Thesis project produces musical interactions through touch

One stale yellow light dimly illuminated Studio A in the Communications Building as the door shut behind Bob Shapiro and his two daughters.

The light etched a long rectangle on the cement floor, leading the guests to a black-curtained room in the middle of the darkened studio.

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Intrigued and curious, the three Paducah residents approached the square’s entrance and gazed at a large white star-shaped figure on the floor as four television screens flickered toward the star.

Shapiro encouraged his daughters to enter. He watched as they slowly moved around the outside of the star as music began to loudly issue, ascending and descending as they danced about the room.

Amazed, Shapiro tried himself and then noticed a young man approaching the entrance with a smile on his face.

Jason Beckham reached out a hand to Shapiro introducing himself and his thesis project, “Musica Planutum,” to complete his education in the Interactive Multimedia Masters Program at SIUC.

Others in the program wrote 60-page research papers and constructed large multimedia projects for their theses, but Beckham wanted to go the extra step that landed him two gallery and museum showcases on the thesis showing Friday night.

The name of the project “Musica Planutum” is Latin for Music Planet, which simply illustrates the concept behind the elements used. But Beckham first adapted his designs from an internationally known sound and video installation artist.

David Rokeby’s most well-known masterpiece, “The Very Nervous System,” designed the art for his spectators to directly interact with his work.

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Awarded a Petro-Canada Award for Media Arts at the Prix Ars Electronica festival in Austria for his creation, Rokeby wanted to incorporate video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesizers and a sound system to create a space in which the movements of one’s body create sound and/or music.

Rokeby noted on his autobiographical website the language of the computer is simple and logical – unlike human movement.

“The computer removes the subject from his or her body; the body should be strongly engaged,” Rokeby said on his website. “Because the computer’s activity takes place on the tiny playing fields of integrated circuits, the encounter with the computer should take place in human-scaled physical space.”

Beckham, intrigued and interested in Rokeby’s design, wanted to recreate this nervous system with components he found educational and appealing.

“He started designing and developing that in 1982 and if you think about how antiquated technology was, he was really forging ahead,” Beckham said. “I was fascinated by that.”

Beckham said one professor in multimedia arts and a professor in liberal arts purchased the nervous system equipment for the University, but both teachers moved on to other universities and positions.

He decided after learning about the highly esteemed creator and system that he wanted to tackle to project of creating a nervous system of his own.

“Multimedia to everybody is sitting at a keyboard and clicking on buttons,” Beckham said. “I wanted to break away from that and see what multimedia could be in a high-physical environment.”

With the help of Mass Communication and Media Arts professors, staff and students, Beckham started to construct and plan his thesis a year ago. He decided to incorporate his musical aspirations and background as well as a common theme that fit well with music.

The two-fold concept broke down into an interactive musical system and geometry. First, the interactive musical system contains instrumentation through synthesizers and electronic scales that sound with the trigger of sensors.

The second part of the concept, geometry, tied into the flow of music and the nervous system well. Beckham said in modern times, mathematics, especially geometry, is viewed as a cut-and-dry subject of learning formulas, solving problems and forgetting the information once completed.

But Beckham said in ancient cultures, particularly Greek civilization, geometry was a way to emulate an inherently perfect world that existed around them. Practicing geometry was a means of understanding the world in a religious sense, and the use of the subject was a means to celebrate the god who created the world.

Thus, these civilizations gave a lot of attention to mystical symbols, especially the heptogram, or seven-sided star. In Greek terms, Beckham said seven is the mystical number as well.

The heptogram incorporated the seven planets to them, the sun, moon and first five planets excluding Jupiter with Saturn in its place.

“The planetary heptogram, which I based the interface around, was a musical system designed around a metaphorical universe,” Beckham said. “There are corresponding notes to each of these planets, or planetary heptogram.”

As Shapiro and his daughters moved around the heptogram, seven sensors caught their movements and played each note louder with their acceleration and slower with a steady pace.

“I thought the interactive music system was a great way to explore the very nervous system and plant seed of interest in this subject,” Beckham said.

When 5-year-old Joel Stuart from DeSoto first entered the “Musica Planutum,” the loud chords and four television screens showing planets, star systems and nebulas frightened him, and he was not for sure if wanted to try again. But he wanted to prove to his mother he was brave.

“I was scared at first, but then I got the hang of it,” Stuart said.

Shapiro’s daughters, nearly 12 years apart in age, both enjoyed Beckham’s thesis, and the artist thought the project would be equally as appealing to all ages showcased in his art establishment in Paducah.

Beckham had already talked with a representative of the Buckminster Fuller Museum in University Mall. But Shapiro’s interest in his hard work may pay off as an exhibit at the Maiden Alley Cinema, a non-profit arts organization that brings innovative artwork to the community.

Shapiro said that the more he dances in the space, the more control he had over the music. As a secondary aspect, he began to notice the relation to the images on the television screens with the music as he continued to move.

As he exited the “Musica Planutum,” Shapiro noticed not only the physical implications of Beckham’s thesis, but the art he created within his masterpiece.

“There is a spiritual feeling to it as well, a true piece of art,” Shapiro said.

Reporter Samantha Edmondson can be reached at [email protected]