Author: malina

Game Design Basics for Interactive Play & Sonic Game Jam!

Woho! We are announcing the second remote PIFworkshop hosted by Maggie Kane aka Streetcat.media, with a little help from Lovrenc Košenina (Rampa Lab). We are honoured that Maggie, who attended PIFcamp in 2018, proposed to host this workshop on our platform and share it with the community <3

ABOUT

Learn the basic principles of narrative gameplay design for encouraging meaningful user interaction with your work!

This workshop deconstructs game and storytelling/narrative design principles into two days worth of learning that covers various methods you can use to craft an engaging story for your audience!

CONTENT & TIMELINE

*For a more detailed activities description click here*

DAY 1: Game / Narrative Principles + Praxis
Wednesday AUG 5 at 5PM CEST | 3PM UTC

Create a web-based interactive “sonic” story (video game) that captures / documents the sensory elements (primarily sound) of a defined environment within a period of time and encourages purposeful exploration of the interactive play elements.

At the end of the workshop, Maggie will introduce an example project that illustrates the game + narrative design principles learned on day one. Students will receive a PDF worksheet that will help them define their own game + narrative design elements for their own interactive stories.

DAY 2: Interactive Storytelling Platforms
Thursday AUG 6 at 7PM CEST | 5PM UTC

Each student creates a very simple interactive game or experience that utilizes game + narrative design elements from their outline. They will record sound samples from their inspired environment and integrate the recordings with the storybuilding system mechanics on BITSY’s platform.

Students have a chance to make a simple game in a two-day game jam that ends on Saturday, August 8 at noon (Slovenian time). Maggie will be available in between Thursday’s workshop (DAY 2) and Saturday’s GAME JAM deadline to answer any questions / help with specific things on Discord :)

Finished projects should be emailed to hello@streetcat.media, and they will be posted on a PIFcamp Itch.io page for all to play!

HOW TO JOIN

Participation at the workshop is free, but the spaces are limited, so please apply by sending an email to pifcamp@ljudmila.org. The workshop will be accesed via Moodle platform.

The plant node by Dario Cortese

After some minor disturbances in human evolution since the Stone age, finally another age fit for humans, the Plant age, is here. Plants have always been an important part of our life. In fact we are here because of plants, not the opposite. Each carbon atom in a human’s body once went through the plant chloroplast, and was part of a plant. Plants are the beings who rule the world and shape and direct humans’ lives according to their needs. So why not cooperate?

 The easiest way to come in contact with plants is, yes, to eat them and use them in the form of different home made products. Through the Plant node at PIFcamp we’ll get to know the edible wild plants of the area, how to prepare them as food and how to prepare a variety of traditional herbal products (powders, ointments, tinctures, hydrolates). 

We will be publishing short videos with Dario on this topic during PIFcamp so stay tuned!

μπA (micropia) by BEAM TEAM

Project μπA (micropia) is a research between correlation of light (video projections, production of video material) and dynamics of water surface in relation to sound (influences of sound frequencies on water surface) by Stella Ivšek & Anja Romih aka BEAM TEAM (visual) and Črt Trkman (sound design).

At PIFcamp, we will focus on the production of video material based on images obtained using a digital microscope. Images of natural structures and organisms will be modified and projected back onto natural surfaces. We want to realize the project in the form of a simulation of the natural environment also in the gallery space osmo/za. The installation would include a mapped video projection on objects brought from the natural environment and the reflection of light on the water surface, the structure of which is changed by the sound frequencies of modulated sounds of nature.

The presentation may also include recordings of processes and research conducted during PIFcamp.

Blaž Pavlica: DIY ambisonic dome

Ambisonics is a spherical surround sound format, which in addition to the horizontal level also contains sounds above and below the perceiver. Unlike other formats, its channels do not carry signals for individual speakers, but a representation of a spherical sound field, which is independent from the number of speakers. As a result, it allows the sound producer to think about the spherical origin of sounds and doesn’t have to deal with the final sound reproduction. In addition, it allows more freedom in the speaker placement, as signals representing the sound field can be decoded into any sound system.

