Tiny orchestra (documentation a4)

DOCUMENTATION

TINY ORCHESTRA

1 SATARA ACHILLE IN COLLABORATION WITH SABBA KEYNEJAD

THE BRIEF

The aim of the ‘Tiny Orchestra’ brief is to create an ensemble of sound instruments and noise-makers that can perform together in a small composition which will reveal the full extent of your instrument’s range – both in terms of tone, timbre and volume. At what stage does a device become a musical instrument? This is a question for interaction designers. A piano, after all, is just an elaborate machine made up of wires and hammers and keys that allows someone to ‘make’ music. The American avant-garde composer John Cage created a ‘prepared piano’ by placing nuts and bolts and wedges between the strings – but he was already starting with an established musical instrument with an established place in composition and theory. Another American composer Harry Partch built his own instruments out of scrap to play the ‘microtonal’ music he wanted to write, while Cornelius Cardew created a ‘scratch orchestra’ of non musicians to perform more democratic music.

In ‘Tiny Orchestra’, we will be starting from scratch: the idea is to create an instrument from everyday objects (the contents of your desk or kitchen for example) that is capable of creating interesting noises. You must also be able to explain how you arrived at the solution not just in technical terms but also in the design philosophy behind it – does an instrument necessarily have to be loud? Or tuneful? Might it not also interact with other media: colours, lights, words, movements? If so how?

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QUESTIONING SOUND

Initially when we had first received the brief we began to question the meaning of sound. Asking ourselves questions like:

- Can anything be a musical score?

- If you could feel music, would you understand it better?

- What is left after sound?

- Can we create music out of silence?

- Giving structure and rhythm to a noise, does that make it music?

- There is no new sounds, it is the way it is produced.

- Digitally processing a sound, is that an instrument or is it a process?

- Music is more powerful if you make it yourself - Playing someone elses muisc makes you an interpreter not a musician.

- Anything can be a musical instrument, its the time you invest into it. And the way that it is utilized.

- Playing objects in a way they are not intended for.

VALUABLE QUOTATIONS

“WHETHER I MAKE THEM OR NOT, THERE ARE ALWAYS SOUNDS TO BE HEARD AND ALL OF THEM ARE EXCELLENT.” JOHN CAGE “EVERYTHING WE DO IS MUSIC” JOHN CAGE “SOUND IS THE VOCABULARY OF NATURE. PIERRE SCHAEFFER WHEN I SEE A COLOUR OR HEAR A SOUND, I AM AWARE OF SOMETHING, AND NOT OF NOTHING. CHARLES D. BROAD

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENTING WITH A RECORD PLAYER

ANALYSIS: At the beginning of the project we decided to experiment with a record player. We got different textures and surfaces and used the stylus to pick up the sound of each surface. This was an experiment to see what the stylus could pick up in different textures and whether it would be able to determine sounds.

We recorded each texture and imported them into ableton and adobe audition. The textures sounded very similar however we became fascinated by the way the record player worked and the movement of the record.

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RESEARCH

ZIMOUN

SOURCE: http://www.zimoun.net/

ANALYSIS: Sounds from tennis balls, to create rhythm.

The great thing about this project is the layering of the same sound.

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RESEARCH

YEARS SOURCE: http://www.ignant.de/2012/03/21/ years/?lang=en

ANALYSIS: Sounds from natural resources. Finding sounds in the unexpected. Playing natural objects in the environment from a microscopic view.

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RESEARCH

SHAPES MAKING SOUND LOOPS SOURCE: http://vimeo.com/49484255

ANALYSIS: Finding sound from everyday objects. It’s a great way of showing how an elements in an environment can be played.

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RESEARCH

SOUNDS FROM EVERYDAY OBJECTS SOURCE: http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_ applebaum_the_mad_scientist_of_ music.html

ANALYSIS: We began to research into instruments that took everyday objects and found unsuspecting uses for these objects. Mark Abblebaum created a contraption that used items like a comb and screws to merge them together and make music from the unexpected.

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RESEARCH

GLASS THROUGH GLASS SOURCE: http://vimeo.com/79510117#at=0

ANALYSIS: In this video glasses with different amounts of water are being played and layered ontop of each other to create a song.

It’s another way of taking an unexpected object and turning it into something it isn’t intended for. I began to think about ways of playing things that wouldn’t otherwise be made into music.

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RESEARCH

NEIL HARBISSON SOURCE: I listen to color - TED talks

Translating colour into sound is an artist, cyborgist and colorologist. His unique experience of color informs his artwork, which before his device the “eyeborg” was strictly black and white. By working with cyberneticist Adam Montandon, Harbisson helped design a lightweight eyepiece that he wears on his forehead that transposes the light frequencies of color hues into sound frequencies.

