SMDK - Simulationspace of Mobile Datasounds

Knowbotic Research, SMDK - Simulationsraum mobiler Datenklänge, 1993
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SMDK is a cross-disciplinary project by Knowbotic Research that results from an exchange of working techniques between media artists, computer musicians and computer scientists. The interactive environment SMDK consists of a data base containing sounds which are contributed in the Internet from all over the world. Based on their characteristics, the sounds become mobile elements (agents) and form a self-organizing system by means of simple artificial life rules comparable to a simple cultural community. A visitor who is equipped with a tracking sensor can interactively explore the system in a phyiscal walk-in room and will trigger sounds and influence the organization of the sound elements by manipulating their duration, volume and direction, which in turn depends on the speed and type of his movements. Through a small monitor attached to his head, the visitor is provided with textual information which helps him to navigate inside the virtual sound space. A computer graphical visualization of the permanently changing system, the actions of the visitor and their bearing on the system can be observed by an audience on a large screen in a separate room.