The format was developed as early as the 1970s, and is recently gaining popularity again. There are three reasons for this:

  • patent expiration, which brought to many open source and proprietary software implementations,
  • the applicability of the format in the field of virtual reality,
  • as the development of sound processing, recording and production quality is reaching a limit, it becomes more interesting to develop sound spaciousness (HiFidelity <HiSpatiality)

The DIY ambison dome will be a matrix of 8 speakers placed on the dome, which was developed and used as part of PifLab and past PIFcamps.

Encoding and decoding will be done by using SuperCollider and Reaper DAW environments. Testing will involve playing, listening to and testing different algorithms for manipulating the sound field and different decoders into an array of 8 speakers. The aim of the project is to document the setup, the necessary resources and the quality of an affordable ambisonics sound format system.

aqua_forensic at PIFcamp

aqua_forensic 2.0 is a project by Robertina Šebjanič and Gjino Šutić, focused on DIY simple water analytics & effect of the invisible pharmaceutical pollutants in water.

#ocean #sea #forensic_oceanography #aqua_forensic #invisible_anthropogenic_pollutants #chemical pollutants (pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, heavy metals, oils) #marine_habitats #marine_ecology #forensic_oceanography #invisible_visible #macro_micro #terraforming #aquaforming #aquafarming #monsters

Project aqua_forensic illuminates the invisible anthropogenic (pharmaceutical) chemical pollutants – residues of human consumption – “monsters” in the waters. The project combines art/science/citizen science in a “hunt for a phantom” and opens the discussion about our solidarity and empathy with waters beyond human perception. It’s a voyage into the relationship between the microbial seas and humans who are aquaforming the water habitats all around the planet. The question is: How do the oceans feel our impact?

During PIFcamp Robertina Šebjanič and Miha Godec will host a proto aqua_forensic workshop and develop an open source tutorial on this topic. Workshop participants will be introduced to the problematics of contemporary invisible water pollutants through practice by the artists. Through hybrid approach (combining science, DIY citizen’s science & art) these topics will be investigated in local environment.

aqua_forensic is supported by Ars Electronica within the EMAP/EMARE project, Projekt Atol Institute, UR Institute (HR), Čistoća Dubrovnik, The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, and The Ministry of Culture of the R. of Croatia, Sektor Institute (SI), co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

DIY-Soil-Photogrammetry

When photography is used to collect data about physical objects, organisms and their environment it is often referred to as photogrammetry. The observation of changing landscapes through satellite imaging or ecosystem response via stationary cameras is a widely used technique. Nonetheless, direct time resolved photography in the context of soil research has so far not been thoroughly explored.

The use of (sometimes modified) scanners for creating time-lapse videos of root growth, composting, insect behaviour, etc. is well established and often generates highly aesthetic imagery. There are many advantages of using scanners instead of cameras: after some waterproofing, scanners can be literally buried in whatever material you would like to observe. They illuminate the object/organisms only for a comparatively short time and record high resolution images. Also, since they have a fixed focus and a stable distance to the object (none), several common sources of error are eliminated.

During PIFcamp Julian Chollet will experiment with time-resolved DIY-Photogrammetry to investigate soil structure and humus accumulation as part of the ongoing HUMUS sapiens – open soil research program. The techniques as well as the results will be documented and shared with the community to promote open-source approaches for soil analysis and regeneration. HUMUS sapiens represents a compilation of soil explorations emerging from the networks of mikroBIOMIK, Hackteria, and Gasthaus – with the ambition to bring DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIWO (do-it-with-others) approaches as well as an open-source-based “hacker spirit” into soil ecology. Participants are invited to reflect on current scientific discourses and critical societal challenges through hands-on tinkering and curiosity-driven research.

What about PIFcamp 2020?

Dear PIFcampers,

After long and careful consideration we decided to carry out this year’s edition of PIFcamp, but in a (way) different format we are used to. There are several scenarios, plan Bs and alternative options for this year’s realisation, but it is clear that until the virus calms down, quarantine ends and measures in Slovenia and around the world loosen up, the event as we know it cannot be carried out. The safety and health of the participants and the team always comes first, so we ask you for patience and understanding in the next few weeks, when the options for the sixth PIF edition will be clearer.

Unfortunately, due to health reasons, there won’t be any open call for participation this year, but we guarantee that we’ll try to maintain PIFcamp’s diversity and multidisciplinarity of projects, skills and creative approaches, albeit virtually. All of the planned projects, nodes and activities will be announced on the blog, a large part of the content will also be published online.

