JAN 18 | Sound As Phenomena


We Will Read In Class

In Class

  • Change class time from 6-10 to 6:30-10:30
  • Discuss everybody’s previous experience with sound
  • Syllabus intro (expectations, grading, attendance)
  • Software suggestions (Ardour, ProTools, etc…)
  • Introduce phenomenology and the representation of the eye v. the abstraction of the ear. What makes up the experience of sound?
  • Consider the formalism of pop music and the lack of a popular “visual music”.  Can we divorce sounds from their creators and their contexts?

Screening

  • Listen to an assortment of field-recordings, considering them on the basis of Chion’s 3-part taxonomy
  • Introduce a few pieces of sound art and new music
    • “Harmonic Bridge”, Bill Fontana
    • “Into the Labirinth”, Hildegard Westerkamp
    • “He Destroyed Her Image”, Charles Dodge
    • “More From the Case of Death”, John Oswald
    • “Blinking Lights”, Norbert Moslang
    • “Solo for Wounded CD”, Yasunao Tone
    • “Two Listening Rooms / Birmingham”, David Cunningham



… Exercise : “Deep-Listening”


DUE NEXT WEEK (JAN 25)

Find the quietest environment you can. Find a comfortable spot where you can listen for a long time.
(This place must be accessible later because you will eventually record there.)

  1. Sit for 10 minutes listening, without saying, writing, or recording anything.
  2. Take 10 minutes to list the sources of each sound that makes up your environment (jackhammer, air-conditioner, fish tank)
  3. Take 10 more minutes to listen deeper, ignoring the sources of each sound. List the properties of the sound itself, starting with the total mass and going deeper into whatever threads you discover. Feel free to follow any metaphors, memories, impressions the sound suggests, or explore questions of pitch, loudness, timbre, and duration. Try to be very specific.

That’s 30 min and 2 lists, written down and ready to hand in and discuss for the next class.




JAN 25 | Recording Modernity


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

In Class

  • “Cage Talk” (introducing facilities, responsibilities)
  • Introduce Marshall McLuhan, technological determinism, and semiotics.
  • Introduce Acoustic Ecology and its proponents.
  • Explore Deep Forest and Hugo Zemp via Steven Feld’s article “A Sweet Lullaby for World Music”.
  • Intro to recorders and mics: Mic types + patterns, basic recorder info like level control and monitoring. Make 3 voice-recordings in class (shotgun, cardioid, omni) and listen to the results.
  • Intro to digital audio formats: uncompressed (WAV. AIFF) and compressed (MP3, AAC).

Screening

  • Hugo Zemp’s Solomon Islands recordings, Deep Forest and Jan Garbarek’s reinterpretations
  • Chris Watson – tracks from “Outside the Circle of Fire”
  • Hildegard Westerkamp – “Kits Beach Sound Walk”
  • R Murray Schafer’s “On Acoustic Design” from the 1973 LP titled “Vancouver Soundscape”

Useful trivia: The MP3 compression system was developed at Fraunhofer IIS in Germany. They used the acapella version of Susanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” to tune the algorithm (see Vega’s blog post, Fraunhofer’s press release). A human voice is complex, but it’s a lot simpler than a full band, and much easier to compress. Here is an analysis of the sonic mangling of data-compression (with bird-songs and pretty graphs).

Why you should never record in MP3 format.

Melodian Toy (MP3 links will launch an inline flash player)

WAV file (sorry, no inline player) uncompressed original, with sharp attacks and complex buzz in the background
320k MP3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

highest quality MP3 option, generally indistinguishable from the original
128k MP3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

default iTunes setting, smeared attacks and swishy unstable background noise
64k MP3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

whoa, it sounds like a cell phone!

Paris Subway Station (MP3 links will launch an inline flash player)

WAV file (sorry, no inline player)
uncompressed original, with dense crowd noise and occasional sharp bursts
320k MP3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

highest quality MP3 option, generally indistinguishable from the original
128k MP3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

default iTunes setting, smeared attacks and swishy unstable background noise
64k MP3

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

whoa, it sounds like a cell phone!

