The idea for this project came to me over the Summer, though the title I took inspiration from a talk that happened during the 2022 Umoja Conference that took place here a few months ago. My initial idea for the piece started out from the premise that the relationships we foster with other people have an effect on us and it is these people in our lives that help shape and add to who we become as we continue to grow and change. I was also inspired to compose a piece that was different from past Senior Composition Projects which have all been either orchestra or band works. These ideas helped me reach the conclusion that I wanted my piece to have some element of interactivity which led to me building the art sculpture/composition piece as it exists now.
Musical Notes: Considering my background and interest in electronic music alongside the initial seed of audience interaction with the piece, I decided to utilize an entirely synthesized sound palette. I created all of my musical ideas in Ableton before I exported them as audio samples to be played through Max/MSP. In total there are only five musical ideas which correspond with a color: Red & Blue — Melodic Phrase Orange & Indigo — Bassline Yellow & Violet — ‘D’ pedal point Green — Drums/Percussion White — Background Pad The red hue colors are all harsher sounds which are contrasted by the blue hue colors which share smoother and softer sounds while the white and green act as a bridge between the reds and blues. As far as the actual musical content of the piece is concerned, I had to figure out a way to create looping musical patterns that work together while also overlapping with each other in countless different ways since the piece will always be different since each musical idea will begin, change, and end at completely different points due to the unpredictable nature of audience interaction. I stay relatively diatonic, yet tonally ambiguous by having a Bb pentatonic melody, a bassline that shifts between C-m and Eb-Maj., and the D pedal point which acts as either the leading tone to Eb-Maj. or the second scale degree in C-m.
Technical Notes: I utilized Arduino IDE and Max/MSP as the central hub for my entire project. Max/MSP acts as the software MIDI device to activate the different sounds while the Arduino board is the physical connection between the touch sensors and Max/MSP. The Arduino is also extremely important for the LED lights to work in tandem with the sensors and sounds.
Presentation of installation to students of MSU Denver to interact with. Performance at the end of the video by the composer