To produce a work for presentation on a public screen
Design proposal:
Using the space located in and around the doors of an elevator a moving image will be displayed to depict a rich and cultural insight into the connotations of everyday life.
Presentation:
If human beings are contained by the volume of architectural urban space then…. like an arterial flow, people are pumped through the anatomy of the city, as plasma would enter and exit the chambers of the heart.
If the journey and content of the blood functions to serve transport of essential nutrients to all of the body, then the heart – as vessel – is instrumentally an influential hub of animate source and substance.
Moreover, the mind is inextricable from the body, so whatever the heart exudes the mind will absorb. Yet it remains true that the body can function without it.
We could therefore argue that some ‘quality of life’ is a variable determined by presence of activity in the brain (qualified by descriptors fed to it in the blood).
How do we then, choose to render ourselves optimal carriers of nutritional value – to avoid potential ‘vegetative’ states of human function, individually or collectively?
And imperative to our decision is the unequivocal question of time.
The heart symbolizes – and is key concept – to the aesthetic experience of the body as volumetric space; itself contained in the recurrent human expanse of urban society.
The Dichotomy of Choice
Conformity: Free thought:
Neutrality
‘Have you got time to chose’
Free thought and Conformity as represented by the opposing sides of the heart.
Recently we began a new topic: data structures which is another programming project using a different program called net beans. it is the same as processing in some ways but the main difference is that net beans is a java platform.
the shedule we were to follow was to cramp a years course into a 2 week cram session, which at first i found hard to accept. the workload which we were taking on was huge with so much information intake i found it hard to retain alot of the information given.
It did however become esier once i started to understnad the basic principle of java processing.
(Note: Interview conducted in isolation room WT032, wellesly st precinct.)
1. Mr Abernethy, it has come to our attention that you may or may not be participating in the act of smuggling illegal substances into the country, how you you respond to that?
No, no, no this is all a misunderstanding, how was i supposed to know the boat was secretly a columbian drug smuggling vessel. I was simply transporting the materials for my latest project. It was a mistake trying to avoid paying tax at customs but i never meant to get caught up in this mess!
2. So what your saying is that the so called ‘materials’ are for your latest ‘project’… what is this supposed to mean?
I…I am simply a humble instrument builder. The materials which you seized were to be used in creating a new instrument which i have been drafting up for months. I have made a prototype of this instrument but the wood i chose to use did not resonate properly, so i went in search of the legendary chimbakwa wood found near and around columbia which dates back to the ancient incas who used the wood for their instruments.
3. So you just decided to up and go, where do you get that kind of money from?
That i can explain. Five years ago i completed a bachelor of creative technoliges at the Auckland University of Technology. since then i have been travelling the world, following where my work takes me. i have been working in places such as Vodaphone Australia as their general advertising executive. I have worked for Sony in Beijing as their creative design manager… and from that work i have gathered i tidy sum of money. i am currently working for the well known music company, Forlongo, which specialises in building guitars and other stringed instrument… the reason for the instrument was my own little project on the side.
4. That still doesn’t explain why you went half way across the world to find a piece of wood…
I cant tell anyone about this project, i fear that there is a mole inside of the company leaking designs to our main competitor so i took it on as my own personal project.
5. OK Mr Abernethy, i will have some agents look into weater or not you are telling the truth. In the mean time im going to need all the details on this instrument so i can understand why you needed that wood, because frankly im at a loss.
OK, where do i start. I call it the Whammy box. It is a two stringed instrument that is played in a way that it can make a ‘wow wow’ sound, like the whamy bar on a guitar. But the difference between a guitar and my whammy box is that the box is designed as a bass instrument, but also has a different control mechanism, which makes it esier to manipulate and control. The strings are housed inside of a box which acts as a resonator. This means that when the strings vibrate is moves the airspace inside of the box and bounces of the walls. This amplifies and then produces sound.
i designed it as a new and innovative way to add a new sound frequency into the traditional band. With this sound i believe that music such as Drum and bass and Dub step will be able to be played live by instruments and not always electronically conducted.There are some pictures in my briefcase, i will show you.
