Currents New Media & The Paseo Project

Alison Johnson and I first showed Visual Audio at Currents New Media in 2018. It stemmed from an underground DIY projection pop-up called, No Signal. In under a week I coded a basic version of what would later be Visual Audio, where users simply could speak, hum, clap, tap or do whatever they wanted into a microphone and see a visually animated output that was generative and randomized to provide an intimate and custom feel for the end user.

Two of Currents New Media founders were at the No Signal show and encouraged us to apply to the festival. Our concept was accepted and we expanded the visualization functionality to allow the user to not only change between 3 visual programs, but also affect visual amplitude and color on the screen based on sound level input and a physical control knob located on a custom built hardware interface I designed. Furthermore, I implemented a push button on the custom interface to allow for screen captures of the projected visual output, capturing individual moments in time when users were interacting with the piece and generating totally new visual animations. Currents was a total success and we were able to show our piece to thousands of visitors and the general public in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For more information on our involvement in Currents New Media, visit:
https://currentsnewmedia.org/artist/thomas-vause/

The Paseo Project works to transform art through community and community through art.

We expanded the code base of Visual Audio to have more user program selection, dialed in some more detail on the visualizations, and added some more complexity to the randomization so that you truly never saw the same visualization twice. But there was still a cohesion and thematic element to the piece as a whole.

This was the largest installation and visible to most of Taos' downtown! 

https://paseoproject.org/portfolio/alison-johnson-thomas-vause/