Harbisson’s artwork blurs the boundaries between sight and sound. In his sound portraits series, he listens to the colors of faces to create a microtonal chord. In the City Colours project, he expresses the capital cities of Europe in two colors.

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RESEARCH

THE COLOUR OF SOUND DOCUMENTARY SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cj4MOOCFspk

ANALYSIS: In this colour of sound documentary it explains how their are 7 visible colours in a spectrum and 7 notes in an octave. Both colour and sound have frequencies and the diagram on the right mathematically translates the frequencies in nano meters.

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RESEARCH

COLOUR CHASER SOURCE: http://yurisuzuki.com/works/ colour-chaser/

A miniature vehicle that detects and follows a black line whilst it reads crossing coloured lines and translates this RGB data into sound. Users could draw a randomly shaped circuit using a black marker pen on a piece of paper and the colour chaser followed the line. then add different layers of colour across the black line at intervals the vehicle detects the colour RGB data and translates that into sound.

ANALYSIS: This project enables you to make your own track and determine the length of the song.

You can simply just pick up a pen and become the composer through drawing.

Every song will sounds different depending on how you draw. Give a personality to the persons drawing through sound.

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RESEARCH

TRANSLATING COLOUR INTO SOUND

CHROMESTHESIA DEFINITION

Chromesthesia or sound-to-color synesthesia is a type of synesthesia in which heard sounds automatically and involuntarily evoke an experience of color.[1] For the purpose of disambiguation, this article will refer to this chromesthesia SOURCE: in inducer-concurrent terms used to describe other forms of synesthesia. With Wikipedia sounds inducing color concurrents, chromesthesia is more accurately termed sound-color synesthesia. Individuals with sound-color synesthesia are consciously aware of their synesthetic color associations/ ANALYSIS: perceptions in daily life.[2] Synesthetes that perceive color while listening to music experience the colors in addition to the normal auditory sensations that We were curious to explore the would be triggered in the average person. That is, the synesthetic color possibilities of taking the experience supplements, but does not obscure real, modality-specific intangible and turning it into perceptions.[2] As with other variations of synesthesia, individuals with audio. We wanted to play an sound-color synesthesia perceive the synesthetic experience spontaneously, and object in a way that it is not without effort, and in a way that the individual learns to accept as normal within intended for. Challenging the their realm of experience.[2] way in which colour is perceived and manipulated.

TRANSLATION OF COLOUR INTO SOUND

ANALYSIS: At the begining of our project we bought a colour sensor and became fascinated in the way we could make something completely untangible like colour into sound.

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RESEARCH

VISUAL RESEARCH

COLOUR

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RESEARCH

VISUAL RESEARCH

COLOUR TREATMENT

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EXPERIMENTATION

PRINTER TEST

PRINTER TEST

NOTE: See memory stick for the video of Chromesthesia.

ANALYSIS: To progress our idea on translating colour into sound, we experimented with printing colour and sticking the colour sensor onto the printer.

By doing this experiement we realised that a tourch had to be shone onto the paper for the colour sensor to pick up the data. We were able to manipulate the sound by imagery and get an instant song that could be repeated time and time again.

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EXPERIMENTATION

PATTERN TEST

PATTERN TEST

ANALYSIS: In addition to the printer test, we found interesting coloured patterns and translated them by hovering the colour sensor over the screen.

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RESEARCH

THE RECORD PLAYER

THE RECORD PLAYER

ANALYSIS: We wanted to take visual inspiration from one of the first experiments we carried out.

The movement of a record is great and could have no end.

I wanted to keep this in mind whilst designing the final object that would act as the canvas for colour. I wanted to keep this idea of have no beginning nor end and the ability to loop endlessly.

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EXPERIMENT ONE

CHROMESTHESIA

SKETCHES OF THE BOX

ANALYSIS: I started sketching up plans for what the instrument could look like. We needed to be able to hide the wire’s so made the box out of MDF and laser cut the details. We found it difficult to move the ball around to start with so bougth a plant pot so that the ball could move without being scratched by the acrylic disk. This wasn’t effect so we bought three silver ball bearings so that the ball could move smoothly and easily without being scratched.

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EXPERIMENT ONE

CHROMESTHESIA

GRID FOR THE BALL

After our initial research we wanted to link the idea of having no begining or end with the translation of colour to sound.

