Enter the Void
Enter the Void is a music-controlled projection with live beat detection and beat prediction, running independently on inexpensive hardware without the need for user intervention. It projects repeating shapes on the wall that, at times, look like ornaments or tapestry. The installation can be customized easily by changing the pool of source images. The code tries to predict when the next beat hits, and animates the patterns accordingly.
The installation is named after the movie of the same name from 2009. It runs on a Raspberry Pi 4 at 30fps with a resolution of 1280×720. A small USB microphone is used for live audio input. The Aubio library is used for beat detection and beat prediction, and Pygame is used for compositing all elements and outputting them to the projector. The source elements are grayscale PNG images in a folder, and the script automatically loads a random image and creates a pattern by layering and rotating the image multiple times. The animation of these patterns is determined by the time to the next beat. The background color changes constantly, and the speed of this change is influenced by the current bpm of the music. Because it runs independently on inexpensive hardware and the style can be influenced by changing the pool of source images, it's easily customizable for different occasions.
The code can be found on GitHub.
