Lesley Flanigan ITP

I have been experimenting with how to create a formal composition for Speaker Synth. First step is fully understanding my instrument. I will never have complete control over the speaker feedback system, due to the nature of feedback, but I can anticipate the range of sounds from each speaker based on the volume and positioning of the piezos. Given this relative amount of tonal control, most of my formal compositional work deals mostly with time based organizing.

I am planning a 10/15 min piece. The following certain movements I like:
A) Introduction to speaker synth. Each speaker will be prepared one at a time to achieve the desired tonal effect.
B) Introduction to the singers. Each singer will prepare their voice one at a time to find their desired frequency.
C) When the singers are all singing in full effect I will signal to them to sing a preplanned arrangement (ie, in unison following my lead drop half step for 5 count then back up, repeat 4x, hold on half step).
D) While the singers and speakers are on hold, I record a sample of each voice allowing each to gradually enter the sonic space
E) In unison, I stop the singers and speakers and start the sequencing of the samples I gathered.
F) One speaker solos over the sequenced samples.
G) One singer solos over the sequenced samples.
H) One by one, the singers and speakers enter as a group over the sequenced samples creating a full experience of all sounds pulsing and harmonizing.
I) In unison, I fade out the samples except one. fade out the speakers except one. fade out the singers except one.
F) All stop.

To figure out what I want to do, I have been recording at home. Here is a rough example of 3 singers (all me) with the instrumentation: 3 Voices for 5 Speakers.mp3

On November 27th, I am meeting with potential singers. I am hoping to have either 3 or 5 singers.

On December 3rd, I will be performing with Speaker Synth again at Monkey Town. Here I will test out using a camera to project what I am doing with the speakers, as well as test out different compositional ideas. I may have one singer join me. I will video tape the performance so I can review after.

Posted by Lesley at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

*Completion scheduled for December 2007**

www.seseyann.com/plinkjet

Plink Jet is a robotic musical instrument made from scavenged ink jet printers. The mechanical parts of four printers are diverted from their original function, re-contextualizing the relatively high-tech mechanisms of this typically banal appliance into a ludic musical performance. Motorized, sliding ink cartridges and plucking mechanisms play four guitar strings by manipulating both pitch and strumming patterns like human hands fingering, fretting, and strumming a guitar. Plink Jet is designed to play itself, be played, or both. The result is an optionally collaborative performance between both the user and Plink Jet, with the user choosing varying levels of manual control over the different cartridges (fretting) and string plucking speeds (strumming).

The repurposing of consumer technology is a growing trend for artists and technologists in the DIY genre exploring circuit bending, hardware hacking and retro-engineering. Artists who have used the mechanics of printers for producing sound include Paul Slocum with his dot matrix printer and Eric Singer's scanner-inspired musical instrument, GuitarBot. Inside an ordinary ink jet printer are the same toy-like, clockwork mechanisms that have delighted people and sparked imaginations for centuries. In the creation of Plink Jet, we have investigated how human improvisation can interact with these mechanical forms. Plink Jet transforms the predicable function of a printer into a unique and irreproducible performance.

Current Development Documentation:

Printer Plays Guitar String Test.mov

Motor Test Slider Control Test.mov

Motor Test Switch Control Test.mov

Multiple Printer Control Test.mov

KEYWORDS:
Interaction Design
Repurposing of Consumer Technology/DIY
Performing Technology
New Instrument for Musical Expression
Robotics, Automation

Posted by Lesley at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SPACE BETWEEN

When I analyze objects, art, ideas, and people, I find understanding through the context of relationships. I am exploring "spaces between." I am interested in the space between conscious and unconscious activity in regards to information we may or may not perceive, process, and interpret in our daily operations, and the role certain technologies play in affecting this relational space. Such technologies may be referred to as mediating technologies.

Mediating technologies have a unique role in informing meaning. These technologies do more than passively observe or bridge context, they filter it. In doing so, they change our perception. They skew distance: a telephone mediates conversation over oceans of distance, but yet the voice speaks little beyond the distance of one's own ear to the receiver. They skew speed: the automobile moves us at a speed of 75 mph on the freeway, while we sit effortlessly behind a wheel. They skew vision: the television shows us a world of night snow in the mountains, framed by a rectangle and contained in the dimensions of a small box, while we sit effortlessly in the warmth of our summer afternoon indoors. They skew sound: listening to music through headphones, we cancel out the sounds of the people talking and traffic whistling, to exist in a silent film world narrated only by our selected, personal soundtrack. When our perception of physical reality, or natural context, is reshaped and packaged in an "up is down" and "in is out" way, we are challenged not only with new ways of seeing, but new ways of interpreting. New meanings emerge from the hyper-real contexts mediating technologies manifest.

