Weekly Update and Project Progress
This week has been a combination of logistical work and computer work for the successful creation of the visualizer project. Firstly, Lorena has agreed to work with me on this project, utilizing her insight and personal experience with synesthesia to lead to a better result. The downside of this, however, is that she is also participating in the TCNJ Music Department’s concert taking place on the night of the show. Our showcase begins much earlier than the concert, so she will be able to attend briefly and give one live performance. This has led me to logistical fork in the road. The original plan was to have a professional film made of one of our rehearsals that would play continuously when a performance wasn’t going on, saving Lorena from having to perform for four hours. With this new development, I can either find a secondary musician who is fully available, or simply play that video after Lorena has to leave. I have chosen to pursue the former, asking around the rest of the music department for anyone who is interested. The filmed rehearsal will also likely still be shown to again avoid making a musician play for so long. Additionally, the idea occurred to have a second film made featuring Lorena speaking about her experiences with synesthesia and what the project means to her. This will both be intriguing to the audience, and provide more depth to the project as a whole.
When it comes to the computer work and coding for the project, by this coming week all of the animation scenes will be completed. This leaves one last coding task to accomplish, which is coding a patch in Max MSP to recieve live audio and send MIDI data to the animation software. This will be the main goal for the project over the coming Spring Break, with research being conducted over the next few days and then my first attempt at an execution over the coming week. Hopefully with this completed I will already be in the home stretch of initially completing this project, allowing me plenty of time to rehearse, troubleshoot, and implement additional features as I see fit.
