Sun Boxes, by Craig Colorusso, are an environment to enter and exit at will. It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently, each powered by the sun via solar panels. There is a different loop set to play a guitar note in each box continuously. These guitar notes collectively make a Bb chord. Because the loops are different in length, once the piece begins they continually overlap and the piece slowly evolves over time. The sounds of Sun Boxes have been described as both soothing and energizing. A unique combination of adjectives often used to describe yoga, or meditation. When experiencing the piece, Sun Boxes allows the participant to slow down, and notice the subtleties of the composition unfold. With the abundance of technology and hustle of this culture it is a much needed concept to not only be allowed, but also encouraged to slow down.

http://www.sun-boxes.com
http://muudmusic.blogspot.com

The MIDI Opera by Manuel Bürger is an homage to the MIDI file format:

“Due to its limitation composing songs with the MIDI synthesizer of my laptop was always an attraction to me. The sequencer software is simple, and cheesy melodies are clicked within a second. After clicking this link you’ll find a compilation of songs squeezed into a little story about Gérald Midi, a hard working businessman, who is caught in his dreams of a colorful, exciting life. Maybe similar dreams are shared by MIDI files themselves as well.”

http://www.manuelbuerger.com/2010/themidiopera.php

[via ilikethisart]

Sala de Máquinas (Engine Room) is an audiovisual interactive installation, which intends to reflect on the idea of the reutilization of what we have acknowledged as obsolete…in this case old modified TVs that react to sound. An electronic oscillator is connected to an open circuit, in a way that when the user touches 2 metal bars he/she himself/herself becomes the electrical resistance therefore being able to vary the frequency of sound. The old modified TVs react to this sound as an oscilloscope having all kinds of different patterns and reactions.
Authors: Daphne Polyzos, Jordi Planas, Miguel Neto, Rodrigo Carvalho.

http://www.visiophone-lab.com

[via triangulationblog]

The piece (by Daniel Franke & Christopher Warnow) is inspired by VR-sculptures, though technically and conceptionally transcending the helmet-like “90ies data-glasses”. The basic thought is to re-organise the relationship between “the viewer and the viewed” whose traditional functions are expanded technologically; the starting point however remains set in “real space”.
A portable screen is used to visualise the soundsculpture; a camera attached to the screen collects information of the space surrounding it from markers distributed on adjacent surfaces.
The screen becomes a transmitter superimposing a digital layer -the sculpture onto “real space” (the unmanipulated space that greets the naked eye). The process allows the viewer to abandon the passive position of the “merely on-looking” consumer; he is enabled to visually and acoustically intervene with the sculpture, to model and module it. His changing positions and movements affect the visualisations on the screen, rendering an “extended reality” accessible. The sculpture generated is individually linked to each observer and thus singular.

http://vimeo.com/7893992
http://www.daniel-franke.com
http://www.brian-steen.com/blog/

“Skinput is a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as a finger input surface. In particular, we resolve the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body. We collect these signals using a novel array of sensors worn as an armband. This approach provides an always-available, naturally-portable, and on-body interactive surface. To illustrate the potential of our approach, we developed several proof-of-concept applications on top of our sensing and classification system.”

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/skinput/

The CodeOrgan analyses the “body” content of any web page and translates that content into music. The CodeOrgan uses a complex algorithm to define the key, synth style and drum pattern most appropriate to the page content.
Firstly, the CodeOrgan scans the page content and removes all characters not found in the musical scale (A to G), and then analyses the remaining characters to find the most commonly used “note”. If this is an even number the page is translated into the major pentatonic scale of that particular note, it becomes minor if there is an uneven number.
Secondly, the CodeOrgan defines which synthesizer to use. This is based upon the total number characters used on the webpage – there are currently 10 synthesizer effects and the one chosen is picked based upon the percentage of content.
Lastly, the CodeOrgan selects a drum loop based upon the ratio of characters on the page versus the number of characters that are actually musical notes – there are currently 10 different drum loops to pick from.

