This is my um....
I wanted to explore amplifier feedback as an embodied sound.
Although the work doesn't with deal with the most pleasing sounds, what resulted I think can be enjoyed at soft volumes.
The primary goal of the project is to be able to manipulate the feedback signal.
The signal's pitch is dependent on the tension of the strings suspending the amplifier.
For some background on how feedback works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback
The idea of this project originally stemmed from the question how do you make garbage "useful" in a new way. A garbage is thought of as a type of receptacle: "something that receives and contains something", but could it also give back something useful? I decided that maybe it could be used as a way to exploit the user, forcing them to acknowledge the fact that they are making waste and bringing them to the attention of others in the space, who also recognize that the user has thrown something in the trash can.
VIDEO CLIP TO COME...
How does it work? There is guitar amplifier inside the trash can hidden by the garbage bag and some pre-existing trash that is hooked up (through an effects pedal) to a contact microphone hanging from the swivel cover of the waste basket. When the user throws something inside, he/she must push the swivel top down, which forces the contact mic to hit the back of the waste basket sending a signal to the amplifier. The effects pedal adds volume to the sound and also an echo effect. Also, when the cover is forcibly opened, the mic will send a strong signal inducing loud feedback.
A pedestrian is leaving class on his/her way to another obligation, and without thinking throws a pop bottle in the trash can. Much to his/her surprise, the trash can responds with a loud tone, which not only brings embarrassment to the user, but also an awareness of his/her action. This awareness could reduce the waste that person produces in the future.
The result of this project is not completely resolved. I am pleased at this point to get the basic idea to work well, but there are small adjustments to be made to get the mic to react every time, not just to more forced openings of the lid. Also, the feedback was lasting too long, so I would need to adjust the settings of the effects pedal specifically for the environment where it would be placed. I would also like to explore output other than just the sound being amplified through the amplifier. There could be more of a message sent to the user about what they are doing, not just the amplification of the sound that they are making by throwing an object away. This would give more life and attitude to the trash can.
https://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embedqt.php?media_id=34936
here's a link to my dock. this work is about approaching the mental ether
The (cheaply made) Gopher Radio Battler Infomercial
The goal of this piece was to "cool down" the medium of radio, the station is locked onto 100.3 FM and it always offers some loud, political voices to soothe a pacified ear and an inactive mind.
Dear class,
The reason why I was absent from class last week was because my project was about the absence of sound. The absence of embodied sound.
The assigned project, Embodied Sound, “explores Sound Art that emphasizes and explores the physicality of sound.” Part of the assigned project was about physical activation of sound. My project explores this concept of sound activation through physical relationships between people.
In Wafaa Bilal’s lecture at the Spark Festival, he tried to clarify the difference between interactive and dynamic art. He believes that many people falsely consider “interactive art” dynamic. He said that in interactive art, forces are acting or capable of acting on each other in a sort of cause and effect relationship (you touch something and it produces a corresponding sound for example). In this relationship, there are authoritarian power structures and all possible end states are known.
In dynamic art, however, there is autonomy within the artist’s system, and all end states are unknown. The participant(s) can write part of the narrative (this requires investment from the participant). This leads to the democratization of the making and viewing of art. (The project in the skyway during the Spark festival might be an example of a dynamic artwork)
This dynamic relationship is what I am currently interested in exploring through sound, and this project is sort of the first step in my investigation.
The reason why I’m attracted to human-human relationships is because of this dynamic quality. While there are certainly authoritarian power structures in some relationships, these power structures are always in flux and are often relationships are mostly democratic (when one talks with a close friend for example).
These relationships are important for me in relation to a sound art course because these power structures and more open-ended relationships affect the sound that is produced by each individual (and collective) participant (an example of the collective participants may be two fan sections during a college football game, in which the noise level and specific chants interact or compete with each other).
(An example of thought and sound activation between people may also be explained by the phenomena in which someone may never have thought about or said something if he/she were not physically engaged with a specific other (speaking about or doing a specific thing). Why is it important to meet with someone in person? Why is physical contact so important in discussion and noise production (in a music band for example)? These are questions I think are important as we progress towards an age of cyber connection, with long distance meetings and mediated forms of interaction. Certain environmental, social, and physical processes/interactions may stimulate specific noises and ideas in individuals and groups.)
It is also important (for me) to research these interactions because it may inform the design of my own sound art projects. I wonder if there is a parallel between how one views art and how one interacts with people. I think it may be a great advantage for art to try to replicate this human-human interaction, to democratize the interaction in such a way. This may allow for more people to understand and associate with contemporary art, and may improve art’s standing/role in society.
Specific questions of mine include:
Can the way one interacts with a stranger be an important case study for designing a dynamic artwork? Or can the way one interacts with a friend be a better model? The word design is important to me, because I think artists have the ability (and responsibility) to design these experiences, these encounters, and should know what specific design elements contribute to a specific effect.
Thus, my “Embodied Sound” project is sort of my first step in this investigation. For this initial experiment, I thought it would be important to withdraw myself from an environment, and record what the effect was, both on the group and on the individual. I hope that the results will inform the design of future investigations.
