void setup () {

background (

Having been given the task of creating an interactive piece based in processing or p5, I began brainstorming ideas for possible projects. The resulting idea that came from brainstorming and in-class discussions was to combine the Billboard charts with a Myo band.

So how would it work? The idea was to create an interface that could be interacted with at a distance. Users would be able to grab albums, control volume, and anything else the band might be capable of.

So how did it come to life? First, I had to research the Billboard charts to find out what charts to use, who was charting on them, and how to best go about everything. Once I had those details squared away, I created a UI. After getting feedback from classmates, I revised the UI and began to focus my attention on actually coding the piece.

The first choice I had to make was choosing a library that would allow me to play the music. My initial choice was the Sound library; which I ran with. Next, I used the UI I created beforehand as a background. I then gave values to the pixel ranges above albums and linked those values to specific songs for playback; essentially turning the albums into buttons. I inserted some If statements to keep songs from playing atop of each other. Once this was done, I was left with a working piece that played top pop songs as intended.

Hooking up the Myo band was my next step. I spent much time learning how the Myo works, what all you could/could not do with it, and what connecters were available. A Myo connecter is a piece of code that tells the band how to respond to certain gestures. While I could find some connecters online that were similar to what I was looking for, there were none that quite matched my needs. After looking at differenent connectors and their code, I eventually settled upon a connector that I edited to best suit the project's needs. At this point I began experiencing some minor issues with the Sound library. After switching over to the Minim library, all errors were resolved and the project was working properly.

With the project now up and running, it was time to get it onto display. On December 8th, 2017 I put the Billboard project up in the Miller Gallery alongside other projects from our Creative Code class. The gallery officially opened on the 12th, and stayed up until the 15th. In that span of time, visitors were welcome to come try out the Myo band, learn how to use it, and listen to some of their favorite tunes along the way.

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v.2

FINAL