Ex-Silverchair front man, now solo artist, Daniel Johns has partnered up with David Jones to create a neat bit of technology. Shot by sound is a part music video, part photo shoot and part technology innovation.
By rigging up microphones to the band’s equipment and John’s microphone, they were able to process the audio waveforms, set tolerances on each and when the right conditions were met, it would fire the remote shutters of a 42 camera array.
The live performance was captured on microphones and sent to a mixing board that controlled the audio parameters before being sent to a custom-built Arduino circuit, sending shutter signals to the cameras. The system monitored the audio waveforms so the tech team could use certain thresholds to send trigger impulses to the camera system. The cameras were triggered by certain frequencies in the music, capturing over 1,500 images during the length of the performance.
The technology lead for the project, Sean Gardner from Digital Arts Network Sydney, said:
“Building new technology from scratch is challenging but we like pushing the limits of what you can do with tech. Musicians usually just focus on their music but the #ShotBySound technology gave Daniel and his band the chance to trigger the cameras for their own music video and the David Jones campaign.”
Electrical engineer for the project, Matt Brown, said:
“We took the music as an input and programmed it to take photos based on the frequencies and amplitudes of Daniel’s music. It’s never been done before but who knows, this could become the future of music videos.”
It’s hard to imagine any practical use over and above the voice activated selfie that already exists in some phones, this application of technology combines art, tech and fashion in a pretty cool way.
David Jones has released a behind the scenes video of the creation of ‘Shot by sound’ and it’s definitely worth watching. My advice is to watch this, before the final clip for ‘We are Golden’.
For more information, head to: www.davidjones.com.au/shotbysound
Now for the final product.
