North: an Interactive Multimedia Installation Piece

North is an interactive multimedia installation that explores the use of poetic text as a means
to mediate between the aural and visual dimensions of the piece. The installation consists of
continuous audio and video elements that are affected by the user input of text at a qwerty
keyboard. The on screen text becomes part of the work motivating users to not merely type
commands, but to contribute aesthetically informed (poetic) phrases. The nonlinear
relationship between the text and the media emphasizes user collaboration with the
installation, thus forcing users out of the paradigm typical of human-computer interaction.

Structure:

The interactive system upon which North is built draws from 120 video clips, 200 sound files,
and 40 distinct modes of presentation for the aural, visual and textual components of the
piece. The audio and video clips are indexed in a database according to descriptive and
abstract keywords that have been determined by the composer. Once the text is entered, it is
referenced against the database resulting in a list of possible matching clips. Individual clips
from the matching list are then selected indeterminately by the system to be incorporated into
the piece according to the current aural and visual mode. Each mode is also indexed in a
database and certain keywords can trigger a transition to a new mode of presentation for the
sound, image, or text. The system is programmed to react to over 2000 English words.

Presentation:

North was designed as a flexible installation capable of different modes of presentation. The
core of the installation is housed on a Macintosh computer running Max/MSP/Jitter, and users
interact with the installation via the keyboard. The visual component of the installation can be
presented on a large computer monitor (20 + inches), high resolution television, or a digital
projector. Sound playback for the installation can be configured for stereo or 5.1 surround
sound environments.