I've been taking an introductory drawing class (for drawing I credit) at UC Berkeley. This is my first drawing class, up until this point I've drawn from my head, yielding the abstract, the obsessive and lots of cartoons/comics. Anyways, among other drawings and the life size self-portrait, I made a pencil box. I was mildly unsatisfied with general pencil boxes that are just like one big tray; everything turns black with one piece of charcoal. So I made one with compartments. It's pretty straightforward; it slides really nicely and I put a thin magnet strip on the back so it stays closed.
Another topic entirely, I've been really into Chladni plates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wio728lLOh0&feature=related
Ernest Chladni did these experiments on metal plates, or the body of a violin or cello, with sand and a bow. basically, it's a perfect visualization of sound.
Although I haven't for awhile, I've built a bunch of musical instruments, both electronic and acoustic. I liked building acoustic instruments because I had so much direct physical control over shaping the sound it produced, and the most subtle alterations in the design would change the sound dramatically. After taking architecture this year I'm starting to think about how an entire space can act like an acoustic instrument, in terms of how it physically holds sound. Everything from the material, size, shape and inhabitants in a space alters it's aural characteristics. So, I've become increasingly aware of sound design, from concert halls to restaurants, and of what kind of spaces have sounds that I like or dislike. I've started to compile and document spaces, places, buildings or rooms that have interesting sounds, starting with this staircase in berkeley. I'd really like to know what you guys think about this, any ideas of what this could lead to, directed research, aural architecture?!etc.
updates about these things soon(!)
-I'm playing, making, writing and sometimes recording a lot of new music. my sister and I are planning on making another (more thought out) music video; you can look forward to some synth, some animation, some papaya, etc. Writing this, I realize that the synth&animation combination might sound predictable, even standard. Don't be fooled.
-Also, I'm going to start brewing beer. summer dreams 09.
love,
crh
4 comments:
oh oh!
Celia, we dont know each other that well, but your chladni plate description makes me very happy. i built one out of an old speaker and a square steel plate for my senior music project. i was interested in composing a visual suite for the plate, but the constraints of time proved detrimental to its completion. however, they are very sweet, and if you are interested i can provide a more detailed description of its manufacture. Chladni's original plate has a fixed center, and is played with a bow (cello/violin style). my version used the speaker as modified (and low power) wave driver, so i could use supercollider to send it an audio signal. the driver moves the center of the plate, and requires less physical skill to play.
also, i heartily support the brewing arts. i've been doing it with my dad since i was a kid, and i think everyone should do it. relatively, its a simple process, and according to federal law an individual may brew up to 500 gallons of beer for personal consumption in one year without a license. YAY BEER!
and in the vein of your acoustic space research, you'll want to look at David Byrne's installation in london.
http://www.davidbyrne.com/art/art_projects/playing_the_building/
you may also be interested in a tangentially related idea by canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. His thoughts on the soundscape of our world as a meta musical composition are quite interesting.
so way to be into awesome stuff. and good luck at drawing school!
Celia,
I'm really interested in the Chaladni plates, and your interest in aural architecture.
I've done a lot of research about the geometry of sound, and these illustrate it beautifully. You might want to also check out harmonographs (I have a little book I could send you if I can find it) which use pendulums to swing a pen in two directions at specific frequencies to trace out visualizations of harmony. If one arm swings at one speed and the other at a different rate, etc. you get a wide range of similarly fluid renderings as from these chalandri plates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0lEDZjxeIw&feature=related
In the video, it's started in a haphazard way, but it can be measured to a specific harmonic interval.
Beyond Alvin Lucier's "sitting in a room", you might also want to check out Bernard Gál, who does pieces using specifically placed speakers to create "hot points" of colliding overtones in a room.
Le Corbusier's Philips pavilion would be good to look at as well.
Perhaps you already know this, but the conception of harmony has changed over time, starting with Pythagoras' heavenly intervals, using fractions with the lowest possible denominator to produce the purest consonance with the fifth and the root of a scale. But of you try to play an F# minor scale, that shit will sound horrible. Now we use a log 12 based scale, with everything on the chromatic scale the same distance away. So nothing sounds bad, but nothing sounds truly consonant.
What could be an interesting jumping off point is where these ratios relate to ratios of the length of walls/heaight of a room, etc. Perhaps instead of literally tuning a room, it could also be used to make something analogous to the golden ratio, but based on harmony.
It's a very rich topic, I think you'll only get more excited about it, and I'm excited to talk about this with you more!
i highly recommend these books if either of you haven't read them already:
-"Harmonious Triads," by Myles W. Jackson (Chladni, physics, music, instrument makers)
-"Spaces Speak, are you listening; Experiencing Aural Architecture" by Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter
-"Temperament: How music became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization," by Stuart Isacoff (a clear explanation and history of how the western 12 tone scale came to be)
rod, i think it's really cool that you built a chladni plate and even more incredible that i didn't even know about it. also, this david byrne installation is great.
angus, i'm also a huge fan of harmonographs and i'd love to see this book?
i'm definitely interested in different ways musicians have used space, as space is the medium for sound. but what I haven't really thought about until recently is how a space could be designed to manipulate or produce a type of sound. i'm thinking about "tuning a room," or building different spaces to yield different sounds.
tangential:
stumbled upon this on project.ioni.st:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asDXpfFMKNA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fproject.ioni.st%2F&feature=player_embedded
really beautiful and ingenious way of visualizing music. At least to someone with little musical knowledge such as me.
I realize that this is different from intrinsic acoustic properties of space/form in that it is a composition that progresses over time, but i think that is actually a noteworthy fact. time is the 4th dimension, pushing beyond the physical structure in x,y, and z. I could go further into this, but it would become increasingly clear that I don't know what I'm talking about. Though I want to hear more about this for sure.
one other thing:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/echolocation/
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