I was really really happy with how our performance went seeing as it was the first time that we had run through the whole thing without making any mistakes, also seeing as some of the girls in my group were really really nervous, we were still able to pull through really concentrating on time and the dramatics of what we were doing.
I felt like our performance really turned into our Mihimihi as we came together and one after sharing and practicing.
After going through stages of not liking class to really enjoying the experience, I feel as though I have a lot to take away from a group of awesome friends to an open mind about my surroundings and what happening around me and the world really is never silent at any point in time.
Monday 31 March 2014
Saturday 29 March 2014
Planing Out Our Performace
We then decided that we were only going to keep the first section of our original / first drawing (seen on blog post 'Group Meeting') as it had a variety of sounds which we had practiced quite a few times at this stage, and then add a beginning and an end to it. However this was easier said than done and we seemed to sit around and talk about it for a long time rather than just going ahead and writing something down.
Jamming Session #2
Our last jamming performance we placing a sound recording device (ne of our phones) in the middle of the room and slowly moved toward it in the centre of the room. The idea behind doing this was to get us used to the idea that we would be on our feet for the final performance possible having to walk around the stage, also it was an alternative for not having the use of a microphone to practice with, so we were thinking about how the sounds created would sound far away and then getting louder as we moved closer in.
I almost feel that the sound recording sounds better than this video, this my be because this device was right next to us so didn't pick up as much of the echoing but it may also be the fact that there is no visual distraction.
When we got to the point of needing to stop and start drawing our performance down on paper we went back to the concept of Mihimihi and based what we were going to draw on the ideas that:
-When you meet someone for the first time the conversation is quite random but after some getting to know each other you start to familiar yourself with them and a beat / rhythm picks up.
Interpretive Dance?
So Maddy decided to waken us all up with come active / physical activities or exercises to get our juices flowing and...somehow we ended up doing some interpretive dance which was incredibly funny and reminded me of Jim Green one of the artist I found who makes sound art through humour.
Jamming Session #1
After feeling very awake and energised we then went on to just having a jam, which we recorded so if there was something that we thought sounded really cool, we could listen back to it and remake that sound. And thats exactly what we ended up doing, at 1:30 in this next video we decided that we really liked the beat that was created between Maddy, Jenny and I and so have added that to our performance.
I almost feel that the sound recording sounds better than this video, this my be because this device was right next to us so didn't pick up as much of the echoing but it may also be the fact that there is no visual distraction.
Our last jamming performance we placing a sound recording device (ne of our phones) in the middle of the room and slowly moved toward it in the centre of the room. The idea behind doing this was to get us used to the idea that we would be on our feet for the final performance possible having to walk around the stage, also it was an alternative for not having the use of a microphone to practice with, so we were thinking about how the sounds created would sound far away and then getting louder as we moved closer in.
When we got to the point of needing to stop and start drawing our performance down on paper we went back to the concept of Mihimihi and based what we were going to draw on the ideas that:
-When you meet someone for the first time the conversation is quite random but after some getting to know each other you start to familiar yourself with them and a beat / rhythm picks up.
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Stage Layout
We also talked about about the layout of our performance and how we would want our audience to be seated. We decided to use the movable wall so Anna would be able to effectually incorporate it in her part of the performance with myself to the right of her and Maddy and Jenny to the left near the microphones.
Distractions
As well as this we also decided on what we would wear as we thought this would help us come together as a group visually. Everyone will be wearing black as it was an easy colour that everyone had enough of in there wardrobes, the reasoning for this is because I thought it would make it less distracting, for us to be wearing solid colour rather than being all over the place with many. Therefore making the focus on our noise-makers and the sounds they will make.
Photos of our last practice performance together:
This is where the final few touches were made to our performance and we really became focused into what we were doing and needed to be doing for the big day. And I really feel as though we have come together as one in the hope that our Mihimihi is strong and how we want our story to be told.
Phil Dadson, Rob Thorne, Enrique Siques
I found Robs story and the story of his instruments really intriguing, I could have sat and listened to what he had to say a lot longer. I especially liked his rock collected with the white stone with hole through it as I was amazed by the fact that when he played it it sounded just like Koauau.
Enriques instrument I found was the most striking to look at and although I found that in the performance he seemed to step back and listen so you didn't get to hear him play as much, in his demonstration (a part of all three of there intros which I liked the best) we got to really hear each sound. His sounds were beautifly aery but also really strange and creepy sounding at times.
