Freq 2

Freq 2 is a PC only download

alternatively http://squidsoup.org/freq/index2.html

AltCompose

Downlaod Squidsoups's 3d user interface.

Altzero4

Altzero4 is a partnership between squidsoup and Icarus.

If you could freeze-frame sound; explode it into its constituent parts and then freeze it, it would look something like altzero4. Altzero explores issues to do with control and authorship in interactivity, and what we understand and expect from recorded media, by creating audiovisual compositions that are experienced spatially as well as over time. This is done in a variety of ways, but in particular by trying to evolve audio composition from its traditional form as an experience controlled almost entirely by the composer into one that is determined in part by the will of the listener. The musical experience is transformed into a 3-dimensional spatial journey where the listener chooses the route they take. By transferring the time component of sound into space, a linear path through a piece of music is transformed into an infinite array of possibilities. If one such navigable audio structure is perceived as a representation of a moment of music time in space, then a sequence of these structures represents individual key-frames of an audio animation, highlighting the development of the linear piece over time. Each spike represents a single sound fragment (much as in altzero3, where sounds have a physical appearance as columns of bubbles). The whole 3D structure is a soundscape in this case an explorable freeze-frame of a moment of sound. By moving through the structure, listeners hear a dynamic mix of all the sounds within earshot over time this becomes their experience of that moment of sound.

Altzero4 consists of several such structures, time slices of a fictional soundtrack. Taken as a whole and explored in sequence, they reveal another dimension to a recording, as the piece can be explored over both time and space. Each time slice will run on its own computer, and most of these will have low-volume multimedia speakers and headphones. The computers can be placed in a row, a circle or in various positions throughout the venue. If desired, some of the computers can use projection and non-tangible interaction (motion detection using video translated into movement within the virtual space, as we have done previously with altzero2) this could serve as a climax to the sequence. The exact setup is very flexible and needs to be defined in response to the space(s) available. It is important to have multiple computers running simultaneously in a defined order, so that visitors get the feeling of travelling through the musical piece as they move through the venue.

Formed in 1997, Squidsoup is a London-based art and design group whose work is known around the world. Altzero, their main art project for the last 2 years, has been shown at dozens of events including SIGGRAPH N-Space Art Gallery (LA, August 2001), SONAR (Barcelona, June 2001), and Web3D Symposium (Tempe Arizona, February 2002 and ICA, March 2002). Their work has also been shown at Milia (Cannes), Ars Electronica (Linz Austria), Microwave (Hong Kong), Doors of Perception (Amsterdam).

Icarus (Sam Britton and Ollie Bown) have been making electronic music for the past five years, releasing material on various independent record labels and achieving recognition for their distinct sound and complex drum programming styles.

Altzero squidsoup 2002