a project by squidsoup

Freq is a series of explorations into the possibilities of ‘drawn sound’, a form of interactive audio waveform generation.

Part musical instrument, part composition, Freq2 takes the shape of your shadow and turns it into sound.  Freq2 can be played like an instrument, creating dramatic and complex land- and sound-scapes derived directly from one's own physical movement in space.

Video documentation

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Exhibitions

• iDesign (Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Sept 2007)
• Cheltenham Science Festival (June 2007)
• Cybersonica's Late at TATE Britain (6th April 2007)
• Future of Sound/Goldsmiths (London, March 2007)
• Artful Gaming conference, Dana Centre (September 2006)
• Tate Britain (5th May 2006)
• Dana Centre (19-20th May 2006)
• Phonica (Poland Street, London. 8-20th May 2006)
• b-tween ( National Museum of Photography, Film and Television. 24-26th May 2006)

Details on Squidsoup installations HERE.

More images on Flickr HERE

About Freq2

The Freq project uses your whole body to control the precise nature of a sound – a form of musical instrument. The mechanism used is to trace the outline of a person's shadow, using a webcam, and transform this line into an audible sound. Any sound can be described as a waveform – essentially a line – and so these lines can be derived from one’s shadow. What you see is literally what you hear, as the drawn wave is immediately audible as a realtime dynamic drone.

Freq2 adds a temporal component to the mix; a sonic composition in which to frame the instrument. The visuals, an abstract 3-dimensional landscape, extrudes in real-time into the distance, leaving a trail of the interactions that have occurred. This ‘memory’ of what has gone before is reflected in the sounds, with long loops echoing passed interactions.  The sounds, all generated in real-time from the live waveform, are played at a range of predefined pitches and times creating a rich evolving soundscape.

The piece reacts to movement from passing traffic and pedestrians as well as direct user interaction, forming a kind of feedback loop; an alternative soundscape for the local environment.

Download .pdf here

Credits

Freq2 is a Squidsoup project commissioned by Cybersonica 06
Built by Anthony Rowe and Gaz Bushell

contact mail <at> squidsoup dot org

(cc) squidsoup.org 2003-7