Musical Flocks is a project in the field of music visualization. It produces animations by simulating the behavior of agents that react to the sound of music. Swarm-like behavior is attained by following rules of separation, alignment and cohesion. This process produces reactive animations and static artifacts that constitute representations of the pieces.
Slow music makes the flock react gently and move slowly, while a high tempo results in fast movement and abrupt changes. Sounds with high volume and rich frequency spectrum affect the majority of the boids, while low volume level and less quantity of active frequencies produces subtle visual variations and a slower graphic evolution.
This series is composed of three visualizations of the piece "Five Armies" by Kevin MacLeod. This musical piece with an epic undertone features a wide variety of instruments (cellos, French horns, trombones, violins, marimba, trumpets, percussion, oboes, clarinets, flutes, basses). The escalating ending provokes large perturbations of the flock leaving a distinct signature in the static and animated pieces.
Visualizations of the musical piece "Five Armies” by Kevin MacLeod. Inkjet print on Photo Rag Bright White paper / Computer Animation. © Ruslan Kamolov and Penousal Machado, 2013.