-

Further Research




… Exercise: “Recording 101”


DUE NEXT WEEK (FEB 1)

Engagement with your medium will define the conceptual scope of your practice. (In other words, your art will suck if you don’t know how to make things.) In this exercise you will learn how to capture environments in sound.

Submit 3 tracks:

  1. A radio-style voice-recording (without using a professional vocal booth).
    It should be close and clear, without ambiance – the classic disembodied voice. Alter your sonic environment to eliminate echoes and unwanted noises. Get under the covers, tell your room-mates to take a hike. Put your keys in the fridge and pull the plug. (The keys will remind you to plug it in again!)
  2. A complete soundscape from the “deep listening” assignment.
    Listen through the microphone while recording. It hears differently than your ears, so you need to be a translator. Try to capture the interesting elements you wrote about, the tension between the sounds. I’m looking for distinct foreground and background elements. What makes it more than your average boring “noise”?  This can be difficult!
  3. An isolated element from the “deep listening” assignment.
    Get closer to something – make it the foreground. Use mic patterns and mic placement to “crop out” unwanted sounds so your chosen sound is unambiguously the center of attention. (This should sound different than track #2. If it doesn’t, try again.)

I will collect 3 labeled files from you in class – not via network or email!
(We probably won’t listen in class, but I’ll give you written feedback.)

Things to Keep in Mind:

  • For this exercise, do not use the (dynamic) mic included in your “Sound Kit.” Borrow a condenser mic instead. Dynamic mics are OK for speech, but not for critical details. If you use the dynamic mic I will hear it and ask you to do it again.
  • Record several solutions to each prompt, but only give me three files. I will interpret everything as intentional, so be clear. If your recordings don’t sound good enough, I will ask you to do them again until you’ve mastered your tools.
  • We haven’t covered editing yet, so just download your tracks from the recorder onto a computer and bring them to class on a CD, USB stick, Firewire drive, etc.)

*iPod note: I can’t access the tracks on your iPod if you add them via iTunes. On older iPods you can enable disk use so it shows up as a drive on your desktop, then drag your files onto it. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch then you can’t enable disk use. I suggest not buying things with such Orwellian restrictions.




FEB 01 | Physical Sound


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

In Class

  • Collect files from the “Recording 101″ exercise.
  • Introduce the basic vocabulary of sound (Frequency, Amplitude, Spectrum, Duration).
  • Demonstrate the cone-movement of a speaker with a sub-audible tone. In MAX/MSP, observe sounds using onscreen graphs of the 4 aforementioned properties.
  • Observe interference patterns on the surface of water, agitated by a speaker. (aka “Chladni plate”)
  • Introduce the installation equipment available from Dan in the editing room (players, amps, speakers, etc.)
  • Expand the basic audio signal flow (which we introduced last week) to include playback.

Screening

  • “Music For Piano With Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators” by Alvin Lucier (From “Still Lives” CD, 2001)

