The theme for this semester is home. A multi-faceted, multi layered sandwich of experience and examination. No reflection to begin with this time, I go straight to experimentation. We were given the theme before the starting gun sounded and I began with associations and random thoughts of what HOME might be.
Home expands outwards from the heart… to a body, to a room, to a house, to a street, to a town, to a county, to a country, to a continent, to a hemisphere, to a planet, to a solar system, to a galaxy, to beyond and back again.
My practice began with photographing my home and recording the sounds that occur inside and outside my home. I’m uncertain what my project might eventually be… a guided tour of my home? A soundscape of domestic bliss? A photographic diary via the Nth dimension?
I seem to have a number of different projects developing in this first week of “HOME”, mostly as a response to Miranda’s feedback to get involved in playing, making, doing, etc:
- Poetry and prose
- Songs and music
- “The Climate Change Game”
- Research Trees
- A continuation of my explorations and recordings of EMF
- Field recordings from “around the home”
- Photographic records from “around the home”
- The further development of my “the sounds behind the silence” installation from last semester
- The early stages of my personal project for this module
- The early stages of my graduate show exhibit
Let the plate spinning begin!
Research Tree #1
The root for this tree is the German artist Peter Vogel. He was an astonishing creator of intricate, beautiful and innovative works that employ sound and interaction, often within a sculptural form. One of my favourites is his “Sound Wall” which is a circuit sculpture made from electronic components, light sensors and loudspeakers. The sculpture responds to shadow and can be played like a musical instrument. There’s a great video of Vogel demonstrating his work here: https://vimeo.com/59829961
The Interactive Sound Art of Peter Vogel – Make Magazine https://makezine.com/2016/01/31/the-interactive-sound-art-of-peter-vogel/
Vogel Exhibition site: http://vogelexhibition.weebly.com/
- Circuitry and Aesthetics – Phil Archer, 2011 http://vogelexhibition.weebly.com/phil-archer-circuitry-and-aesthetics.html
- Liz McLean Knight (musician and jeweller, etc.)
- Reed Ghazala (founder of circuit bending) https://eternobisiesto.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/circuit-bending-build-your-own-alien-instruments-reed-ghazala.pdf
- Trimpin (sculptor of sound) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=TRIMPIN
- Loud Objects (performers of live circuit construction music, and makers of Noise Toys, handheld synths) http://www.loudobjects.com/
- Tristan Perich & Lesley Flanigan products https://www.physicaleditions.com/
- Katie Shima https://www.katieshima.com/
The branches of this tree reflect sound, circuitry, physical objects and a whole lot of inventive brilliance. I found it to be a fruitful journey and many of the leaves still impact on my senses.
“HOME” music
I have started developing a musical piece which is based on creating melodies using my home address. I used a seven note scale and extracted these pitches from the words, where the letters match with musical notes: bc e ead ee abe ceedg ae.
These will become the first melody. I will develop this idea further in the weeks to come, building a piece that combines melody and EMF sounds related to my home… ahh, that sounds like an I_P project!