Fraktal Glass Bead Game: interactive installation

The “Fraktal Glass Bead Game” installation is inspired on Hermann Hesse’s famous book “The Glass Bead Game”, where an advanced civilization had a group of gifted men dedicated to a spiritual, refined and sophisticated game, mixing music, culture and philosophy. This fractal version of the game, created by Eufrasio Prates for the exposition EmMeio#3 (part of the 10th International Meeting on Art & Technology), is based on a max/msp/jitter patch that is responsible for developing a dialogue between the interactor and a virtual agent that improvises upon the human input (applying a fractal equation on it).
The exposition takes place in Aug/2011 at the Museu Nacional da República (Brasília, DF, Brasil).
Special thanks to the organizers of the exposition, especially to Suzete Venturelli from MediaLab (UnB), and to the curator Tania Fraga.

How was MAX used?

The max/msp/jitter patch: 1) transduces the interactor movements into sounds, 2) memorizes the group of notes (an unpredictable melody, based on the subtleties of the captured movement), 3) improvises on the ordering (and, in the "creative" mode, changes the parameters) of the notes (interchanging durations, frequencies and intensities) 4) feeds each note into a fractal equation: the Gaston Julia's iteractive F(x)=(z*z)-(z/c), resulting into a new (unpredictable) note that 5) will compose an unpredictable fractal melody.