Further Research

  • “Soundings” by Gary Hill (http://www.ubu.com/film/hill.html)
  • “The Queen of the South” by Alvin Lucier
  • German artist Markus Kison used tactile transducers to hide sound in a metal railing overlooking a river in Dresden. In “Touched Echo”, listeners put their elbows on the railing and cover their ears. The sound conducts through their bones, revealing aural artifacts of the WWII bombing of Dresden.
  • Wave Table by veteran sound and media artist Liz Phillips
  • A very geeky Chladni plate Youtube video from Edwin Wise, also featured in MAKE Magazine #16. (Subscription required to view. Ask me and I’ll print it out for you.)
  • In class today we used a subwoofer driver to vibrate a tray of water to explore cymatic phenomena. There are special drivers called “tactile transducers” (AKA “bass shakers” or “aural exciters”) that are designed to vibrate surfaces instead of air. Parts Express sells a wide variety of them. You can also use a piezo buzzer element and a small audio transformer to turn lightweight rigid surfaces into speakers. (See book Handmade Electronic Music by Nic Collins)
  • In this extremely corny PBS video, you can see an alligator rippling the surface of water using only its low voice.
  • On the subject of sound analysis (and the mysteries of the deep): An array of underwater research microphones (AKA “hydrophones”) have detected several unexplained deep-ocean sounds over the years. The “Bloop” was recorded several times in 1997 and has since become the stuff of legend. Maybe it’s a sea monster from pre-history? H.P. Lovecraft fans think it’s the stirrings of the ancient alien overlord R’lyeh and skeptics dismiss it as one of many unknown sounds in the deep ocean.
    NOTE: The NOAA hydrophone array that detected the “bloop” is a leftover Cold War surveillance system formerly called SOSUS. It was designed to detect and classify the sounds of Soviet submarines across the world’s oceans.
  • The class demo was made with a visual programming language called MAX/MSP/Jitter (aka “MAX”). It’s part of a family of “patcher based” programming languages, which means that data flows through visual patch cords instead of lines of code. It was designed to emulate the way that early modular synthesizers worked, so electronic musicians could write computer software using skills they already had. You have probably never seen a modular synthesizer but many people find the patcher style of coding much friendlier than traditional textual coding. Here are some links:
    • MAX/MSP/Jitter – (Mac/Win) $$$, free trial and student discount
      Trivia: MAX is named after computer music pioneer Max Mathews.
    • PD (“Pure Data”) – (Mac/Win/Linux) free, open source
      Very capable but much uglier than MAX with a steeper learning curve. Created by Miller Puckette, who originally wrote MAX. (Download the version called “pd-extended” because it includes lots of optional things that are not present in the main distribution.)
    • Quartz Composer (Mac) free, closed source
      Not as flexible as Max or PD but popular with VJs because it’s very highly optimized. It is included on every Mac OS X CD as part of the optional “Xcode” development environment. After you install “Xcode Tools” you will find Quartz Composer in the “Developer” folder on your hard drive.
    • Isadora (Mac/Win) $$$, free trial and student discount
      Designed for dance and theater performance (not general-purpose programming) so its structure is not as open as the others listed here. These limitations make it easier to use but put serious limits on what you can do.
    • VVVV (Win) free for non-commercial use, closed source
      Highly optimized for video/audio
    • Lily (Mac/Win/Linux) free, open source
      This runs inside of Firefox (!) but it’s a complete programming language that looks a lot like MAX. It can play sounds and Quicktime movies but it can’t really alter the video/audio.
    • Processing (Mac/Win/Linux) free, open source
      This isn’t a patcher-based language but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Processing is a very simple textual programming language based on Java. It’s a painless way to learn “real” programming and there is a huge community out there to help. It handles video and sound through external “libraries” that extend its basic functions. (Not as fast as MAX, PD for video and sound.)
    • SuperCollider (Mac/Win/Linux) free, open source
      Another textual language, but very efficient and powerful when dealing with audio (unlike Processing). Doesn’t really do video though.



… Project 1: Portrait


DUE IN 3 WEEKS (FEB 22)

Make a short piece (under 5 min) that you would consider a portrait (not necessarily a self-portrait, but that’s OK too).

  • It can contain voices, but you should strongly consider what speech means in the context of your piece.
  • Take into consideration the environment where the sound will be presented: You must consider the physical form (sculpture, installation, performance, just CD, etc.) and be willing to explain why any crucial elements are missing.
  • Be practical: If your piece requires headphones, prepare multiple headphones so we don’t spend an hour listening individually. (See Dan Porvin in the editing room to get headphones, speakers, amplifiers, etc. He needs one week of advance notice. Please respect that.)

What not to do: “For my piece to make sense, everybody has to imagine that there’s a huge ice-sculpture with hundreds of tiny speakers, carved out of a receding glacier by 22 blind Inuit fishermen. But all I brought is this CD of me masturbating for 20 min. Is that OK?”

