heavy modification occuring notes at url. but im trying to conceive a device that influences
practices that seep and emerge, that give the uncanny impression that they are communications from elsewhere – the other side of consciousness, or the grave. This creates the strange mixture of anonymity and immediacy typical of utterances that emanate from an unknown source, such as graffiti (before they began to be also another brand) or messages spelled out on a Ouija board. The words often seem as though giving voice to collective hopes and fears.
Acoustic energy has the ability to profoundly influence an individual’s brain waves, respiratory cycles, nervous system, muscle function, heart rate and glandular function.
“The first such signals were morse code conveyed electronically, but anyone who has heard the wind playing telegraph wires knows that there are other messages in the ether.” ALLAN LAMB
While reading Brian Eno’s talk on Generative Music, I was very intrigued to experiment with setting up small rules to generate ambient music. For a long time I was fascinated with the fact that psycho-geography lets us reveal aspects of cities we dwell, in very interesting ways we would never have thought of before. By setting up small rules, music can also be made generative and could be made different and interesting each time it is played. (psycho-acoustics?). I will quote from Eno’s talk here about a music piece by Steve Reich called “it’s gonna rain”.
“it’s about 17 minutes long. It’s produced by a very, very simple process. It’s a loop of a preacher saying “It’s gonna rain”. Identical copies of the loop are being played on two machines at once. Because of the inconsistency of the speed of the machines they gradually slip out of sync with one another. They start to sound like an echo. Then they sound like a cannon, and gradually they start to sound like all sorts of things.”
These sort of things got me thinking of ways to make my dream instrument partly more realistic. And today while I was trying to understand the prospects of JunXion and LiSa, a quick thought came to my mind, which I wrote in my sketchbook.
“May 18th, 2006. 1:00pm. iLight ;) a small device disguised as a light (can have different designs, or it could be a device for embedding into lights). This device may use the direct power of the light (host). It has senses for sensing the lighting conditions of the space (homes, shops, office spaces), it also includes microphones (contact, cable, etc) to listen to sounds in the space. After sensing the ‘atmosphere’ of the space this device (which will also include a tiny microcomputer) calculates a set of rules for generating the music needed for the space to slowly bring about to a defined preset ambience, also the intensity and the colours of the lights (possibly LEDs) can be generative depending on the data received from the atmosphere.
The generated music would ofcouse have to be transmitted to the sound system of the space via FM or another means to be played. A system like this may be more cost effective for places like large department stores , shopping complexes, shops, as the music would be generated by itself.”
Wind vibration, Ghz and human activity feed through fuzzy network of old wire speakers microphones and software to create changing sound states from transformed energy.
A immersive|emergent sound installation A example of a similar way of generating sound was usedi “Side Show Moderne~/Media Divination” 1993 in a collaboration with Scot Cotterel
This is the type of radio voice effect i would like to make live with the sound stick (you hear the effect at 12 second) This is The Libertines ‘Up the bracket’ from album same title.
The instrument of my desire would be of a minimal clean design with a hint of rawness. The output sound / visual would also reflect these characteristics. The output would be soothing and calm. It would act has an ambient element in working / living environments. Unless purposely looked at or listened to it, it would not be apparently noticeable to the viewer / listener’s mind. It would be like a soft wind on a non-windy day, like gentle waves in a calm sea, or the sound of green leaves in summer. It would reside in the subconscious mind giving people / animals / plants a sensual and a balancing feel. If a colour can make a sound it would be the sound of air (with a bit of impurity). It would be ambiguous but not unclear. Overall, it would be complex but not complicated it would be elegant but not extravagant, it would tend to complete / balance the environment it is set in by slowly reacting to spatial, visual, audio in the surroundings.
Magic Stick:
I would like to make a stick that has multifaceted functions and usibility:
* I can sing into it as a microphone,
* takes the lyrics away from songs and remixes them and the voice as i sing into it with layers
* it is a percussion instrument, beat machine
* I can trigger various sound samples from it,
* audio streaming is possible from it
* also attached is a small camera where i can stream performances
Replaced the Tempo Control of the metronome with a light sensor and then tried to connect the metronome to the horn (with Stock’s help), in many different ways, but was not able to ultimately get the sound I needed out of it. But it sure was a good experience!
