Turbulence is outdoor interactive sound installation that reveals possible interaction of wind – sound – electronics and human. Human acts as an active observer and adjuster for this real-time sonification of natural chaotic turbulent air dynamics in dedicated area. Each windmill consists of one MCU, magnetic encoder that measure rotation of the vane, amplifier, speaker and wireless RF chip for communication with central unit and control panel. Sound is digitally generated in Mozzi library and is controlled by the speed and direction of wind.

Synthesis interaction design: measured rotation acts mainly as amplitude modulation of the oscillator.Each windmill plays one note in chord – when windmills play together they create chord distributed in the space with dynamic amplitude changes according to the flow of the wind. It can be very slow and also wild and dynamic. Beside the amplitude modulation the data control also parameters for other oscillators (phase distortion setting, frequency modulation depth, cutoff, speed of the LFO for the amplitude modulation of the white noise etc.). The mix of different layers of the synthesized sound will be controlled from the panel + there will be important setup for the tonal terrain – the selection of the musical scale and the intervals between units. The central unit measures the direction of the wind and sends this information to all other units. The wind direction controls the base note.

This installation was created 2013 for the festival Exposition of New Music, Brno, Czech Republic. Later it went through several software adjustments. First version didn’t include any intended human interaction (just adjustment setting done by myself) and sound synthesis was very elemental: pure sine waves. This first version was focused mainly on wind interaction, tonality and harmonic relations between windmills. Later this installation was presented at festival Beseda u bigbítu (2015) as a “chill out” zone. During my study fellowship at Institute of Sonology I improved the code for more advanced synthesis (phase distortion, noise, faster triggering etc.). It was presented at DIY independent event that I organized in dunes between The Hague and Wassenaar. New strategies of human interaction will be implemented 2020. The final location for this installation will be forest kindergarten near Beroun, Czech Republic. It will be installed in September 2020. The control panel will be designed mainly for the children interaction with the sound and wind. The purpose of the control panel is to bring better understanding and perceiving musical, tonal and space relations through the overall interaction in the environment.