Programme
  undergraduate / MAX/MSP/JITTER

Project Title: FIN3025W - Interactive Video and Sound
Date: Tue, 5 May - Mon, 18 May
Times: 13:00 - 16:00
Submission Date: Mon, 18 May
Course co-ordinator: Johann van der Schijff
Part-time Lecturer: Ásta Olga, Josh Ginsberg
Software: MAX/MSP/JITTER ver. 5
Hardware: Web cam, projector, etc.



  Course outline

What will we do on the course?

The course aim is to familiarize the students with the graphical programming environment MAX/MSP/Jitter and thereby expand their vocabulary and possibilities within new media design.

Max/MSP/Jitter consists of three things:
  1.  MAX which is the graphical programming environment itself
  2.  MSP an additional library for real-time audio processing
  3.  Jitter, an additional library for video and matrix data processing
In this course we will focus on the visual processing, i.e. the Jitter part of the software. However, basic programming concepts and understanding of the basics in MAX are premises for working with Jitter. We will connect with the outer world via microphones and webcams and discuss other possibilities.

We will work with the software as a “listener”, as a processor and as interface at once.



  Examples of artworks using MAX/MSP/JITTERPart of the research for this course is to expand the list of web links to art projects making us of MAX/MSP/JITTER



  Brief: creating an artwork using the MAX/MSP/Jitter

Introduction

For over two decades, people have been using Max/MSP/Jitter to make their computers do things that reflect their individual ideas and dreams.
Cycling74
What are those ideas and dreams, what inspires and triggers an artist to use a software like Max/MSP?

Conceptual Objective

The goals with the project and the course:

How can the students expand their artistic vocabulary with the use of MAX/MSP/Jitter?

What is the “new vocabulary” of new media? The article From DV Realism to a Universal Recording Machine by Lev Manovich will be a lead into that discussion. PDF download (236kb)

Tool vs. Work of art – Some artists use the programme to make their own tools to generate something or even to “play on” during life performances. Other artists use the programme to create an art work in itself.

Final Product and Outcome

A visual work of art where computational procedures and/or life interaction is part of the material employed.



  Working Schedule

Tuesday, Week 1:
  •  Introduction to Interactive Art
  •  Introduction to MAX/MSP/itter
Wednesday, Week 1:
  •  MAX/MSP/Jitter
  •  MAX/MSP Basics: Objects vs. messages vs. comments; ordering of operations; interfaces;
Thursday, Week 1:
  •  Jitter Basics: The matrix; video decomposition and analysis; transitions
  •  Exploring the Jitter tutorial
Friday, Week 1:
  •  Project discussion:
  •  Live video input; projections; mixing videos
Monday, Week 2:
  •  Discuss mini-projects and final projects:
  •  Group experiment with Jitter by demand
  •  Production and individual project development
Tuesday, Week 2:
    Wednesday, Week 2:
      Thursday, Week 2:
        Friday, Week 2:
          Monday, Week 2:
          •  Crit and hand-in


            Terminology

          Graphical/Visual Programming
          A Visual programming language (VPL) is any programming language that lets users specify programs by manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually. A VPL allows programming with visual expressions, spatial arrangements of text and graphic symbols. Most VPLs are based on the idea of "boxes and arrows," that is, boxes or circles or bubbles, treated as screen objects, connected by arrows, lines or arcs. 
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Object Oriented Programming
          Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses "objects" and their interactions to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as, encapsulation, modularity, polymorphism, and inheritance. It was not commonly used in mainstream software application development until the early 1990s. Many modern programming languages now support OOP.

          Object-oriented programming's roots reach all the way back to the 1960s. As hardware and software became increasingly complex, researchers studied ways in which software quality could be maintained. Object-oriented programming was deployed in part as an attempt to address this problem by strongly emphasizing discrete units of programming logic and re-usability in software.
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Object
          A particular object. The class of Dog defines all possible dogs by listing the characteristics and behaviors they can have; the object Lassie is one particular dog, with particular versions of the characteristics. A Dog has fur; Lassie has brown-and-white fur.
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Message passing
          “The process by which an object sends data to another object or asks the other object to invoke a method.” Also known to some programming languages as interfacing. E.g. the object called Breeder may tell the Lassie object to sit by passing a 'sit' message which invokes Lassie's 'sit' method. The syntax varies between languages, for example: [Lassie sit] in Objective-C. In Java code-level message passing corresponds to "method calling".
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Encapsulation
          Encapsulation conceals the functional details of a class from objects that send messages to it.
          For example, the Dog class has a bark() method. The code for the bark() method defines exactly how a bark happens (e.g., by inhale() and then exhale(), at a particular pitch and volume). Timmy, Lassie's friend, however, does not need to know exactly how she barks. Encapsulation is achieved by specifying which classes may use the members of an object. The result is that each object exposes to any class a certain interface — those members accessible to that class. (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Algorhithms
          In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related disciplines, an algorithm is a type of effective method in which a definite list of well-defined instructions for completing a task, when given an initial state, will proceed through a well-defined series of successive states, eventually terminating in an end-state. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic; some algorithms, known as probabilistic algorithms, incorporate randomness.
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          MIDI
          MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is an industry-standard protocol that enables electronic musical instruments, computers, and other equipment to communicate, control, and synchronize with each other. Note names and MIDI note numbers. MIDI does not transmit an audio signal or media — it simply transmits digital data "event messages" such as the pitch and intensity of musical notes
          to play, control signals for parameters such as volume, vibrato and panning, cues, and clock signals to set the tempo.
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Input/Output
          In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system (such as a computer), and the outside world – possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it. 
          (Read More… Wikipedia)

          Non-linear
          In the literature and film, the term nonlinear is used to describe a narrative technique wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of human memory but has been applied for other reasons as well[citation needed]. Nonlinearity has a slightly different meaning in the context of video games, where it refers to the possibility of narrating different stories depending on the player's actions in the game.
          (Read More… Wikipedia) 

          Generative art
          Generative art refers to art that has been generated, composed, or constructed in an algorithmic manner through the use of systems defined by computer software algorithms, or similar mathematical or mechanical or randomised autonomous processes.
          Generative art is a system oriented art practice where the common denominator is the use of systems as a production method. To meet the definition of generative art, an artwork must be self-contained and operate with some degree of autonomy. The workings of systems in generative art might resemble, or rely on, various scientific theories such as Complexity science and Information theory. The systems of generative artworks have many similarities with systems found in various areas of science. Such systems may exhibit order and/or disorder, as well as a varying degree of complexity, making behavioral prediction difficult. However, such systems still contain a defined relationship between cause and effect. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Musikalisches Würfelspiel" (Musical Dice Game) 1757 is an early example of a generative system based on randomness. The structure was based on an element of order on one hand, and disorder on the other.
          (Read More… Wikipedia)



            References

          Reference Books

          Reference Manuals
          •  MAX/MSP Tutorials on computers with MAX installed.
          •  Jitter Tutorial on computers with Jitter installed.
          Web References
          •  MAX/MSP/JITTER software developer: Cycling74
          		 
          Ásta Olga & Tatiana Lyng. Color Synesthesia, 2005

          Ásta Olga & Tatiana Lyng. Interactive Swing, 2003

          Nathaniel Stern. Step Inside, 2004

          Johann van der Schijff, Lazy Susan, 2006

          Johann van der Schijff, Lazy Susan, 2006
          Last updated: May 5, 2009
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