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How to make kittens sound like zombies

So as we were talking about data bending a lot lately, I wanted to show you another approach. As you probably already know, when you hear a song or the audio of a movie, this is rarely the original material but mixed and mastered before finally released.

comparing same song unmixed, mixed and mastered - Audio Engineering comparison

Generally speaking, it’s very interesting how sounds are made, e.g. for movies. We hear a noise which we think is made from the object we see, but foley artists are tricking us! So in the following clip, you’ll see the artist using several materials to get the wanted effect, e.g. a shredded rope for the sound of a horsetail.

How Sound Effects Are Made For Movies | Movies Insider

As I mentioned in class, you can bend sound to the extreme and create something completely different, so you won’t even recognize the source. Are you familiar with the video game Quake Champions? If you are, you might be surprised to hear that the original sound of the zombie scream is actually a moaning cat!

Have you ever tried sound editing? Or did you recreate a sound into something completely different? I’m currently working on a video with clips from my summer trip to Sicily where I’m putting a lot of effort into the sound design, I’ll let you know as soon as I’m done with that!

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On Steganography and images of kittens

This christmas season I was binge watching the Arte crime series ‘Vigil’, which is about a scottish detective who tries to solve a murder case on a submarine. At some part of the show, it turns out that there is a russian spy who communicates by sending hidden codes in pictures in an online forum about fishing. This somehow reminded me of data bending, because here we also do something unusual with a file. I wanted to find out more about this whole topic, so I checked out some videos on Steganography, the practice of concealing a message within another message or a physical object.

Secrets Hidden in Images (Steganography) - Computerphile

In this video, Image Analyst Dr. Mike Pound explains how you can spot the difference in images which have been manipulated to contain hidden messages. You cannot see it with the naked eye, but when you compare it digitally, you’ll find small changes in the shades of the pixels. So for example, the entire works of Shakespeare can be hidden in one digital photo, without you even noticing it!

Hide files within an Image (MAC Tutorial)

So here you learn how easily you can hide a zip file in an image. Now I wonder, can you find out what I hid in this following image?

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Getting started with Augmented Reality

Today I started playing around with the Spark AR App.

Spark AR is a studio tool from Facebook that allows users to create their own AR effects for mobile. It is comparable to tools such as Sketch or Photoshop – only this is for augmented reality. After a short tutorial, I created my first AR effect, which is quite entertaining!

Following this Link, you'll find my first effect try out:

https://www.instagram.com/ar/1093754918111057/?ch=MmI0NzhjOTU2NjNlOGVmOTVlODRhYjI1M2U1ZGY4Yjk%3D

Afterwards, I experimented with the different options, as you can change the background, colour, objects, and many more:

https://www.instagram.com/ar/950328985688655/?ch=NGVmNGZjMzYxMzliOGRlODYzM2E4ODkwNDI0MTIwNTE%3D

https://www.instagram.com/ar/271297928433470/?ch=YTExMzIxMjM2ZmNiZTMzZGI4NzM0NjIwNTgyZWZkNmI%3D

Sadly time is currently quite short with all the exams going on, but I’m looking forward to trying out more of these!

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Reconnecting with nature.

Lately I really enjoyed some well done loop videos, so I tried to create one myself. I wanted to capture the urge to reconnect with nature after spending a lot of time in the digital space.

How do you reconnect after spending a lot of time in the digital space?

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The running man continues

As we talked about starting a project with Arduino last week, we now wanna dive into it a bit deeper and make it our own. I showed you in my previous post that I build an easy jump ‘n’ run game using an Arduino Uno. So I thought about how I can change and extend this project into something new. I came up with the idea that instead of using a button in order to make the figure jump, I could use copper tape. When you touch it, the figure jumps. To make it more fun and interactive, I had the idea of two people having to touch each other’s hands, one wearing a glove with copper tape on it, in order to make the figure jump.

Of course you’ll need a bigger screen so both participants can see the jumping figure properly, so in this case I’d use this one:

Display

Here you see the glove one of the players needs to wear in order to play the game together:

Would you enjoy playing the game like this? Or do you have suggestions for any other interactive materials? Let me know in the comments!

