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The Declaration of Life ( Video Record)

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Research Blog 7 - The Declaration of Life ( Official Installation)

This installation used two speakers, plants, audio& photos material of industry, and a projector.

Audio material 1: The sound of the forest (the sound of nature).  

Audio material 2: The industrial rocket launch (96kHz and 24bit).

The theme of this installation is "The Declaration of Life" because I want to call attention to the impact of industrial pollution, especially industrial noise pollution, on the earth today. Industrial pollution is closely related to our lives and life. In my installation, plants are used as musical instruments, and the sound and industrial noise are used as "musician" to force plants to make sounds. The sound is like the plants are talking about the pain of industrial pollution. This installation also hopes to make the viewer aware of the preciousness of life, the fragility and helplessness of nature, and the role and interaction of sound.

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Research Blog 6 - Vibration Test (96kHz and 24bit)

The audio content is an audio clip I found at Freesound of an industrial rocket launch. Rocket launch from Cap Caneral, during the night, vibration and rumble at around 20km from the launch area (Kennedy Space Center). This sound has most of its sonic response in very low frequencies. (Rocket Launch Rumble at Canaveral, n.d.) Since the Hertz of this audio has reached 96, there is already a slight pain in the ear if listening with in-ear headphones. I used two normal sized stereos and covered the stereo with two A4 sheets of paper for the vibration test. The result of the test is that the vibration is very obvious and the paper can be easily vibrated and bounced up. This shows that the sound waves generated at a certain level of Hertz can produce a certain degree of force. I will apply the results of this test to my final project.

Reference List:

1. Rocket Launch Rumble at Canaveral. (n.d.). Freesound. https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/613855/

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Research Blog 5 - The Declaration of Life (Assignment 2 Proposal and Plan)

For the final assignment project, I will create a musical instrument installation with plants as the vehicle. The theme of this installation is called "The Declaration of Life". I plan to complete this installation using two speakers, plants, audio material, and a projector. For the plants I will try to choose plants with many leaves and different sizes in order to produce a better vibration effect and thus sound. Audio material I plan to use two different tracks: I will use zoom H6 to record a section of the sound of the forest, that is, the sound of nature. The other sound I plan to find a section of audio material about industry that is greater than 100 Hz. I plan to put together the plants with the speakers. The high Hertz sound wave can make the speakers vibrate, thus bringing the plant with vibration, and then sound. I will also take some photos of the industry and project them on a projector as a background for the installation. The theme of this installation is "Declaration of Life" because I want to call attention to the impact of industrial pollution, especially industrial noise pollution, on the earth today. Industrial pollution is closely related to our lives and life. In my installation, plants are used as musical instruments, and the sound and industrial noise are used as "musician" to force plants to make sounds. The sound is like the plants are talking about the pain of industrial pollution. This installation also hopes to make the viewer aware of the preciousness of life, the fragility and helplessness of nature, and the role and interaction of sound.

Reference List of Images:

1. A, M. (2022, November 9). The Effect of Music on Plant Growth. Dengarden. https://dengarden.com/gardening/the-effect-of-music-on-plant-growth

2. Living on Earth / World Media Foundation / Public Radio International. (n.d.). Living on Earth: Database Error. Living on Earth. https://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=19-P13-00048

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Research Blog 4 - The Sounds of Plants

In this video, I used zoom6 to record a three-minute clip of the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of a tree in the afternoon. In my opinion, the process of the wind blowing the leaves is similar to the process of a musician playing a flute. When a musician plays a flute, the airflow changes, causing the air in the flute to vibrate and make a sound. Then by the same token, the wind blows the leaves, air currents are created in the air, and these currents in turn cause the leaves of different sizes to vibrate at different frequencies, thus making a sound. So from another point of view, these leaves of different sizes are the musical instruments themselves. In the following process of my project, I will try to treat the plants as musical vehicles, that is, musical instruments, and try to use higher hertz sound, which can produce more powerful sound waves, so that the plants could "play" the sound.