My object holds personal significance in my life because of the circumstances I received it under. Most of my young life has been dedicated to sport, mainly to hocky. I have strived for many years to get into top grades and play at a high level of performance. Last year I studied advanced anatomy and physiology and sport studies in order to help improve my sporting career.
My object has a great personal significance because it is a representation of how hard I have worked to achieve my goals of playing national level.
It also comes with many memories of friendships that have formed and life-changing experiences that occurred on the road to success, it is also a reminder of how hard I need to keep working in order to keep rising.
3: What are you mainly used for: I am mainly used for txting, but because of my technological capabilities i am used for many other things two, for example an ipod. this is the reason i was brought for… to be better than the rest.
4: Do you feel your owner takes good care of you: some of the time, for example i have this protective sleeve that i wear, but smetimes i feel neglected when im dropped or my screen is scratched.
5:Tell me about the sleeve: its comfortable for me, absorbs most heat so i dont overheat and also absorbs the shock of being bumped around in a pocket. but there is always things that get caught in the back, and never cleaned out.
6: So by having a sleeve wouldnt that mean that your owner is worried about his personal ability to take care of you: I guess yes, it is fairly evident, but im glad he took the precautions… must mean that he doesnt want me to brake.
7: Very true, so a little more about you. your 16 gb is that correct: Yes
8: do you enjoy having all that space: Well actually there isn’t much space left, because of my use as an ipod and camera and web browser and what not i find myself frquently being uploaded with new music and videos.
9: you’ve got a rather large scratch on the screen, does this make you feel ugly and or intrusive because it is on such an important and focal part of you body: it does in the sense that i feel my owner doesnt care about it but i dont because it is only the protective screen across my face.
10: Again another protect screen, does this reinforce the feeling that your owner doesnt seem to be able to look after you without using exterior protection… or that they feel safer and more comfortable having you around knowing your all the more protected: umm…difficult question, i think the second one, i know that sometimes he doesnt take care of me but then again i am an everyday item… but i still feel as if my owner is worried about me.
11: What do you men by that: well because of my value, both financially and personally i feel that my owner takes care of me in his subconcious, by this i mean that he is always aware of wear i am and if im in danger of being damaged or hurt they remove me from the situation. but on a general day to day basis my owner does not alway pay me attention therefore things sometimes happen when they doesnt realise what they are doing.
12: Could you give an example of this: Sometimes when my owner gets on the bus and im in the back pocket i get sat on. Of course they realise once they feel me being squashed, but by then its too late, its already happened. The just other general things like being bumped against the inside of there pocket all the time.
13: Ok i see, so linking back to some of the first questions i asked do you feel under appreciated: thinking about it id say yes. when i was new i was cherished and treated like gold, but now that i have become a general day to day item i fear that i am just becoming another necessity in my owners busy life.
14: I can see how that’s possible, i myself has a phone that has been dropped a few times, but i still really like having it around, i guess what i have made from this interview is that you feel like you are a valuable part of your owners life but you wish that you were treated a little better: Yeah i agree with that, i feel a bit neglected but if i was treated a little better and kept in a higher condition life would be better for both me and my owner.
15: for your owner?: well everytime im treated badly sometime i crash unexpectedly or have system errors, which is no fault on my part!
