In a practice devising project ahead of the assessed component, Year 12 groups are making a piece about a town waiting for a flood, and one student in each group has chosen sound design as their role. Over three lessons the designers write a Sonic Pi program that builds the underscore as it runs: a low drone, rain made from randomised filtered noise whose density is set by one variable, and a heartbeat pulse whose tempo is set by another. In each run-through the designer sits at the operating desk and changes those values as the scene unfolds, so the rain thickens when the actors hold a silence and the pulse quickens as the argument builds, and no two runs sound the same. After each run the group discusses where the sound led the actors and where it followed them, and the designer rewrites the code for the next run. Designers finish with a sound plot and a written rationale explaining how the program serves the group's intentions.
This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and grade. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.