EN

by Irune Serna

This work shows a prototype of an acousmatic device taking advantage of the possibilities offered by micro:bit to produce sounds based on the amount of light perceived by its sensors, turning it into an interactive experience in which different interactors will take part, at least two , to produce different sounds depending on the light perceived in the micro:bit LEDs. It emulates a theremin that, instead of measuring the distance with the ultrasonic sensor, perceives the amount of light captured by the LED sensors.

Among my artistic preferences, one that always has a relevant position is the field of sound, within which I want to progressively delve deeper into the acousmatic terrain although I have already made some previous forays.

Heir to concrete music, electronics, electroacoustics, etc., acousmatics is a game with sound abstraction, which represents an active and intelligent listening experience. In the acousmatic we do not see what produces the sound, we only see the speakers, since the acousmatic is what is outside the visual field (both off and over). This type of sounds has great potential because its categorization will depend on our listening and therefore it is open to our personal association with other already known sound stimuli, although we will not always be able to relate them to something known and on other occasions a relationship will occur with something. only emotionally.

In the interpretation of acousmatic music there is only the audience and speakers because the performer/composer is no longer there. Normally, the artist mounts the work at a later time than when it is created and exhibited at a later time, in that sense it is similar to cinema. It is about hearing a sound without seeing the source and the audience freely interprets the sound based on the experience they have with the sound.

It involves very active listening because the listener faces the mirror of himself, his internal imagination, his memory, experience, and so on.

On this occasion, I have chosen to create a black box, also taking advantage of the symbology that it represents from the point of view of acousmatics, so that a person is going to put his head inside the black box, where everything is dark. , and where you will be able to perceive the sounds that will be generated with micro:bit through headphones that I have connected to it and that will be the source of the sound that the person who has their head inside the box will perceive.

For its part, that sound you perceive will not be the result of your decisions, precisely to enhance the acousmatic element, but will depend on the interactors who are outside, who will find a person with his head stuck in a black box, in which only the micro:bit screen is seen, which invites the person to provide more or less light, in a way that modifies the other person's experience.

In that sense, micro:bit is programmed to emit different sounds than it can depending on the level of light it perceives in its sensors, so if more or less light is brought closer to them, the sound produced It will be different in each case, and it will depend on the decisions that the people outside make regarding the amount of light they provide.

In fact, the micro:bit screen will be transmitting to the interactors who are outside the following message: “Your light and dark shapes my world, do you dare?”, which, in addition to giving clues to the person about what can do, the effect that the decisions of some have on others is revealed, thus symbolically highlighting elements that are at the basis of human relationships.