新しいメディアとしてのコンピュータスペース(2) (Computer space as a new medium (2))

Notes

From the 端山貢明アーカイブ (Hayama Kōmei Archive), item 9963 in the コンピュータアート category, registered 2022-10-04: https://d-commons.net/hayama/?c=&p=9963. Published by the 端山貢明アーカイブプロジェクト (Hayama Kōmei Archive Project), directed by 前川道博 (Michihiro Maekawa) of Nagano University, on the D-Commons platform, and licensed CC BY (表示). The source documents come from the 端山文庫, the papers kept in Hayama's laboratory at Tohoku University of Art and Design, digitised by the project with the agreement of his family; his autograph scores were given to the University History Archives of the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2026. Source: 端山貢明「新しいメディアとしてのコンピュータスペース――秋のコンピュータ・アート展を前にして――」『コンピュートピア』(Computopia) 1973年9月号, pp. 68–69. Scanned from a photocopy in the 端山文庫.. Dated: Published September 1973, ahead of the exhibition of 5–21 October 1973.. The archive publishes this item as 3 separate page scans rather than as a PDF; the download here was assembled from those scans in page order, each taken at the higher of the two resolutions the archive serves. The second article turns to computer music and to the two rooms that were to carry the 1973 exhibition. Compared with computer graphics, Hayama writes, music has almost no direct output device of its own. Work so far has taken two forms: the computer as effector for instruments and orchestra, calculating point generation and shifts of distribution, written out as a score and played — Hiller in America, Xenakis the Greek architect — and the synthesis of sound from waveform calculation, converted by D/A, as in MUSIC V, developed by Mathews at Bell Telephone Laboratories. The exhibition puts its weight instead on real-time interaction between a computer-controlled space and people. The first of those spaces is the アノニマス・スペース, the Anonymous Space: an almost empty room some 10 m across, "無名の空間", whose state is presented as a function whose values are established only in relation to whoever comes in. A block diagram prints the chain — sensors, A/D, CPU, D/A, effectors — with reading, discrimination, conversion and output programs off the processor. A sensor detects on a free mesh whether a person is present at each sample point, as 1 or 0; the computer judges the variation over a unit of time as total numbers, shifts of distribution and movement, and the conversion program emits the command sequences that drive the effectors. For sound this means real-time control of an acoustic synthesiser called アートマトン (Artmaton), with frequency, band, duration, timbre, intensity, spatial movement and density distribution as its factors; xenon lamps, lasers and strobes are controlled alongside it. The second space is the アクリルの林, the acrylic forest: ten-odd acrylic panels about 2 m by 1 m, engraved by NC router with computer graphics, stood up as a maze through which people pass, exchanging light and image. Its correspondence is strongly one-to-one where the Anonymous Space is many-to-many; both run on the same system and program, controlled almost simultaneously by time sharing. Contents as the document gives them: コンピュータ音楽 (computer music) · アノニマス・スペース (Anonymous Space). People named: 端山貢明 (Hayama Kōmei), ヒラー (Lejaren Hiller), クセナキス (Iannis Xenakis), マシューズ (Max Mathews). Noted: The scan is of a photocopy and the archive warns that it is hard to read; several characters are only partly legible. The engraving machine is printed as "NCビラフター", read here as an NC router; the transliteration is unclear. The photograph at the foot of p. 69 shows a model of the exhibition space but carries no caption.