introduction
Developing musical instruments and interactive systems is an early passion of Zlatko's.
Initially he used electronics in creating experimental sound sources to soon start focusing on cumputer mediated music production.
His software development evolves around SuperCollider and Max/MSP programming languages.
Hardware design involves developing sensor interfaces and signal converters which were explored in his undergraduate studies.
The music is largely made utilising audio processing and sound synthesis techniques to also include complex mapping and gesture following algorithms.
Zlatko actively develops, employs and lectures on these techniques.
The primary subject taught, evolving around these topics is the 'Interactive Music Systems UG3' at the Birmingham City University, taught to Music Technology BsC students.
His developments are mainly project specific but are kept open-source for public use.
Projects include sound installations, instrument design and music production comissions.
installations
20.6.-30.6.2018 – As a part of his residency at Studio LOOS Zlatko Baracskai produced a contemporary piece for a Styliana Apostolou entitled Solitary Confinement. The piece draws on prison novels by Vitomil Zupan taking a dive into solitude. The freedom is shown to be greater inside than outside in a conceptual twist. The dancer reaches ecstatic emotional states enacted using dance sensors for musical articulation. Semantically transparent yet largely abstract in texture this piece might just heal all your fear of confinement, as it sinks in.
6.8.-11.8.2012 – An interactive installation was set up on the stairs of University of Pecs during a week of summer workshops.
Passers-by would jointly control beat-based music made from vocal samples.
The sensor system employed shadow casting on six light sensors along the staircase.
27.8.- 12.8.2012 – Comissioned by Coca-Cola, interaction design and technical consultancy for the Olympic Pavilion project was provided.
This involved working closesly with iArt from Basel and Pernilla&Asif achitect studio in London.
The contribution in building an interactive building included development of the sensor system, software framework and gesture following systems.
Acting as a consultant to Coca-Cola involved overviewing the technical aspects of design and systems testing.
17.1.-20.1.2010 - Commissioned by Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, a central hub for interactive art exhibition was designed and built.
Octagonal space was designed with eight paths into the maze of almost twenty installations.
Each exit was equipped with floor board sensor and a loudspeaker.
Hereby, the spectators' activity was augmented with musical elements triggered by their steps.
This allowed the people gathered in the hub to jointly improvise electronic music as they entered or exited the labyrinth.
3.8-19.8.2009 - Comissioned by Collegium Artisticum Gallery in Sarajevo, the
Black Balloon audio-visual interactive installation was conceived and built with the help of set designer Vedran Hrustanovic.
A dark labyrinth was designed to allow a single spectator at a time.
The journey consisted of four stages where an instruction was given to perform an action.
Hereby the spectators were inclined to consider obedience, valorisation, individualism and deat.
1.4.2007-1.5.2007 – Comissioned by Kitchen Budapest and T-Mobile a SuperCollider application was built for the Mobile Jam installation.
The software allows advanced loop triggering and manipulation with a set of twelve keys on a mobile phone.
Based on the duration of key pressing advanced features would be controlled.
Four instruments could be used to create electronic dance music in real time.
Multiple user mode was designed which had a built in time quantization that ensured the players stayed in sync.
10.3.2005-10.4.2005 – Comissioned by Ricardo Giraldo, a sensor system for the interactive installation 'De-fuse' was built.
It consisted of pressure pads and motion sensors with cylindrical beam-focusing mechanism.
Analogue signals were digitised using custom built interface at the Institute of Sonology.
18.10-11.11.2004 – Comissioned by Tag in the Hague, a wireless sensor system for a dancer was developed that utilized tilt switches and pressure sensors.
The sensor data was used to synthesize electronic sound with SuperCollider programming language.
Sounds and interactions were designed in collaboration with the dancer.
instruments
20.5.-27.6.2007 – Comissioned by Open Systems. A sensor system was developed for enabling dancers to control sound synthesis processes and thereby make music live on stage.
Four triangle shaped custom sensor surfaces were built. They consisted of rubber feet, metal base and suspended plexiglass surface. The pressure exerted by the foot of a dancer was measured at the
three points of suspension. Such, the act of balanicng of one foot was captured to allow complex gesture follwing to be employed.
18.2.2007 – Making New Waves Festival – A system was developed for a dancer to play music by interrupting laser beans.
Control data processing coming was implemented to control sample playback algorithms.
A narrative was developed in collaboration with the dancer that evolved around struggle against enclosed space.
18.2-22.2.2006 – Comissioned by Making New Waves festival, instrument augmentation was built for a shakuhachi.
Pressure pads were placed on the bore of the instrument that had an accelerometer attached.
It allowed the performer to control complex audio effects that were applied to the sound of the instrument.
1.10.2005-1.11.2005 – Comissioned by Sonsoles Alonso, an advanced sample playback and processing application was built to be used with a velocity sensitive keyboard.
Various control rate analyses and behavior simulations were implemented to create a complex digital instrument.
Piece calle 'Leopold' was written for this custom instrument.
1.11.2004 – Cello extension was developed in collaboration with Sasha Agranov.
A set of buttons was placed on the body of the instrument that enabled the performer to switch between different sound processing algorithms.
Two pedals were made available to control parameters of the effects to allow the musician to articulate the electronic counterpart.
A piece called 'drop' was produced, which can be found on the Knal(2005) CD, available in the music section.
software
20.10.2008-23.10.2008 – Comissioned by Hello Digital, a real time diffusion software was developed.
Eight microphone signals were diffused over 56 speakers using 32 faders.
This was utilized for the performance of the Birmingham Improvisers Orchestra at the Millenium Point.
20.1.2008-14.2.2008 – Comissioned by Birmingham Electro-acoustic Sound Theatre, a Customizable software was built to automatically calculate exact positions of multiple speakers in a room.
Using three microphones different delay times were established which were used to locate a speaker in space based on emitted impulses.
It allowed for calibration for different microphone placements and specific environmental factors.
2.11.2007-2.3.2008 – Comissioned by David Hindmarch, a modular software for granulation and spatialization fusing eight audio channels was developed.
Coded in SuperCollider, this software, without any GUI allows a composer to create infinite recursive trees of sound processing modules.
It automatically maps all the controls to an interface with 64 knobs that can be queried for identity.
The software uses the native OSX speech engine to provide verbal feedback to the user.
It also allows for custom microtonal tuning of MIDI keyboards that can be used to trigger processes.
5.5.2006-25.5.2006 – Comissioned by SZTAKI centre for automation and IT, a SuperCollider application was built that would recognize vowels of the Hungarian language.
Estimations were networked through UDP OSC protocol. The software was used to drive video processing algorythms.
Releases
CyberFarts included tracks trajekt and zeep on the Dutch Experience compilation in 2002.
Worm has published electronic tracks on compilations 36,38,46 and 49 in 2003 and 2004.
DioBel released an EP of compiled electronic works in 2005.
Zlatko has made and given away 88 promotional copies of the No4 EP in 2006.
DioBel released the 'Algoholik' LP in 2010.