So, since I was not present in the room last week, may I ask you to share your experiences from class last week, in relation to my investigation. Also, may I ask you to share your response to the investigation as a whole?
Below is a brief reflection of my own experience as the withdrawn participant:
Isolating myself from the class was a very strange experience. I would imagine what the conversations may have been like, who may have said what, who would remain quiet, who would chew food, who would tap their foot, and whose chair would creak and squeak. Since I was supposed to be in a classroom focused on sound, I felt like I was more aware of sound even outside the class. Truly, I felt very isolated and very disconnected to the members of the class. I felt like I missed an important set of things, I missed their comments, their sounds, their energy. I wonder what ideas could have been spawned through the class. I wonder if the class noticed my absence, and what they thought about it. It was a very interesting experience for me.
I am also interested in this investigation because the experience of the two audiences, myself and the class, are completely different. Creating this cleavage in experience is interesting and something I think about generally. What are the advantages and disadvantages to each experience; what does one miss in choosing one or the other? (This question was especially on my mind when experiencing Ray Lee’s piece, as I could choose where to sit/stand, I was always feeling like I didn’t want to miss a noise) Is it desirable to experience the whole of a performance or artwork, or is it desirable to have a more individual experience and maintain a sense of ignorance towards the wholeness of the piece?
my embodied sound piece was a dock. the dock was wired up with piezos and amplified. as the spectator walked across the dock the creaks and groans of the wood were amplified which in return caused the dock to resonate. I wanted to explore ideas relating to the absurd and unusual phenomena. I didn't include any documentation because the film was too dark to make any thing out. My final project is a continuation of the dock....video documentation will be posted.
The driving force behind my embodied sound project was a desire to work with water. None of my art projects have had water as the main focus. I felt this was a good opportunity because producing a distinct sound was the main goal and, through experimentation, I found that using a contact mic on a basin as water fell into it produced a fantastic spectrum of sound. Since my piece was part of a group project, I had to find a way to make the sound controllable so that it could be orchestrated with the other pieces. I accomplished this by devising a mechanized spoon which disturbed the falling water and created a sharp splashing sound when activated.
The overall theme of the installation was "Jungle" and the sound of falling water fit in well. I tied the piece in aesthetically by creating a chaotic facade of different wires and tubes which hung from the piece. These simulated the vines and overgrowth of a jungle, but the wires and tubes blended better with the electronics and bent metal of my sculpture.
In class I shared this recording that I made -- a document of a musical approach to embodying sound. I am playing cello, and Jackie Beckey is playing viola. We both have our strings detuned in order to get lower frequency sounds out of our instruments, and we are using commercially made piezo pickups plugged into large bass amplifiers. All this serves to accentuate the physicality of the sounds we are making -- these simple repetitive drones become a landscape that has a physical presence in the room. You can hear us play at Art of This Gallery after class on May 5th.
listen here
I didn't present this in class, but I wanted to share another music/sound piece that deals with embodiment and disembodiment. For this piece, I sing into a loop pedal that is plugged into a radio transmitter; my looped voice plays through a few cheap clock radios that are all tuned to the same channel. Then I sing along with my disembodied voice. The sound you hear at the beginning is the static of the radios, which goes silent when i switch on the transmitter and the light. Unfortunately, the sound quality on this video is pretty bad, so i recommend using headphones.
I want to record, with the contact mic, the flow of the blood through the body in order to investigate Ayurvedic concepts of the way in which blood flows and how that is described pictorially. I would like to record multiple people's blood flow in order to get a range in which to decipher the flow of the blood from anatomical notions of pulse. I will then record the sound created by the contact mic with an audio recorder. I have not decided on presentation yet.
Embodied Sound explores Sound Art that emphasizes and explores the physicality of sound.
You may approach this through the physical presence of tangible or tactile modse of sound making, through some form of wearable sound art, an extension of your work with site sound that furthers
this exploration of the physical, tactile or corporeal presence.
Your embodied sound work may be inspired by the piezo and DIY mini-amplifier that you made, our circuit bending explorations , the sensor activated possibilities introduced via the arduino or a divergent interest that you bring to this project.
Inspirations for Embodied Sound may come from:
Iannis Xenakis's Concrete Ph
... or Ed Osborn's Night Music
Kelly Dobson's Blendie and her work with machines as companion species.. ... or her Wearable Organ series
featuring Scream Body
Kanta Horio's experiments with electro magnetism, teapots and more.
Walter Kitundu's experimental instuments including the phonoharp
... and Ocean Edge Device.
Playful new instruments such as Gili Weinberg's Beat Bugs and the musical shapers
href="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/%7Egilwein/Shapers.htm" Squeezable that Gil Weinberg and Maggie Orth developed for the Toy Symphony.
Maggie Orth's wearable musical jacket
and Jay Silver's drawdio.
Richard Lerman's sound work with piezo's may be i interesting.
Stephen Vitiello's Speaker Drawings may inspire or his World Trade Center piezo recordings may expand your notions of the contact mike.
Nicolas Collins and Paul D Demarinis
each explore the tangible and the sonic in astounding ways.
Post a sketch of your Embodied Sound idea and then add the documentation of your Embodied Sound work in this category.
Include image and sound files and, if relevant, a video of the the object, space or phenomna.