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.

My first noise-maker attempt...ready to start over!

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.

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.

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

Things that could help me exaggerate.

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)

(large open room)

(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.

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:

pulling-masking-tape-of-desk

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!

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).