After the crit I need an Audio CD (not an MP3 file, not an AIFF file) with your name, date, and the name of the assignment, even if the piece involved other things. (It doesn’t have to be a definitive document, just a placeholder to jog my memory for grading, and proof that you can follow directions and burn a CD.)
NOTE: Don’t use iTunes to burn a CD unless you understand the disc burning preferences. iTunes is a great library application, but if you want to make a WAV/AIFF file into an audio CD, you should use Toast (or Burn) and avoid all of the importing/converting/mangling that iTunes typically does.




FEB 08 | Noise and Music


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

In Class

  • Introduce Cooper’s sound effects library
  • Discuss noise and the way it was rejected and accepted, aestheticized and modified by 20th century artists and composers
  • Explore the percussive symphonic noise of Edgard Varése, the mimicry of Russolo’s Intonarumori, the actualities of Musique Concrete, and John Cage’s embrace of all sounds as inherently musical.
  • Introduction to Pro Tools and CD-burning.

Screening

  • Cage documentary from “4 American Composers” series
    (dir. Peter Greenaway, available on ubuweb)
  • Varése – “Ionizations” (alternate version on ubuweb)
  • Russolo – Intonarumori samples (on ubuweb)
  • Schaeffer – “Etude Aux Chemins De Fer”
    AKA “Railroad Study” (excerpt on youtube)
  • Cage – “Williams Mix” (excerpt on media art net)

Further Research

  • Every New Year’s Eve at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, you can recreate “Symphony of the Sirens” thanks to their chief mechanical engineer and his collection of whistles. Seriously!
  • Space Calculated in Seconds by Marc Treib. A book describing the Philips pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair (focusing on Poeme Electronique and the work of Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenakis, and Edgard Varése).
  • An in-depth blog entry about Poeme Electronique.
  • John Cage’s excellent book, Silence.
  • In class today we introduce Pro Tools, the industry-standard  multi-track audio editor. Pro Tools has artificial limitations and an outrageous price tag, but media professionals still use it. There are free/cheap alternatives and some are also open source which is better in the long term.
    Free/Cheap Alternatives to Pro Tools:
    • Reaper (Win, Mac) is a multitrack editor that rivals Pro Tools. There is a fully-functional free trial that does not expire. (If you like it, buy it.)
    • Ardour (Linux, Mac) is a free open source multitrack editor. It’s a bit complex and daunting, but it’s also very powerful. Note that you are required to donate something ($1 is OK) before you can download the latest Mac version, so you need a paypal account.
    • Audacity (Linux, Mac, Win) is a free open source editor that makes sense if you just want to edit the length of something, or apply simple changes like loudness. I would not suggest using it for multi-track mixing, even though it does support such things.
    • Of course, you can use Garage Band, Logic, Nuendo or anything else.
  • Burn (Mac only) is very similar to the popular CD/DVD burning app Toast, but free and open source.



! FEB 15 | No Class … Long Weekend


Nobody home




FEB 22 | CRIT Portrait Project


No Readings.

We will critique the portraiture projects today.




… Project 2: Transformation


DUE IN 4 WEEKS (MAR 21)

For this project, you must use sound to transform a space in a meaningful way. The venue and strategies are yours to decide.

  • Be honest, not merely clever. It’s easy to play loud sounds and say you’re “commenting on noise pollution”, but irony is not necessarily commentary. A more articulate method is usually harder to perfect, and much more rewarding.
  • Consider your means. I want you to try new techniques, so keep your ideas simple enough to finish on time.
  • Stay in touch. I’m around, so find me before disaster strikes.