Phil showed an huge intrest in the use of stones as well and how if you find the right ones that work well together and a good beat or rhythm the sound can be magic
Group Meeting
Wednesday 19th March
(This was just to start making us think about possible ideas for the planning of our own performances.)
In this group meeting we managed to come up with a good start to our composition, chopping and changing where we needed to as we recorded our sound as to critique what we were doing as it was hard listening to all the sound we were making as it seemed quite loud in the small room that we were in.
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| We colour coded each person so we could some what recognize each mark for each sound-maker, the mark in which was drawn was really helpful as it gave us a visual representation of what we thought the sound looked like. My marks are represented bly the long black lines and box shapes in the centre.
This was one of the first recordings we did as a group, so we found it quite interesting listening back to what we had created together. It was also a handy way to see what was working and what was not working.
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Drawing Sound through Mark Making
We started off class by brainstorming words relating to two categories:
-Sound
-Drawing
My Drawings
This was another favourite drawing of more sounds made by everyones noise-makers, and from this image and the above image you can see the diversity of all the different sounds made from the noise-makers, which I think is really interesting that I was able to create so many different marks just by listening.
Collaborative
I would say this is a collaborative piece of work as it started as my own however once we started to steal each others work it therefore became quite collaborative even though I was the only one piecing it together.
This work was also the first piece of work we drew after writing the lists of works on the board shown in the picture at the top. So I found it quite interesting finding other peoples sound interpretations as everyones was different to each others.
In this drawing we had to continuously keep our drawing media on the paper, but follow the sounds to where they were taking us which meant weaving in and out of the other people. My contribution is the black (charcoal). The thinner lines are mostly the higher sounds, the faded areas are eg. humming sound and then the dark wide areas are parts of strength / loudness.
Other Peoples Work:
Starting to put a composition together with Group:
Flat Mates input:
Once I got home I decided to get a few of my flatmates to draw the sounds they heard when listening to my noise-making. I found this interesting as they were coming up with marks that I had not yet seen from other peoples drawings.
On the way home from class I recorded a ambient sound as it seemed to keep repeating as well as being and odd alarm:
alarms
-Sound
-Drawing
My Drawings
These drawings were all done blindly which I actually really enjoyed as when you opened your eyes you saw something completely different to what you were seeing in your head, which showed that you often over think things.
I really enjoyed listening to the sounds made by everyones noise-makers as visually this note taking really spoke to me. I was not trying to create something that looked nice, I just really liked the sounds I could hear and they just happened to appear nicely on the page. This was my favourite drawing.
Collaborative
I would say this is a collaborative piece of work as it started as my own however once we started to steal each others work it therefore became quite collaborative even though I was the only one piecing it together.
This work was also the first piece of work we drew after writing the lists of works on the board shown in the picture at the top. So I found it quite interesting finding other peoples sound interpretations as everyones was different to each others.
In this drawing we had to continuously keep our drawing media on the paper, but follow the sounds to where they were taking us which meant weaving in and out of the other people. My contribution is the black (charcoal). The thinner lines are mostly the higher sounds, the faded areas are eg. humming sound and then the dark wide areas are parts of strength / loudness.
Other Peoples Work:
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| The reason why I have decided to add some examples of other groups drawing is because I just found it really interesting seeing ever ones different approches to how they heard the sounds we were hearing, even the colours they chose to use were all unique as there was a huge range between groups. I was also interesting to see how they, as a group drew on a page together, whether they overlapped the sounds or separately drew them side by side. |
Starting to put a composition together with Group:
Here we firstly tried to write down what we thought our sounds looked like, trying to be as simple as possible to make it easier to quickly write down a sequence of sounds. And then in the photo to the right we started to piece together a mixture of repetitive sounds and constant sounds as well as one 'one off' / highlight.
This really helped us put together our next composition, which we are going to further develop for our performance:
Once I got home I decided to get a few of my flatmates to draw the sounds they heard when listening to my noise-making. I found this interesting as they were coming up with marks that I had not yet seen from other peoples drawings.
On the way home from class I recorded a ambient sound as it seemed to keep repeating as well as being and odd alarm:
alarms
Street Performance
On the 8th of March, walking back from the underground markets by the water front I was drawn towards some music and what I thought to be some sort of dancing on Cuba Street. However this turned out to be something called Capoeira. I was intrigued from the movement and sound of the music / charnting and the instruments they were playing that can be seen in the background of the video below - the long tall one interested me the most.