To make the ball we bought a garden orniment from homebase, however the bottom with flat. We plugged the ball with MFD and used filler then sanded it down to make the ball perfectly circular. After this we drilled two hole into the ball so that we could spin is and draw a grid on to it. We spun it from two different points on the ball so we could have a square esque grid.

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EXPERIMENT ONE

RE-EVALUATING CHROMESTHESIA

HAND PAINTING THE BALL

ANALYSIS: The ball was hand painted with acrylic and then coated with varnish. The colours are placed so that the bottom of the ball is the same as the other side of it. This means that when the ball is played you can tell what colour you will be playing.

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EXPERIMENT ONE

CHROMESTHESIA

NOTE: See memory stick for the video of Chromesthesia: Tiny Orchestra/Chromesthesia/ Chromesthesia Film.mp4

Chromesthesia is an instrument that translates colour into sound. Record players read texture which creates vibrations to play music. We asked ourselves “How can we create a device that can interpret other media as sound?�

Colour has frequencies, evokes emotion and is intangible - just like sound. We thought about new ways of reading a score, questioning whether there needed to be a beginning or an end. Having a ball shaped score was the best answer to this problem.

Chromesthesia is inbetween a musical instrument and a music player. It has a visual score leaving the user in control to take the sound where they want.

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EXPERIMENT ONE

RE-EVALUATING CHROMESTHESIA

ANALYSIS: We had a review of Chromesthesia and thought that the translation between colour and sound doesn’t have a strong enough conceptual meaning behind it. We want to challenge the idea of an instrument rather than just assigning sounds and colour to each other.

A few problems we found with Chromesthesia were that you can’t jump between sounds or notes. The slider feels like you lose control of the instrument.

You cannot travel between notes and octaves.

However, we found a few things about Chromesthesia we wanted to push forwards. The structure of Chromesthesia meant that there is no beginning or end. Colour is used as a visual representation of sound, sound and colour are both intangible.

We want to make sound tangible, asking ourselves what does a beat look like?

The structure of Chromesthesia led us into thinking about loops and the idea of travelling through sound. Questioning the structure of a loop, and how loops could be played in an environment. Whether that environment is small or large, we’re questioning does that depend on the materials used to fill the space.

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RESEARCH

DEFINITION Google definition

LOOPS

noun 1. a shape produced by a curve that bends round and crosses itself. “make a loop in the twine” synonyms: bend, curve, kink, arc “the flex has a loop in it” 2. a structure, series, or process, the end of which is connected to the beginning.

Wikipedia

In electroacoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. A loop can be created using a wide range of music technologies including digital samplers, synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines, tape machines, delay units, or they can be programmed using computer music software.

Origins

While repetition is used in the musics of all cultures, the first musicians to use loops were electroacoustic music pioneers such as Pierre Schaeffer, Halim El-Dabh,[1] Pierre Henry, Edgard Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In turn, El-Dabh’s music influenced Frank Zappa’s use of tape loops in the mid-1960s,[2] and Stockhausen’s music influenced The Beatles to experiment with tape loops; their use of loops in early psychedelic works (most notably 1966’s “Tomorrow Never Knows” and 1968’s avant-garde “Revolution 9”) brought the technique into the mainstream. The stereo version of The Kinks’ 1967 song “Autumn Almanac” (which appears on the 1972 compilation The Kink Kronikles) also features a psychedelic tape loop during the fadeout. Later, inspired by Terry Riley’s use of one tape on two tape machines, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp created the technical basis for their No Pussyfooting album—this technological concept was later dubbed Frippertronics.

Another approach was the use of pre-recorded loops, exemplified by Yellow Magic Orchestra,[3] who released one of the first albums to feature mostly samples and loops (1981’s Technodelic),[4] and Grandmaster Flash’s turntablism. Major producers like Timbaland, and underground producers like as well as the group Sir Mask, and others often create their own sound loops then incorporate them into songs.

Use of pre-recorded loops made its way into many styles of popular music, including hip hop, trip hop, techno, drum and bass, and contemporary dub, as well as into mood music on soundtracks.

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RESEARCH

LOOPS

MARTIN CREED Metronomes SOURCE: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=EelNkU7nUs&noredirect=1

ANALYSIS: Metronomes is a layering loop system. Similarly to Zimoun, Creed is using the same sound to layer on top of each other to create repeatition and rhythm.

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RESEARCH

LOOPS

THE PRODUCT Soundmachines An instrument for performing electronic music Three units, which are resembling standard record players, translate concentric visual patterns into control signals for further processing in any music software. The rotation of the discs, each holding three tracks, can be synced to a sequencer.

