SOUND COMPOSITION

For the sound composition, we used the chopped sample from Magnetic-ILLIT as the main reference. Inspired by the arpeggio in its intro, we chopped off different parts of this sample to create a new composition with original rhythms. The music first starts by reverbed the piano sound, using TidalCycle functions like jux rev and off, and slowly builds up by adding elements like drums and hi-hats. The main melody is composed of different ‘beep’ sounds that were sliced from different parts of the arpeggio sample, thereby creating more glitchy aesthetics. We mostly focused on creating a combination of sounds that go well together by carefully curating different samples and trying different techniques to handle the long sample.

VISUALS COMPOSITION

For the visuals, we first started with an image, as we did for our first group project. We then worked on adding different effects that transformed our piece from a red building to a variety of different shapes and effects.

We ran into some struggles with the image loading, and thanks to Professor, we got this code, that helps load the image on the screen:

image = document.createElement('img')
image.crossOrigin = "anonymous"
image.src = "https://blog.livecoding.nyuadim.com/wp-content/uploads/photo-1711873317754-11f6de89f7ae-scaled.jpg"
loaded = () => {
   s0.init({ src: image })
   src(s0).out()
   console.log("Image loaded");
}
if (image.complete) {
   loaded()
} else {
   image.addEventListener('load', loaded)
}

Don’t forget to let flock load before running anything! >> You can check from the browser console.

We started by using .modulatePixelate(osc(10), 200).saturate(0)

Where the modulatePixelate showed interesting effects and the saturate(0) removes the colors which we reintroduce later with Colorama by choosing our colors and gradients that are different from the ones in the image. We also use mult and blend to add styles remove parts of the screen and change the effect, repeat for our main audio interaction between other effects.

We’ve played with gradually reducing the numbers in the pixelate function to simplify our visuals. Our plan is to incorporate it as the final function, making it easier for the next group to take over from us.

WORK DIVISION

The work was divided by nature into audio and visuals, when we first met, with Fatema and Marta working with visuals and Jeongin working with audio, we found that that’s where our interests lay and how it worked best for our group. Marta and I worked on different visuals and met to try various effects and see different possibilities for how we could develop different styles. Then we worked with Jeongin to align our effects, adding different interactions, and ccv audio effects to align the visuals with the audio and form a set style for our live-coding piece.