KENNETH LIM @ ART PAGES
SOUNDWAVES
HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION
This is my Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Communications Studies at Murdoch University thesis, which is very flawed, but it was a new extension for me, and for all it's worth, I'm happy I took the journey...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Soundwaves would not have been possible without the generous assistance and support of many people. Malcolm May, thank you for your unstinting support and sleepless nights. Murdoch University's Communication Studies department - especially, Kim Le Souef and Lee Thomas - thank you for your unconditional support and for putting up with all my demands. Special thanks to Irma Whitford who paved the way for my smooth journey into such an unknown territory. My friends from Cognitive Science department of UWA - Pasha Parpia, Li-Anne Tang - thanks, this is the product of our madness! To Gary Warner & Mark Titmarsh from the Australian Film Commission, Yoshiyuki Abe and Karl Sims, I can't thank you enough for sharing. Thanks to Geoff and Marjolein Towler (who are always here for me), Scott Ludlam, Jose Garcia, Derek Rucki and Geraldine Williams, for their friendship and valuable expertise. Most importantly, heartfelt appreciation goes to Josko Petkovic for years of guidance, time, patience and encouragement. This dissertation is the evolution of knowledge and experience gained from all above.
ABSTRACT
Soundwaves is a interactive computer system that utilizes voice qualities to produce evolving self-generating computer graphics. The processes of translation and representation are used to generate a new artistic dimension for the human voice. Voice is sampled by an analog to digital converter for numerical values which are introduced to the gene pool of genetic algorithms. The outcome of this complex mathematical process is represented graphically to reflect the aesthetic qualities of the inherent relations and composition of the mathematical equations. The immediacy of this real time process allows for a direct correlation between voice production and generated computer graphics, which is effective in forming a complete artificial environment when projected onto the entire performance space. The participant in the installation is able to sense the extension of his/her voice production through the activity within the environment. Soundwaves follows current coupling of Technology with Art by Capitalism, which seeks capital value in aesthetics and cultural production. Technological sophistication within Performing Arts reflects the current trend in creating new extensions in performance that embraces the greatest audience share, yet touching the unique desires of each individual. Variations in voice production mean that no two performance in Soundwaves will be the same. Consumer behaviour within this Information Economy is argued to rest on the ability of technology to create and feed consumers' desire for greater human-computer interaction. Although the computer is primary to Soundwaves, it's presence is hidden from the participant. As a metaphor for Capitalism, Electronic Digital Technology controls a wide range of human artefacts, whilst encroaching into the realms of the human body and mind, to create the perfect human-machine interface. Soundwaves shows that the cleavage between Art and Technology is being mended, because the technologizing of the Humanities is an inevitable process within today's information technology environment.
INTRODUCTION
Soundwaves is an interactive computer system developed specifically for the Performing Arts. The system translates sound qualities into evolving computer graphics in real time and projects them onto the installation space to create an Artificial Reality (Krueger, 1993) that envelopes the participant.
This system is created in response to the growing trend of commercial interactive computer systems in the market that attempt to capture the imagination of consumers with their novel functions. The Information Explosion we were so warned about has saturated the market, where information is overproduced, and moved into a new phase where competition for the dollar is based on the service sector, incorporating the attention span of consumers is indicative of the value of the commodity. The longer consumers interact, or consume a commodity, either abstract or material, the greater the value of the commodity. Soundwaves is created with such consideration. The coupling of technology with art is deliberate here to create a form of surplus value to the product in commercial terms - to make it viable for mass consumption in the most intimate way, where the graphics are created uniquely for a particular participant.
Chapter 1 outlines the role of computer technology within today's Capitalistic economy, tracing the gradual globalization of computer technology through networking, and its domestication. The coupling of Capital with Digital Technology is examined here. In this Information economy, information is commodotized and relegated a new capitalist function. Learning and knowledge acquisition are equated with economics and consumer behaviour. Multimedia is the new tool which attracts and maximises our limited attention span within a competitive environment. We now have information that is bound by the forces of capitalistic competition. Our attention being the stimulus consumption that is regimented by Capitalism through technology.
Human-computer interaction has evolved radically. Various strata of human-computer relations are identified in Chapter 2 to give an overview of the reasons behind the sudden paradigmatic change towards Information technology and Artificial Intelligence research and development in Industrialized countries.
Knowledge Representation, and the formal representation of our world as we know it, in machines has tremendous creative potential. The reduction of knowledge into the Boolean logic of 1/0 binary allows for versatile translation of information into numerous communication functions, whilst at the same time, restricts the breadth of representation. Chapter 3 examines the prominance of Dualism in Western technological development, and how it, as a product of the Alphabetic Language system, limits Western scientific rationality into logic rules and formalism. This creates a problem in the quest to develop a universal interactive computer system that is transcultural enough to be networked globally. Chapter 4 argues for the artistic exploration of technology to reinforce its social role, because computer technology has moved into the Humanities arena. Issues related to the Artificial Intelligence, and machine understanding of human communication is examined in this section. Traditionally, technology belonged to one half of a dialectic which sat Art and Humanities at the other end of the equation (Krueger, 1993). Soundwaves attempts to bridge the divide between Art and Technology by the process of digitization and reclamation of technology by the Humanities.
Conceptual limitations in digital computer research and developments are traced to fundamental philosophies and links are drawn to show that the adaptation of foreign philosophies in Japan and USA - both leading technological centres of the world - have ensured their position at the forefront of our technological future. Chapter 5 shows how Japanese traditional philosophies support current postmodern vision of our technological future. The concept of relations and advaitism had been developed by Japanese philosophers hundreds of years earlier, that today supported many Western postmodern theories developed by theorists such as Deleuze and Guattari (1987). Chapter 5 also outlines the reasons behind Japanese positivism in their search for "Machine Intelligence" and perfect human-machine interface.
Soundwaves, the accompanying interactive computer installation, aims to draw the links discussed in the dissertation, as well as serving as an exercise in utilizing technology for artistic expression. The abstraction processes within digital computers are excellent platforms for artistic explorations resulting from the flexibility of representation and translation of the 1/0 binary digits. The documentation of Soundwaves follows after Chapter 5.
Chapter 1: Attention for Sale: Capitalism and Interactive Computers Chapter 2: Defining Human-Computer Interaction Chapter 3: Representing our Worlds: Digital Translation Chapter 4: Digital Intelligence: Parallel flow of Multiples? Chapter 5: Japanese Philosophy & Artificial Intelligence Research Soundwaves Conclusion Appendix A, B, C, D, E, F, G Bibliography
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