This week we want to focus on how we can control the circle with sound but still let the circle be affected by the sound, so it gets an expression by itself. Our first idea was to continue working with the mouse movement and make the mouse more or less responsive, but after some research, we realized that it is not okay to program something that takes over the control of the mouse. We therefore brainstormed and took a step back to see what indirect and direct sound input could do and how it could control our sketch.
We then had coaching with Roel and discussed our sketches so far and what we still felt that we didn’t have under control. He also thought we should move away from the mouse as input and work with more direct input.
This leads us to our final concept Living ball. We want the circle to have its own life, but still, you should have the possibility to affect and control it.
The surrounding sound affects how it moves (speed and direction) and how it looks (color, size). But you can control it by adding direct sound.
In this sketch, we have managed to get the expression we want, but we don’t have the control that we wish to have. The control over the speed feels nuanced, but we can’t control the color. It is too responsive, and there are too many color nuances. We hope we can get some more input on how we can work with nuanced control tomorrow when we have coaching with Clint.