Detour (LONG VERSION)
“Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.” Gottfried Leibniz
Peeling apart the layers between our sensorial experiences and our cognition.
Working with numbers I started being interested in the act of counting. It is one of the most basic forms of structure we take for granted. Did you know children have to learn to count in one to one correspondence? As if it isn’t obvious that counting is one to one.
1234 is an installation which asks people to count together. It is about deep listening.
So how does it work?
There are two groups: L and R, everybody is connected to the same sketch
The interface looks like this.
They can’t see each other’s screen. But they can hear each other. One ear Group A, the other ear Group B (optimised for maximum confusion).
Demo video (STEREO):
Last notes on fabrication (MAKE 8)
Milling to every bit of material I had on hand
Able to fit in threaded inserts with a little bit of super glue and sanding. I adjusted the holes to be closer to the middle, leaving more room for the edges.
Everything came together in the end!
I then assigned each participant a specific channel for the experience.
Delivered to people by foot (great break, great fun interacting with physical humans, even from a distance).
And the time is here!
8PM BEFORE PLAYING
(tease) 0:00 – 1:05 // (end) 2:10 – END
This is after 5 tries:
It is about the interaction, do you choose to lead? Follow? Create a unison? Counterpoint?
People usually stop when there is a distinct pattern of rhythm.
The response “Visceral, the stereo setup makes it very disorienting, you don’t know whose is whose, it’s restrained which amplifies the satisfaction when a pattern appears.”
8.45 PM AFTER PLAYING
Thank you Ada, Wenjing, Louise, Jake, Matt, Noah, Arnab
More on slides:
