Hum Doom
"Real-time interactive synthesizer"
In the project "Humdoom," we've integrated Bagua from Chinese Taoism into the synthesizer panel, merging it with historical and real-time stock market data. This creates a mysterious and chaotic synthesizer, known as "HunDun" in Chinese, reflecting the real-world chaos of the stock market.
Hum Doom" is a synthesizer project where we integrated concepts from Chinese Feng Shui and stock market data to create an auditory landscape infused with Eastern mysticism. This soundscape bridges various cultures and the lifecycle of data collection and transmission. The speculative nature of the stock market and its scripted events generate real-time simulated tones, blending data from the 2008 global financial crisis with current trading volumes of three major chip companies. Known as "混沌" in Chinese, this reflects the real-world chaos of the stock market. These sounds are driven by a combination of overall market data from the 2008 financial crisis, real-time trading volumes of NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD, as well as the S&P 500 index. The resulting audio forms abstract narrative shapes, dynamically altering tone, speed, and scale in real-time, guiding audiences through the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. Our goal is to explore the interplay of variables within complex systems and how they influence overall dynamics. By using technology as a platform, we aim to revitalize historical fragments, offering fresh perspectives on history and its impact on our everyday experiences.
Technical Notes:
This device is composed of an ESP32 controller and collects raw data using Python. We utilize stock data to represent global changes, fetching global stock APIs via Python and transmitting them to Max/MSP through OSC to generate real-time evolving sounds.
We have selected the 2008 Standard & Poor's 500 Index for comparison, converting daily data into sequences to control the main oscillator's pitch. Simultaneously, another oscillator is modulated in frequency by real-time stock data. Through data control, we manipulate sound, filter envelopes, BPM, etc., creating music that blends performers with the past and present world.
May 16-18, 2024 Exhibition at Superbooth in Berlin
​​Support by Synthux Academy
Ewan Peng, Yawen Duan, Xinyu Liu, MurphyNile (Goldsmiths, University of London)