SOURCE: http://www.the-product.org/ soundmachines

ANALYSIS: The Product is a great looping and layering system. I really like the way they use shapes to determine the beat and tune.

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RESEARCH

LOOPS

NEEDING/ GETTING MUSIC VIDEO OK GO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c

ANALYSIS: During the course, the arms strike at various musical instruments aligned on the sides of the course, including pianos, guitars, glass jars, and plastic drums; the arrangement and tuning of these instruments create the melody of the song as the car drives by them.

The car is playing the environment to creat the melody.

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RESEARCH

THE SHAPE OF SOUND

SPHERICAL SOUND WAVES SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zwno1w_F3TQ

ANALYSIS: Through researching into sound waves, i discovered that sound is emitted and travels in a spherical form.

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RESEARCH

VIDEO RESEARCH ON LOOPS

BALLET FOR BOUNCING BALLS SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NNbE8WhN22I

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RESEARCH

VIDEO RESEARCH ON LOOPS

RHYTHMIC BALL BOUNCING! Len Deptula SOURCE: https://vimeo.com/40671322

ANALYSIS: Rhythmic balls bouncing is an unexpected instrument.

What makes this so great is that is dynamic, each invidual section comes together to make the piece.

The physical action of the balls colliding with an instrument make it feel different to any other instrument.

It’s not directly played with your hands.

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RESEARCH

VIDEO RESEARCH ON LOOPS

QUADRATURE SOURCE: http://www.creativeapplications.net/sound/12-sound-sequencer-comprised-of-12-digitally-controlled-music-boxes/ watch?v=NNbE8WhN22I

12 is a sound machine comprised of 12 custom built music boxes with specially tuned lamellae controlled by on/off switches and knobs.

Each knob controls the speed the music-box handle and when combined, the device becomes a form of reverse digital to analogue 12 track sequencer.

ANALYSIS: Quadrature layers loops. It is really simple and executed nicely to make an portable instrument.

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RESEARCH

VIDEO RESEARCH ON LOOPS

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS STAR GUITAR Michel Gondry SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0S43IwBF0uM

ANALYSIS: A beat is assinged to a piece in the environment. It insinuates that a loop is a journey from A to B 31

RESEARCH

VIDEO RESEARCH ON LOOPS

MUSICAL SPECTRUM ANALYSIS SOURCE: https://vimeo.com/27135957

ANALYSIS: I really like the journey of the loop in Musical Spectrum Analysis. It has a beginning and end but illustrates the shape of sound.

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RESEARCH

VISUAL RESEARCH

MILTON KEYNES WIND CHIME

ANALYSIS: The sound of this wind chime is proportionate to the location and situation.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT ONE

PLAYING THE TUBES

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/The Tubes/thetubes.mov

ANALYSIS: Hitting them like a xylophone did not work as we expected.

It works when you hit the end, the airflow is forced through the tubes making a interesting sound, the pitch changes due to the different lengths of tube. Airflow is being different.

The size of it means that it took your whole body to play it. unlike a piano that uses fingers. so only one note at a time.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT TWO

ENVIRONMENTAL HARP

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/ Environmental Harp/ environmentalharp.mov

ANALYSIS: There were alot of faults in this experiment.

There was too much space around that the sound got lost.

Giving a limitation to the sound means we have more control over how loud or soft something is played.

We needed to appropriate the different sounds for different spaces.

Quiet sound in a quiet small space in comparison to loud sounds in a large busy space.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT THREE

PLAYING THE ENVIRONMENT

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/Playing the Environment

ANALYSIS: Playing objects in space and placing a stave over the top of the environment.

We attempted to assign a rule to the environment and link it to a musical stave.

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RESEARCH

PLAYING OBJECTS

CITY SYMPHONIES – THE FUTURE SOUND OF TRAFFIC

BY MARK MCKEAGUE SOURCE: http://www.creativeapplications. net/maxmsp/city-symphonies-thefuture-sound-of-traffic-by-markmckeague-di-rca-2012/

Using Processing in combination with MaxMSP, a traffic simulation is used to power the movement of vehicles through different sections of road networks in London. From a street level perspective the motions of traffic combine the sounds to create soundscapes that are unique to the place and time.

The roadside becomes a new context for sound – the city is the score.

ANALYSIS: The unpredictable feel to this is great. It’s the opposit to what I had previously research into on loops. However, depicts the unpredicatable movement of traffic. Not everything in the enviroment is static, which is interesting to consider.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT FOUR

PLAYING THE SOLAR SYSTEM NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/ Playing the Solar System

ANALYSIS: We explored grids, grids in natural things. We then played the grid.

