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TITLE: Hive – a performative SMS/RSS visualization and sonification
MENTOR:
Maria Lantin and Julie Andreyev, Intersections Digital Studios,
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
MENTOR contact:
mlantin@eciad.ca
lic@telus.net
OVERVIEW:
HIVE is a project that explores local and global knowledge sharing through audience
participation in an event-based performance. HIVE seeks to create an interactive audio-visual
event where collaboration between individuals contributes to community-produced content. The
project team imagines a sound and vision environment in which audience members feed their
information, in real time, to the group experience. During the live event, HIVE invites audience
members to respond to information from current news stories by sending in text messages and
voice messages using their mobile devices. These contributions are then curated by the
performance team to generate a real-time text- and sonic-based dynamic atmosphere. HIVE
layers global information with local knowledge to create opportunities for information sharing,
discussion and reflection.
HIVE is rooted in research of animal behavior, in particular the communication methods used by
social insects. Foraging bees communicate information to the colony via specific movement
vocabularies, and swarm patterns emerge as a result of types of communication. An example of
bee behavior is the waggle dance whereby successful bee foragers communicate to the colony
information about their findings. The find is coded by the bee into a dance where the direction,
duration and vigorousness of the dance correspond to information about the resource. The farther
the target, the longer the dance; the greater the quantity of resource, the more vigorous the dance.
Flowers located directly in line with the sun are represented by the dance in a vertical direction
within the hive, and any angle to the right or left of the sun is coded by the dance’s
corresponding angle to the right or left of this upward direction. Amazingly, the reporting bee
will modify their dance in time to account for the changing angle of the sun. These systems are
the inspiration for algorithms used in the HIVE visualizations and sound, where individual
participation and communication of knowledge contributes to shared experience and intelligence
of the group.
In HIVE, the visualizations are projected within a performance space and are made up of a
background ‘landscape’ of letters out of which messages appear and animate around the screen
using insect-type swarming movements. The emerging messages originate from two real-time
sources representing local and remote knowledge points: the audience members’ text messages
and RSS feeds from national and international news organizations. These messages are curated
in real-time by the HIVE system and team and sorted to be included on the screen in moving
patterns. The soundscape created during HIVE uses as its source material voice messages, sent
via cell phone, also generated by the audience in real-time. These voice messages are selected
and manipulated into the audio mix by the HIVE team using DJ techniques of sampling, layering
and repetition. The performance team creates a sonic environment whereby the audience hears
that their voice has a role in the ‘voice’ of the community.
As audience members respond to and collaborate in these feeds through further messaging, the
HIVE system clusters the texts into swarming visualizations and sonic reponses, representing
community knowledge building. Additional swarms of information may be generated at the same
time thereby creating a rich and layered interactive field of content. Using visual and soundbased
performance models, *glisten) HIVE offers a dyanmic and interactive installation to depict
group knowledge and communication.
Team:
- Julie Andreyev, Associate Professor, Emily Carr University of Art & Design;
- Maria Lantin, Director, Intersections Digital Studios, ECUAD;
- Simon Overstall, Research Technician at Intersections Digital Studios;
- Sean Arden, Research Assistant;
- Angel Dawn, Research Assistant.
PROJECT or Industry Area GOALS:
- Design of interface with Mobile Muse SIFT social aggregation software for the purpose
of the HIVE visualization - Design of visualization of text
- Testing of SMS and RSS feeds
- Help with setup of installation for performance in February as part of MidForms.
PROJECT or Company DESCRIPTION:
To be determined in collaboration with project team.
IMAGE[s]:
These are mockups that illustrate the style of visualization that HIVE is aiming at.
DELIVERABLES:
- Working prototype ready for performance at MidForms festival in February 09.
- Working interface to SIFT media aggregator
- Dynamic visualization of SMS and RSS feeds
SKILLS REQUIRED:
- Java programming
- Max/MSP programming
- Visualization design
- Mobile phone application experience
RESOURCES
Most of this work can be done remotely with regular meetings with the team. If necessary, a laptop and
software can be provided for the project.