Please Use Other Door (2008)
During summer 2008, I decided to try something new by creating an interactive sound installation. As this was a first attempt, I tried to keep things simple. Under the guidance of Prof. Mike Frengel, I came up with the idea of an interactive garbage can. There was a single contact mic and a small speaker mounted on the bottom of the can, so whenever a piece of trash was thrown in, the resulting signal from the contact mic would be fed into a Max/MSP patch, processed via a number of random functions, and sent back out to the speaker. The idea was to create a truly indeterminate experience in which the installation would always react in an unpredictable manner.
The installation was modified for Fall 2008 Music Technology Student Composers Concert. In the entrance to the venue, the contact mic was attached inside the door's hinge and the speaker mounted above. The piece's title comes from my blunt attempt to force everyone to interact with it, via a sign marked "Please Use Other Door".