(Image above from the National Geographic infographic on Bird Migration & a Firefly gif)
Idea 1: A musical project based off of bird migrations
Creating a musical instrument/composition based off of migration/ flight data? Maybe showing say like above, 5 different species = sonic parts that you could turn off and on? As you select the “instrument”, like “Seabirds”, you could then see it drawn out as a line, and hear it solo, or layered with other selected “instruments?”
You could turn on or off different species’s paths. Still very open to what the tones would be like. Would it be a pre-created composition in a way? Where you can add and subtract layers as a user, to hear how the different migrations are working together? Or would it be more like Mta.me, where it draws the migration path, and the user can pluck it with a mousePressed function? A slight delay could help the tones accumulate / later ❤ Giving the user more agency as the composer?
Mta.me by Alexander Chen
Very inspired by a project called “Conductor” (2011) ❤ And thinking about how to playfully interact with data?
[Interactive Link (in browser)]
Stephanie K’s Bird Sounds in C – Was inspired by Stephanie K’s Bird Sounds in C project. It reminded me of an experimental Cellist’s show I went to a couple years ago at a place called the Firehouse. The Oakland-Based musican Helen Newby had played a composition that was comprised of different abstract drawn marks. The marked music sheets were really beautiful artifacts in it themselves ❤
National Geographic’s Bird Migration / Interactive Map
Link here
Also Inspired by Brian House’s thinking about data and sound
Other ideas:
A 2nd idea : A Firefly catching experience. with each firefly caught? a line from a json data file appears(or maybe it’s musical tones?)? could have then once all of them are caught (slowly accumulating in a jar?) you’re taken to a different level screen, where you release them in the end after succeeding a 2nd task ❤
