nokami

ORIGIN:

Wake turbulence is turbulence that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air. This turbulence includes various components, the most important of which are wingtip vortices and jetwash. Jetwash refers simply to the rapidly moving gases expelled from a jet engine; it is extremely turbulent, but of short duration. Wingtip vortices, on the other hand, are much more stable and can remain in the air for up to three minutes after the passage of an aircraft. Wingtip vortices make up the primary and most dangerous component of wake turbulence.

Wake turbulence is especially hazardous during the landing and take off phases of flight, for three reasons. The first is that during take-off and landing, aircraft operate at low speeds and high angle of attack. This flight attitude maximizes the formation of dangerous wingtip vortices. Secondly, takeoff and landing are the times when a plane is operating closest to its stall speed and to the ground — meaning there is little margin for recovery in the event of encountering another aircraft’s wake turbulence. Thirdly, these phases of flight put aircraft closest together and along the same flightpath, maximizing the chance of encountering the phenomenon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_turbulence

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THE CONCEPT

Wake Turbulence is a music visualization based performance that uses sound and midi data as input for the graphic display of air travel related information graphics. 

The sky is filled with aircraft that transport people from place to place, perform utilitarian duties, assist in communications, and enact military missions. Wake Turbulence combines science, statistical display, and contemporary art by presenting these mechanical patterns and behaviors as a dynamic visual experience. The artwork is intended to be viewed as a live performance with video projected on 3 independent screens (16:9). 

The visual composition consists of 2 parts:

The first part is comprised of a graphic interface providing visual technical references to a variety of data environments, such as air traffic control, weather systems, GPS positioning, etc. The graphics are built into a 3D stage in quartz composer as “composition” and loaded in VDMX for  live manipulation in the X/Y/Z axes. This part will not be interacting with the sound, but will be manipulated by the visual performer using various bluetooth electronic devices for spacIal positioning.

The second part will be integrated into this 3D environment and will consist of several quartz composer paths. Each path will be loaded into VDMX for live manipulation and will interact with the music (sound and/or midi data driven). The content of these compositions will consist of visual data used in air space technology, such as air traffic control information, weather systems, flight vector information, etc. This content will respond to various input variations, affecting parameters such as zoom, positioning (x,y,z,), size, colour, layer triggering, layer fading, etc.

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DATA VISUALIZATION

Data visualization is the study of the visual representation of data, meaning “information which has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information”.

According to Friedman (2008) the “main goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and effectively through graphical means. It doesn’t mean that data visualization needs to look boring to be functional or extremely sophisticated to look beautiful. To convey ideas effectively, both aesthetic form and functionality need to go hand in hand, providing insights into a rather sparse and complex data set by communicating its key-aspects in a more intuitive way. Yet designers often fail to achieve a balance between design and function, creating gorgeous data visualizations which fail to serve their main purpose — to communicate information”.

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VISUAL PROGRAMMING

The visual programming is done in Quartz composer in conjunction with various 3D plug-ins (kineme). Quartz Composer is a graphics development environment that allows you to explore the power of the graphics stack of Mac OS X Tiger. With Quartz Composer, you can combine the capabilities of Cocoa, Quartz 2D, Core Image, OpenGL, and QuickTime, all using an approachable visual programming paradigm (data-driven visual effects).

The first thing you’ll notice about Quartz Composer is that it isn’t like most development tools. Instead of writing pages worth of code to directly manipulate the various graphics APIs on the system, you work visually with processing units called patches. These patches are connected into a composition. As you work with a composition, adding patches and connecting them, you can visually see the results in a viewer window. Each and every change you make is immediately reflected in the viewer—no compilation require.

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VISUAL PERFORMANCE

VDMX5 was created from the ground up to meet the demands of realtime video performance. Built around a robust data processing architecture it was designed to be used with whatever hardware- or software- you’ve got available. VDMX is a software based, media processing environment that lets you achieve stunning effects in real time. By linking together and controlling VDMX modules, you build your own virtual video studio, which is equally adept at event production, post production and motion design.

Taking advantage of Apple’s CoreImage technology, VDMX5 leverages the latent processing power of your GPU, performing accurate and lightning-fast composition and rendering of visual effects in realtime at broadcast and HD quality. VDMX5 is also fully compatible with Quartz Composer, Apple’s freely-available groundbreaking motion graphics visual development environment. Any Quartz Composer patch can be opened and played back in VDMX5, which provides an interface for controlling and interacting extensively with the loaded patch, putting the power of Quartz 2d, CoreImage, and OpenGL at your fingertips.

VDMX interface

Prototype 2
Video: http://www.vimeo.com/8356094

Prototype 5
Video: http://www.vimeo.com/8358074

Prototype 4
Video: http://www.vimeo.com/8426604

Prototype 3

Prototype 6

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AUDIO

The audio aspect of ‘Wake Turbulence’ draws from several paradoxically opposed ideas associated with modern air travel:

- in-flight airplanes and airports as non-places, zones of transition most often visualized as points and paths. 
- the militarization of airspace - particularly post-9/11 - and the latent fear inherent in air travel. 
- the subjugation of control required of airline passengers - a surrender to the mechanics of surveillance and conveyance.
- the romanticization of long-distance voyaging, as evidenced in advertising and media (Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ and ‘Trans-Europe Express’ being particularly relevant examples).
- the tedious reality of long-distance travel: the generic commercialized blandness of airports coupled with long periods of immobility.

Playing with the somewhat hackneyed idea of the producer/DJ taking the listener ‘on a trip’, the audio component of ‘Wake Turbulence’ seeks to employ field recordings of airplanes (both commercial and military), airports, airport security systems (and their powerful electromagnetic fields), cockpit voice recordings, as well as the stochastic processing of flight data and ’70’s ‘airport lounge’ music as the starting points for an electronic journey that will be directly visualized on-screen. An integral part of this project consists of interfacing the sound with the visual element - determining how audio/midi parameters will affect visual information and ‘playing’ the visuals as well as the sound.
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DESIGN:

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MUSIC:

Michael Trommer

Michael Trommer is a Toronto based producer and visual artist who has recorded for such top electronic music labels as Transmat, Wave, Truffle, Stasisfield, Interchill, Monocromatica, Thinner and con-v. He records under his own name, as well as aliases such as ’sans soleil’, ‘minidisco’, ‘Hydraulic’,and ‘Manitou2′.

Broad-minded in his approach to electronic music, Michael also creates gallery-based audio installation work. 2005 saw him creating a site-specific sound installation for Australia’s ‘Liquid Architecture’ exhibition. Another of his recent works was a net-based audio-manipulation project which was part of the ‘from 0 to 1 and back again’ exhibition at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt; this became the subject of many radio specials on both Deutsche Welle and Hessischer Rundfunk. In 2000, his work was nominated for the Prix Italia for experimental music. His field-recording based material has been featured on London’s Resonance FM, www.vagueterrain.net, www.insine.net, www.monocromatica.com, and www.stasisfield.com. A site-specific field-recording based installation is being exhibited in New York state’s upper Catskill forest (www.restlessculture.net/deepwoods) from the end of May.

Contact:
trommer@sympatico.ca
http://www.myspace.com/mtrommer

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TECHNICAL:

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LIVE:

Sight+Sound (Eastern Bloc)
21 May 2010 - (Montreal, Canada)

Sight+Sound (Eastern Bloc)
21 May 2010 - (Montreal, Canada)