ashsunlesshu

[ashsunlesshu]

TV concert

Expand conception from the last blog.

I twine about 10 strings surrounding the upside and downside areas of TV. Besides turning on and off, it will make sounds of strings vibrating including touching screens. In addition, I realized as long as I brighten the screen and strings will keep vibrating especially in white area. I think that because the CRT tube uses an electron gun to emit electrons at high speed, and the power of the electron beam is regulated electronically.

Moreover, the signal-disturbed sounds which behind TV are happening all the time. As for images parts, company with the concept of “playing” instruments, I shoot some parts of the body to cooperate with the location of strings.

However, the process of installing is not easy. Currently the sounds in video are all recorded by zoom H6 even though I prefer to collect live sounds, that’s the reason I add two microphones besides TV. The problem is singing microphone is not good enough to capture this kind of minimal sounds. Also, when I try to let sounds come through amplifies to speaker, there are too many feedbacks much louder than useful sounds. In this case, I still prefer it’s a sound installation and audience could turn on and off TV to focus on the melody which played by static electricity.

[ashsunlesshu]

Static electricity and Melody

I have a chance to play with a CRT TV today. It's an interesting experience which reminds me of thinking about my childhood.

As long as there was no signal on TV, we would hear a white noise. Also I recorded it from a TV speaker.

However, what inspired me the most is the static electricity sound especially when I turned on and off. I think it's potentially a similar process of collecting and releasing energy.

Moreover, I twine strings around the TV and I found it could be vibrated because of static electricity. 

Unfortunately, I can't capture string sound today probably since just one, I will surround it with more and hopefully, I can have some melodies from strings.

[ashsunlesshu]

Handmade electronic sounds workshop

There are some practical experiences to playing with handmade electronic sounds.

I borrowed a hydrophone and capture some sounds underwater. Here is a practical test to record bubble melting.

From the last class, I learned basic pieces of equipment to make handmade electronic sounds. And I stimulate with a spoon and forks.

[ashsunlesshu]

The presence and absence of sounds

Silence is a paradox in itself, As John Cage has well said, “…no Silence exist which is not impregnated with sound”. Recently, the works of Peter Ablinger acknowledge the potential of white, of vagueness, of silence and empty chairs really inspired me of thinking about silence sound art. Through pre-arranging construction of chairs group in different soundscapes, making it’s possible for audience to have perception in open spaces.Empty chairs make a sense of absence as well as the silence ——“concert”which is given by environments.

It’s not just about listening, but feeling and imagining. Silence forces us to pay attention to the sound which we care about and think in a certain way. Perception is a personal, individual process because it is an activity filtered through and determined by the character of the person who is hearing or seeing, or feeling. 

What interested me is silence also have radical, destabilizing potential. The experience and response of the audience is elicited by the oscillation between noise and silence, conjuring sometimes conflicting experiences of apprehension, anticipation, resolve, and calm. Sounds can not actually absence in my opinion. Without specific sounds, we can also feel tense, frightened, stressed atmosphere.

Here is a France video artist who only retains blank between speech and deletes sounds generally.

[ashsunlesshu]

Digestion

I recorded spaces sound in the Australian Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Sydney, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, and USYD library.

It's interesting that most galleries have heavy echoes. It reminds me of the documentary How We Got to Now, episode 6: Sound. It is believed people reserved their culture and civilization in heavy echoes places in caves on ancient. " more echo more painting. "

Besides, I try to capture recognizable sounds in public spaces. So we can hear the artists' video background music, footsteps, drawing with pencils, people whispers, etc.

As for the part of digestion sounds recorded at home were really hard to capture. Because as soon as I pick up Zoom H6 and was ready to record, my stomach stopped working at all. However, there're tons of private weird sounds.

In this project, the most significant point is exploring the boundary between public and private spaces. It's exciting to combine and listen to them. Hope you enjoy it!

[ashsunlesshu]

Inspiration for Assignment 1

“ Call myself”: Schizophonia is an exciting concept that was come up with by R. Murray Schafer. He utilized Schizophonia to describe the splitting of an original sound and its electroacoustic reproduction. There is a common situation that many people might feel awkward when they hear their own sounds which are re-played by phone or other devices. In my view, because people are not actually familiar with the sounds which are heard by other people even belong to themselves. I really inspired the concept of Schizophonia which is really useful to represent the theme of the “another self”. In this way, I want to explore what is reality by talking to myself to reemerge my memories. Another self will be represented in different spaces such as underwater/ telephone/ the room full of echos etc. 

“Digestion”: The process of physical digestion in the human digestive system is similar to people absorbing knowledge. The sounds that happened inside the human body are secret, interesting sometimes awkward. But you have to imagine what is happening in your stomach. Besides, your brain is also active with “digesting” knowledge no matter useful or useless. In this way, I’m considering combining them together through recording gallery library museum or other spaces in which we could learn something and capturing digestive sounds inside my body. Moreover, some objects also have activities that could be understood to the digestion process. For example, the waves in sea and electric sounds in the fridge or oven. 

[ashsunlesshu]

Aggressively

I'm not fond of rainy days just because I feel nervous when I hear the sound which rain dropping on the umbrella. Sounds aggressive. I recorded it over the level of normal volume to make it more anxious.

At the same time, fast footsteps， bumps in the bus, and ear-piercing bird sounds also make a sense of uncomfortable.

They have their own beats but when they are changed on speed or key. It’s hard to recognize what they are initially.

[ashsunlesshu]

Restless Soundscape

Soundscapes represent a Lo-Fi sound environment, which identifies a place.

This installation from Dogue Aitken is called The Restless Mind. Three monitors alternately show footage of rural auctioneers, and of landscapes caught between the natural and the industrial. The auctioneers are seen out of their customary settings, isolated, and in stark and empty locations. In their distinctive cadences, the auctioneers deliver high speed numerical countdowns, interspersed with observations about their surroundings. Mirroring the auctioneers' words, the series of numbers and telegraphic descriptions become increasingly faster and less and less discernible, exceeding intelligibility, and eventually fusing with the environment.

Some words could be treated as keynote, which is just a representation of the place you are staying. We normally wound completely ignore these sounds like market broadcasts or some useless information. However, they create a sense of nervousness and restlessness. At the same time, is silence able to create anxiety as well?