smdk : An Interactive Self-Organizing Sound Environment

smdk is a cross-disciplinary project by Knowbotic Research that results from an exchange of working techniques between media artists, computer musicians and computer scientists. The interactive installation smdk consists of a sound data base that forms a self- organizing system by means of simple artificial life rules. A visitor can interactively explore the data base in an action space and will organize sound by manipulating the duration, volume and direction of sound elements, which in turn depend on the speed and type of his or her movements. In this paper we describe the interactive environment of the installation as well as the concepts of the artificial life system, including self-organization of the data sounds and the real-time composition performed by a visitor in the action space.