NONAGON
This performance was for LoveTechSF in San Francisco. It’s a collection of artists and musicians that also contains a major component they call LearnTech, where artists and visualists present their setups and show their methodology in a workshop setting.
For this promo video, we are syncing to prerecorded Nonagon tracks, however, the performance was all live. Nonagon has a MAX patch that sends his monome and MIDI data to control Ableton live. We tapped that data for our own visualizations and information exchange.
Nonagon (JB Kirby) is a brilliant guy, he programs AI during his days and makes soulful computer music at night. In working and discussing with him, we had a lot of creative discussions- sacred geometry, decay, math in the natural world and etc. His music was in progress for this show, and we designed visual packs that he could approve and give influence to his sonic landscapes.
There are three tracks in this promo… the live show was much longer, about 10 tracks or 45 minutes. We had a live vocalist in Angie Donkin and her violinist, Jay Golden. They had both worked with Nonagon- The violinist we could not glean any data off of, so our data inputs were Nonagon’s MIDI feed and of course, the live audio levels. The violinist, however, had effect pedals that he utilized and added a beautiful organic feel over the whole set.
There are three tracks represented in the promo, “Fixed Action Pattern”- in which we researched geometry and nonagons, specifically. We looked at nine in the natural world as much as we could. We used “9” as our random seed in our flocking simulations and generated nonagons in dozens of configurations.
For “Mr Sniggle’s House”, we used timelapse to capture an overhead projector with various natural live detritus occluding the light beams- feeder crickets, worms, beta fish, all acquired at the local pet store (and returned to nature when their staring roles concluded) and also created a live font using address stencils.
For “Kontrol (I wish you were here)” We worked with Nonagon and Angie and created projection mapped scenes of original photography taken in Tokyo and Spain. We utilized typographic flourishes to visualize the loss, yearning, and emotion in the song.
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