Belling Chapel, 2019
When we think that we can rely less on trust, human relations and government to keep us safe and well, corporate systems eagerly step in to manage security and decisions with cloud services, cybersecurity and AI. Belling lives on that edge between human-interaction-based communities and information technology systems. Belling has two interfaces, a physical space with VR and sound we call the Belling Chapel, and a web interface we call the Blip Challenge.
Belling Chapel
In this chapel, there are twelve bells. They are audible, but not visible, until you wear a VR headset. With the VR controller, you can strike the virtual bells to trigger their sounds.
Some bells will sound great, because they are in tune and their bell parameters are correct. Others will sound flat, clangy or off-key because the bell profile was compromised (or hacked) online. Every time you strike a bell, the Belling Chapel AI improves the sound of the bell, seeking to match it to some real bell recordings. The AI may even come up with novel bell sounds as it’s seeking bell perfection. However, if the bell profile is hacked, the AI has to start all over again.
In a way, the hacked bells are the noise that is needed to make the Belling Chapel real.
Prior Art
All of Niemeyer’s bell projects are based on Tsar Bell Simulation. For this, a team collaborated to recreate the sound of the Tsar Bell in Russia, the largest bell ever cast. It was cracked before it ever was dug out of its mold, so the sound is based on computational simulations.
Presentation History
In development. Stay tuned or contact us for bookings.
Collaborators
Greg Niemeyer, Olya Dubatova