Oscillations

Abstract

"Oscillations" is an installation that features six Tibetan singing bowl robots, each carrying two singing bowls that produce pure sustained tones that mark out a meditative and immersive sound field. These robots are controlled by a virtual environment (written in Processing) in which virtual player and striker agents move through the space using Brownian motion, weighted by video tracking of the presence of people in the gallery. When the player agents coincide with the position of the Singing Bowl robot in the virtual world, a command is sent over the wireless network to cause that robot to play. The combined effect is a set of beautifully made musical robots producing a meditative omnipresent series of harmonics that form an immersive sound field. The robots can also be taken down and used for perambulatory or gorilla style performances.