MonMon
Kumert, Tatiana. 2020.
Laboratorio de Sonido III Final Project, for the Bachelor’s degree in Multimedial Arts, National University of Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
MonMon is an electronic luthiery object in tribute to the ‘90s anime Digimon (Digital Monsters). It plays different sound sequences depending on the amount of light projected on top of it.
What's the theory behind it?
MonMon hardware is inspired by two digital monsters: Botamon and Koromon, who are part of the protagonists digimon evolution line. There were two reasons behind this choice: they’re recognizable (but not popular enough to catch the reference quickly) and because of sentimental values associated with nostalgia.
The interactive instance of this artwork was inspired by the following quote of Lev Manovich’s text “The language of new media”: the classical screen implies “the existence of another virtual space, of another three dimensional world, that’s locked in a frame and situated inside our normal space. This frame separates two spaces that are absolutely different, yet they coexist somehow.”[1] This other world, this three dimensional world, leaks through the frame into the real world. An illusion of the frame disappearing is made, since it’s no longer a classical screen where an audiovisual is played, but a whole space that the viewer can walk through. Those digital monsters that inspired this artwork got out of the screen and ended up in the real world.
To conclude: MonMon is an interactive electronic luthiery object that plays different musical patterns depending on how much light it receives. It honors the ‘90s anime Digimon by introducing a digital monster into the real world.
[1] Manovich, L. (2006) ”The screen and the user”, The language of New Media. Buenos Aires: Paidós Editorial.
Which technologies were implemented?
MonMon uses Arduino UNO, Pure Data and Dexed. Arduino UNO provides the leds and sensors, which values are read and sent to PureData. The code programmed in PD is what makes MonMon come to life, playing notes that are reproduced by the virtual MIDI Dexed. Here’s a further description on how this artwork works:
Two photoresistors sit at the top of MonMons head that catch the amount of light in the room. One of them decides which pattern to play, while the other indicates to PureData which keyvelocity should the notes have.
There’s a total of five sequencences, each one with a different metro so that it’s really easy to differentiate them. For example: the first one has a metro of 450 milliseconds, while the last one has one of 200 milliseconds.
Furthermore, only five notes were selected to minimize the chances of causing some dissonance in the quick change of sequencers. For this exact same reason only two methods were selected to generate sequences: a random with a moses or a cup object with a mod and a select function.
On another hand, for aesthetic reasons there were two yellow leds included in the object. These act as “eyes” which blink. This blink is provided by bangs in the notes played by the sequencers. The velocity in which they blink is also related to the velocity of the pattern.
*The yellow bang floating says “Sends 0 or 1 to make the LEDs blink”
0 and 1 values are sent from the abstractions to a toggle that’s on the main patch. It’s in charge of turning on or off the leds depending on the information that the sensors are capting.
The blinking effect is not given by the sequencer's metro, so that it follows the musical sequence and creates unity.
Finally, the synthesizer (Dexed, synth Say Again) was selected because of its timbre, that sounds digital and doesn’t try to emulate any acoustic element.
Bibliography
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Bourriarud, N. (2007) “Postproduction”. Buenos Aires, Adriana Hidalgo Editora.
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Manovich, L. (2006) ”The screen and the user”, The language of New Media. Buenos Aires: Paidós Editorial.