Arrival of technologies...

All the different technologies I ordered have finally arrived! Inside the bundle includes an Arduino Uno, a PIR sensor, an external USB sound card with 6 audio outputs and an arduino prototype bread board and jump wires that will connect the arduino to the PIR sensor.  This is the first time I have worked with any of these products so it is going to be an adventure working out how to connect all of them together. This weekend I will begin looking at online tutorials and if anything goes wrong I have a friend who is an Interactive Design student who said he would help if I had any problems. All these technologies are for the interactive side of the project. The PIR sensor will be installed and hidden inside the wall, picking up any movement in the space using an infrared technologies to detect movement in the space. This will then be attached to the arduino that will be programmed to connect and speak with the programme MAX MSP, where all my audio files will be stored. The aduino will tell the programme when to play the sound piece, once activated by the presence of the person inside the space. The MAX MSP will then be linked to the external USB sound card, which will be linked to the individual speakers in the space. The idea is that the sound will only appear when the audience is in the space. This is to convey the idea of 'human resonance' and goes with the concept of activating space through human presence, which has been how I have experiences space within my journeys. This will mean that the bodies inside the space will become influential to the work and will hopefully mean that they have a stronger connection to the piece but also a stronger sense of their presence.

This is a video tutorial explaining how to connect the PIR sensor to the arduino. I am going to do a small experiment with both this week.

CIRCLEs & SACRED SYMBOLISM.

Through out my researching process, circles in particular have played a big part in the shaping of my ideas, and how I have tried to link my final space to the more natural sites I have been visiting through my journey of human resonance. Circles have a history of meanings, they are the ancient and universal symbol of unity, wholeness and infity. The circle also symbolises the female form; the womb, the internal space of a person. The earth-centred religions through out history as well as contemporary pagans have used it to represent the feminine spirit and force, the cosmos and the spirital presence of Mother Earth, the bearer of nature. Circles also have a lot of associations with the spiritual world and have been used through out history within prehistoric scared architecture. Looking at them from a sonic viewpoint, circles allow spaces to flow and for the sound to travel around its rounded walls, spiralling upwards. All the sites I have visited with resonance have had circular shapes inside them that make the spaces as reverberant as they are.

The labyrinth has also played a part in my final concept. The labyrinth is a single, meandering path leading to the centre of a circle. The labyrinth forms away from the maze, it is a place you cannot loose yourself but leads to only one destination, the centre. The labyrinth as a form also represents a spiritual space, as a shape it is linked to prayer and meditation, a personal awakening and a metaphor to a spiritual journey and path. It symbolises understanding of spiritual life and transformation of the soul. The space I have designed for degree show will also form like a labyrinth, turning the space into a room-sized instation that takes you to the centre of the circle, where within it the space reveals itself, its purpose to you and transforms you within it, it takes you to the source and soul of the piece.

As part of my research into sacred shapes, I came across the terminology and study of 'scared geometry' which looks at the natural and organic forms that take shape in our universe. Sacred Geometry is imbedded in all earth's creations and is a universal pattern used in the design of everything in our world, most often seen in sacred architecture and sacred art. The basic relief is that geometry and mathmatical ratios, harmonics and proportion are also found in music, light and cosmology. This value system has been wide spead and seen in prehistory, in the very first monuments built by civilisation, representing a cultural and universal understanding and language of our human condition. It is considered foundational to building a sacred structure such as stemples, mosques, megaliths, monuments and chirchrd. these meeting space are incongaphed by using 'divine' proportions. Sacred geometry can also be found in artistic practices, such as time based and ephemeral art. Sacred geometry may be understood as a world view of pattern recognition a complex systems of religious symbols and sturtures, involving, space, time and form. 

This research and study of shapes, linking to the sacred sites that I have been visiting, has helped me to visualize my final space for the show. I want to encompass this research into my space, by creating my own sacred space in which I can project my experiences of site. The design of my degree show space has taken inspiration from these ancient symbols. I have built the space like a labyrinth with a circle in the centre of the room. The structure forms from the walls of the room, leading the public strait into the centre of the space. Then placed around the circle will be the 6 pipes, which will be installed to create a ring, forming on the outskirts of the space. The pipes will slightly extrude above the earth, revealing the source of the sound. I am thinking of gilding the top of the pipes with copper leaf to make them look like organ pipes, turning the installation into a human organ, and a true musical instrument.

I aslo think the formation of the pipes, and the way they emerge from the ground resembles  standing stones in themselves. They will be imbedded in the earth, yet invisible, only slightly revealing the source of the sound, giving the public a sense of how the piece works. I like the idea that the sound will produce air and energy that will bounce into the room....creating its own resonance. 

Walks down the Tay...

At the end of last week I went down to the Tay and walked from bridge to bridge with my pipes. I wanted to see how the pipes resonated within water, but it didn't work as well as I hoped because it was rather windy. However, I really enjoyed the walk, I've never done it before and it is one of the most beautiful sites of Dundee. The water is so open, it completely bares you to the elements...

FINAL CONCEPT.

