Hello again, it’s good to be back, rambling about my various things. I wonder if I’ll ever show anyone else these posts. They’re a good archive of my little bits of research.
The first week has been pretty great. A lot of very interesting projects to sink my teeth into, including some nice technical stuff for Visual Programming, and some opportunities to further contextualise my work in Emerging Digital Cultures. Plus of course, the freedom to get a bit wacky with one or more projects for Heightened Multisensory Experiences.
With that freedom though, means I’ll have to whittle down my ideas quite strategically. For this, I think I’ll just need to experiment, and try making a bunch of things to see what is worth pursuing.
Idea: OAE
Some initial experimentation today for one of my ideas brought upon some interesting side effects. The original idea for the following audio was to alternate between two versions of a sample—one mono, and the other stereo, but with the left channel’s phase inverted. I was trying to achieve the illusion of movement between the speakers without actually using panning, and while I don’t think I really succeeded, the shrillness of the 808 rimshot and clave samples I used resulted in another interesting effect, that of otoacoustic emissions.
At certain points in the audio, a kind of ‘thumping’ sound can be heard, which is entirely created within the listener’s ears. Adam Neely describes it in this somewhat overblown, yet informative video.
Plus, it uses the word “phenomenological” in the intro, which ties in nicely with Thursday’s class.
It’s an interesting concept to follow up on, though using such shrill high pitched tones definitely runs the risk of causing hearing damage, especially at volumes where the effect becomes noticeable. It has, of course, been done by others, as the above video shows, but it’d be interesting to see how far the technique could be pushed.
Idea: Dayton Audio transducers
Over the break, I ordered a couple of surface conducting transducers, just for experimentation. One in particular works very well for audible tones, and the other (a “bass shaker”) was possibly not powered enough by the amplifier I used, and as such wasn’t very effective.
I’m still in the phase of experimentation where I’m simply placing them on various surfaces to test their conductivity, with objects like my acoustic guitars and wooden serving trays being the loudest, but they could prove useful for accessibility purposes, in that they could potentially be made to vibrate with low frequency tones that hearing impaired people can feel.
Idea: Electrical impulses
My father is an electronic engineer and somewhat eccentric inventor. I spoke to him today about the concept behind HMsEx and mentioned that a lot of the possibilities for projects are in line with his experience working with lighting systems, electromechanical devices, and of course sound. He presented an interesting and potentially risky idea, in that I could use electrodes to stimulate a participant’s muscles, therefore almost turning them into a controllable “puppet”. I’m not sure if I would take it that far (or if I could, legally), but the idea of using electrical impulses to provide a heightened multisensory experience is incredibly fascinating. I’m not sure how I could create such a device for an audience of more than one person, but it is absolutely something I will be researching over the coming weeks.
Idea: Forever Doom
Years ago, I had an idea to make something similar to Squarepusher’s Music For Robots:
Obviously, my version wouldn’t be quite as elaborate, nor would it need to be, because my idea was slightly different—two electric guitars, one of which is a bass, with a few frets controlled by solenoids or other similar actuators, playing endless generative doom metal riffs. Perhaps they’d slowly evolve from a beginning riff rather than being 100% new each time, but the idea is essentially an infinitely long doom metal piece.
It’d require some budget though, in order to realise it to its full potential (ie. with large amplifiers), unless I could rent the gear or borrow it from friends.
Idea: Relay mirror / electromechanical conductor
Basically, something like this:
.. but with relays, or buzzers, or some other kind of electromagnetic / electromechanical components that would allow for the viewer to “conduct” a realtime acoustic sound composition. Perhaps a board mounted on a wall with various bells and other acoustic noisemakers, which are struck when the viewer’s hand moves to a certain point in space.