Gordon Monro - "Red Grains"

"Dissonant Particles"

List of pieces

"Rainbow Snake Dry River"

"Red Grains"

Video on DVD with surround sound, duration 5 mins 50 secs (2003/4).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia Licence.

Go to the download page for a video sample from Red Grains.

Program note

Red Grains is in principle the record of an installation. The intent was to make an artwork which would give something of the experience of a waterfall or other natural phenomenon, without imitating an actual natural system.

The visuals came from a construction built from two laser pointers, some mirrors and a Lego Robotics kit. The movement of the Lego motors was influenced by two light dependent resistors (LDRs) mounted on the edge of the mirrors, so there was a feedback system.

The sound is the noise made by the Lego construction, processed by granular synthesis. The parameters for the granulation were obtained from five more LDRs on the mirrors, and two potentiometers driven by the Lego motors. In principle the granulation could have been performed in real time, though in fact it was not.

The sensor-to-MIDI conversion was handled by a MIDI controller made by Angelo Fraietta. The granular synthesis was carried out by a program written by the composer.

Some images

Two images from the video, and a picture of the construction which generated the artwork.

Click on the small images below for enlarged versions.

(17 Kbyte)

(17 Kbyte)

(39 Kbyte)

Further information

More explanation, and more pictures (PDF, 593 Kbyte)

Note: The soundtrack for Red Grains was originally stereo, but was reworked in 2004 for surround (5.1) sound.

Performances, etc

Australasian Computer Music Association Conference, Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts, Perth, 5 July 2003;
"Below the Surface": Contemporary Australian Moving Imagery exhibition, Contemporary Art Services Tasmania, Hobart, August 2003;
"Live Wires" Concert, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 12 September 2003;
Prize-winner in the multimedia section of Metro Screen's Kaleidoscope Festival, Sydney, November 2003;
"Disorientation" series (curated by Shannon O'Neill, University of Technology, Sydney), Lanfranchi's, Chippendale, Sydney, 8 April 2004;
Visuals used in the "Tronicphosis" multimedia event, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia, 29 October 2004.
Part of Sydney Conservatorium's contribution to the Discovery After Dark event, 2 April 2005.
Spac{v}e series at Electrofringe, Newcastle, NSW, 2 October 2005.
Presentation at Dorkbot Sydney, 28 November 2006.

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