dream squawk
Dream Squawk is a hand-crafted bird mask that houses controls for a software-based vocal effects processor and sampler. It’s part of a larger performance called Dream Shadows, a love story between an introspective scientist and a magical bird-woman from his dreams. Dream Squawk is implemented using a wireless lavalier microphone, custom wireless circuit design built into the beak of the mask, a separate module worn on the back of the head, and custom digital signal processing software written in Pd. The circuit in the beak talks wirelessly to the software and allow the user to record/mute two live vocal samples to create loops, and tweak echo effects and speed effects independently to expand vocal performance into ephemeral dream-like sound.
For Dream Squawk, the mask was created with the physical controls directly on the beak to create wing-shaped movements natural to the character inherent in performing the instrument. Modularity is a key component of the design, as the performer may want a different interface than the bird mask as a vocal controller. To allow for this, the microcontroller and Lilypad XBee radio are in a separate soft-circuit module, which can be separated from the bird mask altogether.
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Dream Squawk from Semiotech on Vimeo.
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