I started thinking of converting video to a midi signal, which in turn will be put through a synth program. After doing a bit of research it seems that Processing is not midi-friendly - the only way is to get an osc signal, then convert THAT into midi using more script. Puredata seems much more friendly this way.
Just starting to learn a bit of programming, (even though apparently I programmed a spectrum when I was about 10?) it is not really my scene, as I'm much more of a blind-fiddler than a methodical learner. Here's a video of Puredata translating camera video to midi, using a modified + re-edited example patch. It was a windy day, and thought to point my old & slightly broken camera outside to the trees. Only the movement is seen, anything stationary is keyed out. Movement along x & y axes will trigger midi notes.
What I liked is how this video works in itself - this is just a visualisation of what the programming is doing, and would normally be hidden away somewhere on a laptop in an installation space. But it is quite a mysterious thing itself to see the processes, the way technology describes seeing. I'm thinking about putting another camera to that etc, to create a sort of feedback where each camera describes its own video-programming. A kind of hermaneutic circle in a way.
