IDAT210 - Project Evaluation

My project the ‘Sound of Social Networking’ has been an interesting exploration into generative sound and communication. The project was originally aimed at meeting five keywords as follows:


• Generative Art

• Digital Performance

• Dadaist poetry

• Social Networking

• Sound/Music Production



In terms of my project and generative art I feel there is a close link as the audio and visuals are generated from the text provided by Facebook users. This therefore also makes the process part of my project quite strong. My project can also be considered a digital performance, as it is live updating and so a performance, and the means by which it is created is all digitally based, particularly in terms of the generative element. I have also managed to meet the social networking and sound production keywords for my project as these are at the centre of how my project works. The link with Dadaist Poetry however is not as strong. The process within my project could be considered part of this, but there are not many instructions or randomised elements to project. The final outcome of my project; the audio in particular, has a Dadaist quality about it due to its rather abstract nature, but this does not necessarily make it Dadaist.

There are a number of elements to my project which could be improved in the future. Firstly the audio produced is very monotonic, notes being the same length and volume as each other. However there is other information that can be gathered by the RSS and so this could be used to improve the musical nature of the project. There is also the element of access, both to data and to the project application itself. The application should be able to access any data regardless of the RSS format so that it can be used for multiple feeds rather than just the one that I have developed. This way it would be more functional and open for interpretation than it is at the moment. It would also be good if the application was adjoined to its data source online so that contributors can see how what they write effects the audio produced.

In terms of meeting the original process of communication that I originally had planned I feel that this project fell a little short. Conversation was not developed or emulated that well in my project, but instead other developments were discovered. My project has the ability to represent instantly the most used length of word at any given time, and displays communication musically, in the form of a type of written score. It also demonstrated an interesting openness of thought and how this can lead to themes, such as emotion in the textual content gained.

Overall I am happy with the project that I produced and have, through development, discovered a number of interesting features and possibilities of my project that I did not originally plan for, but that in my opinion make my project a success.