As you can tell from the title my it’s been awhile since I last blogged…having not blogged for a year it’s been hard to get back or start getting back into the habit of blogging. I see it as a chore something I want to push-off, rather than a way to get my ideas down as and when I come up with them…which is what I know a few in on my course do.

I think I better get started…first off I can’t believe that the first term of my final year is over already! It seems like it’s only just begun, it’s also starting to freak me out a bit because I feel like I haven’t done much work wise since starting uni again in September.

However now it’s the Christmas break I have got to get myself motivated and actually do some work! That being said it’s going to be a busy few weeks, I have a Scripting for New Media coursework to do, I’ve got to make an application that does something across a network in Flash, I decided to make a game, an old school battleships for two players.
I need to spend some time looking into the coding for that, how to design it and if it’s possibly for me to do in the next few weeks, as the deadline is the first week back.

I also have to write a draft chapter for my dissertation; I’m still undecided how I feel about that whether I’m confident with the subject I’ve chosen and where it’s heading or not, Geoff my tutor did like my structure I sent him last week which is a bonus!  My biggest problem would have to be my final year project, I have no idea what to do…I did have an idea which was a bit weird but would work only my tutor didn’t like it and wants me to head in another direction that I’m not too keen on myself…I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks and I’m still coming up blank…which is freaking me out a bit.

Another module I need to work on is my 4D, the proposal for that was my last blog entry…Mike does like that idea which again is a major thumbs up and has motivated me to start work on it…he suggests I try recording something and see how it sounds played back at the same time to help me sort out what i want this piece to be about.
What I’m thinking of doing, is setting up mic’s around a room and recording everyone in that room, listen to all their conversations running at the same time…which is a rough sketch of what I wish to do for the final piece. in a weird kind of way.

The games module is going ok, I’ve been put in charge of the website which to be honest about I am less than pleased about…I cannot stand web development, it drives me round the wall and I hate it with a passion! I’d rather be doing something much more arty and creative, and design things, and do marketing which unfortunately Ollie has put Claudia in charge of.
I do feel like I’m a dead weight with this game though, because there hasn’t been much for me to do, the web development is pretty much one of the last things needed to do…I’ll much rather get stuck in to the marketing and media side of things…that’s what I’d really like to do…I’ve asked Ollie and he’s like I don’t know…oh well just have to wait and see how it goes.

That’s uni work out of the way…but since my last blog so much else has happened!

I got into a car accident, resulting in my car being written off, I am currently in negations with the insurance company over the value of my car; I am now carless and have resorted to using the bus and walking everywhere which is just time-consuming and annoying.
I still can’t believe how expensive Plymouth Citybus is! I’m on the bus for ten minutes and it costs me £2.40 for a return! That isn’t even 2 day’s worth of petrol! It’s not just the price that’s annoying it’s the fact that the buses are so unreliable, they’re either early, late or just don’t bother to turn up! When I’m going into uni for a meeting or a lecture I don’t want to have to wait half an hour for a bus or catch a much earlier bus just to guarantee I’ll get in on time!
That’s what I loved about having a car, I could drive to uni, park and know I’ll get there on time most of the time depending on traffic. It also meant that if I needed to do something or get something I’d be able to do it in my own time when I can and not whenever the busses would allow me to get there.
I am hoping to get another car soon, one which is the same as my car that’s just been written off as I would gladly have kept that car for two or three years and I know I wouldn’t have too many problems with it…that what really gets me is that I now have less money to get a car, so it’ll have to be older and most likely have more problems with it than the car I did have. My car also came with two years MOT and Service which meant I wouldn’t have to worry about additional surprising costs when it comes to fixing things! Grr…

Anyway I need to go, have work to do…it’s going to be a busy few weeks…lucky me!

Moving Sound

Project Summary

For my 4D project I wish to investigate the significance our hearing has in relation to everything that’s happening around us, how people use what they hear to respond or react to events that are taken place. I would also like to look into how a recording can trigger a memory, a feeling or a particular thought.
The project will involve recording either an event or someone experiencing something which will then be played back at a later date. The person listening will then experience what the author went through, what they witnessed and heard.
I will do this by getting the listener to follow the same route recorded outside and visual see the space that the author occupied while recording. Alternatively the listener will follow the route but in an empty room, which they’ll be guided through the empty space by what they listen to, and will have to visualise what’s going on mentally.

Development

The project is mainly inspired by the work of Janet Cardiff, her piece “The Missing Voice” which is based in London, follows her as she goes through small allies from White Chapel library to Liverpool Street Station.
She uses the audio to inform the listener of the ideas that go through her mind at being in a new city, alone and a woman.