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Research Blog 3 - Carbon Scape (2018)

Chinese artist Chris Cheung has created a sound installation, Carbon Scape (2018), that simulates the sounds of jet engines, ship horns, steam, smokestacks and other carbon emissions and mixes them together to create an immersive sound exhibition. Carrying these sounds is an empty bamboo-like tube with carbon spheres placed inside, telling the story of the impact of fossil fuel use and industrialization on our planet. In research from Maria Erman (2018), this kinetic soundscape installation, which includes 18 magneto-synthesized sound samples, was created using data obtained from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to help visualize the effect According to their findings, CO2 concentrations spiked in 2017 to the highest level in the past three million years, and the data show that much of this increase can be attributed to industrialization and the use of fossil fuels. Chris Cheung collected these noises from sources that leave a carbon footprint, such as: sounds from jet engines, steam from factories or ship's wake, and these sound tracks are fused into a unified soundscape, and as the sounds are made, the black sphere rises and falls to represent changes in the carbon of specific parts of the planet. (Maria Erman I designboom, 2018) Chris Cheung created this sound installation with the same meaning of satirizing the current phenomenon of random emissions and calling attention to this issue. Chris Cheung is a great inspiration to me for Project 2. I have always been very concerned about environmental protection, and I thought it would be interesting to use elements such as industry and plants as part of the sound expression. Since the main idea of Assignment2 is to create an experimental instrument, I hope that I can use plant elements as part of the instrument and that the theme is related to protecting the environment. I will continue to research and develop my project in subsequent blogs.

Reference List:

1. maria erman I designboom. (2018, January 15). CARBONSCAPE, the latest kinetic data soundscape installation by h0nh1m aka chris cheung. Designboom | Architecture & Design Magazine. https://www.designboom.com/art/carbonscape-h0nh1m-chris-cheung-01-15-2018/

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Research Blog 2 - Destructive Noiseism Band “Kollaps”

The niche song "Fleshflower" played in the video is one of the masterpieces of the band Kollaps, a niche destructive noisemaking band known for their intense, noisy, violent experimental music. Their destructivist ideology manifests itself in vitriolic, violent musical content and live performances. Kollaps' oppressive noise has left a strong mark on the history of industrial music. According to new research, the subsonic lows of the instruments, the shrill vocals, and even the ripping speaker distortion that appeared on the reverb of the instruments shook the listener to the core. (Watch This Eye-Blistering KOLLAPS Video “Fleshflower,” 2019) The mix of all this makes it seem as if the listener can feel the creator's sinister threat and almost boiling rage. The harshness and distortion of the music, the powerful rhythms, the collage of sounds, the great current noise, the distortion of the vocals, etc. are all representative of the Kollaps' works. Kollaps' music has made me think more about sound and noise. I think noise is not only monotonous, but different levels of noise can convey different levels of emotion. For example: the noise of some low bass is not obvious, but the sound waves emitted can make people feel vibrating and anxious. Some shrill sounds can make people feel angry. All these gave me a lot of creative ideas for my Assignment2.

Reference List:

1. Watch this Eye-Blistering KOLLAPS Video “Fleshflower.” (2019, March 25). CVLT Nation - the Home of Underground Culture. https://cvltnation.com/watch-this-eye-blistering-kollaps-video-fleshflower/

2. Kollaps - Topic. (2019, May 8). Fleshflower. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O5xg5gowuM

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Research Blog 1 - Watching The Sunset at Sea Alone (Assignment 1)

For assignment 1, I chose "Watching The Sunset at Sea Alone" as my theme. The equipment I used to record the material was a zoomH6, and the clips I recorded included ambient sounds of the station, rain, footsteps, wind blowing through the leaves, waves, and birds chirping. I wanted to give the listeners the feeling of being in the ocean and to achieve a very ethereal atmosphere. So I added a fade in and fade out effect to the remix of my recorded material. There is a short silence between the different sounds. All the sounds are played in a logical and sequential way, with a certain structure. I studied the concept of "Schizophonia". So I wanted to have some sounds in my project that were "not part of the original environment" but not out of place. So I added a section of my guitar playing at the end of the project, and transformed it with some electronic processor effects. Anyway, I hope all the listeners could feel the feeling of watching the sea alone when they listen to it.