Audio Explorations
William W. White Outstanding Senior, Department of Critical Media Practices
Editor's note: Nick Mundinger is this year's William W. White Outstanding Senior for the Department of Critical Media Practices. The award is based on a combination of academic merit, professional achievement and service to the department. Here's a story on him from our spring 2018 issue of CMCI Now, along with a video of his work in action!
Nick Mundinger pulls out his phone and opens an app that looks like a calculator. The screen is filled with colorful dials and buttons with labels like "tempo" and "chest".
“This is a sort of drum machine I made using different parts of my body,” he says, moving between the phone and a laptop as he sets up the program.
Each "drum" is a recording of a different action. For example, one plays a clap, another a snap, another a thump on his chest and so on. The dials on the phone control the probability that each drum will be played on each beat. Visualizations on the laptop screen show which sound is playing. When you hear the thump sound, you see Mundinger's fist on his chest. When you hear a clap, you see his hand. The end result—a beat controlled with the phone along with visualizations on the screen—is almost like a live music video.