MAR 07 | Reflections and Resonance

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Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

• How to Make a Contact Mike from Handmade Electronic Music, Nic Collins (p 27-36)
• stereo mic techniques pages from “The New Stereo Soundbook”, Ron Streicher and F. Alton Everest
• descriptions of “I Am Sitting in a Room” and “Vespers” from the book “Reflections”, Alvin Lucier

Optional:

• stereo hearing and psychoacoustics pages from “The New Stereo Soundbook”
• “Sabine After Symphony Hall” from The Soundscape of Modernity by Emily Thompson (p. 62-69)

Bring to Class

Today we will build contact mikes! You must buy these parts at Radio Shack and bring them to class. The Radio Shack employees have no electronics experience. Ask specifically for these part numbers and don’t accept any advice from them. (If it’s not a mobile phone or a $50 iPod cable they won’t know what to do.) Call ahead to multiple stores in your area.

Follow the links, look at the pictures. Don’t get the wrong stuff!

• Piezo Element (part # 273-073)
  (Consider buying 2 because it’s easily broken during construction. There are many types of piezo buzzer and most will work, but this part is easier to use that the other ones.)
• 6ft Mono 1/8″ to Mono 1/8″ extension cable (part # 42-2472)
  (Longer is OK, stereo is OK, but it must be 1/8″ and have a male end and a female end)
• 3mm Red LED (2 per package) (part # 276-026)
  (You need both LEDs to build one mic. Red is best but other colors are OK too.)
• XLR Audio Connector (male) (part # 274-010)
  (This will allow you to plug your contact mic into our recorders. If you have your own recorder and it lacks XLR inputs, don’t bother with this part.)
• TOTAL COST: $15 (If you’re broke, find a partner.)

In Class

• Discuss direct and reflected sound and the creation of acoustic character in the built and natural environment.
• Explore the metaphors of reflection, inhabiting spaces, “tuning” the world, etc.
• Explain resonance, from drum-shells to skyscrapers to collapsing bridges.
• Discuss stereo hearing (phase and intensity cues) and recording (mic techniques).
• Build piezoelectric contact-mics from readily-available materials
• Take out mics and recorders and make stereo recordings with different mic techniques. Play in class and discuss the results. How is depth different in stereo and mono?

Screening

• Bill Fontana’s “Harmonic Bridge” at Tate Modern
• Alvin Lucier’s “I am Sitting In a Room”
• In I Am Sitting in a Room, several sentences of recorded speech are simultaneously played back into a room and re-recorded there many times. As the repetitive process continues, those sounds common to the original spoken statement and those implied by the structural dimensions of the room are reinforced. The others are gradually eliminated. The space acts as a filter; the speech is transformed into pure sound. All the recorded segments are spliced together in the order in which they were made and constitute the work.
  NOTE: These recordings are for classroom use only. You need to login to listen:

  Original recording	3rd repetition	9th repetition
  20th repetition	32nd repetition

• Alvin Lucier’s “Vespers”
  In Vespers (1969) performers with Sondols (sonar-dolphin), hand-held pulse wave oscillators, explore the acoustic characteristics of given indoor or outdoor spaces by monitoring the echoes of the pulse waves off the walls, floors and ceilings, as well as any objects or obstacles in range of the sound waves. Over time, the listener receives an acoustic signature of the room.
  a short excerpt from “Vespers” (login to listen)
  

Further Research

• Here’s a hilarious YouTube version of Lucier’s “I Am Sitting in a Room.” Kinda misses the point but it’s entertaining nonetheless.
• Go to Times Square and listen to the Max Neuhaus installation that resonates the subway ventilation shaft on the island where 7th Ave and Broadway merge. This 1982 video explains it all.
• Richard Lerman’s “Travelon Gamelon” bicycle piece and his guide for contact-mic construction
• “Furious Contact Mic Assembly” – similar to the one we make in class.
  (You can mail-order cheaper, better discs with no annoying plastic case, like this one. Remember to add LEDs as a limiter to protect your recorder from voltage spikes.)
• How to make your own binaural microphones.
• David Cunningham’s The Listening Room architectural feedback installations
• In his “Rainforest” series, David Tudor attached contact mics to suspended objects to created resonant feedback loops. (He will be the subject of a future reading. Stay tuned)
• Aaron Ximm, AKA “Quiet American” has an amazing links page that provides thorough advice on field-recording, from history to gear recommendations.
• Annea Lockwood did a performance in 1966 called Glass World where she played resonant glass objects with fingers, mallets, etc.