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Getting started with Arduino

Last week in Medienlabor, we started to get into hacking and physical computing.

We learned the basics about Arduino and Raspberry Pi. I have to say, this is all really new to me. But lucky me, there is plenty of easy and fun stuff you can do with those little computers. So after getting into the first steps of computing I began to recreate a basic jump ‘n’ run game following this instruction on instructables: Arduino LCD Game : 3 Steps (with Pictures)

When I finished the build-up, my finished project looked something like this:

Besides my jump-bottom having a bit of a loose contact, I was really enthusiastic about having built something with an Arduino on my level of knowledge!

Paddy erzählt die Geschichte der Jump 'n' Run-Games

In this video, the YouTuber explains the history of jump ‘n’ run games. For me, it was a quite interesting insight after ‘building’ a basic jump ‘n’ run game with an Arduino myself.

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Prototype Project

So this week, our task was to create a prototype based on the post-its we got from our classmates. The post-its I got were:

- Krampus Perchten

- Light

- Pressure

- Tablet

While looking at some pictures of Perchten, I thought about how a group could make their Perchtenlauf outstanding compared to others. So I came up with a rod for Perchten which has red LED lights on it. Depending on the pressure you make, the light gets stronger or softer. So for example, if a Perchten hits someone with the rod, they increase the pressure so it lights up in red. Would be quite an effect, wouldn’t it?

This is the prototype I came up with.

Composing Hacks #2 - Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies

I listened to this video while sketching a prototype because we talked about oblique strategies in class and I wanted to know more about it. It was interesting to hear how the speaker, a composer, uses those strategies to improve his music.

Beim Krampuslauf in Osttirol – Brutales Brauchtum

This video helped me understand the tradition of Krampuslauf. Even though many people get hurt each year while having their run through the village in the costumes, this ritual is part of the Austrian heritage and for many citizens it’s an event that can’t be dismissed.

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Databending

As I had to leave class early last time because of a doctor’s appointment (gladly everything’s fine) I tried to work through the topics the others went through with a little help from Doctor Youtube. We’re speaking about Databending, and this is as new to me as it is probably for you, dear reader.

To sum it up briefly, you can deform Data by using a tool that is not originally created for it. For example, you can use Audacity in order to deform a picture. Or take an mp3 file, change the extension to a text file, add some letters in that file, convert it back to mp3, and there you’ll have some audible disruptions.

I started playing around converting mp3’s and picture files. Somehow, my converted pictures ended up as just missing pieces, as you can see here:

The original picture

The picture after editing it with Audacity

I tried it a couple of times but it just didn’t seem to work.

I tried to get a better understanding by watching a couple of videos on databending. Data Bending Video with Audacity

Databending and Datamoshing Audio 1: Databend with Audacity | Simon Hutchinson

Any suggestions what went wrong? Let me know!

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Me in my natural habitat.

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Who th are they?

My name is Marlene Mickla and I would like to give you a little insight on who I actually am. As a child I grew up together with my single mother, who was a singer and manager of musical theater projects. Therefore, I feel comfortable and at home in the artistic environment. As a teenager some of my classmates and I decided to start a school newspaper. In our opinion, there was a need for a medium made by students for students about topics that affected our everyday life at school. While I wrote for this school newspaper, something clicked. I realized how much I enjoyed collecting and analyzing information from different sources and packaging them into a good story. A little later, I developed my passion for poetry slams, either as an active performer on stage or as a listener in the audience. When I started my professional life in 2018, I had the opportunity to enter the field of online marketing. I got to know the analytical side of this industry as a junior account manager, where I worked with international online retailers in order to optimize their search engine ads. Communication plays a central role here, because only the right words can turn dry data into an exciting story. Until I started my studies, I worked in the creative field in a commercial photo studio as a set assistant and decorator. My task was to present the products of our customers in the pictures in the best possible way.

Since 2018, I’ve been an active part of a youth organization that promotes environmental protection and social justice. My tasks include taking care of members, organizing events as well as producing social media content (videos, photos, texts, etc.). In this position, I realized how much I enjoy working with young people in order to develope their interests and skills. I want to be supportive and inspiring while pursuing my own interests. That's why I started my studies to become a teacher in media design and ethics.