The solar system is a natural loop. Assigning notes to each planet created a song for the solar system.

In researching solar systems we found links with sonar.

The shape of sound is spherical, like sonar and the solar system Connecting all of these spherical loop elements, we want to make music out of the solar system.

Sonar is about objects in a space - making it the perfect tool to detect planets as sound.

The distance the object is to the sensor depends on the pitch it is played at.

Therefore makes Mercury the highest in pitch and the shortest in length due to its orbit around the Sun. Neptune would then be the lowest in pitch and the longest in length.

Defining the solar system through sound and loops.

Playing the solar system was a literal look at playing the environment. We thought about how we can play objects around us and the way that each object could have a property.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT FIVE

RADAR INSTRUMENT

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/ Radar Instrument

ANALYSIS: Turning sound into an enjoyable experience. Sound is used as a warning system, but with music we can understand the harmless attitude it has.

Sonar is a warning system, but we are turning this into music. Beat and Rhythm defines a musical piece.

Bringing this into sonar will turn it into music.

Sonar systems seemed a like a natural progression after turning the solar system into an instrument. We thought about bringing it back to scale and playing physical objects and detecting the way and object moves. There are many types of sound waves and each physical object could have its own sound wave and pitch.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT SIX

PLAYING 3D FRAME SHAPES

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/3D Frame Shapes

ANALYSIS: I started experimenting with 3 dimensional shapes to see if the radar where to play each point would affect the speed and rhythm. Turning geometry into an intrument.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT SIX

PLAYING 3D FRAME SHAPES

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/3D Frame Shapes

ANALYSIS: I then developed this experiment and wanted to see what would happen if I were to layer each shape on top of each other.

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RESEARCH

SOUND WAVES

DIFFERENT WAVE FORMS TO INSPIRE THE PERSONALITY OF THE BALL

ANALYSIS: I wanted to research into different sound waves to influence the way a ball could move in the radar system 42

RESEARCH

SONAR

SONAR SOURCE: https://vimeo.com/5324878

ANALYSIS: Sonar is a great way of showing dynamic rhythm.

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EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENT SEVEN

SONAR SOUNDS

NOTE: See memory stick for the experimentation video: Tiny Orchestra/Experiments/ Sonar Sound Experiments

ANALYSIS: After experimenting with assigning beats to planets in the solar system (a natural loop system) and the idea of playing objects in an environment. We then led our experimentation into existing loops and whether we could make an instrument that someone could interact with.

Placing ‘objects’ into a screen for a radar to play. Each ball has a different property and personality.

The radar/line detects where the ball sits and plays the ball once it passes through the line.

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RESEARCH

PATATAP

PATATAP SOURCE: https://patatap.com/

ANALYSIS: Patatap is a website that visualises sounds. It turns your keyboard into a musical instrument with motion graphics. It is a project that is meant to showcase synesthesia. Whilst stimulating one senseit causes an experience in another. It successfully keeps the audience feeling like they are great at making music. The samples they chose are well matched.

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DEVELOPMENT

SONAR SOUNDS

SONAR SOUNDS

NOTE: See memory stick for the animation: Tiny Orchestra/Sonar Sounds/ Sonar Sounds Animation.mp4

ANALYSIS: Each ball has its own property.

To start with we wanted to determine what each ball did, and depending on the balls movement, colour and interaction with the line it would produce a different sound. I used an existing song and animated the visuals in after effects.

The circular rings determine the pitch of the ball. The smaller the circle the higher the pitch and the larger the circle the lower the pitch. The song is in four time, so I used four orange balls to visualise this. As well as four purple beat balls. For the melodic yellow balls I decided to make them smaller to represent the high pitch melody. As the pink ball shrinks and enlargens this represents the volume.

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DEVELOPMENT

SONAR SOUNDS

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DEVELOPMENT

SONAR SOUNDS IN PROCESSING

SONAR SOUNDS IN PROCESSING

NOTE: See memory stick for the processing sketch Tiny Orchestra/Sonar Sounds/ Processing Sketches

ANALYSIS: After creating the visuals in after effects and experimenting with what different balls do. we started to think about how it could be interactive and turn it into an instrument for everyone to play. We wanted to stay true to the after effects sketches.

Using the control P5 library in processing meant that we could alter the colours of the ball which would appear from a click of the mouse. Also the Beats per minute could be altered using a slider.

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DEVELOPMENT

SONAR SOUNDS IN PROCESSING

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