Enhancement of an interactive touch sensitive table by acoustic tracking. By hooking up four piezo microphones located on each corner of the table, I was able to estimate the origin of taps on the table’s surface by analyzing the phase delays of acoustic signals. A training set allowed me to also classify the sound signals into three different categories: soft, medium and hard taps. This enabled the interactive table to work as a realtime drum machine during performance, thus taps at different locations of the table’s surface triggered individual digital sounds.
The work contributed to the international art project »Amazonas –Music Theatre in Three Parts.« premiered in May 2010 at the Munich Biennale and was developed at the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics.
The loss of the Amazonian rain forest likewise implies for numerous animal and plant species, the loss of their habitat and for Brazil’s indigenous people, the loss of their home. The Yanomami, one of the largest indigenous groups in South America, with a population of 33,000, live in the region along the border of Brazil and Venezuela. In collaboration with the Yanomami, European and Brazilian media artists, composers, sociologists, and anthropologists have been developing the concept for »Amazonas –Music theatre in three parts« since 2006. The multimedia music theatre project, a co-production by the Goethe-Institute, Munich Biennale, ZKM Karlsruhe, SESC São Paulo, Hutukara Associação Yanomami, and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos included current scientific knowledge and Indian cosmology and spirituality as equal partners.
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