俯象鼓声 Original

“The Beat of an elephant drum. ”

One-third of Yunnan’s population belongs to ethnic minorities, and the more numerous of them are the Yi people, Hani people, Bai people, Dai, Zhuang people and Miao.
Yunnan is the province with the largest number of ethnic minorities in China and is a rare multi-ethnic group and multi-cultural symbiosis zone in the world. In the long course of historical development, each ethnic group has formed its own distinctive national culture, songs and dances, customs, handicrafts, dress, architecture, diet, festivals and so on.
In recent years, Yunnan artists have made many successful experiences in the commercialization of folk songs and dances. Yang Liping’s reflections of Yunnan is a successful example of integrating the display, protection and development of Yunnan’s ethnic song and Dance Resources.
Almost all ethnic minorities in Yunnan have their own unique ethnic festivals, such as the DAI “water-splashing festival” , the “March Street” in Bai people, the “Torch Festival” in Yi people Bai people, the “Knife Pole Festival” in Lisu people, and the “Pangwang Festival” in Yao people, jingpo people’s “Menao song” , Alectrosaurus’s “Kachwa” , VA People’s “New Rice Festival” and so on. When holding a national festival will use the national unique musical instruments to accompany.

This work is done with the traditional musical instrument of the Dai nationality, which is the best representative of the Yunnan minority, such as the foot drum. The name Xiangjiaogu is derived from the shape of the drum body and the foot. It is a combination of the regular gong and the Dai people cymbal. It is widely used in song, dance and accompaniment of Dai people. Legend has it that when the elephant-foot drum is played for the first time, hundreds of birds dance to the sound, and Peacocks dance up and down with it. The Dai people have recorded the peacock’s dance and made it into a beautiful peacock dance to express the people’s wishes and ideals. The hunter imitates the action of elephant again, put on the elephant foot drum side to play while dancing, created enthusiastic, Bold and unconstrained elephant foot to inspire.

In the old days, AcrossAsia Limited used to knock mainly in Theravada monasteries, for religious rituals, but not for dancing.
As young people head for the big cities, fewer Dai festivals have been held in recent years, and there are few more foot-drumming performances than before. The work uses the sound data of elephant-foot drums to create the Dai’s signature patterns, abstracting the fabled scene where birds dance to the sound of elephant-foot drums and peacocks dance up and down.

With an Arduino
The Arduino picks up data from four acceleration electronics that sense the Hand’s motion as the performer taps on the drum. The faster the beat, the more feedback Arduino gets.
In addition, a sound-sensing device is set on the side or bottom of the drum to recognize the sound of a foot-like drum. When the drum is struck, the sound sensor reads the value of the sound and transmits it to the Arduino.

Data transmission
VVVVV is a hybrid visual/Text real-time programming tool suite designed to handle large media environments through physical interfaces, real-time motion graphics, audio and video (which can interact with many users simultaneously) . The value of the Arduino can be read by uploading the Arduino’s sketch of Firmata and then using the VVVVV’s digital read (Firmata) and Alo Read (Firmata) . Digital write (Firmata) , AnalogWrite (Firmata) or ServoWrite (Firmata) a node connected to an Arduino pin sets the board’s data to control the Arduino board.

Visual Effects
The model of birds and Peacocks is made by 3D Software Blender, and the model is imported into VVVV. According to the two different data obtained from the sound sensor and the acceleration electronic component, the visual effect of the percussion elephant-foot drum is realized to realize the sound visualization. In VVV, the control model can be achieved by processing the data of the voice.