S0uNd ARt - Summer Krinsky

SampleRate: Work-In-Progress (2026)

Specially designed 3D printed flashlights blink to subdivisions of a shared tempo. When the beams hit sensors in the net suspended above, they trigger arranged samples in time to create an audience-controlled interactive rave. The intensity and diffusion of the light effect other continuous sonic parameters like filters/reverb/delay.

Reactive Breakable Fighting Humanoid Robot Heads (2026)

computerMom (2024)

I am training a machine learning model on the classical piano compositional works of Catherine Rollin with the goal of having it create music in her writing style. This research will be used in the presentation of the lecture Human Imagination or AI? at the 2024 Music Teachers National Association conference.

Here is my blog post to listen & learn more: https://summerkrinsky.com/computermom/

Hopscotch Sequencer (2024)

Written in ChucK, this program is a real-time drum sequencer which adopts the visual aesthetic of the chalk game Hopscotch. Some grooves loop every 4 beats, while others loop every 7, 9, etc. forming complex tempo-locked polyrhythms. The “turn” makes a beat play both forwards and backwards, clicking on a box mutes a beat, and performers can do live filter sweeps and stutters using the keyboard controls.

Drone (2023)

Work in progress experimenting with repurposing consumer technologies as interactive audio controllers. This drone controller lost its partner, the drone that it is meant to control. I circuit bent the device and connected it to an Arduino. Then by sending the controller signals to Max MSP, I am manipulating a granulator, reverb, delay, and pitch effect on my vocal. A drone controller without its drone struck me as a strange and poignant allegory for the loneliness of a lost love. I plan to create a duet to be performed by the drone controller and I, modulating the sound of it transmitting a wifi signal as it hopelessly searches for its pair.

Tune/Reward (2022)

premiered at HOOKED in Atlanta at Emory University May 2022-Sept 2022 currently on display at JUMPSTART in Monterrey, Mexico Nov 2022 a collaboration with Professor Sam Sober

Tune/Reward showed in Atlanta, GA and Monterrey, Mexico

Dopamine plays a critical role in the process of “vocal learning.” The images in the background of this game are scans of a songbird brain as it adjusts to match pitch. Addiction hijacks pathways and processes that exist to reward learning. Play the game, match the pitch.

Funded by Science Gallery Atlanta via Science Sandbox & The Cordover Family Foundation

How To Break Zoom (2022)

A collaboration as a part of OneBeat Virtual Residency “UNMUTE”

BREAKING ZOOM MANUAL

An initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, & produced by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation.

Notification (2022)

On display at HOOKED in Atlanta at Emory University May 2022-Sept 2022 a collaboration with Professor Maris Polanco

Biohacking via the UX design of a notification badge, the color red is unconsciously associated with food/sex/danger. Triggering alert systems, releasing dopamine, fueling social media addiction. This program replaces all red pixels in uploaded photos with notification badges– drawing attention to our attention being drawn.

Funded by Science Gallery Atlanta via Science Sandbox & The Cordover Family Foundation

Hidden Track (2021)

Encryption typically protects text communications by turning content into a secret code that must be decrypted to be understood. This installation aims to expand curiosity and understanding about data privacy through sensory experience. “Hidden Track” encrypts the sound of the participant’s own voice by applying the principles behind Caesar, Monoalphabetic, Polyalphabetic and ‘pure’ randomness ciphers to pitch. These are rules by which information can be transformed to conceal its meaning. Less secure methods will make the sounds scrambled but still have a musical quality (like aliasing) while the safest encryption methods begin to resemble noise.

Premiered at MSU Museum Tracked & Traced Exhibition https://museum.msu.edu/.

made with: Max MSP

inspired by: data privacy, encryption, surveillance

Radical Randomness: An Exploration of the Stochastic Creative Process (2021)

By living in a chaotic ecosystem we are constantly surrounded by inspiration. I am fascinated by true randomness because its existence is intrinsically tied to any argument for free will. My main goal is to spark participants to start a new project and leave the workshop feeling motivated to make. Participants will be given a midi patch, audio file, word list, and numerical sequence created by a random number generator (RNG). In programming, a typical RNG is pseudorandom because its output is determined by the initial “seed.” One method for true randomness is to make the seed itself random. I will use a geiger counter and an Arduino to measure radiation, sending this purely random seed through Arduino to Max MSP. There is no bolder way to rebel against boredom than by seizing upon the insight of entropy. This workshop will explore the creative process by inviting randomness into the writers room.

I hosted a workshop for the Science Gallery International Youth Symposium 2021. If you are interested in participating but missed the event all resources are available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AYw0G0xhbGVMgk4rmW4dvCL2bNgstPdV?usp=sharing

Limited Resources (2020)

“Limited Resources” received the Rapid Residency grant from @scigallerydet! This project is an active sound collage using interviews on pandemic experiences run through audio effects which are informed by live web scraping. Data on the price of gold and gas control which interviews are playing and the overall granulation/reverb/distortion. Michigan’s hospital bed availability data dictates the speed of a kick drum, alluding to the heartbeat of the project (60bpm resting heart rate all beds free; 240bpm none available- we’re at 208bpm at the moment.) The project aims to link the American public’s apathy towards the threat of ICU triage to our economic systems based on infinite growth on a planet with limited resources. The goal is to literally “give a voice” to this frantic interconnectivity by making it audible.

If you are interested in playing with the code to see how everything works or creating your own sound art, the project is available open source here (please credit if you reuse!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12hAGYGE8irhmbhZjkVWlgwAHTSTJh23E?usp=sharing

made with: Max MSP, python, BeautifulSoup

inspired by: Limited Resources, Covid-19, economic models of infinite growth

harmonicTangler (2015)