Experimental Work for sensor32.com

......violin machine, fascinating in both his sonic and technical revelation (Dagens Nyheter 2019).

Performing Sensor32 at Cafebar Mona Munich, DE with Karina Erhard "Roboterjazz" March 25, 2023

Sensor 32 Entry video for the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition 2023 (reached finalist state for now). KlickEntryVideo. Live Video stream.

Sensor 32 Live experimental Stream (dark) from Ircam Forum at NYU 2022 at Garage Brooklyn

Same Soundtrack, however the picture data from the stream transformed to robot-style creature conducting..

FAQ Sensor 32

Presentation More Parameters for Your Music in Realtime, held a MOXSonic 2023

Experimental Work for sensor32.com

This application uses the entire data space of the independent sensor outputs. If you recognize gestures instead, you reduce the amount of information to symbols, an information loss. For me, this represents a limitation of the expression possibilities.

Shots from development of 32 sensor array for performance at Ircam Forum NYU Oct 2022

Hi Res Pressefoto Sensorarray

The new sensor array allows the control of numerous parameters simultaneously in real time (polyphonic). This seems to me essential for improvisation. Hands or legs and the upper body can be used. IR distance sensors based on the triangulation principle generate analogue voltages that are transmitted to MIDI continuous controllers. The array features 32 up to 48 controllers. Most of them feed algorithms. For the player's orientation, LED bars with 10 to 20 display levels are placed close to the sensor.
In the first phase, resynthesis from NI Reaktor was used for the sonification.

The mechanical construction in the manner of a construction kit allows the arrangement of the sensor boards in the 3 dimentional space to be adapted.
Potential: besides composition algorithms, or DY-ing, automata (I built some), spatial effects, light and video synthesizers could also be controlled. So we are looking at a kind of half-a-conductor (with the hardware made of semiconductors). Gesture recognition or AI are not planned, I prefer direct cause and effect access. I want to learn myself. Of course, a lot of configuration work has to be done for each composition. And rehearsal effort on the part of the performer.

I do not start from the paradigm of universal gestures. Rather, the playing (ad hoc composing) of a complex instrument is imitated: operating an organ with hands and feet produces gestures as a side effect, but they always depend on the purpose of the sound production and the construction of the console. In this respect, a traditional approach that relates to highly developed performance technique. The benefit of my system is that it makes numerous parameters simultaneously available to computer algorithms of all kinds. Gestures also arise, of course, which is composed visualisation of sound.

(Program Notes for Ircam Forum at NYU 2022)

FAQ Sensor32

Q: Is the Sensor32 array a Theremin?

A: No, not.....In this demo video my intention was to show smooth fading without sound (avoid those misunderstandings like Theremin.....) In this video "noTheremin" Sensor32 is used exclusively to conduct 12 indvidual light bulbs, each flashing in different speed (rhythm).

Q: In Facebook the DJane from Estonia asks: can it be a light show?

A:Answer yes, as soon as there is sound to it (which is technically ready)

Q: How does it compare to a theremin?

A: It is polyphonic, can control any parameter in multimedia and sound synthesis. The resolution may be weaker but at the same time may be easier to play.....depends on the control software. If you insist in the term Theremin: sensor32 represents 16 Theremins ;-)

Q: To Roger Nov2, 2022, Facebook. He proposed a link to a performance on a historic Thermin

A: My comments in Facebook, (to Roger Nov2, 2022)

Dear Roger, thank you for your interest in sensor32. Your example film shows the virtuoso use of a real Theremin. One hears a unanimously artfully ornamented melody (single voice, two parameters: pitch and volume). I don't start from the Theremin. But if you really want to compare it, it would be 16 theremins (however not RF waves contolled but infrared distance). With some training, you should be able to play in two voices, the volumes with your lower legs. Even more voices for more people at the same time. My interest is in live computer music. Basically I am interested in improvisation with more than two parameters! Imagine a soundscape that I dive into with my whole body. More text can be found at www.sensor32.com

Completing a questionnaire from Electronicsound/UK (sensor32 finalist)

1. Describe your instrument in one sentence

2. What inspired you to build it?

3. Were you inspired by a particular instrument maker/invention?

4.How long did you work on your instrument?

5. Do you have plans to pass on/perform with the instrument after the competition?

6. What experience do you have in instrument making?

7. What did you learn while making the instrument?

8. Advice for young instrument makers?

1. Control a large number of continuous electronic parameters very spontaneously and directly with the whole body at the same time for sound, rhythm, space, visuals, etc.

2. Two shortcomings of loudspeaker music: (ad hoc) composing and instrumental creation of sound remain imperceptible.

3. Unconsciously by Therem and more likely by Matthews Radio Baton and Christina Kubisch.

4. One year

5. I myself play concerts e.g. at MOXSonic 2023 and in a duet with flutist Karina Erhard again and again in Munich and elsewhere.

6. I have never built real instruments, but have automated quite a few (interactive) instruments since 2012

7. Specifically PCB design with KiCad

8. He who makes what everyone makes gets what everyone gets (stock market wisdom, here on the subject of originality, authenticity).