721 Broadway
at Waverly Place
4th Floor
South Elevators
New York, NY 10003
For additional
information email
itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
or call 212.998.1880
| Death of Sound | ||
|---|---|---|
| Author(s): | Jeff Gray |  |
| Instructor: | Schober, Gary | |
| Class: | Advanced Technology | |
| URL: | http://www.grayfuse.com/ITP/dos/ | |
| Documents: | dos-sketch(GIF) | |
| Keywords: | music instrument NIME death decay life | |
| Death of Sound is a self performing musical instrument, which decays and eventually dies, but can be nurtured along the way by users wishing to protect a piece of its sonic construct. | ||
| Death of Sound is a simple idea. Create an object which dies over time, eventually permenantly shorting out all or most of its hardware connections. Allow the object to express itself through tonal pitch space, through a series of steel strings with actuators of various types. As the piece decays, the tonal space will change creating new musical content and relationships with pitch. Users have the ability to nurture, feed, and sustain certain areas of sound they find valuable. Of course, no one can live with such an object 24 hours a day, and the instrument will eventually run its course. | ||
| Background: | The life (or quest for immortality) of digital art has recently become somewhat of a focal point to me. Many of the pieces I enjoy exist in a lifetime of the infinite unknown. Their creators build them to live as long as possible. They design the circuitry to last as long as possible, create a piece of programming which never crashes, etc etc. I am curious in how a project can exhibit more interesting characteristics if given a timeline in which to exist. | |
| Audience: | Musicians, Artists, or Casual Observers | |
| User Scenario: | The user will enter the space, and see the instrument mounted to the wall. Upon walking closer the instrument, they will begin to hear its repeatitive harmonic progression. As they nurture certain parts of the instrument, most likely through bathing or sheltering the instrument from light, they will begin slight alterations on the musical framework, as well as overall light indicators on the object which give you overall information about its state of "wellness". | |
| Technical System Description: | The instrument consists of multiple steel strings mounted to simple wood frames mounted to the wall. From these wood frames, simple actuators that strike and generate tone will also be mounted. Mounted just below these, the brains and body of the instrument will be mounted. This area of the instrument will show the actual parts controlling the strings as well as reveal the overall wellness and occasionally the spark of decay the instrument is undergoing. | |
| Project References, Research and Literature: | Much of the aethetics of this piece are due to previous work done with Meghan Trainor, Todd Holoubek, Jon Kircherr, and Michael Horan. All of ITP is to blame for the sound elements of this piece. | |