Scott Smallwood | University of Alberta (original) (raw)
Papers by Scott Smallwood
Proceedings of the ACM on computer graphics and interactive techniques, Sep 6, 2022
Leonardo Music Journal, 2010
This paper describes a series of investigations into the use of sustainable methods for powering ... more This paper describes a series of investigations into the use of sustainable methods for powering electronic musical instruments and perhaps ultimately a large ensemble such as the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, a collection of 15–25 meta-instruments each consisting of a laptop computer, interfacing equipment and a hemispherical speaker. The research discussed includes the development of instruments specifically designed for solar power, as well as the use of solar panels and/or batteries to power more conventional devices such as computers and amplifiers.
Computer Music Journal, 2008
In its inaugural semester (Fall 2005), the Princeton Laptop Orchestra began as a seminar comprisi... more In its inaugural semester (Fall 2005), the Princeton Laptop Orchestra began as a seminar comprising 15 freshmen undergraduates (3 women, 12 men), 15 laptop and six- channel speaker- array stations, and equipment for networking and transportation (see Trueman 2006; Trueman ...
Workshop on …
INTRODUCTION Computational support of creativity is a core concern of our daily work, as research... more INTRODUCTION Computational support of creativity is a core concern of our daily work, as researchers and musicians working in computer music. We are enthusiastic about the prospect of attending the Computational Creativity Support workshop at CHI 2009, both to share our work on ...
In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra ... more In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), a collection of 15 meta-instruments each consisting of a laptop computer, interfacing equipment, and a hemispherical speaker. Founded in the fall of 2005, PLOrk represents the first laptop ensemble of its size and kind, and brings together many of our research and aesthetic interests as musicians, composers, and computer scientists. Here we chronicle the first steps of the ensemble, including details about the technology, the music, compositional challenges, and what we have learned in the process.
Current research in systematic musicology, 2017
This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at... more This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at Princeton University; in particular, the design, construction, and use in live performance of a series of spherical and hemispherical speaker systems. We also provide a DIY guide to constructing the latest series of loudspeakers that we are currently using in our research and music making.
ACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Art Gallery
This paper/poster describes the development of an experimental listening game called Locus Sono; ... more This paper/poster describes the development of an experimental listening game called Locus Sono; a 3D audio puzzle game where listening and exploration are the key forms of interaction. The game was developed by a motivation to create an interactive audio environment in which sound is the key to solving in-game puzzles. This work is a prototype for a larger planned work and illustrates a first step in a more complex audio gaming scenario, which will also be partially described in this short paper
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2020, 2021
The Dorabella cipher is a symbolic message written in 1897 by English composer Edward Elgar. We a... more The Dorabella cipher is a symbolic message written in 1897 by English composer Edward Elgar. We analyze the cipher using modern computational and statistical techniques. We consider several open questions: Is the underlying message natural language text or music? If it is language, what is the most likely language? Is Dorabella a simple substitution cipher? If so, why has nobody managed to produce a plausible decipherment? Are some unusual-looking patterns in the cipher likely to occur by chance? Can stateof-the-art algorithmic solvers decipher at least some words of the message? This work is intended as a contribution towards finding answers to these questions.
scott-smallwood.com
This paper describes a series of street performances which result in an unusual exchange between ... more This paper describes a series of street performances which result in an unusual exchange between performer, audience, and environment. In these performances, we capture the sounds from the immediate environment, process them with our laptop-based performance system, and ...
There is rich history of using found or "readymade" objects in music performances and s... more There is rich history of using found or "readymade" objects in music performances and sound installations. John Cage's Water Walk, Carolee Schneeman's Noise Bodies, and David Tudor's Rainforest all lean on both the sonic and cultural affordances of found objects. Today, composers and sound artists continue to look at the everyday, combining readymades with microcontrollers and homemade electronics and repurposing known interfaces for their latent sonic potential. This paper gives a historical overview of work at the intersection of music and the readymade and then describes three recent sound installations/performances by the authors that further explore this space. The emphasis is on processes involved in working with found objects--the complex, practical, and playful explorations into sound and material culture.
Proceedings of the 2006 …, 2006
In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra ... more In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), a collection of 15 meta-instruments each consisting of a laptop computer, interfacing equipment, and a hemispherical speaker. Founded in the fall of 2005, PLOrk represents ...
Computer Music Journal, 2008
Current Research in Systematic Musicology, 2017
This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at... more This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at Princeton University; in particular, the design, construction, and use in live performance of a series of spherical and hemispherical speaker systems. We also provide a DIY guide to constructing the latest series of loudspeakers that we are currently using in our research and music making.
This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at... more This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at Princeton University; in particular, the design, construction, and use in live performance of a series of spherical and hemispherical speaker systems. We also provide a DIY guide to constructing the latest series of loudspeakers that we are currently using in our research and music making.
