Workshop Statement
Interactive – Networked – Human Computer Interaction
Symbiotic Individuations
Description: Participants will learn how to create and improvise with spatialized sound on multiple speakers using the open source tool Live 4 Life, which the author has been developing in SuperCollider since 2011. After a short introduction to the tool on its goals and possibilities, you will learn 1. how to install and configure the tool, 2. how to interact with the GUI and controllers, 3. how to define your own personal spatial configuration, 4. the code structure in detail, and finally 5. how to send the generated pattern data to another program like Processing via OSC to generate visuals. This workshop is very hands-on. After the presentation of each section of the tool, participants will have some time to manipulate the tool on their own computer. At the end of the workshop, a workshop survey with questions about spatial preferences can be completed on a voluntary basis. The survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete, if you wish to answer all the questions.
Prerequisites: An interest in spatialization and a basic knowledge of SuperCollider are recommended, but not required, to modify the source code of the tool. All code is available on Github, including the installation and configuration process. Before registering for this workshop, please carefully read the sections on usage, supported platforms, and licensing to see if you will be able to use this tool on your computer.
The paper (see https://www.isea-archives.org/isea2023_presentation_lengele_gauthier) presents the motivations, evolution, and directions behind the spatial sound performance tool named Live 4 Life. It aims to simplify the creation and control in real time of masses of spatialised sound objects on various kinds of loudspeaker configurations (stereo and particularly quadriphonic or octophonic setups, as well as domes of 16, 24 or 32 loudspeakers). This spatial research, which questions ways of associating rhythmic and spatial parameters, is based on the concept of free and open works, both from the point of view of form (improvisation) and in the diffusion of the code. The tool, which was initiated in 2011 and distributed in open source in 2022, has been conceived as a long-term dream against capitalism and loneliness. Several scenarios between (technical, social) death or symbiosis of this tool (with other programs, works and the visual representation field) are presented.
During the workshop, the participants will learn how to create and improvise with spatial sound thanks to the open source tool Live 4 Life, that the author has been developing in SuperCollider since 2011 (https://github.com/ Xon77/Live4Life).
The tool Live 4 Life, mixing rhythm and space, offers a spatialisation control structure, including a library of pre-defined spatial trajectories and rendering algorithms, mixing both channel- and object-based paradigms and abstract and concrete spatial techniques.
After a small presentation of the tool about its purposes and possibilities, you will learn 1. how to install and setup the tool, 2. how to interact with the GUI and controllers, 3. how to define your own personal spatial configuration 4. the structure of the code in details, and eventually 5. how to send the basic data from patterns to another programme like Processing via OSC to generate visuals.
f you have any questions about the workshop or the installation of the tool, you can send an email directly to: lengele.christophe[at]courrier.uqam.ca
- Christophe Lengelé (CA) is a spatial sound designer and performer for electronic and experimental music. He particularly focusses on the development of live experimental audio tools and interfaces built from open source softwares like SuperCollider. After studying law and economics and working as a marketing and market analyst in international companies for a few years, he decided to quit the business field in 2006 to study electroacoustic composition. He trained and worked from 2008 to 2012 at the Municipal Conservatory Georges Bizet of the 20th district of Paris and obtained a Master of Arts in computer music at Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée in 2014 and a Doctorate in music (composition and sound design) at Université de Montréal in 2022. He is currently doing a postdoctoral research/creation in spatial improvisation at Université du Québec À Montréal. He seeks to bring together the spheres of composition and improvisation and focus on performing variable spatio-temporal pieces with a global custom live tool. He has been regularly developing this tool since 2011, in order to “play the place and the music at the same time”. His spatial research, which questions ways of associating rhythmic and spatial parameters, is based on the concept of free and open works, both from the point of view of form and in the diffusion of open source code. His works have been presented and performed internationally, particularly at the International Computer Music Conference (2018 and 2021), during the Journées d’Informatique Musicale in France (2017 and 2019), as well as at Akousma Festival 2021 (Montréal, Canada) and more recently at Cube Fest 2022 (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA). He is the recipient of several research-creation grants.