“I was trying to relate to the listener the stream-of-consciousness scenarios that I constantly invent in my mind when I see someone pass or walk down a dark alley.”

I would like the participant to become aware of the space they’re occupying, to think about who or what is around them, what they smell, hear, see, touch and what is running through the mind of the author on what they’re experiencing.

There a number of ways I could go about developing my project but before I get to that stage I need to decide on how I wish to present the project at the end of the year, as this would then effect what I record and when.

My first idea was to playback an event that happened in a room for the listener to interact with, they hear everything that’s going on in the room, but will have to move to hear different parts more clearly.

My first idea was to take a recording of an event unfolding for instance a crime scene. The listener who is stood in the middle of the room hears what’s going on around them. People walking in, talking, putting cups down on tables etc.
They would then have to move around the room to hear more clearly what’s going on in the right corner, or towards the end of the room etc. So depending on where in the room they decide they hear different parts of the event.

Although this is a good starting point, I think I should expand it more so that the audio isn’t restricted to just four walls, that the recording is of something that happened outside.

This is will also be played back in an empty room, however the listener is hearing a lot more that’s going on, so although they physically are not in the space, they can feel as if they are through hearing.
I could develop it so that the listener are blindfolded, so that they have to concentrate on what they’re listening to, and see mentally what the author saw, navigating around the room, according to what is being said on the recording.
Maybe to develop the project further I could have multiple recordings, and have more people listening to the same event just from different perspectives, so although walking around the same physical space, everyone’s experience will be different.
It’ll also be interesting to see how much people concentrate on listening, whether people bump into each other or not. I could then film everyone listening, and map their movements in a visual way in a 3d model of the room, to display as the final piece.

If I were to follow any of the above ideas, I’d need to decide what to record, the equipment I’ll need and how I’d visually display what’s taking place without using the conventional method of film.

This would link in with the idea of space and how it’s possible to recreate a space using nothing but audio, time how everyone will be listening to an event taking place and recreating it at the same time, but still not truly connected time wise with everyone around them.
It would also represent that despite witnessing or hearing the same event, everyone’s take on what happened differs depending on where they were in relation to what was going on, their own previous experiences and their knowledge of the event.

Plan of Work

To find the ideal final outcome, I first need to investigate the different ways I could present this idea, as mentioned above. By looking at the work and installations of Janet Cardiff and other artist using binaural recordings or sound to represent an event I’m hoping to get some inspiration as to how to proceed.
I’ll also be using the lectures and the tutorials with Mike Philips as references and ideas, on how to present the final project to achieve the outcome I wish.  I’d also use the tutorials as an opportunity to negotiate with Mike on the technology or software I could use, as mentioned before I’d probably use After Effects to represent any visual effects I decide to do, so will expand on the skills I already have in that programme over the next few weeks.

The next step would have to choose what to record, whether I go around the city and find something to base the recording on and then get volunteers to re-enact the scene from everyone involved. I could  skip the first part and make a scene up and allow the actors to improvise on the whole event.

The development of the audio piece should be completed by early 2010, therefore I could get people to volunteer to take part in the next stage of development, the play back, I’m hoping to get this done as soon as possible after the completion of the audio work so that if the play back does not go according to plan I have time to alter it and to test it out again.

Once the play back has gone according to plan, the next stage will be using the data recorded and turning it into a visual display, one which I’ll use to present, on the screen as part of the finished project, as well as visually showing the event taking place, what everyone heard will also be playing so that the audience can get a real feel for what was going on in everyone’s minds.

Output

The outcome of my project will be a piece of work which has the potential to be a visual and a digital representation on how humans use the sense of hearing to  interpret what they see around them, and how this has an effect on how they react to situations.
I would also like it to show how everyone can interact with each other without being allowed contact, whether that’s just by feeling someone next to you, or hear part of their conversation or just by a sixth sense of knowing something is there.

References

Initially the only reference I have at the moment is Janet Cardiff, but with more research into the subject I’m hoping to find some more art forms of a similar nature.
However I am hoping to find a few books in the library to do with hearing and memory to get some idea of how they both link with one enough, and see how I could use that information to develop my project on.

Now that the application is all done and finished, here a couple of references that I’ve used

Kahn, Douglas (2001) NOISE WATER MEAT: A HISTORY OF SOUND IN THE ARTS. Cambridge Massachusetts, London England: MIT Press

LaBella, Brandon (2006) BACKGROUND NOISE: PERSPECTIVES ON SOUND ART. New York; London: Continuum.

Licht, Alan (2007) SOUND ART: BEYOND MUSIC, BETWEEN CATEGORIES. New York: Rizzoli.