Sounds:
-voices
-hands
-instruments
Wikipedia tells me:
"Capoeira has a variety of different techniques that make use of the hands, feet, legs, arms, elbows, knees, and head. Kicks, punches, headbutts and takedowns are among the offensive movements included, but the emphasis is normally placed on kicks and evasion. Because a large number of capoeira techniques are delivered in unorthodox ways, it is often mistaken for breakdancing or acrobatics. However, many techniques in capoeira are identical to those found in other more mainstream martial arts. For historical reasons, different groups may use different names for the same techniques, and even the same name for different techniques."
Sounds:
-voices
-hands
-instruments
Wikipedia tells me:
"Capoeira has a variety of different techniques that make use of the hands, feet, legs, arms, elbows, knees, and head. Kicks, punches, headbutts and takedowns are among the offensive movements included, but the emphasis is normally placed on kicks and evasion. Because a large number of capoeira techniques are delivered in unorthodox ways, it is often mistaken for breakdancing or acrobatics. However, many techniques in capoeira are identical to those found in other more mainstream martial arts. For historical reasons, different groups may use different names for the same techniques, and even the same name for different techniques."
What is Onomatopoeia?
Onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopoeia (as an uncountable noun) refers to the property of such words. Common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal noises such as "oink", "meow", "roar" or "chirp".
Futurist and Dada poetry
Futurism is a modernist avant-garde movement in literature and part of the Futurism art movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. Futurist poetry is characterised by unexpected combinations of images and by its hyper-concision (in both economy of speech and actual length)
On the 8th March I went to an Art Exhibition by Paul Forrest near the water front, it wasn't planned it just looked interesting so I popped in to have a look. And I found it really interesting that his work reminded me of the futurist and dad poetry from the simple shapes that were placed over the main subjects of his work.
paulforrest - website
Luigi Russolo was an italian Futurist painter and composer and is said to be one of the first noise music experimenters. Holding concerts between the yeas of 1913-14 and then again after the war.
Six groups in which he classified "noise-sound':
Futurist and Dada poetry
Futurism is a modernist avant-garde movement in literature and part of the Futurism art movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. Futurist poetry is characterised by unexpected combinations of images and by its hyper-concision (in both economy of speech and actual length)
There were four forms of onomatopoeia that the Futurists advocated: direct, indirect, integral, and abstract. The first of these four is the usually onomatopoeia seen in typical poetry, e.g. boom, splash, tweet. They convey the most realistic translation of sound into language. Indirect onomatopoeia "expressed the subjective responses to external conditions".[9]
Integral onomatopoeia was "the introduction of any and every sound irrespective of its similarity to significant words".[7] This meant that any collection of letters could represent a sound. The final form of onomatopoeia did not reference external sounds or movements like the aforementioned versions of onomatopoeia. Rather, they tried to capture the internal motions of the soul.
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Dada /ˈdɑːdɑː/ or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated itsanti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.
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| http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/Francis_Picabia%2C_Dame%21_Illustration_for_the_cover_ of_the_periodical_Dadaphone_n._7%2C_Paris%2C_March_1920.jpg |
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| http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/An_Anna_Blume.jpg |
My Poster
Paul Forrest Exhibition
On the 8th March I went to an Art Exhibition by Paul Forrest near the water front, it wasn't planned it just looked interesting so I popped in to have a look. And I found it really interesting that his work reminded me of the futurist and dad poetry from the simple shapes that were placed over the main subjects of his work.
paulforrest - website
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: Luigi_Russolo_ca._1916.gif |
Six groups in which he classified "noise-sound':
- Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms
- Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
- Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling
- Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.
- Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs
- Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Buzzing, Crackling, Scraping
I think that it is really interesting to know how far back 'Sound Art' goes as I would have thought it would be a more recent concept but its actually really rather old! about 100 years in fact.
Transformation of Objects
After the experimenting with my three objects I found that the bottle was my strongest, seeing as I had been able to do more with it than the other objects. The lantern I had only managed to cut in half and tie back together with a shoelace and then wrap around the top of the bottle, and the tape measure wasn't easily transformed into anything else without smashing the plastic case which would take away its clicking sound. In saying that this is the point in which I became quite stuck with ideas and needed to stop and brainstorm for new ideas.
