Program Notes for Noisebucket

Program Notes for Noisebucket Noisebucket is a video work composed for the 2020 CCRMA Summer Workshops at Stanford University. It was created for the “Audiovisual Practices” workshop under professors Stephanie Sherriff and Constantin Basica. The work premiered during final presentations for Audiovisual Practices and was featured in the Winter 2020 issue of Off Latch Zine.

The work centers around a filmed, structured improvisation for electric toothbrushes, resonant objects, and a five-gallon bucket. The improvisation consists of placing objects into the bucket and, during the second half, removing said objects. Two electric toothbrushes provide the primary sonic energy source for the improvisation: One was placed at the base of the bucket, while the other was placed in a metal bowl halfway in the bucket. Both electric toothbrushes were adorned with objects such as chains, bells, and egg shakers; due to the motion and uneven shapes of the toothbrushes, the location of the objects changed throughout, creating corresponding shifts in timbre.

The improvisation was altered in iMovie so as to introduce non-linearity into the work, embracing elements of montage inspired by film and musique concrète. Short sequences are repeated and decontextualized throughout the piece, such as a brief moment where a metal bowl is inserted in the bucket, causing a short, metallic sound from the interaction of the toothbrush and the metal. Through emphasizing these moments via repetition, a system of fragmented gestures is created, subverting the structure of the improvisation (as it occurred in real time) while maintaining an indexical relationship to the source material and its structure.

The edited improvisation material is juxtaposed with video footage of waves crashing onto rocks, with foliage and fauna appearing in the foreground of the shot. While ocean footage only appears on its own for a brief excerpt, its sounds and imagery (added through “cross-fading” footage) are disseminated throughout. I juxtaposed footage of the ocean with that of the bucket in light of the spectral similarities. I chose these two disparate images to invite the spectator to draw their own connections, inspired by the Kuleshov effect. Both the ocean and the bucket hold elements of noise, with the ocean sounding like “Brownian” noise while the toothbrushes contain clear central frequencies.

I created video processing in Jitter using frequency, amplitude, and attack detection from Max/MSP. Amplitude determined the cross-fade of ocean and bucket imagery, with increased amplitude having a direct relationship with increased ocean imagery. Through frequency analysis I created a direct relationship between higher frequencies and light contrast in the bucket footage. Attack detection determined which area of the bucket image would be chroma keyed, as well as affecting saturation; this element (in relation to chroma keying) is used in the second half of the piece, where chance operations determine whether the attack will affect the chroma keying. This element of probability created a tenuous instability, as if the video itself is beginning to fracture (at the same time that the bucket apparatus is being “deconstructed” in the improvisation).

A link to the video is attached here. A link to the Jitter/Max/MSP patch used is attached here.

Stills from the video appear below.