I’ve been working with Flash mainly to produce this DJ Sound Art application, where the user can play or stop a number of sound clips to make their own sound art which incorporates loads of different sound art styles to fit in with a number of artists work.

 And I’m glad to say that it runs smoothly and all the sounds play when the user clicks on the dial to start/stop it. I also have the volume and pan to change…however I was still unable to figure out how to do it for each individual sound clip which is a bit annoying but I do not have the know how or the time to fix it.

 I did attempt a key listener so that you only has to press a key to start/stop the sound however I did not have the time to look into it too much and my coding abilities still stopped me. However you can find the finished product here
http://vhill.co.uk/idat203/IDAT203.swf

I recorded the sounds I’ll be using for the application today. 

I’ve decided to go with the sound of traffic in the style of Pierre Schaffer, silence in the style of John Cage, Electronic Music as art not music agreeing with Annea Lockwood’s description of Sound Art in Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories, A dada poem to tie in with earlier forms of Sound art, and attempted to record ice (in my freezer I couldn’t get up to the Arctic and it wasn’t snowing) however all you heard was noises in the kitchen so instead I’ve settled for the boiling of a kettle and running water.

You can find the samples of the sound I’ve used at http://vhill.co.uk/idat203/sound/

Below is a screen shot of what the application looks like, I’ve added a number of movie clips each with it’s own individual sound (well will be once I’ve added it still in the testing stages at the moment). 

 The little white dial on the side plays the sound and the arm moves onto the record, and the little black dial turns the sound off and the arm goes back to it’s original position, as you can in the bottom right hand corner are the sliders to change the volume and the balance of the sounds. 
 These are done in a style of an equaliser similar to the ones found in radio stations and any recording studio as I felt this fits in with the DJ theme – which I picked as the user can be their own DJ! 

I was working on the code this morning to get the application to attach a movie clip and to play/stop it when a certain button is pressed – that was fairly easy to do and luckily didn’t take me too much time to do. 

 The worst part came when I was doing the volume and pan, I could get it change all of the sounds (at this point I was just testing the application with some sound clips I already had on the computer) but no matter what I did I couldn’t get it to change for each sound. 

 Which does add a flaw to my plan as it means every sound used would have to be played at the same volume or at a volume I’ve already pre-set when recording/editing the audio which in my opinion does take away the whole point of the application. 
 I will continue to work on it though!  

I had a course preview day today and typically Chris Speed showed the same work he does every time but this time one of them inspired me!

 I can’t believe that I didn’t think of this before, it’s from a previous student who did this as their final year project (I think) it’s when he records a sound and then has it play in a cube although it’s all done on a computer it just looks like it’s playing from the cube.

 It’s a bit hard to explain bit it’s similar to what I want to do, but with movie clips in flash where a movie clip will play a sound and you can switch on or off sounds to create your own movie piece. 

 I can’t find the link and have to remember to get it off Chris Speed when I see him next

After having a conversation with Ollie about what I wish to do, I was describing to him how I would design it. 

Originally as seen on the first design it was just going to be a serious of buttons which when clicked would play a particular sound which the user can then turn on or off and mix it with other sounds to produce a sound piece that they think is sound art (within in the guidelines set out by established sound artists)

But during that conversation I came up with a new design, have DJ turn tables as the buttons, and they press a on or off button to play the sound to give more of a sound art feel.  
 Going along the lines of the DJ area, I also thought about adding a function so that they could change the volume of the sounds and also the balance/pan of the sound (i.e. whether it’s mainly on the right speaker, left speaker or equally distributed between the two.)

I am now really excited about doing this!

Below is a rough sketch of what the new design is

From my previous entry I have decided to do this project in Flash with sound clips. 

I’ll have a number of sound clips from different artists and traditional practises such as Dadaism and Conceptualism/ the Fluxes movement and the user can decide which ones to play according to their view on sound art.

I have an original design layout in my workbook, which will be scanned/photographed and uploaded later of what I’d like it to look it.

 I think the sounds I’m going to use will be silence (from John Cage) background noise (from Pierre Schaffer), the recording of ice (DJ Spooky is recording the sounds of the ice in the Arctic, and also from Yoko Ono and her piece TAPE PIECE III/ Snow Piece (1963) 

‘Take a tape of the sound of the snow

            Falling.

            Do not listen to the tape.

            Cut it and use it as strings to tie

            Gifts with.

            Make a gift wrapper, if you wish, using

            The same process with a phonosheet.’

(Kahn 2001: 238). )

Electronic music (Annea Lockwood) and a recording of Dada poem, as well as general background noises and random noises.