APRIL 18TH AND 19TH, 2006
DUSK UNTIL 11PM EACH EVENING
SHAFER BELL TOWER, MCKINLEY AVENUE
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
MUNCIE, INDIANA USA

NOTE: DUE TO WEATHER, THE PERFORMANCE ON THE 19TH HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE IN THE STUDIO ROOM IN THE ATRIUM. ART AND JOURNALISM BUILDING ON MCKINLEY AVENUE AT 7:30.

PLEASE BRING YOUR WIRELESS DEVICES TO INTERACT ON APRIL 18TH AND 19TH

INTERACTIVE WIRELESS INSTALLATION PROJECT

Artists Jesse Allison, John Fillwalk and Keith Kothman have designed and produced an outdoor interactive digital installation interpreting the wireless data infrastructure at Ball State University. Beginning the evening of April 18 and running through April 19, this digital media sculpture, consisting of 4 projection screens, computers, speakers and lights, will broadcast interactive media that reacts to the amount of traffic on the campus' 15 wireless zones. The sculpture will contain its own wireless access points, sensing local interactions of viewers using wireless devices. The carillon bells in the Shafer Tower will also be incorporated into the performance via MIDI control. The data captured will be blended together in real time to create a multi-sensory digital experience. The event will be streamed live over the Internet each night from 8-11 p.m. at the links toward the bottom of the page. Viewers of the work on the evenings of the 18th and 19th are encouraged to bring their own wireless handheld devices to interact and shape the sound and images that are presented. Students from the Music Technology program in the School of Music and students in the Electronic Art and Animation program in the Department of Art are also assisting in the installation of this project. Rain dates are the 25th and 26th of April.

This project creates an interactive experience that transforms a viewer into a participant with the work. The digital technology within the sculpture senses and tracks viewer interactions with their handheld wireless 802.11 devices. The users will be able to see and hear their engagement with the wireless network as the electronic sculpture interprets changes in activity and location in real time. Sound and video will be live-processed by several Apple PowerMac G5 computers using Cycling 74 Max/MSP and Jade as the interactive software. Sound will be created and manipulated by using the application Tassman, by Applied Acoustic Systems, which will be physically modeling (synthesizing) sound as well as using sampled audio streams from the internet.

Video output will be generated via MIDI control using Apple's Motion software and Jitter. The video imagery will be a combination of 3-D graphical elements that represent the historical samples of wireless internet activity, live local interactions with the access points around the bell tower and unique hardware ID's that log in and out of the network. Computer generated images will change in intensity depending on the level of wireless activity using 3D computer animation, generators and particle emitters. Four screens surrounding the tower will display visual imagery mapped from local wireless interactions and composited into a live computer generated video triggered by changes in local network activity.

The sound will be composed of small bits of recorded audio using granular synthesis, which is a technique of reducing audio (pre-recorded samples) into small bits. These pieces are then reordered into varying amounts of randomness creating new sounds. This idea parallels nicely with how wireless data gets split into tiny packets and is reassembled at the receiving end before being sent over the network.

Ball State topped Intel's rankings this year as the nation's most wireless campus and this work explores the wireless infrastructure present on campus. Cisco Systems, the largest network provider in the world, supplies most of the necessary equipment needed to route and manage Ball State's network traffic, and plays a vital role in this project as well. After processing all of the raw data in real time, the information is then sent to the interactive software that converts the data into video imagery.

The sculpture will be re-composed and installed permanently on campus later this year, displayed on a series of wall-mounted plasma screens. This installed version will track the full bandwidth of the wireless spectrum of the interactions of viewers with all wireless devices (i.e. cellular, bluetooth, data, etc).

Technical and organizational support for this event is provided by Information Technology and University Computing Services. This event is sponsored by the Center for Media Design at Ball State University, part of the $20 million dollar Digital Exchange Initiative funded by the Lilly Foundation, Inc.

Click for below for live streams (April 18th through April 19th only):
Live camera feed of sculpture and participants
Direct output from installation

Artists:
John Fillwalk Associate Professor of Electronic Art, Ball State University
Keith Kothman Associate Professor of Music Technology, Ball State University
Jesse Allison Instructor of Music Theory and Composition, Ball State University

Links:
Center for Media Design, Ball State University
Electronic Art and Animation, Ball State University
Information Technology, Ball State University
Music Technology, Ball State University
VIA Studios, Ball State University

PRESS RELEASE

Special Thanks: Phil Repp, Dave Ferguson, Fred Nay, Larry Cannon, James Whiteman, Dan Lutz, Loren Malm, Dan Fortriede, Vernon Draper, Jeff Seitz, Anthony Romano, Chi-Hsun Chiu, Mark Franz, Jack Willis and all that contributed!

For more information call or email:

Phil Repp, Associate Vice President for Information Technology (765) 285-1669
Keith Kothman, Associate Professor - Music Technology (765) 285-5537
Jesse Allison, Instructor - Music Theory and Composition (765) 285-2449
John Fillwalk, Associate Professor - Electronic Art (765) 285-2642