ookey-FinalProject

“An AR soundtrack to a tarot reading”

a typical tarot arrangement

video documentation (headphones recommended):

sound “sketch” in Excel
used ableton to make loops and test how they sound together
used Unity with Vuforia for AR

Going into this piece, my main goal was to convey the message that one can get through a tarot reading through sound.  As someone who casually practices tarot, I understand the significance that the images on the card have in conveying meaning.  The arrangement of cards also serves an important part in a reading.  I spent a significant amount of time on this project trying to get Unity to communicate with Ableton Live through Open Sound Control.  In the end, due to time and other circumstances, I was unable to complete this. I decided that my energy was better put into creating an interesting soundscape.

I wanted to accomplish my original goal of having interesting sounds that could fit together in interesting ways while conveying the card’s meaning.  I ended up making an excel document with my concepts for each sound to guide me in the process of composing them.  Although many of these sounds eventually changed, the excel document was a good starting point and a chance for me to look for inspiration.  I often worked with field recordings, altering them to fit the sound I wanted to achieve.  I also took recordings from my own instruments, such as the flute and the omnichord.

Thanks to!

  • Frank-Ratchye Fund for Arts @ the Frontier
  • Golan Levin and Claire Hentschker
  • Inspector J, BristolStories, and fallbackcrush of freesound.org where I obtained some field recordings
  • The students of 60212 who have continued to help me throughout the semester, especially my “buddy” Sydney Zheng