Today we begun another one day exercise incorporating the world of Maya. Maya is a highly powerful program used for animation and 3-d rendered design.
beginning the day by creating a grid of 1200mm x 1200mm, we then created a 6×6 grid and placing three solid shapes randomly around the grid created others in between by morphing them.
this was an interesting and testing exercise as it became more and more difficult to produce new shapes that worked in conjunction with the others.
once we had worked out the 36 shapes in the grid we then incorporate 1 into maya.
i would be interested in further interested in using maya, especially for some animation design…just to show the complexity of the work space i will post a screen shot of maya…
The conceptual and theoretical framework around my instrument came from the original concept of being able to bend the pitch and tone of the sound to create a ‘wow wow’ sound. To achieve this I needed to incorporate the use of a bending stick or a rod, which was circular in shape so as not to dull or distress the sound being created. It also had to be attached to the end of a long shaft so that it could be easily manoeuvred to tighten against the stings causing the bending motion. After researching in to sound resonation and the way that sound travels I discovered that the best option to use, as a resonator would be a wooden box. This box, which should be made of a medium density fibre wood, would reverberate and resinate the sound created by strings placed across the top of the box. The strings I used were bass strings which gave the instrument its deep and dark like quality which allowed it to be assumed as a more deep bass role. The box shape was intended to give the instrument a bulky feel so that it was needed to be placed down to be played, this I believe gives more focus on what and how it is being played as opposed to focusing on small details like how it sits on your lap or if it is discomforting (problems you often find when trying to hold a guitar while playing). This also allows a nicer sound because the resonator box is not being absorbed or dulled by parts of the body leaning against the box. After the ‘wow wow’ sound, also referred to as whammy, was achieved through the bending rod it was all about how it was then played. Were the strings struck or plucked. In the end it didn’t matter as all different ways of playing gave off different outcomes, both good and bad. This allowed for variation whilst playing. Also changing what material is used to strike the strings gives different depths of vibration, which changes the noise greatly.
The assignment sound building was a very new experience for me. I have always been fan of music and think of myself as a bit of an amateur musician with the ability to plan a number of music instruments. This course however opened my eyes to the world of sound and music, that almost anything can be used to create a sound or rhythm. In the beginning when Phil began demonstrating musical instrument which he had either aquired or built I was looking forward to beginning the project Which is why I was so disappointed at the end when I didn’t get the result I wanted. I had managed to accomplish what I set out to do in the beginning but it lacked the x factor, it lacked anything special which I could be really proud of. Instead I found myself just building the thing because I had too. I am still to this day unsure of why that was especially because of my love of music but I felt that I was lacking the motivation to strive for an excellence instrument. This I fear was due to some of my time management but also the space I was working in, it became clattered with junk and un used items very quickly which I have begun noticing is interrupting my work patterns. If I had the time to re do the assignment I would have given myself a clear working environment and a clear action plan of what I was wanting to achieve and how I was going to do that. I would also have take more time to choose the kind of instrument I built based on things such as what was needed amongst a performing group. To think back about it I would have preferred to make a percussion wall of some sort. I believe that with my rhythmic and percussion skills this kind of instrument would have benefitted me much more. All in all the assignment and structure of the way the unit was delivered was excellent, I believe that it was my personal mistakes which caused me to not have achieved as highly as I had wanted. However moving into this next assignment I will devote more to time management and a structured plan.
After a week of experimentation i had come to the conclusion that it was not necessary to place a ‘roof’ over the box because this would dull the sound but also give a certain restrictions to the sounds that could be made.
adding to that the best way to get a sound from the strings while bending and manipulating them without dulling the noise is to use a rounded metal piping which is housed on the end of a rod allowing for ease of movement.
This method is great for playing and gives off a nice un-interrupted sound however when moving up and down the strings rapidly it creates a scratching noise. to overcome this program i devised a plan to put a piece of plastic metal on the other end of the rod. this plastic is much quieter when moving across the strings…
the way the instrument is to be played is by resting the rod against the far end of the box and using it as a lever to bend the strings upwards, creating different pitch and tone…
you can then strum or strike the strings with a beater…
Presentation:
the presentation i feel was a success however it is evident that more practice and musical rythym would have kept the sequence in time more. I think that done again i would have organised a presentation group first off and then created the instruments around the different sounds that would have been needed from the group. e.g. one with deep bass noise, another with percussion, another with a string or wind instrument….
below is some of the final pictures of the instrument and the performance…
