manIC

The manIC project is an interactive light and sound sculpture designed to foster spontaneous collaboration between its participants/users.

Inspired by other interactive artwork I had experienced at Burning Man, I created the manIC concept and its project proposal. After being awarded funds from the Burning Man LLC, I then directed a team of programmers, electronics engineers and fabricators to bring the project into fruition.

The manIC project has appeared at the Burning Man Festival in 2006 and 2007 as well as the 2007 Coachella Music Festival and the 2007 Treasure Island Music Festival.

The piece consists of an arrray of thirteen LED light posts arranged in a concentric spiral and surrounded by four speakers. Each post has a blue and a red button networked to a central computer running a custom MAX/MSP patch. The program analyzes button presses and generates lighting patterns along with MIDI signals that control Ableton Live music compositions. By pressing multiple buttons of the same color, increasingly complex lighting patterns and multichannel sound effects are generated.