New Music

One of the aspects of fine arts that creative technologies offers to enrich is music. Creative technologies offer the opportunities to expand upon a person's musical skill by adding to a performance. Creative tech can be used through looping, distortion, or similar ways to use instrumental or vocal skills in new ways. In addition, engineers and artists have the ability to create new ways to express virtuosity, such as creating new musical interfaces or instruments.

Helen Pridmore is a vocalist that uses new methods and different technological innovations to enhance her voice and create new sounds, and also to enhance her personal performance. Trained in classical music, she now performs a lot of contemporary and avant-garde songs. She uses electronics, gadgets and software to explore what the sound of her voice can create. For example, using looping software or effects during live performance. Helen Pridmore has also participated in projects such as Andrea Molino's "there is no why here" performance. For this show, hundreds of individuals recorded themselves singing in a video and sent it in. The final performance consisted of live performers as well as projected faces of the participants in the project, who were not actually there, but whose faces and voices were still part of the final product. This is an example of creative technologies used in performance.

In this image, there are both live singers and recorded singers that combine to create a beautiful orchestral piece that would not be possible without audio and video recording technology.

David Gerhard is a computer science professor, and he uses creative tech with music quite differently.  While Helen Pridmore uses technology as recording or performance tool, Gerhard actually explores new interfaces and ways to create musical instruments.

In his Ted Talk (viewing it is advised-- Gerhard is a great lecturer!) he explores the idea of musical virtuosity and a possible "shortcut": an isomorphic keyboard, which his company built and dubbed the Rainboard. It can be seen in the video, but the Rainboard is so fantastic that it deserves its own spotlight.

Pridmore uses technology to add to her vocal performance. Gerhard creates technology that tweaks existing instruments and improves upon them. Interestingly, both lecturers used an example of creative technologies as shown by Stevie Wonder: the Talkbox.

Pridmore described the Talkbox in terms of performance. How it works is that the Talkbox connects to Stevie Wonder's keyboard, and sound travels up through the plastic tube in his mouth. The singer can change the shape of their mouth to form the lyrics, but the sound comes from the keyboard, not the vocal chords. Therefore, the singer can create a wide variety of sounds and at a much larger range. Gerhard talked more in depth about the engineering of the Talkbox, and showed a diagram explaining how the sound travels through the instrument and body. It was interesting to hear about the same technique from two different musical perspectives: art/performance vs. science/technology.

Creative use of technology has already made a huge impact on the music scene. There are many artists who depend on electronics for their sound. Artists like Skrillex and Daft Punk use a lot of creative tech in their music. (Check them out!). 

I think that this is another area, similar to video projection, that grew and continues to grow with new technology. People have been making music for hundreds of years. Today, there are a million different techniques and genres that allow musicians to form their own sound. And if none of those work for you, the art world dictates that you can create something new. 

Art and Social Media

Art has been part of culture for thousands of years: social media has a short history, but today, it arguably makes a bigger impact on people's day-to-day lives than art. By "social media" I'm talking Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms that allow people to update their statuses via text or photographs whenever the need arises. Smartphones allow social media users to exist in a state of suspended updates-- there is no turning on and off. People are always connected. What's interesting about social media is that it levelled the playing field for self-expression. Social media dictates that everyone can express themselves and upload their thoughts with very limited filters. The problem with that? It changes everything for artists. Art is about self expression as well, and if everyone can post their ideas online as they have them, there is more to compete with.

Ben Davis, associate editor of Artnet Magazine, uses semiotics to rationalize the overlapping circles of artists and social media users. He uses a semiotic square, which visually represents possible relationships within generated parameters.

As seen in this representation, Davis argues that there is a considerable difference between involving social media in art and using social media in art. "The utility of this operation is that it lets us see that the question of "art and social media" actually involves an opposition between two different fields, with different logics: a relatively exclusive, closed-in type of expression vs. a relatively open, relation-based mode of operation" (Artnet article).
For example, Mann Bartlett's performance at the PPOW Gallery. For 24 hours, Bartlett recited whatever people sent him over Twitter. This is an example of creating art with social media, because the social network was essential to this piece. However, Brian Piana's piece "Ellsworth Kelly Hacked My Twitter" used pre-existing Tweets as colour blocks against an abstract grid. The difference between the two pieces is that while Piana used Twitter in his piece, he did not use it in a live, social way. Bartlett used the immediacy of Twitter to generate his performance.

