Overview
We are seeking soundtracks to a generated animation that is an
offshoot of an online collaborative project we have called Gridcosm.
Gridcosm is a collage-like project, where artists can add small images
which are combined to make a larger image. When this image (or "level")
is completed, it is shrunk to 1/3 of its size and becomes the center
for the next level to build upon.
This process has continued for almost 10 years and almost 3000 levels.
During the lifetime of this project, various attempts have been made
to build animations showing the levels either growing or collapsing.
The effect is quite entertaining, overwhelming, disturbing, and,
perhaps, interesting.
For a variety of reasons, we are now releasing a DVD. On it there
will be a near-current "fly-through" animation of Gridcosm. It would
greatly benefit from a soundtrack, or perhaps multiple soundtracks.
Details
The soundtrack could be produced in a typical way -- composed by
a musician using any number of instruments and software. However,
we feel that the structured nature of the animation, plus the fact it
is created algorithmically (from human-generated art), lends itself to
having a generated soundtrack created for it. Or, perhaps, a generated
soundtrack that is subsequently manually reworked to add a more human
touch.
- The final animation will be around 30+ minutes long. Each level
will be shown for the same length of time. This will lend itself to
a rhythm, a heartbeat, a regular tick.
- There is a large amount of meta-data known for each level. Although
each level is only shown for a short period of time (approx 1 second),
these may be used as inputs to affect the soundtrack. They include:
- Date and time each piece created
- Artist info (who did each piece, how many artists worked on each level,
how often the artist is involved, etc.)
- There are two levels of text associated with each level: (1) a free-form
poem that each artist may enter; (2) "tags" that users have given
to levels
- Color information of each level: (1) top 8 colors of image as
normalized to 256 colors; (2) average RGB value for each level
- The soundtrack should not be grating or mostly noise. It need not
be absolutely pleasant (the imagery certainly often is not!), but
should be palatable and serve mostly as ethereal background to the
image. It may be prefered to have the beat of the soundtrack
complement the rhythm of the imagery.
- We could include several soundtracks, using the alternate
audio track capability of the DVD.
The project
This is a small but enthusiastic project. Regretably we cannot pay
for work done, but will gladly give copies (and credit) of the DVD to
anyone whose work is used. (And the DVDs will be sold for cost.) There
are only 3 of us working on this DVD (2 of which also "run" the site),
so it is difficult for us to say when the DVD will be finished. We would
like to have the soundtracks by mid-September. We are not musicians,
and would like to have something interesting, experimental, and fun
as the audio track for this part of the DVD.
Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in this
project. We thank you for your time!
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