justin peake 


Oracles

What is it?
an interactive installation and performance of music and light featuring custom built instruments and system interfaces.

My Roles
  • Project Lead / Composer
  • Experience / Installation Design
  • Hardware Design
  • Full Stack Development

Background
I was commissioned to compose and produce a performance of interactive music and projections in conjunction with the INST-INT festival for two nights for an audience around 200 people each night.

Team
I had integral support from a team of 4 colleagues who helped with crucial fabrication and installation of the table, the boxes, and the smooth flow of the performances.

Outcome
We designed and built a connected system by which the audience interactions subtly shifted the course of the live musical performance and video/lighting  by leveraging an extended version of my digital performance platfom called Archer.

Design
The whole system consisted of a Node server handling real time data from the table of cups, the wind instruments, the show control interface and sending to the wired sculptures, video mapping, and surround sound speaker array.


Basically, this.


The wind instruments are activated by placing a cup on the top surface. They transmit data via RFM on Moteino’s enclosed within when blown into via a wind sensor. They were made from unfinished local Cypress.



Early sketches for the wind instruments.



Wind instruments in performance (Rex Gregory & Helen Gillet pictured)


Each ceramic cup has a magnet affixed to its base to interact with each of the table’s 200 Hall effect sensors. The table communicates to the main Node server in the venue.



Early sketch of simple cup design.