The artist Megan Smith demonstrated use of Twitter in her own art pieces. She created devices that streamed Tweets from the surrounding area. This is definitely an example of using social networks in artwork, similar to Bartlett's live performance. In this piece, Tweets are being scrolled through in real time, using Twitter to its full capacity. How is this art? By capturing the thoughts of people from a single physical area, rather than a group existing only online, it provides a cyberspace snapshot of the public's feelings and actions at a particular time.

In CTCH 110, we experienced using social media for purposes other than a person is supposed to do. How are you "supposed" to use Facebook or Twitter? Well, technically, it's to create your own personal profile and connect with other people. However, my group didn't do that. We created a web personality by making a Twitter account with one purpose in mind. It's called @Mediocre Haikus... Clearly, the goals here are for humour, not changing the world. Check it out here.

Operating a Twitter profile whose sole purpose is to publish mediocre haiku poetry sounds somewhat useless, and perhaps it is (but it is a low-pressure creative outlet). However, internet personalities are common and often powerful. In this case, it's an anonymous account that creates one thing. That generates the reputation. The tweets are humorous and satirical, which could attract followers who want to be entertained (which is the main purpose of social media). The real seduction in "Internet fame" is the power a person gains from their followers. Brief decades ago, this wasn't noteworthy. Now, there are people that make their living from the Internet. YouTubers such as Jenna Marbles or Mike Falzone literally get paid to make videos expressing their views and opinions.

Mike Falzone makes videos including witty commentary and tips on how to live your life. People take his advice very seriously, and why? Because he has millions of YouTube subscribers. Because his monetized YouTube videos supplement his income considerably. Because his fame (as a musician and comedian, as well) came from his Internet presence. 

In conclusion, I suppose I could summarize that to be fluent in social networking is to have power. Whether you use or involve social media in your art, or if you depend on your Internet presence, whether anonymous or literal, that is the way you are going to reach a lot of people. The problem is having the unique visions to make yourself stand out from the millions of opportunities for user-generated content on the Internet. 

Projection Mapping

In the world of creative technologies, the term "projector" doesn't particularly evoke any futuristic imagery: everyone has seen projectors. They exist in movie theatres, in classrooms, dance parties, etc. However, video mapping is an innovative use of video projection that has a myriad of possibilities. Instead of projecting a flat image on a wall, the projectors are set up at different angles to instead cover an entire wall, or building, or face. Video projection mapping synthesizes architecture, sculpture, film, music, dance and fashion in any combination to create a unique experience. 

For example, in the above image, underwater video is projected onto the walls to create a certain atmosphere. See how it covers the entire wall, top to bottom? It could be a discombobulating experience! This kind of video mapping is pretty basic, but it can be very effective.

This image displays video mapping onto buildings, which is more complicated than just a flat wall. The software has to map out the edges and shape of the building in order to project over it, making it look like this building is sagging. 

Some artists have taken video mapping to a larger scale. This location is the Carrieres des Lumieres (Quarry of Lights) in France, where a creative team has turned an abandoned quarry into a multi sensory show with projected images set to music. (Read a detailed post about this particular show here). 

The previous images are all examples of performative mapping: that is, the projected images are the entire show. But what happens when people perform WITH this technology?

I love this performance. To me, it not only expands the creativity of the dancers, choreographers, and video projectionists, but it also reanimates live performance. Let's be honest, in an era where the special effects in our movies we watch could make dinosaurs blow each other up in space, I think that live performance has dropped in popularity. (That wasn't a specific movie scene, but I'm sure it's possible to create with CGI). People's attention spans are wavering with every new generation, and the act of watching an artist perform live-- be it music, dance, or theatre-- should not be forgotten. Ever. That's why I love the marriage of humanity and technology, it opens up new possibilities. 

This video is so cool. It also requires the use of smart projectors, because once the face is mapped with tracking points and such, the camera also has to continuously read where they are moving to. The technology for this still a little slow-- note that the models kept their movements slow and deliberate, so that the camera could follow them. However, this "face hacking" is still incredibly fascinating to watch! It could be used in movies in the future... Perhaps instead of hours of makeup to transform their figures, all it takes is a few tracking points and a video projector. Personally, I thought that this use could be used in live theatre! That would be another example of adding an exciting flair to live performance. 

So, video projection mapping is a multi-faceted technology that has uses in all kinds of entertainment. Whether it's being used for atmospheric walls at a dance party, to change the face of a building, or to change the face of a human being, this technology is already being used in a variety of ways. What could you make with video mapping technology?