In the interactive installation "smdk" developed by Knowbotic Research, individual sounds are collected in a data bank as acoustic messages from all over the world and represented as geometric shapes. The participant is equipped with a sensor hand and an eye monitor. Within a "sound room" he can create his own music on this virtual instrument.

The installation "smdk" is made up of three parts:
Part 1 is an interactive, "walk through" data bank in which self organizing data sounds form a "sound room".
Part 2 is a physical room in which these data sounds are made audible to the active user;
in part 3 these events are projected onto a screen for all to see.
For this project, Knowbotic Research sent out an international call for participation. From all over the world, digitized sound samples in the form of data files were sent in across international computer networks. The audio information in these files was then assigned spatial and geometric characteristics, meaning that they could be given visual shapes and represented in virtual reality as objects floating in air. The active participant is equipped with a sensor hand and a miniature eye monitor. The sensor band allows the control system to ascertain the user's exact location. This information, combined with the momentary positions of the floating sounds, allows the user's virtual point of view to be rendered and transmitted to the eyepiece monitor. In the dark, the user sees hiimself surrounded by groups of sounds which he can reach out and "touch" and hear.
Personal statements, attitudes towards the world summed up in six second sound bites, form the raw material for this experience (the human voice, noises, music, and more). These contributions were requested in announcements on computer networks (internet, compuserve, fidonet), through targeted, world-wide flyers and personal contacts. "smdk" is an interdisciplinary protect drawing onthe exchange of working methods among media artists, computer musicians, computer scientists, and natural scientists. This interactive data space is connected to various public domain networks. The computer-generated model allows the user a physical dialog with a self-organizing data bank whose information can be accessed on various levels.
All statements are analyzed and allocated their characteristics on the basis of their discernible sound properties. They are given a corresponding shape and transformed into independently operating units, or agents. This analysis also brings about localized rules for their behavior in virtual space. They organize themselves into self similar sound groups, forming an organsism that continuously restructures itself.
Once the visitor enters the physical space of the installation, be is located by an ultrasound system and his position passed on to the virtual space. Hence the physical and virtual spaces are connected through interaction. The visitor navigates around the darkened room with the help of the small monitor, which receives the rendered image as well as textual orientation and hints for taking up contact with the various sound groups. This abstract, language-based description of the virtual space emphasizes the contrast between the visitor's physical movement and simultaneous presence in digitalized, artificial space.
In front of the walk-through part of the exhibit is the control room containing the data bank where sound data files are analyzed and categorized on arrival. A projection screen displays the virtual organism as it evolves.
In virtual space, a 25 cm (10 ") radius sphere is calculated around the position of the sensor band. This is the sensitive zone which serves to activate the sounds. When a sound enters the zone it is activated, and plays until the next sound replaces it. If two sounds are in the zone, the one closest to the position of the sensor is heard.
Consequently any fast movement through a group of sounds results in shorter individual durations. The visitor divides the sounds into smaller units. The relative acceleration of the hand causes a change in the volume specification, faster meaning louder. It can also change the spatial direction of the sound. Turning the hand manipulates this information. By repeatedly calling up a group, the visisitor stabilizes group identity, prevents their spontaneous decay, and thereby keeps them handy like a kind of instrument.


Technical Background

HW: Silicon Graphics, Apple Macintosh, Nubus Audio-Media-Card, Three SpaceTracker
SW: Mostly Artists' Proprietary

Knowbotic Research considers itself a free grouping of media artists and academicians working across the art/science divide to create a mutual relationship of interaction between the subjectively and objectively perceived results of both disciplines. Christian Hübler (A), born 1962, is an independent media artist and studied at the Art Institute for Media, Cologne. He has received grants from various European institutions and taken part in various international media art festivals and exhibitions (most recently the Mediale in Hamburg, the Videonale in Bonn, and the Interior Architecture Festival in Graz). Other contributors to 'smdk 'are:Alexander Tuchacek (computer musician),Yvonne William (media artist),Dr. Georg Fleiscbmann,Michael Hoch and Detlev Schwabe (computer scientists),Rajele Jain (philosopher, biologist) and Will Bauer (hardware developer).