I started by listing some words that could help me visually:
-fatter / wider
-longer / taller
-short
-strange
-small
-large
...However these words really did not help much so I made a small list of objects / materials which I went and found in out coffee break.
-bottles!
-rubber bands x loads
-elastic (did not end up using)
These materials (rubber bands and elastic) were things that could replace the idea of the string, which would be easier to work with and create a range of different sounds due to the eg. how much they are stretched or wrapped around something.
This is where I really started to explore on transform my objects to get to a final noise-maker.
With the idea of amplification in the back of my mind after looking at things that I could use that are megaphonic in my design I found that the tin cans help as an 'amplifier' when held in the right way and struck with something like rubber bands.
Phase(1)
(small square room)
I found it interesting testing this sound in different rooms, the first was done in a large open room where as the second time was in a small square room and didn't have the same echoing dramatic effect as it did in the large open spaced room.
--two tin cans tied together with rubber bands, the red can has had the top cut off in the hope that it creates a louder, echoing sound.
Small experiment
In thinking about amplification or creating a megaphonic sound I was thinking of other ways, other than the rubber bands, so I went back to the paper lantern I had at the start and used its metal frame which I placed in the red tin can. When I now shook the can the sound made was quite loud as the metal frame pinged of the sides of the can.
Phase(2)
After cutting the top off the red can in faze(1) I thought I'd try it again but instead of leaving the top wide open, I would crush it, hopefully giving it a range of surfaces for the sound to bounce off. I also wrapped rubber bands around the can to pluck.
I then went ahead an scrunched the can.. and I was now kind of unsure that it would make any sort of good sound as my initial thought that there would now be more surfaces for the sound to bounce off didn't make as much sense as it had before hand.
The Final Phase / Phase(3)
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| My first noise-maker attempt...ready to start over! |
-fatter / wider
-longer / taller
-short
-strange
-small
-large
...However these words really did not help much so I made a small list of objects / materials which I went and found in out coffee break.
-bottles!
-rubber bands x loads
-elastic (did not end up using)
These materials (rubber bands and elastic) were things that could replace the idea of the string, which would be easier to work with and create a range of different sounds due to the eg. how much they are stretched or wrapped around something.
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| Places I could look for materials |
Because of the small timeframe I had to quickly gather some materials, before I headed back to class to build something new, the only shop on this list that I looked in was 'Made on Marrion' (I was however only looking for rubber bands), however I ended up buying them from Stationary Warehouse. Because I found the use of the bottle as a good starting ground I went through the rubbish room and took a selection of bottles and cans from the recycling, all different shapes and sizes to give me some options. The elastic I found in my sewing box.
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| Bottles, cans and rubber bands |
After collecting these the rest of my day was spent manipulating them. My aim was to create something that could not generally be recognized as what it was originally, like you could in my first attempt.
Megaphonic exaggeration
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| Things that could help me exaggerate. |
With the idea of amplification in the back of my mind after looking at things that I could use that are megaphonic in my design I found that the tin cans help as an 'amplifier' when held in the right way and struck with something like rubber bands.
Phase(1)
(large open room)
--two tin cans tied together with rubber bands, the red can has had the top cut off in the hope that it creates a louder, echoing sound.
Small experiment
Phase(2)
After cutting the top off the red can in faze(1) I thought I'd try it again but instead of leaving the top wide open, I would crush it, hopefully giving it a range of surfaces for the sound to bounce off. I also wrapped rubber bands around the can to pluck.
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| Thinking about 'safety' - after this I scrunched the can so I did not want to cut myself when doing this, therefore using the masking tape to cover the sharp edge. |
I then went ahead an scrunched the can.. and I was now kind of unsure that it would make any sort of good sound as my initial thought that there would now be more surfaces for the sound to bounce off didn't make as much sense as it had before hand.
I then added lots more rubber bands as shown in the photo below and then decided to move on yet again to a new idea because it hadn't really taken me far.
Sound of me sticking rubber bands on tin: putting-rubber-bands-on-tin
The Final Phase / Phase(3)
Because Phase 1 and 2 were not successful I decided to take a step back and look at what was working and what was not working and found that there were three elements from across the board that I had used at some stage which had worked really well by producing some really great sounds:
-bottle
-tin
-rubber bands
And so from my collection of various bottles and cans I chose a couple to start playing around with.