Key Concepts:
-relational space (spaces between people and objects)
-mediating technology (how technology skews these spaces)
-interpretation of space (how we understand our world as a result of these spaces)

HEADPHONES

Headphones are objects that mediate public vs private space.

Headphones let us customize public space with controllable, private sound. The visuals in a public environment remain the same, but with the introduction of a personal soundtrack, the context of the shared images change.

While headphones isolate us, they simultaneously open the world in new interpretive ways. A schizophrenic experience is created as the user occupies two spaces at once, building an entirely new psychological environment composed of the private and public space.

Headphones are visible and physical objects. They delineate a clear line of private space within the public space. The user of the headphones is socially excused from listening regardless of whether or not they can hear what is happening outside of the headphone space.

Key Concepts:
-perception of distance
-concepts of intimacy
-sense of control, customization, personalization

ILLUSTRATIVE OBJECTS:

1. Headphone Recorder
A modified set of headphones that allow the user to record external sounds while simultaneously listening to internal music, capturing the information we miss.

2. Headphone Mixer
The user may mix the levels of the external and internal sounds to create a sonic blend of private/public auditory space, creating a personalized cinematic "Foley Effect"

3. Headphone Heterotopia
Heterotopia, the "other place", with its real and imagined possibilities (a mix of "utopian" escapism and turning virtual possibilities into reality). Explores a simultaneously shared and isolated relationship between two users with headphones, each amplifying the public space of one user and turning it into the private space for the other.

Posted by Lesley at 02:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I performed my Speaker Synth live for the first time at Monkey Town in Brooklyn last night, opening for ASDF Semicolon. I am very lucky to have had a live experience with Speaker Synth to test out issues like sound quality/dynamics/levels, compositional timing, and general performance techniques. Overall, the performance was successful and well received. People described it as intense, beautiful, surprising, surreal, and punk rock.

Recording of Speaker Synth at Monkey Town(mp3)

Setting up for the performance

SET UP:
My set up was on the floor in the center of Monkey Town, so that people could view the top of the Speaker Synth and witness my interaction with it. I chose not to amplify to instrument. The space is small enough that the speakers could be heard, and I felt that adding amplification might detract from the simplicity of the instrument's "voice". I had one microphone set up for my voice, but chose not to add any effects, again, staying true to the simplicity of voice. My laptop with the Max patch I use to sample and sequence the speakers was amplified through the PA system, and I chose to add reverb and delay at times to enhance the separation of sonic space between the sampled sounds and real time instrument.

PERFORMANCE:
I outlined a general structure of techniques I wanted to explore during my set, which I loosely followed. I began by introducing the instrument, each speaker one at a time was finessed to output a desired tone. I let the sounds breath, taking time for the audience to hear and appreciate the feedback sounds alone. Then one at a time, I grabbed a sample of each speaker and began to run them through Max. The room began to pulse a tempo. I moved back and forth between addressing the mixing of the the Max patch while also playing the Speaker Synth. This built up to an intense, full sonic space. At its climax, I pulled a stop on all the audio. Silence. Then brought it back full volume, then stop again. I wanted to create an awareness of how powerful the feedback is and how it consumes the room. Finally, on another stop, I came back to sound but with only one speaker of the solo Speaker Synth instrument. Here I played back and forth with the single speaker and my solo voice. I let my voice waiver on the notes I was hearing from the speaker -- in and out, in and out. This voice was fragile in and out of tune. I began to bring Max back into the mix, this time also sampling my voice to create a blend of human voice and speaker/electricity voice. This montage took time to build up to another all consuming, powerful sonic space. Eventually the performance ended with all sound fading out leaving just one speaker.

MY THOUGHTS:
In general, I was pleased with the decisions I made, although I am still reviewing the results and asking people for their personal feedback. The only "mistake" I made was hitting a preset in the middle of the performance that created a crazy volume jump which took me by surprise and I responded by cutting out all volume instead of adjusting the house mix levels smoothly. Aspects of the performance I am reconsidering involve how to incorporate a human voice -- something I definitely want to do. I could be the only voice, but I would need to mix my audio level differently and probably have my singing interaction be stronger. Although the speakers waiver in their sound output, they are never lacking intensity and drive...my voice sounds too weak to really parallel the speakers. I still think I would prefer to hear multiple singers reflecting the multiple speakers. I am also considering how to compose an actual score for voice and Speaker Synth.

KEY CONCEPTS:
generative, electronic audio, voice

Posted by Lesley at 01:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)