Brief Overview/ Design Motivation
Druidic Rituals is a multi-user fantasy installation modelled on a modern-day mythical or religious ceremonial experience. The idea behind the project was to create an ambient environment that encouraged user activity and place them in a setting not normally encountered in society to enforce a purposefully detached and immersive experience.
The installation consisted of three separate pillars, on top of each was contained a glass bowl half-filled with water. The pillars were arranged in a triangular pattern with three loudspeakers opposite each one. The idea was to get users to trace patterns in the water with their fingers, or wave their hands above the waters’ surface in order to take part in the “ritual”. Drone/noise based audio loops were then generated according to the motion above/in the bowls, and subsequently played in the surrounding loudspeakers.
The setup of the installation allowed for a tiered approach to interactivity between the users – if one person was taking part, they would hear the noise specific to their pillar all around them. But if two or three people were taking part, a layered wall of noise would surround the area.
Technical Method
The core of the installation was a PC laptop, running a program created by myself in Max/MSP/Jitter 5.0. Three USB cameras were contained inside the pillars (made of PVC tubing) and were connected to the laptop, as well as a Digidesign 002 rack mount unit (via FireWire). Three active loudspeakers were connected to the 002 rack’s audio outputs.
The Max/MSP/Jitter program was designed to detect hand movement, using the cv.hit.HSflow object, and use it to trigger a pre-recorded drone/noise loop. I created these loops in Reason/Pro Tools using a combination of digital samples and my own analogue recordings of guitar feedback and effects. The XY pixel displacement measured by the optical flow tracking method was also programmed to control the overdrive~ object level and pitch of the loops respectively.
Influential Works
The project was influenced by ambient works from Brian Eno (Music for Airports, Discreet Music, and Ambient 2 with Harold Budd), Peter Wright (At Last a New Dawn) and William Basinski (Disintegration Loops series).
More noise-based drone works also contributed major influence to the final aesthetic and atmosphere of the installation, such as works by bands like Sunn O))) (Black One, White One/Two, Altar), Earth (The Bees Made Honey in the Lions Skull, Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars, Hibernaculum), Growing (Colour Wheel), Magic Lantern (At The Mountains of Madness) and Sonic Youth.
User Experience/Useability Issues
The user experience was loosely documented by me through monitoring and surveying of the users and analysis of comments/criticism received verbally through conversation.
The main concern that arose after this documentation was the issue of indecisiveness and confusion as to what the user is actually supposed to do. I noticed a few people looking at the glass bowls, not knowing whether to touch the water, or wait and see what happens if they do nothing. It was only after I sidled over and encouraged them to dip their hands in the water that they comprehended what was meant to happen. I think this is quite an obvious useability issue which could have been solved with some simple instructions – although I feel this would have taken away from the surreal and detached atmosphere I was trying to create.
Apart from this issue, most users seemed to enjoy creating music using a different and tactile method, and were quite intrigued as to the different sounds created by each pillar, moving from one to another as they viewed the exhibition. I also feel that the simplicity of the design encouraged it to be used by anyone with a childish desire to get their hands wet – and considering the weather at the time, this ended up being most people!
Thanks to Sam & Kirsty for their help in realising my project idea and helping to execute it in the exact way that I had envisioned it.
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