1) I firstly cut the top off a cider bottle and then cut down the sides to create ten octopus looking strands, then placing a large / tall tin can in the centre held down by four rubber bands.
-the most amplified sound at this point was the rubber bands
2) I then started to think of things i could to with the strands of bottle I had created that could also compliment the tin can, and this is when I found the rubber bands really useful! as I started to fold each strand in half holding them down with various numbers of rubber bands,
--the most amplified sound at this point was the different strands hitting the tin can and it seemed to create and echoing effect / loud and each hit dented the tin.
3) I then decided that because each folded strand made the same sound I would lengthen some of them back out and even chop into some so they made tinkering sounds on the tin or a big pounding sound from a heavy amount of rubber bands on the end, to create a variety of sounds.
4) I then found that i was in need of a sturdy platform for the tin can to sit on as I had removed the rubberbands that were holding it down as the strands were making a better sound. This is when I pulled out the masking tape:
I also thought I would add some rice in the small gaps under where I would be taping to add a shaking sound to the mix
5) At this stage I wanted to think of more ways in which I could amplify the sounds that I was creating playing around with a couple of things that I had chopped up:
then I went back to the use of the red tin can from 'Phase1' as I decided that I was really liking the sounds that tin made as it could be quite loud or gentle depending on how you manipulated it, so I therefore thought it could be quite a good amplifier!
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| Cut hole in the bottom of can, tapped cans together and then tot eh rest of my creation. Sound of amplified sound:amplifier |
Although this 'amplifier' idea did not make a difference to the output of sound of what I had before hand. So like I had done before with the plastic bottle, I cut the tin to give it octopus looking strands and then played around finding the different sound it made compared to the bottle.
In the end I decided to stick this red tin can to the bottom of the plastic bottle in masking tape and rubber bands as an additional sound as I liked the 3 sounds that I had found after cutting the red tin can up.
...And at this moment decided that I had found myself with a very resolved and worked on 'noise-maker' contrasting to that morning when I really was quite stuck.
Final Noise-Maker
After getting some Feedback I was told that my noise-maker sounded quite tribal, and that I had a lot of different sounds for my one noise-maker and maybe I needed to think about refining these...however because I like that it's quite striking to look at I didn't want to manipulate it further (even though its not about how it looks, but how it sounds).
Monday 24 March 2014
Experimentation of Objects
Introduction to Workshop Tools
After spending time getting to know our objects we were now able to start exploring the possibilities of a range of new sounds that our objects could potentially make by manipulating them through the use of a range of tools (cutting and joining) to extend their potential.Tim larking the workshop technician refreshed my memory and showed us how to use a range of tools that could be helpful in furthering my noise-maker. The only tool from the workshop which I used was the cordless drill to drill a selection of random holes in the sides and bottom of my plastic bottle.
Other tools used:
-craft knife
-scissors
-shoe lace
-rubber band
To get us started we were set a list of things to do to our objects to get us used to the idea that our objects could quite possibly be looking vastly different by the time we have a justified noise-maker.
List:
-make a hole
-cut something in half
-stick something back together
-tie something together
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| Cut in half and stuck back together by threading / tying a shoelace through sides |
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| Holes on front and bottom of bottle. |
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| String through bottle - unravelled lantern - unravelled lantern wrapped around bottle top |
As the string through the bottle (left photo) is also partly on the out side of the bottle, I found that I was able to produce a more interesting sound by plucking these outer strings rather than passing objects such as pegs, safety pins, a zip and other objects down through the centre of the bottle, bouncing off the strings. I also unravelled the tape-measure and threaded it through the centre bottom hole of the bottle, through the thread and out the top, the sound activated from this was not quite how I expected it as I thought it would bounce around more. Therefore that is the reason I added the unravelled lantern and in the photo below you can see I have started to add rubber bands as a new element.
I found that when plucking the thread of my noise-maker from the outside that it sounded like popping pop corn, as many people also told me.
I really enjoyed the end of this class for the day. As what I thought was going to be a sharing of what we had done to manipulate our objects, turned into a performance of the whole class. We split into two groups one for loud noise-makers and one for quite noise-makers (including mine). And were asked to play them to rhythm of Happy Birthday.
Recording of the layers of sound heard during class:
studio-class-layered-sounds
Recording of the layers of sound heard during class:
studio-class-layered-sounds
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