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what im finding interesting

Month: December 2023

Categories
research presentations

Cymatics + Audio into Visual

During a lecture, Milo brought up cymatics. This is a topic I had heard of before but hadn’t fully looked in to. After my research so far, I’ve found cymatics to be of great interest and have am now looking in to creating visuals from audio in a more broad sense.

TouchDesigner is a software that was brought to my attention during a create computing talk at LCC, since then I have been getting hands on trying to learn my way of around its many systems, using YouTube as a guide where necessary. I intend to use TouchDesigner to add a visual element to my artist practice in the future.

Chladni plates have been of most interest in the topic of cymatics. Some of the collaborators at nasterisk and I have decided to figure out a way to connect cymatics and fashion through the use of such plates. We plan to have a synthesiser that customers will use to alter powder dye on a plate. The resonant frequencies will create a unique design for each person ultimately adding to the user experience.

interesting youtube links:

interesting A/V artists instagram links:

Yoshi Sodeoka:

https://www.instagram.com/yoshisodeoka/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Jason Ting:

https://www.instagram.com/jzlabs/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Leo Van:

https://www.instagram.com/leovannmusic/utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

Categories
research presentations

Reflecting on Rhizomes

Rhizomes were briefly covered in week 5 of Intro to Sound Arts and it sparked some interest within me.

To truly create something new is a hard task for anybody, I think questioning the old is a far more reasonable way to go about creating innovative ideas. Through being inquisitive of arborescent structures we can uncover hierarchies within them that can limit growth. Rhizomatic structures give us the opportunity to use every new experiment as a starting point for further exploration. We are then able to double back and retrace our steps, which can increase experimentation tenfold, this has to be my favourite part about Deleuzian thinking.

Related YouTube link:

Categories
reflective writing + essays

SDT E1 reflective writing

My original idea consisted of breaking down English language through phoneme reconstruction. The plan was to talk/sing each vowel then layer them to make up some form of harmony. The vowels would be stretched to make the length of the recording. Mono recordings of consonants would periodically appear throughout the piece in clusters and slowly fade with granular effects and modulating delays. However, once I realised that I wouldn’t be able to fulfil both ideas fully, I decided to experiment with the piece that became the final composition as much as possible.

I created a patch on a Korg Volca Modular during a lecture, then recorded a few different loops varying in timbre. After chopping up, time warping and pitch shifting the recording, I arranged the first section of the piece. Reverb, delay and other effects are added to create a sense of dreaminess and help the listener let their guard down. This is layered with a slowed field recording of the Hare Krishna mantra I captured in June of this year. This recording is significant because local hindus in my home town would sing in the city centre. I can recall a number of good memories that would’ve had this as the soundtrack. As it is a mantra it also adds to the lull of the first section.

Wanting to explore a new concept, I made a recording of my dishwasher to investigate reduced listening. Its scrape and hum intrigued me. It adds some sort of grim ambience to the track, which I find fits very well. The recording makes up the backdrop of the piece. Unbothered and unrelenting, it trudges along through the piece in its entirety.

The lyrics in this piece are taken from a reflective letter, written to myself prior to moving to London. There are three vocal tracks. One was recorded through a series of delay and distortion pedals to create a thick texture. I duplicated this track and slowed it down, so that the words would blend and melt together. The two tracks are then panned to the left and right, enveloping the listener, along side a loop from the Volca Modular that is slowed down and bitcrushed to create the wall of noise. However, the piece felt like something was missing, so I recorded myself whispering the passage, which I think helps complete the piece.

The piece is an attempt to translate my current psyche into audio, some kind of self portrait. It details the depths of confusion that I have come to know. My struggle in finding some sense of self or meaning within my art practice. I tend to struggle to mix all the elements in my work cohesively and I think that is the main weakness of this piece too. Although I looked into reduced listening while making this piece, I think that exploring this topic further will shine light on thoughts and ideas that can influence my practice even more.

Categories
intro to sound arts

W03 three key words

Thinking more about how we can describe sound arts, a few key words keep sticking out to me:

exploration/play, immersion and concept.

These are qualities I find in my favourite pieces, they seem to create through lines in work that makes it feel more cohesive. For example, I see the concept in Laurie Anderson’s ‘handphone table’ as the question:

How can we truly feel sound?

This piece takes sound, a usually shared, leaky substances, and traps it in the form of this table. Transforming sound a very intimate, personal object.

exploration/play

As an artist, exploration means everything. I believe there is no better way to find your voice. Experiment how many different ways that you could achieve the same effect. Perhaps, after some exploration, none of the outcomes are to your liking. Find out why. We should aim to be inquisitive in everything we set out to do.

immersion

When I say immersion I’m talking about being present in the moment. Listening and paying attention to each small detail, when your edges begin to bleed into the environment. It’s the idea that an artist or listener can completely lose themselves in the work, the research behind it or the environment the work is being made/presented in. Hans Witschi’s instagram page is probably my favourite showcase of this. He posts field recordings of everyday sounds we would usually ignore.

Wind passing through blinds, cars driving over drain covers, the vibration of a bus window.

Witschi confronts you with the musicality of the mundane and welcomes us to tune ourselves into the sound of our own environments.

concept

This is the idea that work begins as abstract ideas, like I mentioned earlier with Laurie Andersons piece. We can often times see the artists thought patterns through their work, most evident in John Cage’s piece ‘4’33″‘. Although it is not to my taste, this piece makes the audience part of the orchestra, which I do think is an interesting idea. Shuffling, coughing, squeaking or any other non-orchestral sound become the main focus, which raise some questions about silence, listening and audience interaction within performance culture on a wider scale.