After a week of successful meetings and discussions with different tutors, I have finally got a finalised idea for degree show. It has taken me a long time to overome this whole process of flux, but now I can truly visualize this piece and its final form. I am very excited about it, it has taken a very different route and form from my previous idea...What I am now working towards is a room sized installation that sculpts around the space to create an interactive sonic experience. Within the space, a sensor will be installed in the entrance so that when the public walk into the space, their presence will activate the sound. There will be 6 sources of sound installed in the room and they will be installed like my sound experiment, with the speakers on the floor with long metal tubes projecting the sound. The speakers will be hidden inside the structure so you will only see the emerging seam of the pipes as the evidence of the sound source. It will appear as though the sound is coming up from the earth. I love the idea that the technology nor the body from where the voice is from is seen in the space. It is a completely invisible experience in a labyrinth of human resonance. I am still going to use soil, and this will be spread through out the room, on top of the structure that will form the space.  This is a very different approach to my original, and it has gone back to using technology, which was something I wasn't too keen on, but I think it makes sense with this new concept and idea. I am very happy with it and can't wait to start constructing it. In the last week everything has fitted into place, and it has just been a matter of speaking to the right people that can help your vision and feed into it, rather than being deflated. Now, I just have to work the time frame to make it happen. I am luckily working closely with Alan & John in the wood worksop to create the structure and with Nigel Johnson and Sean to create the interactive sound part of the piece. This is going to be pretty complex installation and it will use a number of components but when they all comes together I can only imagine it will be wonderful....The metal pipes will be installed like the lungs of the room, so the space will become a living organ, with the human voice building up and harmonising create a soround sound experience...it will be like a human organ.

SONIC EXPERIMENTS~PIPES...

Yesterday I went down to the metal workshop to enquire about metal pipes and Graeme was very nice and gave me these two metal curved sheet pipes that were lying around in the workshop from a previous show. I wanted to test the pipes as possible sonic amplifiers so I went and got some powered speakers from the av workshop and did this little experiment. I played my sound recordings through the pipes, allowing the sound to travel through another body. The outcome was this lovely and subtle vibrations. It just made the sound feel a lot more connected to these sites of resonance, through having this slight reverberation and resonance as its projected. For my final show I would like to incorporate the pipes, allowing the sound to echo through the metal, creating a different sort of sonic experience. I feel this is also a good compromise, as I won't be able to make my original structure out of metal, but by incorporating the pipes into my final piece, I will be able to use the reverberant properties of the metal in a new way. 

RSA: New Contemporaries...

On Sunday, whilst visiting Edinburgh I went to see this years New Contemporaries exhibition at the RSA. There was some really interesting work and I was very impressed by the quality and scale of some of the pieces. I especially enjoyed the works of Holly E. Keasey who looked at the presence of water in the city, Neil Nodzak who created wonderful wooden boards that looked like 3-D sets, Clare Flatley who created an amazing black gate that stood at the entrance of the exhibition made from jesmonite, Andrew Mason with his sculptural ceramic piece that formed like a huge bathroom sink cleaning potatoes (I thought this was genius), then there was Mike McCallum & Tommy Stuart's 'Monument' which was made out of a steel mesh container that vibrated with transducers and other electrical equipment underneath it, it made these wonderful mechanical noises and sounds. There was also Rose Hendry's video pieces downstairs that had tremendous cinematography, aesthetics and creative vision, and finally Hannah Imlach with her Origami Shelters that were very visually beautiful. I think that all the work was very strong and I was impressed to see some fantastic large scale sculptural works. There was also a continuous sound piece, where an invisible voice sang projected through out the gallery, so it was really nice to see that a sound piece had been selected, it transformed the whole experience of the space. Both Duncan of Jordanstone & Edinburgh College of Art stood out to me as they where my two favourite colleges with the strongest pieces of work. After seeing the show I am not convinced that I will be selected for next year, but just seeing the level of work has been extremely inspiring and I feel much more motivated and excited about degree show...

Holly E. Keasey

Clare Flatley

Andrew Mason

Mike McCallum & Tommy Stuart

Rose Hendry

Hannah Imlach 

ACOUSTIC MIRRORS...

In a tutorial with Mark Vernon this week, whilst speaking about objects that emphasize sound he mentioned these acoustic mirrors that were used in war time. Sound mirrors were built on the south and north east coasts of England in between 1916 and 1930 before radar had been invented to concentrate sound waves. These huge structures were used as "listening ears" to prevent attack and designed as early warning devices for the coasts of Britain. Sound would reflect and bounce off the spherical surfaces as a way to keep sonic surveillance of the skies and sea. I very much like these structures, they are fascinating as historic devices of communicating but aslo show immense power as architectural and sculptural forms. They have now been left to slowly deteriorate within the landscape...

SOUND MIRRORS...

SEA ORGAN...

After thinking about using pipes within my project, I remembered a sculptural work I saw a few years ago when visiting Zadar. The Croatian city is right on the sea front and one of the things that originally attracted me to visiting it was its Sea Organ. The organ is placed right infront of the sea  and plays music from the water. The Sea Organ is really magical, it projects its sounds through the movement of the sea...The organ was an experimental musical instrument, designed by architect Nikola Basic. The organ plays the sea waves using pipes that are installed hidden underneath the large steps leading to the sea. This sonic sculpture is amazing because it is constant, it is completely tied to the elements and creates the most wonderful natural sounds. I would also like to work with pipes to increase the sonic experience within my degree show space and to give a sense of musical tones and to emphasize the sonic vibrations within the space...

THE WORLDS WEIRDEST INSTRUMENTS...