Inspiration:

We have discussed R. Murray Schafer’s notion of the “soundscapes” in relation to modernity, ecology and the exercise of power. In the next few weeks we will explore the vibrations of architectural space with Alvin Lucier and examine how “noise” transformed 20th century music with John Cage. We will hear how Janet Cardiff inserts pre-recorded drama into the “live” experience of walking. A Max Neuhaus installation is changing the sound of a Times Square sidewalk as you are reading this. According to the Muzak Corp., music can influence customer’s buying habits (or “soften” inmates in U.S. military prisons in Iraq). Later in the semester we will visit Lamont Young’s Dreamhouse where massive sound waves change a carpeted room into a timeless mathematical harmony.
(Search this syllabus for these artists, or take a trip to the internets.)




FEB 29 | Sound and Self


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

In Class

  • What does the separation of body and voice do to our concept of the self? How do we deal with the transformation of our experience into artifacts? How does sound affect the body?
  • Discuss Janet Cardiff and Lucier’s “Music for Solo Performer”
  • Introduction to binaural mics
  • Learn signal-processing fundamentals in Pro Tools (EQ, compression/expansion, delay effects, noise reduction)

Screening

  • Janet Cardiff “Muenster Walk” (from PS1 Catalog CD)
  • Alvin Lucier “Music for Solo Performer” video (from OHM+ DVD)

Further Research

  • The “Speech Songs” of computer music pioneer Charles Dodge, created in the Bell Labs speech synthesis lab in the 1960s.
  • Pictures and sounds of the Bell Labs Voder, debuted at the 1939 World’s Fair, created by Homer Dudley.
  • Regarding compression, see the Wikipedia page on The Loudness War (the trend to compress albums in the mastering stage, solely to increase volume rather than enhance the music). A very high-profile casualty is the Metallica album “Death Magnetic” which was so compressed and distorted that people complained, especially when they discovered better-sounding tracks inside the Guitar Hero video game! Here’s a YouTube video comparing the CD and Guitar Hero versions.

YOU NEED TO BUY SPECIFIC ELECTRONIC PARTS and bring them to next week’s class.

We will build contact microphones!
Complete details on next week’s syllabus page.




MAR 07 | Reflections and Resonance


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

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




! MAR 14 | No Class … Spring Break


Go Wyld!




MAR 21 | CRIT Transformation


No Readings.

We will critique the transformation projects today.




… Final Project Reminder


FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE IN 2 WEEKS (APR 04)

  • Start thinking of a final sound installation project that acknowledges the space in which it is presented. Maybe it uses recordings (from “its space” or elsewhere) but it engages the here and now in a meaningful way. Perhaps the audience comes to “it” (consciously or not) or perhaps it comes to them. It could be ephemeral or portable or have no specific “site” at all. It could be performative but it must extend beyond accompaniment. It could be a process but we must be able to take part in it or see its effects.
  • I’m looking for an internal logic in the work; a framework that guides your intentions and reflects your investment in the issues we discuss in this class. If you use this same work for another class, the burden is on you to make it appropriate here. (Usually it is not appropriate, and I can tell when people are trying to put a square peg in a round hole.)
  • You must present your proposal to the class and give me a written copy.
  • The final crits are the last 2 weeks of class.



MAR 28 | Radio and Synesthesia


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

In Class

  • Discuss radio: its history, and its distance from the characteristics of the sound object; collapsing geography, encouraging simultaneity. Also include Burroughs and WR Reich in relation to systems of broadcast control and spiritual transmission.
  • Discuss synesthesia in literature and art from Pythagoras’ “Music of the Spheres” through Romanticism, Symbolism, Theosophy, and into the “information age”.
  • Introduction to Free103.9 transmission arts collective and DIY radio transmitter hardware.
  • Transmit sound over a laser and use light-listeners in class, observing the sound that light makes inside, outside, natural, artificial.
  • Use an inductive pickup to explore the tiny radio emissions around everyday objects.

