I was fortunate to have two videos featured in the demo reel for Everybody Wants Everything, the 2009 End-of-year show for Media Arts & Technology.

In addition to the reel of generative colloquium intros I also showed an excerpt from an audio-visual collaboration with Aaron McLeran entitled “Pulse.”

The video comes from the results of an hour long jam session testing out my latest efforts at audio-visual synchronization. Aaron’s generative music program sent signals to my program over the internet to trigger animation events in response to meaningful song dynamics.

See both videos below:

Pulse [Excerpt] from Pehr Hovey on Vimeo.

Media Arts & Technology Colloquium Video Intro from Pehr Hovey on Vimeo.

I collaborated with Aaron McLeran, a fellow MAT student, to produce a series of introductory videos for our department’s colloquium series when they are posted online. Both the music and the visuals are generated on the fly and different every time. Below is a sampling of some of the takes:

Media Arts & Technology Colloquium Video Intro from Pehr Hovey on Vimeo.

The animation was written in Java using the Razzle framework that I have been developing. It was driven via OSC commands that were received from the music software.

The music was generated by Aaron McLeran via probability-based techniques using Max/MSP which broadcasted MIDI and Open Sound Control (OSC). The MIDI events were played by samplers and synthesizers in Ableton LIVE and the OSC was used over a wireless network to control the graphics.

Here are some progress shots as I was developing the animation:

I have acquired a Flickr account to efficiently display large amounts of images from my projects. My goal is to show the wide variety of images that are feasible with the program I am writing as well as making it easy to trace the evolution of the program as new features are added and animations are written.

Check out my latest work below!


Marbles I from Pehr Hovey on Vimeo.

I have been playing with particle systems that have individual position and velocity but are also affected by other particles and the environment. In this case there are hidden “hotspots” in the field that affect the particles’ velocity vectors.


Marbles II from Pehr Hovey on Vimeo.

When a particle is within a certain distance of the circular hotspot its velocity is scaled to either slow it down or speed it up. Additionally it is partially pulled towards the center of the hotspot with a variable amount of ’suction’. these effects combine to disturb the otherwise smooth and rhythmic marble field.

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