Ritual / System at the Museum of Science, Boston

MASARY Studios created and performed an intellectually investigative and experimental multimedia set at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA.

For the Museum of Science’s recent WaveForms “multimedia art occurrence,” MASARY Studios performed Ritual / System, an ongoing audiovisual research piece exploring the shape of time and perception of sound, at the Hayden Planetarium. The MASARY team wanted to create something specific to the 360-degree canvas and seating arrangement, approaching atmospheres that questioned human understanding of sound and visual form.

In developing their research, MASARY created a custom audio analysis system that could ingest eight audio channels from a performer and output over twenty-four features of spectral analysis per channel. Notch Designer Sam Okerstrom-Lang used the audio analysis to drive three main layers, each complete with an array of particle systems, cloners, volumetric lighting, and camera systems.

Everything ran on a custom PC server as a standalone application with MIDI input for live control. The final result perfectly suited the venue, immersing audiences as planned while leaving plenty of room for both auditory and visual surprises.

“Analyzing the independent audio channels could have been a hurdle, but thankfully, Notch made it easy and helped us craft and change visuals quickly in tandem with the other performers.”

Sam Okerstrom-Lang, Notch Designer, MASARY Studios

Additional press coverage:
WaveForms, MASARY Studios.

Credits
Presenter: WaveForms
Creative Direction: Ryan Edwards (MASARY Studios)
Notch Designer: Sam Okerstrom-Lang (MASARY Studios)

Technical Director: Jeremy Stewart, PhD (MASARY Studios)
Technical Assistants: Odie DeSmith & Vincent Zhu (MASARY Studios)
Video Documentation: Ernie Galan
Photos: Aram Boghosian