Constellations

Star Map Examples

These star maps were generated while creating musical examples for this project

Visual Aesthetics

The name, sounds, and visuals of Constellations are all designed to inspire exploration and play. The star maps the user creates are there to support all of this. These constellations gives the user an immediate response to their actions. They are also a visual history of the current session as each one evolves as the user adapts the sequences. The abilty to change position and control the colour of the different layers also adds personalisation to that specific composition. All the visuals are there to create a sense of engagement and ownership with the user, encouraging them to work through their session to create a compelling composition.

At first glance the star maps created could mistakenly be seen as just a novel interface for the user. But they also have a dual purpose. The maps generated tell a story of the exploration undertaken by the user. It becomes a graphical score and, like any musical score, can be read to understand the music on a deeper level.

Influence

This work was heavily inspired by Norbert Herber's idea of "The Composition Instrument". In his article Herbert sets out his criteria for what a composition instrument is. He explains how this type of instrument should be a balance between composition and improvisation, strategy and chance. The instrument can also be played or performed and can be used in a multitude of situations. Exploration also seems to be a common theme in the examples Herbert presents. The systems all seem to encourage play and interaction through discovery. Because of this discovery and play became key parts in Constellations design ethos.

Another field of research that heavily inspired this piece was genetic algorithms, specifically their use in navigating parameter spaces on digital instruments. Matthew Yee-King's research on his EvoSynth, showed the potential of using genetic algorithms in to control synthesiser parameters. Work undertaken by Dahlstedt and Marcet and Pasquier also further reinforced the use of genetic algorithms to control synthesisers. A common idea across all of these projects was removing the stress that may come from controlling synths with a lot of parameters, while still creating complex timbres that require a vast amount of controls. This became a crucial component of Constellations. By removing individual control of each parameter the user is forced to use the presets and mutate them. This then allows them to focus on composing rather than worrying about the fine tuning each dial to get the correct timbre.

Operational Instructions

Constellations does not have a conventional UI. Please study the instructions to fully understand the potential of this instrument.

Previous Concepts

Before Constellations was realised this project began life as an experiment to explore sound in novel ways. The original concept used genetic algorithms to change the sound engine parameters. The user just had to select which sounds they liked and new, similar sounds would be created.

From a computational point of view, this was a very interesting way to navigate parameter spaces. Unfortunately it did not feel very responsive or engaging for the user. Non-specialists may also feel detached from the instrument as they are not aware of the underlying algorithms. For these reasons the earlier concepts were dropped.

Not everything was lost from the original concept as a number of ideas were bought over. The technique of using genetic sequences to generate audio parameters was a key concept that was implemented in the final version of Constellations. Also other design elements such as mutating and making it a sequencer were carried over. Despite Constellations looking very different from its ancestors, it needed that evolution to grow into what it is today.

Schematics