Computer Music Journal, 2008
This paper describes the development, creation, and deployment of a sound installation entitled C... more This paper describes the development, creation, and deployment of a sound installation entitled Coronium 3500 (Lucie's Halo), commissioned by the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. The piece, a 12-channel immersive sound installation driven by solar power, was exhibited as part of the exhibition In the Garden of Sonic Delights from June 7 to November 4, 2014, and again for similar duration in 2015. Herein I describe the aesthetic and technical details of the piece and its ultimate deployment, as well as reflecting on the results and the implications for future work.
Losperus is a performance piece by Evidence (Stephan Moore + Scott Smallwood) that uses small mi... more Losperus is a performance piece by Evidence (Stephan
Moore + Scott Smallwood) that uses small microphones,
resonant objects and commonplace motorized devices to
create a dense, evolving texture of amplified sound.
Built by human caretakers into spontaneous kinetic
sculptures that swiftly form, interact, and disintegrate,
the true performers are the objects themselves, speaking
and moving with a volition that eerily emulates animal
awareness. In this paper we discuss the process of
developing and performing Losperus, with examples
from previous performances. We trace how this work
grew out of our heavily field recording-based laptop
performance practice, translating a software-based
improvisational language steeped in acoustic ecology
into a parallel method of musical expression realized
with physical objects. We will also discuss the role that
the drama of enforced entropy and the threat of disaster
plays in creating
Proceedings of the Symposium Musique et écologies du son / Music and ecologies of sound, 2013
Harnessing the sun as an energy source is of great interest in this age of energy crises, and hol... more Harnessing the sun as an energy source is of great interest in this age of energy crises, and holds our imagination because of its quiet, seemingly magical properties. Photovoltaic technologies have grown quickly over the past 20 years, and more and more applications of solar power are finding use today. In the arts, solar power is often used as energy sources for public artworks, as a practical matter. These systems typically work in conjunction with batteries or other sources of energy in order to ensure a constant voltage and power level. However, an alternate approach is to design the work to use the sun's energy directly, and exclusively, with the sunlight itself as a functional parameter of the material. In this paper, we examine the use of photovoltaics in the direct production of sound as a function of its existence. These solarsonic works are designed to use the sun in the same way that wind--based artworks use the wind: they are activated di-rectly, and are totally dependent on the light available in the moment. We survey solarsonic works by several artists, and discuss a series of works by the author, and conclude with a look at what the future may bring.
Proceedings of the ACM on computer graphics and interactive techniques, Sep 6, 2022
Leonardo Music Journal, 2010
This paper describes a series of investigations into the use of sustainable methods for powering ... more This paper describes a series of investigations into the use of sustainable methods for powering electronic musical instruments and perhaps ultimately a large ensemble such as the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, a collection of 15–25 meta-instruments each consisting of a laptop computer, interfacing equipment and a hemispherical speaker. The research discussed includes the development of instruments specifically designed for solar power, as well as the use of solar panels and/or batteries to power more conventional devices such as computers and amplifiers.
Computer Music Journal, 2008
In its inaugural semester (Fall 2005), the Princeton Laptop Orchestra began as a seminar comprisi... more In its inaugural semester (Fall 2005), the Princeton Laptop Orchestra began as a seminar comprising 15 freshmen undergraduates (3 women, 12 men), 15 laptop and six- channel speaker- array stations, and equipment for networking and transportation (see Trueman 2006; Trueman ...
Workshop on …
INTRODUCTION Computational support of creativity is a core concern of our daily work, as research... more INTRODUCTION Computational support of creativity is a core concern of our daily work, as researchers and musicians working in computer music. We are enthusiastic about the prospect of attending the Computational Creativity Support workshop at CHI 2009, both to share our work on ...
In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra ... more In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), a collection of 15 meta-instruments each consisting of a laptop computer, interfacing equipment, and a hemispherical speaker. Founded in the fall of 2005, PLOrk represents the first laptop ensemble of its size and kind, and brings together many of our research and aesthetic interests as musicians, composers, and computer scientists. Here we chronicle the first steps of the ensemble, including details about the technology, the music, compositional challenges, and what we have learned in the process.
Current research in systematic musicology, 2017
This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at... more This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at Princeton University; in particular, the design, construction, and use in live performance of a series of spherical and hemispherical speaker systems. We also provide a DIY guide to constructing the latest series of loudspeakers that we are currently using in our research and music making.
ACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Art Gallery
This paper/poster describes the development of an experimental listening game called Locus Sono; ... more This paper/poster describes the development of an experimental listening game called Locus Sono; a 3D audio puzzle game where listening and exploration are the key forms of interaction. The game was developed by a motivation to create an interactive audio environment in which sound is the key to solving in-game puzzles. This work is a prototype for a larger planned work and illustrates a first step in a more complex audio gaming scenario, which will also be partially described in this short paper
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Historical Cryptology HistoCrypt 2020, 2021
The Dorabella cipher is a symbolic message written in 1897 by English composer Edward Elgar. We a... more The Dorabella cipher is a symbolic message written in 1897 by English composer Edward Elgar. We analyze the cipher using modern computational and statistical techniques. We consider several open questions: Is the underlying message natural language text or music? If it is language, what is the most likely language? Is Dorabella a simple substitution cipher? If so, why has nobody managed to produce a plausible decipherment? Are some unusual-looking patterns in the cipher likely to occur by chance? Can stateof-the-art algorithmic solvers decipher at least some words of the message? This work is intended as a contribution towards finding answers to these questions.
scott-smallwood.com
This paper describes a series of street performances which result in an unusual exchange between ... more This paper describes a series of street performances which result in an unusual exchange between performer, audience, and environment. In these performances, we capture the sounds from the immediate environment, process them with our laptop-based performance system, and ...
There is rich history of using found or "readymade" objects in music performances and s... more There is rich history of using found or "readymade" objects in music performances and sound installations. John Cage's Water Walk, Carolee Schneeman's Noise Bodies, and David Tudor's Rainforest all lean on both the sonic and cultural affordances of found objects. Today, composers and sound artists continue to look at the everyday, combining readymades with microcontrollers and homemade electronics and repurposing known interfaces for their latent sonic potential. This paper gives a historical overview of work at the intersection of music and the readymade and then describes three recent sound installations/performances by the authors that further explore this space. The emphasis is on processes involved in working with found objects--the complex, practical, and playful explorations into sound and material culture.
Proceedings of the 2006 …, 2006
In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra ... more In this paper we report on the current state of the newly established Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), a collection of 15 meta-instruments each consisting of a laptop computer, interfacing equipment, and a hemispherical speaker. Founded in the fall of 2005, PLOrk represents ...
Computer Music Journal, 2008
Current Research in Systematic Musicology, 2017
This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at... more This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at Princeton University; in particular, the design, construction, and use in live performance of a series of spherical and hemispherical speaker systems. We also provide a DIY guide to constructing the latest series of loudspeakers that we are currently using in our research and music making.
This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at... more This paper gives a historical overview of the development of alternative sonic display systems at Princeton University; in particular, the design, construction, and use in live performance of a series of spherical and hemispherical speaker systems. We also provide a DIY guide to constructing the latest series of loudspeakers that we are currently using in our research and music making.
Computer Music Journal, 2008
This paper describes the development, creation, and deployment of a sound installation entitled C... more This paper describes the development, creation, and deployment of a sound installation entitled Coronium 3500 (Lucie's Halo), commissioned by the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. The piece, a 12-channel immersive sound installation driven by solar power, was exhibited as part of the exhibition In the Garden of Sonic Delights from June 7 to November 4, 2014, and again for similar duration in 2015. Herein I describe the aesthetic and technical details of the piece and its ultimate deployment, as well as reflecting on the results and the implications for future work.
Losperus is a performance piece by Evidence (Stephan Moore + Scott Smallwood) that uses small mi... more Losperus is a performance piece by Evidence (Stephan
Moore + Scott Smallwood) that uses small microphones,
resonant objects and commonplace motorized devices to
create a dense, evolving texture of amplified sound.
Built by human caretakers into spontaneous kinetic
sculptures that swiftly form, interact, and disintegrate,
the true performers are the objects themselves, speaking
and moving with a volition that eerily emulates animal
awareness. In this paper we discuss the process of
developing and performing Losperus, with examples
from previous performances. We trace how this work
grew out of our heavily field recording-based laptop
performance practice, translating a software-based
improvisational language steeped in acoustic ecology
into a parallel method of musical expression realized
with physical objects. We will also discuss the role that
the drama of enforced entropy and the threat of disaster
plays in creating
Proceedings of the Symposium Musique et écologies du son / Music and ecologies of sound, 2013
Harnessing the sun as an energy source is of great interest in this age of energy crises, and hol... more Harnessing the sun as an energy source is of great interest in this age of energy crises, and holds our imagination because of its quiet, seemingly magical properties. Photovoltaic technologies have grown quickly over the past 20 years, and more and more applications of solar power are finding use today. In the arts, solar power is often used as energy sources for public artworks, as a practical matter. These systems typically work in conjunction with batteries or other sources of energy in order to ensure a constant voltage and power level. However, an alternate approach is to design the work to use the sun's energy directly, and exclusively, with the sunlight itself as a functional parameter of the material. In this paper, we examine the use of photovoltaics in the direct production of sound as a function of its existence. These solarsonic works are designed to use the sun in the same way that wind--based artworks use the wind: they are activated di-rectly, and are totally dependent on the light available in the moment. We survey solarsonic works by several artists, and discuss a series of works by the author, and conclude with a look at what the future may bring.