Enchanted
In 2008 I made circuit-bent Buddhist chant boxes to be given to guests at a 2008 NYFA fundraising event. I continue to experiment with them as instruments, gifts, and sculptural objects.
(chant boxes for the 2008 NYFA event)
(chant boxes for the free103point9 table at the 2009 Printed Matter Book Fair.)
(prototypes for the 2008 NYFA event)
"Enchanted" is a series of modified Buddhist "chant boxes". Each one begins life as a digital sound player (variously called a "chanting player", "buddha box", or "buddhist jukebox"). They are usually given away in Chinese temples to assist in meditation. Short musical phrases are encoded on a microchip and played continuously when the player is turned on. Some have a track-switch button (like an old 8-track player) and some have only a volume knob.
I am interested in how the technology within these boxes guides the perception of their intent. At first blush, a digital device that "prays for you" seems a bit Orwellian but Buddhist chanting is not prayer (as in mortals communicating with their gods). It is a blend of oral tradition and meditation: a way of teaching religious texts where the repetition of the message encourages a spiritual state harmonious with the meaning of the text itself.
I have "circuit-bent" each box to enable radical alteration of pitch. Individual notes can be transformed into slowly-shifting textures or the entire phrase can be condensed into an instant. Although the message of the religious text is unavailable for English speakers, the formal qualities of the repeated sound are heightened. When the pitch is lowered enough, the supersonic rate of digital sampling becomes an audible tone. When lowered even more it becomes a rhythmic ticking as each sample is pulled slowly from memory and fed to the tiny speaker.
Pitch can be controlled in 2 ways:
- The knob invites intuitive control, like playing an instrument.
- The light sensor provides a "hands-off" interface which can respond to a body, sunlight in a window, etc...
MAKE YOUR OWN!
One day I'll make a step-by-step guide on www.instructables.com but until then...
Get a chant box from the Pure Land Buddhists or buy one from Deal Extreme.
Then go out and get yourself a copy of Handmade Electronic Music by Nic Collins. It's a thorough guide to DIY electronics, liberally peppered with art-contextual blurbs that will have you running to wikipedia with your soldering iron in your other hand. (see Chapter 12: "Tickle the Clock")
Parallel Rhetoric: Coming and Going
6 channel video, teleprompters, custom software, briefcase, modified microphones
This piece extends the investigation of public speech that I began in 2005 with "Parallel Rhetoric: 2001 + 2005". It debuted in Now Again The Past at Carnegie Art Center in Tonawanda, NY. It was exhibited again in 2008 at Auburn University in Alabama.
Presidents Johnson, Carter, and Reagan each saw massive changes during their tenure. Johnson was thrust into office unexpectedly and oversaw huge changes in the social and political landscape. Carter recognized the collapse of 1960's ideals but was unable to convince the masses that he could reconcile idealism with economic recovery in the 1970’s. Reagan increased executive-branch authority to unprecedented levels while pointing his finger at government as the root of America’s problems, effectively silencing Carter's questioning of the country’s ethos.
"Parallel Rhetoric: Coming and Going" continuously combines the Inaugural and Farewell speeches of these three leaders. The video image of each President is reflected in a pair of plexiglass teleprompters (Inauguration on the left, Farewell on the right). A single modified microphone is placed between each pair, wired as a speaker, giving voice to one speech or the other but never both.
Whenever a moment of mutual silence occurs, the sound inaudibly switches from one speech to the other without breaking the rhythm of the words (combining election-year promises with farewell reflections in the same virtual sentence). The video tracks remain uncut, so aural/visual synchronicity bounces left and right with each rupture of meaning, leaving one head continuously mouthing in silence.
Through this technique, new speeches emerge from the remnants of the old and intentions vanish into the years between the recordings. The rhetorical form of public speaking remains, filling the containers of the original events with a new sort of spectacle.
videos from Carnegie Art Center, 2006
photos from Auburn University, 2008
Hi-res images of "Parallel Rhetoric: Coming and Going" are here
Parallel Rhetoric: 2001 + 2005
software, modified microphone, briefcase
I came up with this piece for a show called "Displacement" at WORK in Ann Arbor, MI in October 2005. The show explored displacement in many forms.
A briefcase on the floor conceals a laptop running the installation software. It plays recordings of the US Presidential Inaugurations from 2001 and 2005 through the microphone, which is modified to act as a speaker.
The software switches back and forth between the speeches whenever it finds a mutual moment of silence. The gaps between words are transformed into gaps between years. The empty shell of the speech "event" endures but the intentions of the speaker dissolve.
Here is an unedited excerpt...
Click images for enlargements.
Hi-res images of "Parallel Rhetoric: 2001 + 2005" are here
Explosions & Reactions
2 channel video, LCD displays
This piece compresses the widescreen spectacle of action-movie violence into small weightless frames. Two small LCD displays are suspended 15ft apart. One plays all of the explosions from the Die Hard films, assembled in a continuous loop. The other shows Bruce Willis contorting in the reflected light as he reacts to each explosion. Conspicuously silent, the pyrotechnic symphony loses its grandeur while the slowed catalog of Bruce WillisÕ reactions makes the actorÕs struggle to emote into a larger-than-life ordeal.
Play Video Clip (silent, 1min:20sec)
Search Signals
2002
Coming soon.
Public Haunting
2002
Coming soon
Interference Patterns
2002
Coming soon
Etc...
200XComing soon