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Locus Sonus Residency 2020, ESA Aix, FR

Locus Sonus "is a research group whose main aim is to explore the ever evolving relationship between sound, place and usage".

On going projects at Locus Sonus:
LOCUSTREAM Soundmap: Worldwide Open Mics
Stream directly from you phone to the Locusonus soundmap using the Locuscast App
New Atlantis

My Research at Locus Sonus:
Researching about how sound is used and performed (outside of the concert hall) in other media and how artists use other platforms to present their sound works such as streaming, gaming, mobile apps, live-interactive, portable devices
Developing a soundscape educational tool in Unity
Exploring/experimenting with audio and 3D sound in Unity

Presentations/workshops:
17th January 2020: Introduction to my work Composing Soundscapes
22nd January 2020:  PEEP #17. Composer avec le son à distance Composing with Remote Sound, Community Engagement Practice: Listening, Improvising and Composing
27th-31st January: Acoustic Commons

TIME TO LEARN UNITY!!!!!!
Outside of composition I have been trying to extend my practice into the VR/gaming world. I am learning Unity from scratch during my residency at Locus Sonus. Below you will find some really useful links that I have discovered along the way (Massive thanks to Douglas Edric Stanley who is giving me some tutorials. Check out his wonderful website. Most of what is below has come from him!) I am completely new to gaming and game design and haven't played a computer game since Crash Bandicoot on some sort of playstation when I was about 12. 

Resources:

Unity Tutorials

• Learn with Unity
• Great tutorials on LinkedIn Learning. Since I am new to Unity I have started with this! If you are studying or teaching at a University you might have access to LinkedIn learning formally Lynda.com through the institutions library.
• ​Build your own Shaders in Unity. Create your own textures, control lighting and shading effects

2D/3D Audio and Unity
Unity has its own audio engine but there are other Audio platforms that you can use with Unity. This will depend on you budget and your experience of sound design and composition:
Masterclass: Using Game Audio Middleware featured in the Electronic Musician online magazine
DOTS Audio (Part of Unity) DOTS audio Forum
​Resonance Audio: working with 3D sound in VR environments
Wwise
Fmod (using a DAW for creating game audio)

NICE AUDIO MIDDLEWARE COMPARISON from annesoaudio.com

3D Animation
Create your own 3D character in Maximo
Make Human: Opensource for making 3D characters

Creative Coding:
Coding with Daniel Shiffman: P5 and Processing (thecodingtrain.com/Tutorials/) and Youtube Channel

Inspiration: Sound Design and Gaming
Limbo by Playdead Games
Inside by  Playdead Games
Firewatch Game by Campo Santo Productions. Their blog is really good too!
Ustwo Gaming who created Monument Valley
Book of the Dead

Artistic and Creative Gaming
Proteus by Twisted Tree "Audio-visual exploration"

Artistic and Creative Gaming producer and designers
GodArt Game orientated Art and Design
Game Audio and Digital Art Blog


GAME THEORY
Started reading stuff written by Douglas Stanley who is giving me tutorials on Unity. Check out his website here!

Blogs
Atmos Games, Work by game creator, Thomas Brush
The Sound Architect, sharing the knowledge of industry professionals. The have a good Game Audio Section
Fmod Blog, Artists and their creations

Soundscapes studies, acoustic ecology and VR 
Outside of soundscape composition artists and researchers are creating exciting artistic works using VR, gaming technologies and GPS technologies to create educational tools that are reaching audiences outside of the concert hall. 

Garth Paine and EcoRift: 
Locus Sonus and New Atlantis
ECHOES  Audio Tours

Streaming
Locustream Soundmap: Oldest and first initiative created by Locus Sonus in 2005
Check out this website so you can stream live soundscapes from all over the world. You can also create your own open microphone by using the LocusCast app on your phone. Find out how to do it here!!!

What can you do with this Stream? Using it for artistic projects
Using Pure Data to take the stream from the website: Peter Sinclair and Locus Sonus have built PD externals that all you to build a patch that takes the stream from the LocusStream website. The externals can be found here!

Acoustic Commons #acousticommons: Workshops and talks 27th - 31st January, ESAAix
"Acoustic Commons is an emerging network of streams (audio streams) dedicated to unique soundscapes. Acoustic Commons receives support from Europe Creative and is organising a series of workshops at the start of the year." "The Acoustic Commons aims to develop a world of research and creation between its various international partners: Full of Noises (Barrow, Cumbria - Main partner), Locus Sonus (ESAAix), Cona (Ljubljana), Soundcamp (London), Hellenic Mediterranean University (Crete) and Cyberforest (Tokyo). The project consists of a series of events, workshops and creative actions, over three years, planned in spaces outside conventional cultural circuits, considering how soundscapes can be shared. During this conference, the partners will come back to their modalities of participation in this cooperative project which develops creative resources for artists, scientists and citizens turning to sound as a means of exploring the environment".

#Acousticommons Workshops: 27th-31st January 2020: Students, staff and Acoustic Commons members had the opportunity to take part in workshops based around fieldwork, building microphones, setting up live streams and composition/performance. Participants were divided into 3 groups:  
#1 hardware workshop : Streambox, microphones
#2 fieldwork workshop
#3 composition/performance 
I was part of the the composition/performance group. Together with Ananda Costa (Locus Sonus artist in residence) and Ludmila Postel (Locus Sonus PhD student) we facilitated workshops which explored the use of Locus Sonus Open Mic streams as a creative tool. We then explored different platforms that could be used for composition and performance such as New Atlantis, Pure Data and Locus Sonus externals for receiving and mixing streams and the Locustream Soundmap. Each group presented their projects and students from the composition/performance group  created their own sound installations and exhibited them to the public on the final day of the workshops. 

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