Screening

Further Research: Radio

  • “Imagine radio that, instead of numbing us to sounds, strengthens our imagination and creativity; instead of manipulating us into faster work and more purchasing, it inspires us to invent…instead of silencing us, it encourages us to sing or to speak, to make radio ourselves.”
    —- Hildegaard Westerkamp
  • Historical Transmission Works, as listed by free103point9
  • Read about the Local Community Radio act of 2010 (pitchfork) which may help bring more low-power FM stations to the dial.
  • Online “microcasting” instructions (both printed and video tutorials) from free103point9
  • How to hack a Belkin Tunecast II (from instructables.com). Step-by-step instructions to extend the range of a small $30 FM transmitter  from 10ft to 300ft, basically for free! (A newer version, the Belkin Tunecast III, is hackable too.)
  • HLLY Electronics – Hobbyist FM transmitters direct from China. They have inexpesive options that are similar to the hacked Tunecast, but more physically robust. Ships from China so you take your chances with customs.
  • Radio Basics (how to build a simple AM radio & limited transmitter, from sci-toys.com)
  • Marshall Mcluhan’s LP recording version of “The Medium is the Massage” (ubuweb)
  • On the subject of the latent ideology embedded in visual media, check out John Berger’s 1972 BBC TV series “Ways of Seeing” (YouTube clip or VHS tapes in NYU Bobst library). There’s also a book version.
  • If you’re interested in tinkering with radio or other electromagnetic phenomena, find a copy of this out-of-print book:
    “Exploring Light, Radio & Sound Energy with projects” by Calvin R. Graf
    (Alvin Lucier used it to build receiving equipment for his “Sferics” piece; recordings of “natural” low frequency radio signals emanating from the Earth itself.)
  • I documented my own experiments building a VLF “natural radio” receiver here.
  • An inductive pickup can translate electromagnetic fields into sound, similar to the VLF receiver above, but tuned for close proximity. Use it to explore the radio waves emitted by everyday objects like computers, phones, and TV monitors.
  • The Conet Project is a 4CD anthology of shortwave “Numbers Stations”, undocumented international radio broadcasts that are widely believed to be messages from espionage organizations like the CIA, MI6, and Mossad. All tracks can be (legally) downloaded here.

Further Research: Synesthesia

  • How to build a Simple Laser Communicator (from sci-toys.com)
  • “Cloud Music” by Bob Diamond, Robert Watts and David Behrman, 1974. A set of synthesizer tones controlled by a video camera pointed at passing clouds.
  • The Voyager probes launched by NASA in 1977 contained gold records encoded with images and sounds, along with diagrams to explain how to decode them.
  • It’s easy to make “light-listeners” like the one Steven Vitiello used in “light-readings”. Consult this week’s chapter from Handmade Electronic Music for a method that uses a photoresistor, or use the solar cell from a cheap solar calculator, or buy super-tiny solar cells like these: Vishay BPW34 Silicon Photo-diode. (Larger cells are more sensitive)
  • Here’s a circuit that amplifies the photo-diode above so it can directly drive a small speaker. (If link is broken, try wayback machine.)
  • The Texas Instruments TSL230 Light-To-Frequency Sensor converts light level to an audible square wave signal in one step without any extra components. (More light = higher pitch)
  • Eric Archer makes “Sound Cameras”: old 8mm film cameras with built-in light-listeners and headphone amps. (Plenty of audio samples on his page.)
  • Derek Holzer performs improv sets called TONEWHEELS where he generates sound and light by shining lamps through spinning patterned discs.
  • Russian artist Andrey Smirnov explores the popular eavesdropping technique of reflecting laser light off windows to hear the conversations inside.
  • The Ruben’s Tube (video, wikipedia) traces audio waveforms with jets of flame, due to standing-wave patterns within a long tube.

There are 2 things due next week:

  1. Bring a battery-powered electronic sound-producing toy or musical instrument to class!
    (see next week’s syllabus page for specific guidelines)
  2. Bring a written proposal for your final project and be prepared to talk about it.



