Quiet Please! proposes an investigation into the creation of three broad disciplines: Sound art, simple tangible user interfaces, and the network as life form and an essential part of the art work. This exhibition is one of annual projects of Creativity Lab of Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, coworked with Clark Macleod, Chientai Chen, Celia Shin and Lance Weng. Our goal is to have people experience and interact with digital information in new and interesting ways. Current online collaborative music environments are geared toward traditional studio environments, use interaction metaphors unfamiliar to many, and require levels of expertise non-musician non-expert participants would not possess. This proposed work will allow for participation in an ongoing musical performance introducing new metaphors and physical interfaces that are both accessible and expressive.

This project consists of five elemental prototypes: Windchimes, Adult chairs, Traffic 1, Traffic 2, Traffic 3 , Girl's Ambient Room, Musical squares, and Hullabaloo.

Windchimes
Inspired by temples in Thailand, Bali, and Nepal we have created a simple musical instrument from bamboo which is augmented with sensors that allow for an interesting interface to sound creation. Watch the demo video.

Adult chairs
Adult Chairs are tangible interfaces that allows for rudimentary control over a musical performance. The interface, woven into an object that is part of the fabric of our everyday life, adds to the element of surprise helping to create an engaging experience from something very simple. Watch the demo video.

Traffic 1
Traffic 1 is a series of sound vignettes played through custom built enclosures. Traffic 1 communicates through sound various emotions felt during the daily commute through Hsinchu's streets.

Traffic 2
Traffic 2 attempts to create spontaneous real time auditory compositions or improvisations using data gained from network traffic. A secondary aim is to test our understanding of the usage of network data in the public and private sphere. We treat the network as an unseen life form "a body in constant change" born from the usage patterns of the users of the system. By using network traffic as a tool for creating music we in effect illustrate this unseen form.

Traffic 3
Over a period of time we gathered sound samples from various locations throughout the city of Hsinchu. We edited these samples and tuned them to a specific harmonic structure. We then fed these sounds, over a 100 in total, into our software agent which communicates with our carnivore server. The result is a cacophony of sound which could be understood as the city of Hsinchu acting as a Futurist Noise orchestra driven by network traffic.

Girl's Ambient Room
We gather data from the activity of today's online communication tools (msn, yahoo, and email) and translate that to art elegantly projected on the four walls of a room. As well as each activity is registered audio is played as a tuned and unobtrusive signal.

Musical squares
Musical squares is a simple collaborative system for playing musical games against computer, local, and remote participants. It consists of a "software that forms linear sound sequences" controlled by a simple on-screen interface and a tangible interface. The sound is created by stepping on a series of 16 large pads. Each pad has a light display inside and is clickable much like a large button. All the pads are connected together by a wireless sensor which Early prototype transmits data back to a PC. There are also a series of 7 pads elevated to waste height which allow for control over the selection of games. Visible feedback is provided by both the pads and a projected display. Auditory feedback is provided by a series of speakers. Musical squares is designed for children but should appeal to participants of all ages. Watch the demo 1, demo 2.

Hullabaloo
Hullabaloo are tangible interfaces reduced to their most simple form allowing children to participate in a music game that tests and increases their musical and memory acuity.

Quiet Please! was featured at Hsinchu Railway Art House from January 8 through January 22, 2005. You can now view at the official site, or read press release here (in Traditional Chinese): 1, 2.