Last term I created a piece called Neon/Music, a Max/MSP patch that analyzes video clips for motion and color information and uses it to generate music. For my recent Tokyo trip and performance, I wanted to update it with footage from New York, and more interesting sounds (the original uses general MIDI piano sounds).
I shot a lot of footage from New York, including a very pleasant morning with the camera pointed up through the sunroof of a Zipcar, driving through the skyscrapers of Midtown. I also created some ominous-sounding twangy synth presets in Ableton Live. I found that when used together, it turned Neon/Music into an interesting, ambient, installation piece, very different from the “Broadway boogie-woogie” of the original version.
The piece was presented in this form for the first time at Superdeluxe in Tokyo, on July 20th, 2007 as part of the Watermelon Noise Feast.
Here it is, in glorious YouTube lo-fi splendor: