cybernetic lotus lift

Cybernetic Lotus Lift is a software tool for networked music performance and interaction. Players position themselves throughout a space IRL, each with an individual speaker connected to a laptop. Using the software, they navigate a game-like environment populated with nodes in a virtual space. Each node represents streaming audio from a unique synthesizer in SuperCollider, networked via OSC. As players move closer to a node, that particular audio stream fades up in their respective speaker. If players are positioned at the same virtual location as a synthesizer node, they may edit that synthesizer's parameters.

It's an unpredictable system with swarm-like behavior, depending on the players' dispositions. The dynamic mapping of sound generators in a game space to speakers arbitrarily located in a physical space causes interesting spatialization patterns to emerge.

role(s):

  • System/network engineer

  • Software developer

  • Sound / synthesis designer

  • UI/UX programmer

technology:

  • SuperCollider

  • Processing

  • Java

A player traverses the localization field, thereby controlling the mix of synthesis nodes emitted from their audio source.

Above, a player occupies a spatialized synthesis node, enabling parameter adjustment for that virtually-localized audio engine.