elements - the blocks - cause corollary shaping of the sonic elements. The piece thus brings aural, tactile, and visual/spatial dimensions into intimate relationship through the manipulations of participants. The environment of Blocks is designed to encourage creative object play, as distinct from the reactive, time-dependent modes of play on which many video games are based. The piece can be installed in any interior space that is not excessively noisy, and can accommodate one to six participants at a time. The musical results can also be heard by people in the vicinity of the installation.
The impetus for Blocks arose from investigations into play and it's various modalities. It is common for video games to engage the player play modes that involve challenges of hand-eye coordination and reaction. Other online games emphasize dramatic play through the adoption of characters or avatars. Still others test and build problem-solving skills. There are relatively few computer-based or multimedia works that engage the participant in the kind of free object-play which is understood to exercise creativity and the comprehension of spatial and structural relationships. Blocks is intended to engage participants in just this kind of non-time-dependent, free creative mode of play.
An assortment of building blocks varying in size, shape, and material rest on a table approximately 3 feet square, which is surrounded by benches. The surface of the table is covered with felt. Small video cameras are situated around the table, and pressure sensors are placed underneath the table surface. The cameras sense the position of the blocks in the space immediately above the table, and the pressure sensors respond to the weight of the blocks at the given position on the tables' surface. The signals from these various sensors are digitized and used to control pitch, attack/decay envelopes, dynamics, and other parameters of music synthesizers by means of MIDI. The dimensions of a given block construction thus determines the resultant electronic music composition within the parameters determined by the MIDI instrument patches and the interface programs. The table is surrounded by four loudspeakers which broadcast the music in to the participants in surround-mix format. Additional speakers face outward toward other listener/observers in the space.
Participants are invited to sit at the table and play with the blocks, building, dismantling and rebuilding at will. As participants play, the pitches, rhythms, and timbres of the music shift and change in ways that are rich and complex. Though the general parameters can be learned by participants as they build, a sufficient degree of variation and complexity is built into the interface that the musical result is never exactly repeatable. The musical elements are composed such that they are attractive and interesting to participants and passers-by who might care to listen. The various musical elements relate to each other in potentially intricate ways with respect to melodic and harmonic content, consonance and dissonance, rhythmic relationships, and the blend of timbres. The sculptural elements of the physical table and blocks are equal in importance to the music elements. The blocks are made of various materials such as quality hardwood and metals, vary in shape size and weight, and offer the possibility of creating a variety of structures.
There are a few music synthesis projects that involve the manipulation of objects on a table surface. Reactable is an electronic music instrument with a Tangible User Interface (TUI) in the form of a translucent, backlit table surface which functions as the display, and blocks called "tangibles" which are used to operate a virtual modular synthesizer to create tones and effects. Reactable was developed by a team at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (
http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable). Other works developed along similar lines are Patten Studio's Audiopad, where the TUI is used to manipulate audio samples (http://www.pattenstudio.com), and the waveTable, also developed at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which lets the user manipulate and edit the waveforms of audio samples on a backlit tabletop diaplay (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1usJKU6KEi0).
The projects mentioned above are intended primarily as music instrument interfaces, and are somewhat limited with respect to the kinds of sounds they can produce. The intention behind Blocks is to strike a balance in which object play and sound manipulation are understood to be of equal importance to the overall effect of the piece. The semiosis of the work directly invokes the notion of children's object play in the form of construction with wooden blocks. The sound design will allow participants to alter musical elements which have to some extent been predetermined. They will not be synthesizing sounds "from scratch". The sound design will include melodic and harmonic elements as well as some sampled sounds and effects. The overall look, sound, and feel of the piece will be inviting, so as to encourage and reward sustained and repeated engagement.
kathleen's crit of proposal -pardon my putting this link here :) -k
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