Here’s a thought about transitions between instruments like

water - ice - … - waterfall

One question is how to make a 2 (or more) dimensional transition between states that is more interesting than a cross fade between two (sets of ) instruments.

For example, as we approach waterfall, maybe the NUMBER of particles can increase as DAY —> 0. While the SPEED or LIFETIME can increase as FIRESTORM —> 1.

Also the responsivity of the particles to human movement as seen by the Motion patch, should increase in FIRESTORM. We could decrease the mass of the particles, or multiply the strength of the attractors associated with the movement density distribution.

As GLASS –> 1 (and FIRESTORM and DAY necessarily –> 0), the particles (if that’s what they are) could increase in mass until they are relatively insensitive to the movement of the human visitors.

Another point: as the event goes to its terminal DESERT = DAY state, the particles perhaps should return to their original constellations.

Ever since Meteor Shower, I’ve asked for being able to set the initial positions of the stars according to simply the (x,y) coordinates of the brightest N pixels in the input video (could be a static bitmap). Michael Fortin may have provided this as an external to Max, but surely this can be done, simply enough, in native Jitter.

It would also help if the instruments near the boundaries of neighborhoods of the fundamental states look the same. In other words, it would be helpful if the FIRESTORM instrument(s) look like GLASS instrument(s) for some choice of parameters. So we can make multi-dimensional transitions.

For times series that suggest “intentionality,” I suggest
1. Mapping the game controller joystick via Max to a DMX instrument
2. Parametrize an instrument
3. Use Tim’s sensor data recording tool (a very important research instrument !!!) to record the INPUT (not cooked) sensor data while manipulating the DMX instrument.

You can re-use the sensor data

Alternatively just record people’s signatures on a tablet,
Use the x,y,t data mainly for the temporal dynamics,
Map the dynamics to all sorts of temporal processes, e.g. speed (or acceleration) along a trajectory, like the moving beam trajectory, whose (x,y) path is independently determined.

This may yield effect of “intention” …

Dear Elliot, Flower, Elena, + whoever in Winnepeg has the electronics chops and is related to the cell sculpture or the WYSIWYG tapestry,To follow on the tests that Patrick & other Winnepegers have done with the suspended cell sculpture,I’d like to see if any of you can commit to getting data flowing from (some of) the cells to Morgan and me in Max.At this point I see no  compositional  need or plan to incorporate signals from the cell structure in the state-engine.   So it’s really up to those of you who are creating the cell structure to come together,decide what the signals could do that’s interesting and relevant to the cell sculpture relevant to the themes of RT,and to make precise plans on how to build the sensors, the electrical analog- digital interfaces, the data network,and  to program the signal processing.What platforms do you want to use?  Are the Arduino’s “merely” to map data from sensors in the cells to Max/Macwhere you’d code up the processing in Max so you can communicate with the Tim’s MSP or JS’ Jitter instruments directly?But who will write that code for that processing ?   (Not Tim or JS or Morgan, but an applications programmer.)SUGGESTION:  How about if Elliot+Doug talk with the cell sculptors : Patrick, Dirk, Candace, Gregory, Evan, (possibly JC, Flower, JS if they have time headspace, which is doubtful about possibly getting data from the cells to the WYSIWYG sound instruments?This could be engineered independently of the other systems.Xin Wei

Hi Patrick, JC, JS, Harry,Tim,Does the sketch below make sense? There could be two phyla of cells: “cloud” cells near the ceiling, and “head-height” cells. The strato-cells are filled with an image-bearing material (lexan, tracing paper, white chalk dust). The head-height cells are the diverse species of cells as described before.

JC made one cell with lexan embedded into it for JS to test projection. If we project from floor up to cells onto ceiling we should have a lot of coverage. Will the Jitter textures as pictured in JS’ recent Gallery posts work on these ceiling “cloud” cells?The Jitter projected on to the “cloud” cells can be quite distinct from the Jitter projected onto the atrium wall. OR it could be the same field, but with a variation as the one’ eye lifts from the atrium wall to the ceiling. see the attachment of the Sala dei Giganti in thePalazzo Te.During the GLASS state, the atrium wall and the cloud ceiling can show distinct Jitter visuals, but perhaps in the FIRESTORM state,we can achieve a dizzying effect by filling the entire gallery with one continuous field of MeteorShower.As the state evolves from GLASS to FIRESTORM, JS’s instrument(s) can go from sluggish translucent oily slicks, to the fast-streaking (very low inertia) particles that whip around the movements of the visitors. Maximum can show brief flashes of very different structure, such as the needles, but I’d prefer to not use visible planar/linear geometrical shapes unless they can fit into the alchemical. The point is to fuse symbolic and natural orders, rather than “cast” geometrical shapes into matter. (Neo-euclidean form may emerge from material flow, part of which is due to human activity, but neo-euclidean form should not be imprinted by us designers onto matter. I’m not dead set against figurativeness, only that the figurative should come directly out of and dissolve back into the visual material’s idiomatic dynamics. Similarly for sound — but I think for sound this comes for free. What do you think, Tim?

Sala dei Giganti, Palazzo del Te, Mantovahttp://www.palazzote.eu/W3C/w3c_quicktime/set_giganti03iscrizioni.asp

Here’s a 5-state topology for a VISIT by a visitor
/rt/state/visit/nightlife n
/rt/state/visit/daydream n
/rt/state/visit/firestorm n
/rt/state/visit/glass n
/rt/state/visit/desert n