The setup before performance

Until the day before the performance, we finally got the chance to practice in the chroma key room. Because the large space of the white screen was required, we have to sort out the space see if it is possible when exhibition.
The lunch box is the switches we gonna use in performance to manipulate the sound by different groups of piezo which attached onto throat(swallow), middle of chest(breathing), heart(heartbeat), joint(bone clicking). So we got 4 sounds and 10 combination. Jason will conduct and decide what sound goes in my mixer. I'll adjust sound level, tempo, as well as adding effect. Seb is the one who gonna perform behind the white screen.

Human instrument

That's when we testing heartbeat and stomach sound.

Math and Art practical-process

Cut the first semi-circle

Cut all four of them
final labyrinth, but another piece is required to shape it.

Math and Art practical

I made this because the labyrinth was so called an unconscious drawing three thousand years ago. I am proving it can be made totally mathematical way. The tradition way of drawing labyrinth, there's drawback that it can't tell the how bend the curves are. The labyrinth looks like a mushroom is actually composed by only semi-circles, quarter-circles and straight lines. Each circle's radius equal to quantity of circles plus the radius of the smallest circle. Where as

radius of each circle=x*N+(x/2)

X stands for the smallest circle's radius or the width of the path, N stands for the quantity of circles.

For instance if you want draw a 7 circles labyrinth, we assume the width of the path is 30cm. The 7th circle's radius should be 30*7+15=225cm.


Throughout making the labyrinth, I found out 3 circular labyrinth, consists by 4 semi-circles at the top half, the smallest one's diameter determine the path width. All the semi-circles' center are on a fixed point. What I made a mistake was taking the radius as diameter of the smallest circle, thus the center of the labyrinth became 4 times of path's width instead of 3. Two and three quarter-circles on each side that connect the top 4 semi-circles. The side which got three quarter-circles' center is one side of the smallest semi-circle. The side which got two quarter-circles' center is the free end of the second semi-circle from inside.
This labyrinth was made by cupboard, so an additional holder is required to keep its shape.

The thoughts of the performance

Performance was not too bad, We got a bit problem before the performance, which our switches broke down. Thus we can't manipulate piezo disc individually. We plugged mic into mixer straightway, goes back to initial point what we got Wednesday. What we were worried about before the performance was the rubbing noise when we move around the piezo disc, as well as the feedback from the speaker. As the audience couldn't hear any body vibration. Fortunately, we still got a few sounds going on like swallow, heartbeat(amazing!)and breathing. What our plan was fade in each sound one by one, and get the pure organic listening experience. The performance was well scheduled by time line. Because of technique problem, the performance was of out of a rush, the fair fast heartbeat was because of we got no confidence the piezo disc would pick up the sound, as he runs right before the performance, i can see it from my beat counter, his heart beat jump up from 160 to 171 under a minute. The effects(filter, flange) was adding a bit variety, but also cover a bit organic sound.

Get the most out of Piezo disc

"In fact, sometimes piezo sensors are called contact microphones. Some common applications include acoustic guitar pickups and drum triggers, but there really is no reason why you couldn’t use piezo sensors anywhere that produces vibration (and therefore, sound)." by Dan Connor.
Because it only pick up the contact vibration, most of ambient sound can be avoided. It sometimes creat interesting lo-fi result. For instance attach under a piano .



http://members.cox.net/ampage/triggers.htm How to make drum by piezo disc


http://www.instructables.com/id/Acoustic-Guitar-Pickup/ How to create lo- fi sound by attach to guitar

Contact microphone

This guy really inspired me how to create different tones and pitches with same piezo disc. attach the piezo disc onto another piece of wood. I was just tried out with a piezo disc and a steel ruler, the longer the piece is, it produces kinda reverberation sound, the shorter the piece is it produces pure tone. It should be also relevant with the material itself. Will tried out tomorrow.

Contact Microphones: It All Sounds Good | Gearwire

The Hydraulophone: Invention of a new musical instrument

Human Piano Instrument Concept

human instrument

The critic today was helpful. We got feedback which seb stand there still was boring, and not necessarily to be a human, it can be a sculpture. We realized person who wears it should be able to moving around, the piezo disc record the rubbing, breathing and joint noise from the body. Other people can touch, scratch, hit him. Himself also make noise by roll on the ground, rubbing on different surface.
What we did last night was Seb doing beat-box, I hit the piezo attached on his body alone the way, all the sound goes into the mixer, which amplifies it, as well as adding flange, echo or robot effects. But I feel the effects affects the sound too much, it got over it. However we want the ambient and organic sound to be produced from human instrument.

