NIME 2018

Quarries HSL
by Shawn Greenlee

Quarries HSL is an improvisational performance approaching high density loudspeaker arrays as new interfaces for musical expression.  Central to the piece is the use of visual image data scanned from works on paper using a live camera, applied as spatial audio positions and movements.  For example, color data is applied as ambisonic coordinates with hue = azimuth, saturation = distance, and lightness = elevation.  The works on paper from which the scans are taken function as a catalog of possibilities to be explored during performance, often resulting in aleatoric moments. The performer refines the sonic experience through image processing, including adjustments to scan rate, zoom, hue shift, brightness, contrast, and saturation. Using a multi-touch surface and a MIDI controller, the performer also creates the sounds spatialized through the camera scanning process.  These interfaces provide access to parameters for erratic sound synthesis and transformations of field recordings.  The piece builds upon the author’s previous and ongoing investigations in graphic sound synthesis. Early versions were developed and/or performed between 2015-2017 at Virginia Tech’s Cube, University of Birmingham’s BEAST, and RPI’s EMPAC.