Bregman Design Collective (BdC+)

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Circadian Rhythms
Circadian Rhythms (v.2) [in progress] is a swarm of sixty electronic insects. Each sculptural module is equipped with a Rasberry Pi computer and an arduino fitted with sensors. Utilizing a combination of prior data on circadian patterns of insects, with light and sound sensors, the installation mimics behaviors of insect behaviors through musical calls. Spencer Topel: concept, design, and sound. Shannon Werle architecture and fabrication.
Singer
Singer2
Singer [completed]. Singer (2014) is a physical-sound installation was awarded second prize at the Köln Philharmonie in the ACHT BRÜCKEN Musik für Köln 2014 international music festival. Designed and created by Shannon Werle, Carlos Dominguez, Ezra Teboul, Angela Kim as the group Collctv
One Million Seconds (2014) [completed] One Million Seconds is a study in imploded cinema. Each moment stitches together fragments sampled from 120 full-length motion pictures (24,000,000 frames / 1,000,000 seconds) from the history of cinema. The resulting film is generated from audio-visual fragments, sorted by their audio similarity to a hidden cantus firmus- Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, by artist Michael Casey
Listening Glass (2014) by artist Spencer Topel is the first installation in a series exploring the relationships between interior spaces and external ones. Visitors experience a continuous live audio stream from Barton Creek Wilderness Park in Austin, Texas transduced over a large atrium window at Wesleyan University . The design allows listeners to experience different aspects of the soundscape using the natural filtering properties of an assortment of twelve surface transducers. This work was sponsored by SEAMUS 2014, at Wesleyan University, and was in collaboration with Joel Goodwin at Live Nature Songs Ltd.
CellandSanctuary
Cell and Sanctuary (v.1) [completed] is an environment-responsive sound and sculptural form exploring aspects of confinement: voluntary versus involuntary isolation, and how this binary relates to our own sensory experiences. Specifically, the interpretation of silence and light as positive confinement, and darkness and noise and noise as negative confinement. Sensor data from sound and light inputs in turn control the rates and loudness of randomly activated audio samples consisting of electromagnetically-resonated piano strings evocative of aviary songs. Soo Sunny Park: form and concept Spencer Topelsound, concept, and interaction
Visual Smash Up (2014) We present a system for realtime mosaicing of visual content. The system learns objects from the camera image and displays the resulting visual mosaic. Only unique objects are learned creating a hallucinatory resynthesis of the original camera image. For instance, all keyboard letters are replaced by only a single letter since based on purely visual appearance, a single letter is unique enough to portray the keyboard, by artist Parag Mital.
Border Languages
Border Languages (v.1) [in progress] Border Languages is an experimental video installation presenting over 60 homophones between Hebrew and Arabic. Visitors experience a film of two non-actor Jewish and Arab teenagers reciting the text presented on two floating frames suspended from the ceiling. Projections of faintly illuminated text on the walls around the frames provide a sense of focused immersion. The corresponding Hebrew, Arabic, and English* words illuminate as each homophone pair are presented, providing translation and meaning, but also suggest distance, both in terms of cartographic and phonetic distances. In this context, tension between the sound, semantics, and representation of these words is particularly stark, since Hebrew and Arabic share a common ancestral language, and more-so in relief of broader cultural conflicts and differences. Spencer Topel: concept and interaction Shannon Werlecinematography and architecture
The End (2014) looks at how individuals relate to community and the future. Each performer utilizes nine distinct dance moves in the piece executed in various combinations choreographed by John Heginbotham. The music and live projections were composed by artist Carlos Dominguez (GR'14).