Assignment 2: Sun-Ra Head-Dress
Assignment: Make an item of clothing using the following materials: wool, cotton, leather, an electronic component, conductive fabric or thread.
I was struck by a phrase in Ruth P. Rubinstein's article regarding believability: "Believability concerning a particular identity depends on coherence between the impression one gives and the information one "gives off."...The extent to which a performer is capable of imitating a real appearance and demeanor determines his or her credibility and successful fabrication of an identity.
For this assignment I created a Sun-Ra inspired head-dress. I have always been fascinated by his self redefinition efforts and I wanted to create something that might give the wearere the look and distinct impression that they were part of Sun-Ra's Saturnian family. My idea was to create a head set that would distort "real" sounds in an effort to create more other-worldly ones. I purchased a small portable radio and then set about trying to figure out how to distort the playback.
For the casing I used a headbaand as an armature, knitted together some brightly colored wool and created some antennae-like horns on the top for a space age effect. Although far from any aesthetic I would ever be attracted to I think it did end up looking rather Sun-Ra-esque.
The plan to use the conductive materials to distort or bend the audio was completely unsuccessful! This will require more experimentation—to bend the audio— or the specific implemetation of a proc amp— to over modulate the signal. This kind of live, real-time processing is something that I am very interested in and want to continue to explore. In the meantime I returned to the project recently and just added two LEDS using conductive thread to satisfy my desire to more fully realize the piece.
