TouchDesigner as Method
The same enquiry is then carried into TouchDesigner, where the memory objects are broken as point clouds: images dissolved into pixel grids, each particle’s position on the z-axis driven by the image’s own brightness values. The result is a slowly pulsating, as if breathing, images given depth and time. Three interface buttons navigate the three memory categories; for the Perceived Reinterpretation, a live webcam feed overlays the original fragment, making the viewer’s environment an active participant in how the memory is seen.
Installation as Method
The installation format is chosen for its interactive aspect. The projected audience’s presence becomes a critical part of the project. Viewers alter the visual distortion of the memory objects through the webcam and, through that same input, contribute to the music. The installation is site-specific in a meaningful sense: a brighter room dominates the imagery differently than a dark one; a loud environment changes the sonic register entirely. The environment, like culture itself, influences how memory sounds or looks.
The node system revealed a parallel with the topic. Image information was broken down and then passed on by nodes, each designed for different functions, coming from different “families” (SOPs, TOPs, CHOPs, etc.) each taking a piece of data from an image and passes it on. Similar to the fragmentation of culture for the sake of accessibility of memory for a CCK. It is through this fragmentation process that the images continue to evolve and live on.
The feedback from participants was a positive one. They generally noted a meditative, zen, cathartic feeling. The immersivity brought them intimately close to the images and stories. One respondent noted having the camera up close demonstrated that. The combination of the music and visuals was magical and therapeutic, prompting another respondent to suggest trying out traumatic memories, or therapy usage. The most surprising however is how they used the buttons as if an instrument. After reading, the interface became more about play than narrative.
From Nodes to Notes
The visual data — RGB values, brightness, layering ratios, is
simultaneously routed into VCV Rack, where it drives a synthesizer not operated by a performer but by the images themselves. The memory objects are given voice. The musical system is tuned to the Javanese “Slendro” scale, a pentatonic structure whose five tones are inherently self-harmonising. Whatever notes the images generate, resolution is built into the system. “Slendro” becomes the project’s structural argument that fragments from different cultural origins, however distant or displaced, are capable of finding harmony with one another. In the future, it would be interesting to experiment with different scales.
Overall, the project was more than mending fragments, it added something more, a beautiful blend of memories and collaboration.
Final body of work presentation slides can be found here
Written Response in node-logic format