Minimal Fields
Minimal Fields
Embedded Files
2020
2020
An interactive minimalist music piece
An interactive minimalist music piece
"MNML Fields" (Minimal Fields) is an interactive piece of minimalist music which utilizes a 3D environment to allow the viewer to take part in the performance of the piece themselves. The application, both available on Mac and Windows, allows the user to navigate through the world in first person perspective and pick up objects, move them around and place them on the ground.
The user starts in a small cave that opens up to a wider field full of trees and a small river running through hills in a slightly windy and moonlit night. The viewer is meant to decide themselves which parts of the world to explore, or in other words which parts of the minimalist piece to focus on. The different areas in the map are mirrored by a variety of different instruments playing various themes and patterns. While moving from one area to another they gradually fade in and out, creating a thick texture of overlapping sounds and ideas.
Artists such John Cage with “4’33” explored how music can be made more accessible and how to include the audience to be part of the performance. The movement of minimal music explored this idea further by incorporating simple melodies which are also accessible to the non-professional player.
Similarly, the interactive nature of Minimal Fields is supposed to take the audience into account as well and make them part of the piece. Because the viewer can move around freely in this world, they can decide which ideas and themes of the piece speak most to them. The user is given the freedom of engagement.
Because the glowing stones pause their playback once dropped to the ground, every single user will have a different timing of instruments which they can also actively influence. This makes every single performance, within this context that means every usage of the software, unique. The famous piece of “In C” by Terry Riley was an inspiration to me in this regard.
Furthermore, while the environmental sounds are based on “real” or rather acoustic instruments, the otherworldly glowing stones are all playing synthetic sounds. In other words, the environmental sounds are inspired by “In C” while the glowing stones bear more resemblance to works like “A Rainbow in Curved Air” also by Terry Riley in order to bring both original directions of minimal music together.
As for the world, the moody night it depicts is supposed to enforce the hypnotic and meditative characteristics of minimal music and take the viewer into a state of full immersion. Similarly to LeMont Young’s concept of slowing down the world, it also takes time to collect all stones in the piece as there is no sprint button. Furthermore the melodies change after a while so the viewer is invited to stay for longer.
As for the technical perspective, the experience runs on the Unity engine.
The individual minimalist soundtracks were created in Fl Studio and are dynamically and interactively mixed and mashed together in real-time through the Unity sound system.
Live Demo
Live Demo
Download the Application (Mac and Windows)
Download the Application (Mac and Windows)
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