I’m back in Oslo for the summer and have a tight schedule planned for finishing the conch sculpture. Paal Feduik at High Performance Composites in Fredrikstad will build the actual sculpture using the CAD models Ragnhild Haugum has provided him. Ragnhild has spent a good deal of time trying to trace my polygon model with nurbs curves in AutoCAD for the last few months and have now finally finished her work. And it looks good! First off we’ll do a small prototype model to see if there are any changes we might want to do with the design. Seeing an object in real life can reveal weaknesses in the design that can be hard to spot on a computer screen. I will post images of it as soon as it is finished. Final production is scheduled for July/August, with private viewing and testing session.
Author Archives: Mats Sivertsen
The podcast part 2
Part two of the podcast about the subConch.
The subConch in a podcast!
Hello! It’s been a long time without many updates – I will blog more soon about why. Here is a podcast by Gordon McGladdery, a sound designer from Vancouver, who stumbled upon the subConch on YouTube while researching audio mind control conspiracy theories!
General release
Finally the subConch is out in a general release. Version 0.8.5. You can download it below. Please leave comments, feature requests and bug reports here.
Download subConch V0.8.5 
Some Windows 64-bit users have had issues. If you are, try and download a 64-bit version of vc_redist and run it after you installed the program. You might also want to try 32-bit compatibility mode if you have problems.
Make sure you didn’t miss any of the prompts during the install, like the self-extracting archive dialogue ? they get obscured by each other.
Also it’s vital to let the vc_redist run its course. Otherwise it won’t work.
Enjoy!
CHANGELOG:
08.12.2012 ? New installer with updated vc_redist.
04.03.2012 ? Official release of subConch version 0.8.5 Charonia.
subConch 360°
I’ve done a small test render to visualize the sculpture in 360. Some error in the HDRI though, but I haven’t figured it out. Anyway, it’s just a simple render so people can see. The CAD model will be finished this week and shipped off to get quotes from modelling workshops.
http://www.subconch.net/more.html
Update
This week the CAD drawing for the conch sculpture will be finished and I can go ahead and find a contractor to produce it. Looking forward to beginning this part of the project. Also, I’m eagerly awaiting the dry sensor version of the headset from Emotiv, which is expected this quarter. I’m pretty sure the new headset will make my gallery installation much less of a hassle for the average audience member.
Also, Emotiv shipped be the DLL I need to make a general release for all Emotiv users of the subConch software application. I’m hoping to get this done in the next couple of weeks.
Just King!
This might be a bit sneaky since it doesn’t concern the subConch, but another project of mine. However I need to get word out to as many as possible on this other effort. It’s the crowd funding of an underground comic book of mine: an ambitious piece about war, media and politics called “Just King”. If you are interested in supporting this please read more about it here on Ulule.
The software is out!
I hope I have written my last bit of c++ code for a while, at least until the bug reports come flowing in. It’s been quite a ride. I started with absolutely no knowledge of c++ at all. I knew Flash Actionscripting and some Javasript. But in c++ there is a whole world of libraries, linking, preprocessor directives, debug and release configurations, dependencies(!), memory leaks, awkward type casting… the list just goes on. Actually I more or less finished a working application a year ago, but I needed a break and worked on some other projects. It still had many bugs and I knew nothing about deployment. Mind you, I have still only tested it on Windows XP 32-bit, where it seems to work just fine, but I’m looking forward to some feedback.
The release is an 0.8.0 version, so it’s still kind of BETA. I’ve codenamed the public freeware verison as “subConch – Charonia”, differentiating it from the (internal) version I’m using in the gallery installation. The differences are few, but the gallery version outputs OSC messages and has a different initial setup as well as different audio for the voice.
Right now the application is awaiting approval at the Emotiv Store. Since it’s free I’ll put up a download option here on the subConch site as well. I’ll keep you posted.
Pending software release
The release of the software version of the subConch is now just around the corner. I have finally managed to deploy a working release configuration on another computer and everything seems to be working just fine. Some work still needs to be done though, like a small user manual, some new voice instructions and perhaps some new graphics for the interface. All in all it’s looking good. There will probably be a free “BETA” version out first where people can use it and report bugs back to me.
Oslo Experiment
Loads of good feedback! Fueled by an article in Ny Tid (read here) as well as some great words of inspiration from the curator at the National Museum in Zimbabwe, we are now full of enthusiasm for further work. Magnhild, Leon and I have started evolving the performance, aiming at the show in Oslo on the 28th and 29th of May (Dansens Hus). I have added more buttons for the audience to press, and Leon has been making new sounds. The location is not the best though, since we have been placed in the corner of the foyer. Rigging is on Monday and I still need to figure out how to fit the space.