Seelenlose Automaten

2007 Feb

Concept, Idea & Programming

Benedikt Groß

Sound Design

Patric Schmidt aka Bobby Kudlicz

We decided not to go the usual way (take an existing piece of music and do for this a timebased animation with a video editing tool). Instead we composed a minimalistic electro track to possess all possible information like notes, pitch, volume, length … and our own dramaturgy.

Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy

Quantity diagram, play count of all samples

Quantity diagram, play count of all samples

By analysing this information, we figured out a “set of rules” which maps the musical information directly to a visual output. For that “mapping” we developed a mini visualizing software. The software is fed via Midi with exactly the same notes (data), like the ones controlling the musical part. For instance, if Midi Note #43 – “Dri Metal” – is played, the visual rule is: Rotate all one step to the right. Everything is based on our system of rules, there is no animation in the common sense at all.
The shown clip is just a live recording during the playback of one pass of the entire track. There was no editing afterwards. Original resolution 1280 × 1024 px @ 60 fps.

Setup diagram

Setup diagram

Selected Frames

Exhibition

Seelenlose Automaten @ DigitalArt.LA Gallery, LA

2008–3

Exhibition, “Seelenlose Automaten”, DigitalArt.LA Gallery, LA, US

Press

Seelenlose Automaten @ Generatorx.no

2007–12

“Seelenlose Automaten” featured on Generatorx.no