Trippy solar LED wall in China

I've got a huge backlog of improvisations and outtakes from my band, BATTLEHOOCH. Here is a small dreamhop clip from the beginning of one of our practices.


GreenPix - Zero Energy Media Wall


I found this wild LED wall today while perusing the interweb that is completely powered by solar power. It is located at the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympics.



Polycrystalline photovoltaic cells are laminated in the glass wall curtain at various density throughout, allowing natural light into the interior.



The wall is made up of about 2,300 color (RGB) light emitting diodes to create a 24,000 sq. ft. screen for dynamic visual display. As far as I can tell, it will be projecting abstract art and atmospheric panoramas predominantly.
Involved parties: German manufacturers Schueco and SunWays; architect Simone Giostra; Urban design firm Arup.

Dynamic large-scale public art that utilizes renewable energy from the ambient environment. If China is going to continue on their headlong charge into industrial development, they'd be wise to follow this example toward innovation and clean, local energy production.

Fri, May 9, 2008  Permanent link

New Energy Technologies for Arcological Design

I am experimenting with hosting my music in the Space Collective community. Here is a track I made with Easton's old Casiotone 100 keyboard, a line 6 green pedal and a Kaoss Pad 3.

CHECK THIS ISHTAR OUT: Energy technologies that observe ecological principles.
Useful for the design of habitation in diverse environments.
There's potential energy all around us. Our challenge is to harness ambient energies and translate them to fit our useage.

http://www.peswiki.com/energy/New_Energy_Congress

HERE IS AN ONLINE LIST OF AWESOME ENERGY IDEAS:
"A New Energy Congress prioritized listing of the very best energy technologies according to ten criteria, including: renewable, environmentally safe, affordable, credible, reliable, developed, and safe (among others). The New Energy Congress is an association for the purpose of reviewing the most promising claims to up-and-coming clean, renewable, affordable, reliable energy technologies, in order to come up with a weighted list of recommendations of the best technologies."

Arcology
From Wikipedia:
"Arcology, from the words "ecology" and "architecture," is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures, called "arcologies," would contain a variety of residential and commercial facilities, minimize individual human environmental impact. They are often portrayed as self-contained or economically self-sufficient."


FOR EXAMPLE, HOW WOULD YOU POWER AN ANTARCTIC FORTRESS, SURROUNDED BY IRREGULAR ICE SHEETS?






















OR IN OUTER SPACE?

Mon, Apr 14, 2008  Permanent link

PROPOSAL FOR MULTIMEDIA PLAYGROUND

BACKGROUND:
The Philips Pavillion at the World Expo 1958 in Brussels featured a unique multimedia collaboration between three forward thinking artists. Edgar Varese composed a piece based on tape loops, Poeme Electronique, to be played back over 425 loudspeakers. At the same time a video by Le Corbusier was projected on the walls. Le Corbusier used abstract and symbolic images and sequences to illustrate his perspective on the progress of human evolution. It is an early hint at the now familiar arts of collage, remixing and multimedia display.


The building itself is quite remarkable.




Iannis Xenakis used hyperbolic parabola curves in its design as well as in an auditory contribution to the Poeme Electronique called Metastasis.




Xenakis is the man for pointing out the mathematical connections between various art forms. Interchangeability of information! I have also witnessed a similar connection between biology and composition. My college music professor David Cope introduced me to neural nets, Markov chains, recursive searches, and genetic algorithms, which are all artificial intelligence computer programming techniques that he employs to find patterns in classical music scores and to create new symphonies from those patterns. I later found out in my genetics classes that the same types of algorithms are used to find patterns in DNA sequences.






MY PROPOSAL:



I would like to see an update on the public display of music, art, technology and multimedia interactivity. My vision is to have a massive interactive playground in some inspiring public area. For example, Golden Gate park. This is to be a collective mindstorm on the nature of sound, light, space and subjective experience.



Here are some guidelines I've come up with, although I encourage additions, comments, critiques, the whole bit:

-Speakers shall be powered by energy produced locally at the source.
This project should herald the ending of the Oil Age and the birth of a new energy economy. Battery banks, photovoltaic panels, sterling engines powered by solar concentrator dishes, wind turbines, geothermal, cellulosic ethanol from local biomatter, etc.



I have included a basic design for a solar powered wagon that can deliver power on the go for moving displays:



-Different recordings will be played out of each speaker. They shall be collected from many producers from all over the city. Recordings may be looped or not, cover any portion of the auditory spectrum, may be produced from found sounds or synthesized sounds, may have any duration, volume or meter, may be rhythmic or not, may be tonal or atonal. Discretion is advised in the placement of different recordings (i.e. adjoining loops having meters that are an simple ratio of each other and closely related keys, having loops that reflect the area). Spacial placement will determine each visitor's unique experience.

-Interactivity and intelligence is built into the system. For example:
*A pressure-sensitive hopscotch game that produces sound based on how heavy the person is and how long they stay on each pad.


*A person-sized checkers board that lights up or plays notes when stepped on.
*A room that only plays recordings of people that have gone through that room recently (with added effects such as echo/delay, panning, distortion, filters, granular synthesis, chorus, pitch shift, etc.).
*Sound lasers that project sounds only in certain areas. Here is a military example used for inducing compliance:



The basic premise is two hypersonic sounds are projected simultaneously and the difference in frequencies (the beat frequency) falls in the audible range. The higher the frequency of a sound, the more directional it is.

*Interactive light walls where people can draw temporary designs.



*Intelligence algorithms that gauge how many people are present in a given area and plays back music at corresponding volumes or densities.







*Video games that actually control large scale light and sound actions in the environment.



-Sound garden: Speakers made of glass, large scale instruments that can be played by visitors (tuned metal bars, etc.).



*In San Francisco there is a 'wave organ' on the marina that was built from an old cemetery that makes haunting sounds when the tide is high.


*Here is a picture from an instillation by David Byrne of the Talking Heads. He rigged up a warehouse in Sweden to mechanically produce sound. The whole building is controlled by the organ in the middle of the room.



-Guest performances: A gamelan ensemble that has midi triggers under each note of their instruments to control a light array (this was actually done by another professor of mine, Peter Elsea).



*Experimental music groups. Here is a rehersal for Stockhausen's homage to the cosmos, Sternklang.



-Circuit bending should also be included. Manipulating the circuitry of childrens' toys so they make wacky noises.

Wed, Mar 28, 2007  Permanent link

an embassador for our planet

Fri, Mar 2, 2007  Permanent link