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Sound Art - Making a noise

Updated: Apr 21, 2022

Following on from my previous post about creating Sound Art (https://carldurban.wixsite.com/website/post/ear-ear-sound-workshop) it was great to see that we had the opportunity of a further three Workshops led by Dr Phil Archer in this the last unit of our degree. This meant that we could explore some ideas further that had been brewing while we completed the other aspects of our submission. We could also play and create using not only Adobe Audition but also Pure Data (see digram below), the latter being something that you can create sounds from scratch and turn your mouse effectively into a primitive theramin... amongst many other opportunities.

Extensive notes were taken and umpteen screenshots as things developed. Several laptops were squealing away, so we were managing to make 'music' from scratch. Lots to learn, understand and practice more with. Here's how it 'sounds'...

This is just the beginning of what we could do but what it does start to do is show options for future exploration and experimentation. The idea of making a room or parts of a room react via sound to the presence of a person(s) and their movement is something I would like to think about in the future. Or maybe the idea of someone touching a piece of sculpture and it reacting to the touch with sound, making it an interactive piece of work that every time there is an interaction the result is different and personal to the connection. Having the ideas are the fun part, actually making it work is when it hurts the brain.


Adobe Audition test

However it was with Adobe Audition and transducers that I really wanted to play with as I had an idea to turn one of my aluminium Braille pieces into something that could also act as a speaker. I wanted to combine the idea of Braille with Morse Code and create an audio track that was blended together and 'spoke' to the audience. As a test I recorded my voice speaking one of the braille messages, then translated the same message into Morse Code and finally spoke in Morse Code. I layered all these up and played with the way they sounded, extending them, slowing them down and distorting them even more but still making sure that all three layers were blended and could still be heard, even if the message was barely understandable. It is all part of my thinking behind disruption to communications, networks and non-verbal language, by giving more information I may be giving more disruption and the control of input by me means the input by the reader has to be greater.

Its only words MORSE+SPOKEN+DOTDASH_mixdown
.wav
Download WAV • 22.24MB

Above is the .wav file of layered test.


I then wanted to see if I could play this through a transducer and ultimately through the piece of aluminium. By just putting the transducer on top of the metal and getting the volume level up it is starting to work. Originally I had to use the laptop to play it but I was wondering if you could play the sound through an iPod, first attempts I couldn't get it to work but after having a meeting with Dr Archer and discussing it we managed to make it work, it was all about volume levels. This would mean that by playing the source sound through an MP3 player, via an amplifier I could create more pieces and only be limited by the amount of transducers, amplifiers and MP3 players I could lay my hands on.

I need to get the levels right and indeed the message, as this isn't the right one for this piece of aluminium, just need to record and mix another layered track and then work out how to fix the transducer and hang the piece. It is a fine balance between getting the sound right and making sure the metal is only touching the transducer to avoid unnecessary vibration. Lots to think about for this piece but it is all looking more positive.


2Faulty Sound Pieces

Now that I had established how this could work for the metal and with an iPod it meant that I could start developing an idea we had as part of our 2Faulty Collective. I discussed in a previous post: 'Making a Zine' (https://carldurban.wixsite.com/website/post/making-a-zine), about how as part of our group we sometimes created pieces that worked audibly and this was hard to document or show. We have in the past made silly noises in response to a quick task we set ourselves or some members (normally Sally) resorts to song... we also create Dadaesque poems every week and these are spoken by a different member each time and maybe these should be all be recorded, looped and spoken through an object, the more surreal the better. Maybe we can randomly select an item they should play through or even have five different objects, with each object speaking a poem at the same time.

I have been playing with a recorded version of Sally's song using words from the list and we intend to play that through a plant in a pot. If we can get the levels and volume right you will not only hear the song but also be able to feel it through the pot and the leaves, that's the plan anyway.

We also have a series of animal noises we all made, while we assumed a shape (yes, quite a daft and funny idea) but it worked and the idea with these recordings is to mix them all together and play them through a transducer attached to a wellie boot. We have trialled the boot with other sounds through it but I need to mix the sound recording and then we can test it further. We also need to but another transducer and amplifier as well as a set of connecting leads. All possible though.

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