Welcome to the “Directional Speaker” blog.
This blog is a documentation of the work I’ve been doing for my thesis at ITP,NYU.

This blog is intended to describe and outline a little bit of the project and guide interested people through the process. I also provide the parts I used so you can recreate the project 1-to-1.

Contact me with questions or feedback of any kind.

Abstract:
My target audience can be broad, as a directional speaker is just beginning to find it’s way into the main stream. The reaction of audiences to the speaker are that of a “wow” factor. Some audience members respond upon experiencing the speaker with, “That sounds like it’s coming from my own head”. It is my intension personally to use the speaker to highlight how we communicate. As a service provider for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and an artist, I intend to use the speaker in a series of installations in which the user considers their own hearing in relationship to everyday life. We rely on our hearing to orient ourselves spatially to our environment. We shape our realities based on the things we hear. Communication is the responsibility of two people. What happens when a sense you’re used to operating, your ears, suddenly behaves in a way that is not expected? How do you communicate your thoughts, ideas, feelings? The cochlea is a mysterious machine. As sensory receptors, we often forget that frequencies beyond our hearing range exist. Making sound “appear out of no where” brings attention to the invisible, hopefully sparking curiosity and consideration to how we operate as sensing and reacting beings.

I started working with piezo’s and sound in Greg Shakar’s NIME course at ITP. My partner, Aiwen-Wang Huddleston and I made paper sculptures, with piezo’s built into them. In our performance piece, Diptych, we use movement, speakers and the paper piezo structures to manipulate audio feedback. You can watch our video here if you like: http://vimeo.com/17855786. Big thanks to Nisma for all of the video work. After the performance, it was my desire to learn more about speakers, and acoustic effects. I wanted to start integrating sound into my work as a sculptor. This in tandem with my experience as a service provider for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, led me to make work that addressed “perception”. In my previous work as an artist, I had always relied on the materials I used as content. My goal in attending ITP was to find a way to use “technology” as a medium. As a person who likes the physicality of things, my interests leaned towards circuitry. Once sound and art entered the picture, my limits seemed to disappear. I had always wanted my work to have a component to it that was relatable and poignant. I’m humbled to have had the opportunity to work with Eric Rosenthal, as he is truly the most magical person to work with as an artist interested in electronics. I can honestly say that I now have a whole new world to look forward to, and much to learn.