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Orpheus interactive video software, 1987-1993 Orpheus is an interactive video sequencing software that provides real time control and synchronization of digital video with any form of live or sequenced music. The music listener portion of the software permits interactive control of video using a real time musical categorization according to pitch, loudness, note duration, rest length and tempo. Using Orpheus, a particular digital video sequence is presented in response to a particular musical category, accompanied with a cinematic effect. For example, Orpheus could present a sequence of a face laughing in response to a particular category of music, while another category of music could present the same face crying. The music could alternate between these two music categories--up to 30 times per second--and the face would respond with laughing or crying in synchronization with the music. Specific associations between music categories and video frames are specified by a user according to aesthetic and temporal criteria, with the potential to create hundreds of different musical categories and associated video responses. The number of possible music-video associations and the maximum duration of controllable video imagery are determined by the amount of available memory. Orpheus is similar to a non-linear video editing system because it can present video frames and sequences in any order. In contrast to nonlinear systems, editing within Orpheus is controlled by musical information in real time, allowing image and sound to be perceived simultaneously. This characteristic allows Orpheus to be used as a performance tool with video imagery controlled by voice, acoustic instruments or electronic instruments. Orpheus has been used in the creation of interactive video performances, within video installations, and in the creation of video tapes. During actual performances using Orpheus, video imagery has been controlled by voice, trombone, trumpet, saxophone, electric guitar, electric bass, acoustic bass, percussion, and keyboards. For use within interactive video installations, the output of sensing devices are converted into MIDI. The imagery used within Orpheus can be created using any 2D/3D animation software, non-linear video software, or special effects and compositing software. Orpheus can support images of various resolutions and color depths, up to full screen video resolution(736x482) with 16.7 million colors. Orpheus was designed and written by Don Ritter between 1988 and 1993, and it was first used in a public performance at the MIT Media Lab during a collaborative performance in 1988 with musician George Lewis. During this event, Lewis’s improvisational trombone playing controlled interactive video presented as a 10 meter video projection. Between 1988 and 1990, Ritter and Lewis presented over 30 interactive video-music performances using Orpheus at various festivals and museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Festival International Music Actuelle Victoriaville, Verona Jazz Festival, and The Kitchen (NYC). Using Orpheus, Ritter collaborated with various musicians, including John Oswald, Trevor Tureski, Nick Didkovski, David Rokeby, Genevieve Letarte, Tom Walsh, Tom Dimuzio, Richard Teitelbaum,and Ben Neill. Orpheus received an Honourary mention from Prix Ars Electronica in 1991, and it is presented in the Channel 4(UK) documentary "On The Edge: Improvisation in Music," (1990). |
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Video demonstrating Orpheus software, recorded in 1993: | |||
Orpheus has been used
in the creation of over 60 interactive video installations and performances
since 1988. Works created by Ritter using Orpheus include Stithy (1988), Nose
Against Glass (1988), Media
Play (1990), Static Boy (1991), Fit (1993), Performance Télématique (1993), TV Guides (1995), Oh
toi qui vis là-bas (1994), Excity (1995), and in conjunction with o8 software, Digestion (2003) and Badlands (2003).
Mulitple copies of Orpheus running on four computers are used within the
video installation Border
Patrol (1995) by Paul
Garrin and David
Rokeby. |
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o8 interactive video-music software, 2003 |
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