Interactive Piece for Tenor Balloon and Player Piano II (2014)

Live balloon performance and programming for Player Piano II (using Max6)  by Judy Dunaway
Player Piano II created by Godfried-Willem Raes
​Technical assistance for Player Piano II: Kristof Lauwers
Documentation of premiere at Logos Foundation, Gent, Belgium, October 22, 2014.

    In 2014 I used the interactive graphical programming environment Max (MaxMSP) to develop an artificial intelligence that “listens” to my balloon sounds and improvises musically within the same parameters as these sounds in performance.  Most people are unaware of the musical material contained in a balloon “squeak.”  This interface extracts, exposes and responds to this rhythmic and tonal material in real time.  The interface can be used both with MIDI and with synthesized electronic tones.  In October 2014 I was an artist-in-residence at the Logos Foundation in Gent, Belgium where I used my interface to do a live performance with Dr. Godfried-Willem Raes’ MIDI-based robot instrument “Player Piano II”.
    Please note that the Player Piano II is the grand piano to my right in the video.  While movement of the keys and internal mechanisms were visible to the audience, it is not visible on this video. The other automatons onstage are inactive in this piece.
    I was subsequently awarded an artist-in-residence Electronic Music Studios Stockholm (EMS) for further development of this work.