Hopefully this year’s edition will be a one-time experiment and luckily we see each other again in the standard format next year. Last but not least, the charm of PIFcamp is also the uniqueness of each edition. For all questions and suggestions, we are available at pifcamp@ljudmila.org.

Stay healthy and hack safely,
Your PIFcamp team

Meet the node holder: Scott Kildall

Scott Kildall has been our PIFresident this year, check out what he prepared for PIFcamp!

Sonaqua Workshop

At PIFcamp, I will be leading a hands-on workshop, where you will learn how to solder electronics and build your own Sonaqua sound player, which makes audio synth sounds based on water-quality using the Mozzi libraries. This is a custom circuit board based on the ATMEL architecture and is powered by a 5V USB battery with two wires that make sounds when you put them into a glass of any water.

The workshop will take 2-3 hours, depending on your level of experience with soldering and circuits.

Unnatural Language

During PIFCamp, I will be prototyping a new project called Unnatural Language (built in a collaboration between Michael Ang). It is a network of electronic organisms (“Datapods”) that create sonic improvisations from physical sensors in the natural environment. Each Datapod has custom electronics connected to sensors, a speaker, and a wireless network. The sensed data, for example from electrodes that measure the subtle electrical variations in the leaves of plants, is transformed into a unique synthesized sound. Encased in sculptural materials (natural fiber, leather, leaves, etc) and dispersed into a natural environment, the Datapods enter into a sonic dialogue with the existing ecosystem of plants and animals.

I have built 8 of these during my PIFresidency along with several software synthesizers on the ESP32, which I will be playing with in the natural environment. At PIFcamp, I plan to build boats and other vessels to house the sensors. This project grew from my work on Sonaqua as well as experiments last year at Dinacon.

Meet Aljoša Tarandek

I’m a part of a collective where we try to expend the idea of creating real time live analogue visuals from a wide variety of different sources. But the main tool that I’m using is DIY Eurorack unit (that is not finished, that will never be finished) plugged into two oscilloscopes combined with old school video cameras and a video mixer or two or three and some other equipment that I redesigned for our purposes. The idea of creating visuals with sound is as thrilling to me as the whole process working on it. 

Besides visualising sound I’m also very keen on the idea to actually hear that sound. So yes. I’m much into sound, synthesizers and lights. Oh. I also like plants.  An idea is to combine plants and synthesizers to somehow merge them into one unit. Basically to create visuals with sound you cannot hear and with living beings. I’m more them open to participate on any workshop that has to do with sound and light. I’m very looking forward to my first PIFcamp.

Interactive sound installation by Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos

The project is an interactive site-specific sound installation co-created with interested members of the PIFcamp community. A series of speakers and light sensors will be mounted on the trees in the forest close to the main area of the camp in order to create a light-responsive soundscape. The installation can be experienced in the daytime due to the continuous changes of the light conditions (sun movement, clouds, leaves movement etc) or equally in the  night time where the visitors can interact with the outdoor space with torches. The second scenario will additionally give an interesting light dimension to the piece where the silhouette of the shadow of the participants will be projected on the surrounding space.

During the stay I am planning to give a workshop on embedded sound-music programming and the technologies used for the project. The interactive music system will be developed on a  small single-board computers open-source platform (the Bela platform) specifically designed for low-latency interactive audio. Bela offers high performance audio and sensor processing witch can be done in C or in Pure Data amongst other standard programming environments for computer music and new media art. With this knowledge the participants can consider using Bela board for their future projects; I recommend it especially for sound related interactive projects. Pure Data is free and open course and can of course run on a laptop and on other single board computers (i.e. Raspberry Pi) so again, this knowledge is transferable to other projects too.

With the participants we will explore soundscape composition concepts,  experiment with small patches for interactive sound processing and music composition, develop new patches,  record sounds from the surrounding environment (we could also create miniature compositions by using materials from the surrounding environment as musical instruments ) and create collectively the interactive soundscape by jamming and exploring the interaction together. In the end we will install the system in the forest with the sensors and the speakers. I will provide the Bela boards and the speakers. The participants will have to bring a laptop running Pure Data, ideas and every cool skill they have in creative projects and music. 

Find more about Alexandros here.