APR 04 | Circuit-Bending | Proposals


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional reading

In Class

  • Bring an electronic sound toy to mangle and cajole into an otherworldy contraption.
    (Battery-powered only please!) Things that play recorded sound-effects are often the most fruitful. Complex devices like keyboards are usually not, but feel free to try one anyway. Risks are encouraged and some failure is expected
  • Final Project Proposals are due today. Bring a written description for me and be prepared to talk about it in class. (2hrs total)
  • We will experiment in class, finding opportunistic short-circuits and discussing basic electronics through experimentation
    (capacitors, resistors, potentiometers, switches, buttons, etc.)

Screening

  • none

Further Research – Artists and Musicians

  • Circuit-bending isn’t just about making wacky sounds. In 1989, the Barbie Liberation Organization swapped the digital voice-boxes of 300 Barbies and GI Joe dolls, then returned them to store shelves. A (faux?) AP news article published in the 1990′s zine “Unit Circle” and “Home Surgery Instructions” (pdf) describing their not-so-simple hack.
  • BENT Festival – every Spring at The Tank
  • Tristan Perich is a musician who programs microcontrollers to produce “1-bit music”. One of his releases is a circuit inside a CD case. It produces an album-length composition via the included headphone jack.
  • Sonic Arts Union LP on UbuWeb
  • Gordon Mumma and his “cybersonic” devices (ubuweb tracks) ff
  • David Tudor’s diagram for Rainforest IV, and an extensive interview.
  • Chinese electronic music band FM3 created their own chant-box inspired looping machine and released it like an “album”. It’s called the “FM3 Buddha Machine.”
  • I circuit-bent Buddhist chant-boxes so ambient light controls the pitch.

Further Research – Electronics Resources

  • GetLoFi is a circuit-bending site with excellent kits and advice.
  • Beavis Audio Research is similar to GetLoFi, with an emphasis on DIY stomp-boxes and effects. Check out their excellent guide to CMOS “1-bit” synthesizers, which paraphrases a lot of the info from the Nic Collins book Handmade Electronic Music (today’s reading, BTW).
  • My printable resistor color code chart for decoding the value of resistors using their colored bands.
  • SAW3 voice recorder [Sold out in 2010 - boo hoo!], a 30-second digital recorder that was included in a DVD set that never sold, now available from All Electronics for $2. (They sell other cheap electronic parts too.) Here’s how to bend it.
  • Radio Shack “9V Recording Module”, a 20-second digital recorder
  • Radio Shack sells photoresistors and potentiometers that you might want to use in “clock”-related  circuit-bends. (The 1Mega-ohm potentiometer in the link is a good value for most circuits.)
  • Argo Electronics is one of the last remaining Canal St. surplus dealers. Give them a look.
  • If you continue working with electronics, you’ll need a soldering iron. The ones at Radio Shack are crap. I recommend the Weller WTCPS (circa 1980, $40-$80 used). It is temperature controlled, so it warms-up fast and never overheats. It is designed to be repaired, and parts are available. Your solder won’t bead up and roll off the tip like it does on all Radio Shack soldering irons. It includes a stand and a sponge so you won’t burn your apartment down. Also consider the ultra-cheap but excellent modern ones from Circuit Specialists.
  • The Drawdio! A little oscillator circuit that responds to resistive surfaces like pencil lines, streams of water, etc. If you’re experimenting, I recommend this version. It runs on a 9V battery, drives a speaker directly, and uses very few parts.  (PAiA electronics offers something similar: free plans or a simple kit that can be constructed without even soldering anything!)
  • No resources list would be complete without the famous Engineer’s Mini Notebooks by Forrest M. Mims III, previously sold by Radio Shack. Within those yellowed pages you can find hundreds of circuit diagrams for LED flashers, tone generators, solar battery chargers, light-sensitive switches, and more. Mims made sure that the parts were available from Radio Shack, and most of them still are. These days you can find similar projects online, but most of them are pretty badly documented, so I refer to these books often.

BRING LP RECORDS to next week’s class.

Go to the thrift store and get something you don’t mind ruining. Don’t arrive empty-handed!




