Brooklyn Research worked with artist Jamian Juliano-Villani to modify a 1955 J-L Seeburg jukebox to play custom audio prepared for her piece Same Time Next Year (Part One). The custom audio would only play when a user selected one of five selections on the selector panel. If a user made a selection but it wasn’t a custom audio selection, the jukebox would operate as normal and play the selected recording.
Brooklyn Research installed RGB LEDs inside the Jukebox that would react to the audio level of the custom audio, so that as the audio got louder the LEDs would be brighter. These LEDs would only be active when the custom audio was playing. Brooklyn Research also designed and built out a high powered infrared emitter to control mechanical curtains that opened and closed for Jamian Juliano-Villani’s other piece Law Talk (Part Two).
To control all the features and parameters of the Jukebox, Brooklyn Research built a custom Jukebox controller for the artist. This controller allowed the artist to easily adjust the color value of the LEDs for the custom audio portion, adjust the sensitivity of the reactivity of the LEDs with the custom audio, adjust the volume for the custom audio, and test out the infrared emitter controls for the curtain. All external components were assembled with common connectors for portability and easy repair. Brooklyn Research also sourced a transformer to allow the piece to be used outside the U.S.