http://www.codeorgan.com

Zimoun focuses on creating installations and sound sculptures, usually in connection with mechanical features, movement and physically generated sounds. His creations are graceful, mechanically harmonized works of poetic playfulness – simple yet complex, the result of repetitions with slight irregularities caused by routine and coincidence.
Zimoun uses simple components. Through mutual interference and interaction these generate complex sound structures and movements. He often works with a great number of identical mechanical industrial elements, which he then manipulates and prepares for his creations. His interest lies in the artistic research of resonance, space, movement, simplicity, materials and generative systems. The result is an artificially generated yet seemingly organic behaviour of these installations and sound sculptures.

http://www.zimoun.ch

Bicycle Built For 2,000 is comprised of 2,088 voice recordings collected via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk web service. Workers were prompted to listen to a short sound clip, then record themselves imitating what they heard. All the voices are assemble to sing “Daisy Bell” (the song that HAL is singing at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey).

http://www.bicyclebuiltfortwothousand.com

I Got Your Internet Explorer Right Here is a net art project by BJ Warshaw. “An immersive, randomly generated, psychedelic animation backed by a collage of audio loops designed to lovingly fry your eyes and ears.” (Firefox reccomended!)

EarthStar, by David Hines e Joyce Hinterding, examines the elementary, mystical qualities of the sun. Installation visitors are treated to an up-close-and-personal encounter—seeing, hearing and smelling the heavenly body that dominates our solar system. A hydrogen-alpha telescope captures fantastic images of the sun’s chromosphere; VLF antennas pick up the star’s radiation, which is converted by an amplifier into a soundtrack. And while all that’s going on, the installation space is being suffused with synthetic aromas meant to suggest ozone.

EarthStar received an Award of Distinction from Prix Ars Electronica 2009, in the Hybrid Art category and it’s currently installed in Linz (Cyberarts exhibition, OK Centrum. 3-09-09 / 4-10-09).

http://www.sunvalleyresearch.net
http://www.breenspace.com

Decryptopattern is a collaboration work of artists Daisuke Ishida and Noriko Yamaguchi. The idea is to be able to grasp the truth behind the vast vortical information around us, through a graphical representation. Receiving news is part of our daily life. We can obtain updates even second by second through radio, TV, newspapers or news portal sites on the internet to know what is happening in the world. However this information is offered to us in one or more languages over text, audio, video, image and other media filtered by somebody.
Daisuke Ishida believes that the facts about world incidents are not possible to be received without some form of filtering through newstellers, their thoughts, their experiences, their constraints and the incidents contexts. Therefore the duo presents us a possibility to understand media and to discover the abstract raw truth through aggregate information, Chladni patterns and Noriko Yamaguchi’s twisting papers as a direct physical phenomena.

http://decryptopattern.com/

ATOM is a performance for a matrix of 64 gas balloons, lights, and sound. A room is filled with deep, evolving noises from a four-channel sound system. An eight-by-eight array of white, self-illuminated spheres floats in space like the atoms of a complex molecule. Through variable positioning and illumination of each atom, a dynamic display sculpture comes into being, composed of physical objects, patterns of light, and synchronous rhythmic and textural sonic events. Change, sound, and movement converge into a larger form.
The height of the helium balloons is adjusted with a computer-controlled cable, whilst the internal illumination is accomplished using dimmable super-bright LEDs, creating a pixel in a warped 8×8 spatial matrix.
The sonic events, the patterns of light, and the movement of the balloons are manipulated in real time as a 45-60 minute-long performance.
ATOM is a performance by Monolake and Christopher Bauder

http://www.electricmoons.com/indexAtom.htm

[ITALIAN BELOW]

Tool for armchair activists è il nuovo progetto firmato Troika, già autore di Sms Guerrilla Projector. Si tratta di una macchina per protestare “da remoto”. Composta da un dispositivo mobile per la ricezione dei messaggi e da un grande megafono, può essere installata di fronte ai palazzi del potere, magari su un lampione. Per manifestare comodamente, anche dalla poltrona di casa. Basta mandare un sms…

http://www.troika.uk.com/armchair_activists.htm

www.02l.net

http://moebio.com/santiago/sonidoyenergia

http://www.soundtoys.net