APR 11 | Massaging The Medium


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

Optional:

  • none

In Class

  • Establish schedule for Individual Meetings and the 2 Final Crit days.
  • Explore the physicality of phonography and its potential for exploitation and modification
  • Break and remake LP records to make fractured aural collages
  • Record original records with a DIY record lathe.
  • Cut 1/4” tape into a room-sized loop, revealing the physical length of recorded time
  • Discuss how limitations can become assets in recording, embracing noise within process

Screening

Further Research




APR 18 | Individual Meetings


We will meet individually today to discuss your progress on the final project.

  • Meet me in the screening room, or find me in the editing facilities.
  • It’s important that you bring something to show me, or take me to your work somewhere nearby.
  • It’s too late in the semester to show up with words alone.
5:45  -
6 -
6:15  -
6:30  -
6:45  -
7  -
7:15  -
7:30  -
7:45  -
8 -
8:15 -
8:30 -
8:45 -



APR 25 | Dream House


Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

  • “1. Notes on the Continuous Periodic Composite Sound Waveform Environment…” (p 5-16) from Selected Writings by Lamonte Young and Marian Zazeela (previously available on ubuweb but apparently not any more)

In Class

  • We will meet at Cooper at the normal class time to discuss the reading and explore interference-patterns using Pitch Playground (some software I made in MAX/MSP).
  • Afterward, we will visit The Dream Housein Tribeca, a light and sound environment by Lamonte Young and Marian Zazeela.
    • 275 Church Street between Franklin St & White St
    • Ring the buzzer for MELA Foundadtion / Dream House
    • Bring $5 for admission, no exceptions. (I know the website says “donation” but they are letting us in on their day off!)
    • You will need to remove your shoes, so wear socks. Don’t worry if your feet stink, there will be incense burning.
    • Some people react strangely to aural interference patterns, so feel free to leave if you feel light-headed.

Further Research

  • Drone music pioneer Phil Niblock
    “Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones. The result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you.” (from his website)
  • Maryanne Amacher made very loud architectural sound installations that exploited psychoacoustic effects to create what she called “third ear sounds” in the listener’s brain. (See NewMusicBox interview.) She explored audio telepresence in the 1960s with her “City Links” project that brought 5 live microphone feeds into one space using high-quality telephone links. (also see “Radio Net” (1977) by Max Neuhaus, Soundbridge (1987) by Bill Fontana.)
  • On the subject of microtonal tuning systems, check out the delightful music of Harry Partch. He spent his early years as a hobo and his later years as an eccentric musician, composer, and instrument builder. A good intro is the track “The Instruments of Harry Partch” on the “Enclosures 7″ DVD where he explains and demonstrates several of his instruments. Also see the 2002 documentary “The Outsider: The Story of Harry Partch” (ubuweb).
  • “In Search of Lost Sounds” from Slate Magazine is a fascinating article  about the voicing of modern pianos compared to the instruments that were used in the 19th century by well-known composers. (sound samples included)
  • If you’re interested in the Dreamhouse math, here’s an informative quote from the MELA Foundation press page:
    Young’s sound environment is composed of frequencies tuned to the harmonic series between 288 and 224, utilizing numbers with factors of only 9, or those primes or octave transpositions of smaller primes that fall within this range.  The interval 288/256 reduces to a 9/8 interval as does the interval 252/224.  Thirty-two frequencies satisfy the above definition, of which seventeen fall within the range of the upper, and fourteen fall within the range of the lower of these two symmetrical 9/8 intervals.  Young has arranged these thirty-one frequencies in a unique constellation, symmetrical above and below the thirty-second frequency, the center harmonic 254 (the prime 127 x 2).



MAY 02 | CRIT Finals


First day of critiques for the Final Project

(35min each)

6:30  -
7:05  -
7:40  -
8:15 -
8:50  -
9:25  -
 10  -



MAY 09 | CRIT Finals


Second day of critiques for the Final Project

(35min each)

6:30 -
7:05  -
7:40  -
8:15  -
8:50  -
9:25  -
10  -



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