Initiall Idea of final performance

Attaching pizo disc on the throat of seb in terms of pick up the vibration, I add effects like reverb, echo, roll or whatever on to it. Which means I play him as my record. He produce random sound he could make.

Who says music has to be melodical and repetitive?

When all the noise goes harmonious, I think I realize what music communication is, what a real band will do. Each member of the team was maintaining the sound of the little device by their developed unique skills via experimental recording process. When nobody practice the performing before, as long as the sound was playing, they eventually fit in together with rich layers, each level of frequency can be differentiated as bass, mid and treble. It is not as significant difference of traditional music as the noise we imagine initially. I wouldn't even call it as noise, because it just hit the opposite way of traditional music, which feathers non-repetitive, unpredictable, sometimes even uncomfortable sound. I was clicking when my other mates went silence, because it sounds like a complete piece. It was found when my group was recording in the baby changing room, I took the mug with me. What will it sounds like when I swing around my copper disk in the mug? As a lot people doing the same device. How can I make my own skilled, reproducible sound instead of making random sound? That is the way I made my own device as instrument.
This kind of random but reproducible sound can extremely enrich the effect of DJ or other live musician. As they playing with the device, with switched or buttons which can change the value of resistors, the sound can be recorded as sampler while they can be added onto industrial music, even achieve a revolutionary new genre of music.

After presentation

Due to broken down of the laptop, I only got limited time to make my own track, which leads group file been done before my one came up. It's not the traditional way of music in any kind. As a contrast of hi-fi music. It trying to tell us the noise and silence is as important as the music. Thus melody or any rhythm should be avoided. It should produce a multi-layer and non-repetitive piece of track which bring people visual imagination. With deep either nature or industrial sound active people's privilege sense of locating the sound. Where about's the sound coming from. It recorded the noise we usually ignored. People have to sit down and listen. "how come I never notice that sound? That sound can be loop like that." At the end of presentation, I realized that I was restricted by music format too much, when I making the sound track, I always search the melody first, and loop them. It start rhythm which should be avoided.

The sound uploaded to soundcloud

individual sound
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/very-first-experimental-track
group sound
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/field-recording-group-soundtrack
other sound source
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/toilet-flash-sound
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/ste-000
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/noise
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/ste-004
http://soundcloud.com/flicker09/beach-sound

The first day recording

It's like a extend ear, more than ten times sensitive than my ear. I could hear finger rubbing the surface. People talk in the library sounds shouting. The first day, we just test how the sound track goes, from studio to the library, ASB bank and come back.
When we walked down to most street, the sound of engine and people talking mixed up a constant noise. We want to seek special sound that we've never notice before.

Review of the Sound walk

The sound walk told us to listen the sound we easily ignored during daily life, we are not on listening purpose when went to such place, like car park, food court etc. There are so many amazing sound among the human and nature. The sound walk was a flexible route, it basically just the sound leads us wherever it wants us to go. Charlotte A. got a really good point on this, which covered peoples' eye, everyone walked in a queue, for a reason let people temporarily forgot their vision, instead, pay extra attention to the ambient sound to guess where they were.
The one that interested me the most was part of city council art program, which is a speaker playing constant noise hanging on the tree, sounds like water flowing up. I never find that out, even I walked past there a couple times.
I reckon the sound walk target listening skills that noise and quiet are as valid as music.

Review of Anechoic Chamber

Anechoic room was dead silence. I really can't get used to a place got -2db, as I hear lots of loud music. My ears seems to produce some noise, just like when I went to gigs, the ringing high frequency noise. The room is decorated by spiky sponge, even the ceiling and floor. As what professor of AU test in front of us, which put a speaker inside a box and put different material on top of it, include sponge, glass and wood. Sponge was typically being thought the one will absorb the sound, but the sound still came out after he put on. When the wood was put on, the sound was extremely reduced. I was thinking is that means the sound can go through the sponge, but the volume inside the box was decreased. On the other hand, the wood reflects the sound back, is it increased the volume inside as we couldn't hear from outside. For instance, if we are in a sponge room, could people from outside hear the noise we make inside, or if we are in a echo room, the noise is reflected back in, the volume is relative reduced to outside. Thus if we play constant volume of sound, which one actually got better noise isolation, for inside or outside?