Building Blocks (WIP) (2010)

"Building Blocks" is a robust installation meant for the kids in the asylum seekers' centre in Utrecht. The goal of the installation is to let children work together to "build" sounds. Together they'll be able to make a richer sonic experience than on their own. This way they learn about working together as well as about sound. The installation consists of five 1m^3 coloured blocks which can be picked up, turned, shaken, etc. to create the sounds. The sounds emit from a sixth unit.
Sketch by Vincent Mensink.
The installation is in prototyping stage, right now it consists of five 18cm^3 blocks.

Table d'objets trouvés (2008)



This interactive installation, made for a school assignment together with Robin Koek, Simon Derks and Kai-Hugo Karstanje. It was built in just over a month.
Seeing as most of us had been experimenting with sound coming out of speakers most of the time, we thought it'd be fun to make an installation which had no speakers, and still made interesting sounds.

What does it do? Well basically it's a table with various objects that can be found in every kitchen. When you hit an object, it will have a reaction. Other objects will be automatically hit by the servo-motors.
As the assignment was to make an interactive installation, we used multiple Arduino's to interface with the piezo elements (for incoming data) and servo motors (the outgoing data).
In between are multiple Max-MSP patches that keep it running and decide how the input will shape the output. This way you have various levels of expression. There is the level of the player, playing the "instrument", and the level of the patch that is running. This is because the part of the patch that decides what to do with the input to make the output interesting is interchangable.

Evirion (2008)

Download Evirion + Freesound External by Nao Tokui


Listen to a composition made by Evirion (STONES / MOOD / CAT)

Evirion creates generative compositions based on words you put into it. For example; if you put in the words CAT/MOOD/STONES, it will search for a sample with the word CAT in the description, one with the word MOOD in the description, etcetera.
It will look for these on the Freesound-site, totally automatically. Sometimes it's pretty dreamy ambient, sometimes it's dark and harsh. Also depends on the words you put into it!
It's built using MaxMSP, and uses Nao Tokui's Freesoundsearch external to look up and download the sounds.