Tatsuo Unemi> Project 7²> Flocking Orchestra

Flocking Orchestra (aka DT1) WEB

Flocking Orchestra (aka DT1) is the first product of Side T (2004.2-) of Project Conducting Flock for Media Art.
Playing Music by Conducting Flocking Agents: Abstract: DT1 is an interactive installation that employs flocking algorithms to produce music and visuals. The user's motions are captured by a video camera and influence the flocks behaviour. Each agent moving in a virtual 3D space controls a MIDI instrument whose playing style depends on the agent's state. In this system, the user acts as a conductor influencing the flock's musical activity. In addition to gestural interaction, the acoustic properties of the system can be modified on the fly by using an intuitive GUI. The acoustical and visual output of the system results from the combination of the flock's and user's behaviour. It therefore creates on the behavioural level a mixing of natural and artificial reality. The system has been designed to run an a variety of different computational configuration ranging from small laptops to exhibition scale installations.
Please refer to here to see the new function Flocking Messengers.

Click here to get the latest version. (November 17, 2009 runnable on MacOS 10.6 Snow Leopard)
This is free as a β test version.
The previous version is here. (January 10, 2009)
Version 1.7.1 is here. (February 21, 2008)
System requirements:
- CPU: PowerPC G4/G5, or Intel.
- OS: MacOS X 10.4.x or later.
- Camera: iSight or another one accessible from QuickTime^TM Sequence Grabber.
  This software works even without camera. It's not interesting without interaction, but you might be able to enjoy it as a flock simulator.
The animation rendering got running in an independent thread separated from the main thread. It runs smoothly even in case the camera is slow.
A bug of full-screen mode for a wide display was fixed.

Small size movie (160x120, 10fps, 2.8MB) view in browser| direct link
Middle size movie (320x240, 15fps, 6.2MB) view in browser| direct link
You might not be able to see the movie if you are using Windows or Unix. Please replace it by Mac :-). Or, Netscape 7.1 and QuickTime 6 on Windows will make it possible.

March 27, 2011, a simplified version of DT1 was released, that runs on Processing. You can enjoy it even on Windows if QuickTime was installed.

Revised on March 29, 2011.

Source code: DT1P11.zip
Executables: MacOS X | Windows

Sorry, but it has been examined only on MacBook Pro, MacOS X 10.6 and Processing 1.2.1. It might run very slowly depending on the hardware spec.

Requiem for Flocking Orchestra: an installation based on this software for 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Reference Manual
The documents are included in the above download file as HELP FILEs.

Tatsuo Unemi and Daniel Bisig: Playing Music by Conducting BOID Agents - A Style of Interaction in the Life with A-Life, in J. Pollack et al eds. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, MIT Press, Boston, MA, pp. 546-550, 2004. PDF file is here. GIF file of our poster is here.
Tatsuo Unemi and Daniel Bisig: Music by Interaction among Two Flocking Species and Human, in T. Innocent ed. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Generative Systems in Electronic Arts, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 171-179, 2005. PDF file is here.
Tatsuo Unemi and Daniel Bisig: Flocking Messengers, in C. Soddu ed. Proceedings of the 9th Generative Art Conference, Milan, Italy, pp. 272-280, 2006. PDF file is here.