Over the past year my work has been moving away from drawing and painting towards interactive media, sound and small installations. The process seemed painfully slow as I wrestled with the technology, mainly through trial and error, to make this transition happen.
In June 2020 I successfully applied for a development grant from Cultivator Cornwall. The funds I received helped me to learn more about the two pivotal components of my work, the interactive visual programming software Max8 (also called MaxMsp) and the open source physical computing platform Arduino.
I feel privileged to have had Pete Shepherd, an outstanding sound engineer, musician, experimental sound artist and university lecturer as my tutor.
The software MaxMsp and Arduino are rather complex technologies. They are fantastically versatile when it comes to interactive art installations. People often say you can do anything with Max but the learning curve is steep. For my purpose I wanted to learn how to manipulate sound and video according to user definition and data extracted from various sources. This could be readings from interactive physical sensors or even online platforms, such as Twitter or data from the World Wide Web. Although my request sounded simple, the outcome is this exciting and comprehensive toolkit that I can take in any direction I want.
A huge thank you to Cultivator Cornwall and Pete Shepherd.
