The Banality of Affect (2014)
The Banality of Affect is an audiovisual installation and real-time net-art project which problematizes the commodification of emotions via new media and the ecology of (sonic) affect. By examining the popular music genre of trance music and its intended euphoric affect, this installation aims to parody this musically-induced euphoria by exploring its generative-compositional potential.
Data streams from Twitter and the Dutch stock market2 influence the emotional output of the music with a “corrective” function. This is undertaken by assessing incoming tweets from top five trance music DJs and five top news agencies, which are displayed on the projection. These are assigned numerical emotional values (from -5 to +5), which are used to influence the euphoric or disphoric output of the generated music in real-time. Good news allows for more melancholic music, bad news enforces more euphoria. Fluctuations of the Dutch stock market alter the speed of the music; a turn for the worse increases the tempo, an increase in its value lets the tempo slow pace.
Installation Credits: Concept, sound design, sound programming in Supercollider: Annie Goh
Visuals and python programming: Sascha Hanse
Additional programming in Supercollider: Alberto de Campo
With many thanks to: Alberto de Campo, Sascha Hanse, Hannes Hölzl, Fredrik Olofsson, Constantin Engelmann, Paul Christophe, Gregor Kwaczyński, Finn Årup Nielsen (Affin sentiment analysis)
Banality of Affect v.2 (2016)
The Banality of Affect is an audiovisual installation and real-time net-art project which problematizes the commodification of emotions via new media and the ecology of (sonic) affect. By examining the popular music genre of trance music and its intended euphoric affect, this installation aims to parody this musically-induced euphoria by exploring its generative-compositional potential.
Data streams from Twitter and the Dutch stock market influence the emotional output of the music with a pseudo-corrective function. This is undertaken by assessing incoming tweets from top five trance music DJs and five top news agencies, which are displayed on the projection. These are assigned numerical emotional values (from -5 to +5), which are used to influence the euphoric or disphoric output of the generated music in real-time. Good news allows for more melancholic music, bad news enforces more euphoria. Fluctuations of the Dutch stock market alter the speed of the music; a turn for the worse increases the tempo, an increase in its value lets the tempo slow pace.
Installation Credits: Concept, sound design, sound programming in Supercollider: Annie Goh
Visuals and Python programming: Sascha Hanse
Additional programming in Supercollider: Alberto de Campo
Additional programming in Python: Emma Winston
With many thanks to: Alberto de Campo, Sascha Hanse, Emma Winston, Hannes Hölzl, Fredrik Olofsson, Constantin Engelmann, Paul Christophe, Gregor Kwaczyński, Finn Årup Nielsen (Affin sentiment analysis)
ANNIE GOH 