I’m pleased to announce that myself and Professor Katherine Elia-Shannon from Stonehill College’s Communication Department have been awarded a Digital Innovation Grant from the Digital Innovation Lab at the MacPháidín library. The grant will continue my investigation of video synthesis that I started using the Critter and Guitari EYESY from my previous Digital Innovation Grant. This time around I will be using the Sleepy Circuits Hypno.
The Hypno generates video in realtime, and features four USB inputs with an HDMI output. The core of the video generation is two video oscillators that generate what Sleepy Circuits call shapes. These two shapes are superimposed over each other. Various parameters, such as shape, frequency, rotation, and polarization can be controlled for each video oscillator. Likewise, there are global parameters that can be manipulated such as gain, hue, saturation, feedback. These parameters can also be controlled via MIDI over USB or via control voltages from a Eurorack compatible modular synthesizer. In addition to the internal shapes offered by the video oscillators, the Hypno can accept video input via USB as a shape for each of the two video oscillators, allowing the user to manipulate live or pre-recorded video in real time.
The first step will be to create a series of blog entries that explain the various features of the Hypno. This post will be aided by the vast resources on the YouTube channel for Sleepy Circuits. After that, I plan on making music videos for the four pieces on my most recent album, Point Nemo. I will also be teaching the features of the Hypno to Professor Katherine Elia-Shannon and her students for them to use in an assignment.
The first batch of equipment, the Hypno and a power cable, arrived this past week. In July the second half of the grant funding will payout, so at that stage I will be purchasing accessories to use with the Hypno. Stay posted for updates!
