Subtle Chaos- evaluation

On Wednesday the 19th of May we had the performance technology day where people were able to view and interact with my installation "Subtle Chaos". Here are the notes that I made for the piece

Subtle Chaos

This piece attempts to portray the relationship between sound and colour. Harmonization between the two is achieved by the complimentary pattern that each one produces on the other. When using the piece, the user can simply watch as the colours and sounds gradually change with endless linking possibilities, conveying the nature of colour and sound. Alternatively, the user can scroll the mouse over the smart board and experience the dramatic effect this has on the piece. The piece is ambiguous in nature. Whether meaning can be derived is left to the individual.



On the whole the day was a big success. One aspect I noticed about it was that the piece was interesting enough for people to watch it/ interact with it for several minutes each. There were some people that spent maybe 5-10 minutes moving their hand across the screen. This was highly beneficial when you have a fair number of people in the room as even when someone was interacting with the piece, everyone else found it interesting enough just to watch hence providing the audience. I feel the range of possibilities on offer was the reason for this. For example, although the image morphing film and the sound file were both looped, you would have to wait for a considerable time before this was realized. The piece, even when no one was touching the screen, provided much interest. As the colours gradually changed on the film, the sound change was much more subtle if the mouse was just left at a single point and so no one touching the screen. This way, the user noticed a dramatic difference when the screen was touched, as the mouse was going between different colours quickly and so this greatly affected the sound.
In my notes for the piece I stated that it was "ambiguous in nature". When different people spoke to me they expressed differing ideas about it. One person was speaking along the lines of the effectiveness of electronic music. Ann, the Drama lecturer spoke about how it would be good to use it for her special needs class. What was also an effective part of the installation was having the room more or less empty with the lights off. This created the ideal environment for the piece to be shown in and added to the effectiveness. The only drawback was that the audience could not read my notes that were to the side of the smart-board, but they may have read the other copy on the door. Perhaps more of an audience would have been better but I felt there was a reasonable number there and the room not being too crowded meant that everyone could see and experience the piece fully.