Dude, you should record that.
Gordon's Progress
Posted: 4/3/2007 11:22:42 AM
[i]Dude, you should record that.[/i]
Which I guess is just what Ralf said to Florian after driving down the Autobahn, presumably (Warning: Latin pun approaching!) in an Audi.
Ah, the 25th of September 1975 - the day half of the UK discovered electronica.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU3O1AKCheU
Which I guess is just what Ralf said to Florian after driving down the Autobahn, presumably (Warning: Latin pun approaching!) in an Audi.
Ah, the 25th of September 1975 - the day half of the UK discovered electronica.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU3O1AKCheU
Posted: 4/3/2007 4:54:57 PM
By the way, Edweird, DiggyDog, it's official, we are insane creative geniuses!
Just finished watching Horizon (BBC Science prog) about musical creativity and Tourettes, schizophrenia etc. and it comes down to Low Latent Inhibition - filtering out less of our perceptions, being aware of more of the world around us. Found a link that sums it up well...
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/oct_03/EDU_news_100103_d.php
(It even ends by naming the work that I cited when introducing this topic - The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley.)
Or to quote Daniel Goleman (writing in the style of R D Laing's Knots for the forward of his book Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, it says in wikipedia)
[i]The range of what we think and do
is limited by what we fail to notice.
And because we fail to notice
that we fail to notice
there is little we can do
to change
until we notice
how failing to notice
shapes our thoughts and deeds[/i]
Just finished watching Horizon (BBC Science prog) about musical creativity and Tourettes, schizophrenia etc. and it comes down to Low Latent Inhibition - filtering out less of our perceptions, being aware of more of the world around us. Found a link that sums it up well...
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/oct_03/EDU_news_100103_d.php
(It even ends by naming the work that I cited when introducing this topic - The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley.)
Or to quote Daniel Goleman (writing in the style of R D Laing's Knots for the forward of his book Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception, it says in wikipedia)
[i]The range of what we think and do
is limited by what we fail to notice.
And because we fail to notice
that we fail to notice
there is little we can do
to change
until we notice
how failing to notice
shapes our thoughts and deeds[/i]
Posted: 4/3/2007 7:54:27 PM
Part the second. Seeing Is Believing or The Multimedia Pizza Effect.
I reached Spitalfields in time to eat a pizza at Pizza Express. I sat by a floor to ceiling window, very clean, at the right angle so there were no visible reflections, and close enough that it filled my field of vision. Every other sense was telling me I was sitting in a warm restaurant, filled with restaurant sounds and smells, but my eyes said I was in a cold, wet, city street busy with such a diversity of people! I was immersed in the street, but not a part of it, to a soundtrack of multiple conversations jumbled into meaninglessness. A kind of Imax Koyaanisqatsi moment, without the slow motion and with more pizza.
I was still getting in the mood for part the third, which will involve modern art and automated theremins, and video clips.
I reached Spitalfields in time to eat a pizza at Pizza Express. I sat by a floor to ceiling window, very clean, at the right angle so there were no visible reflections, and close enough that it filled my field of vision. Every other sense was telling me I was sitting in a warm restaurant, filled with restaurant sounds and smells, but my eyes said I was in a cold, wet, city street busy with such a diversity of people! I was immersed in the street, but not a part of it, to a soundtrack of multiple conversations jumbled into meaninglessness. A kind of Imax Koyaanisqatsi moment, without the slow motion and with more pizza.
I was still getting in the mood for part the third, which will involve modern art and automated theremins, and video clips.
Posted: 4/5/2007 5:35:15 PM
The Kinetica museum is in the fashionably rebuilt Spitalfields Market, and is fashionably inconspicuous. I walked past it three times before noticing the tiny infinity logo near the door.
Upstairs was Ray Lee's Circles of Ether, of which Kinetica's website says (http://www.kinetica-museum.org/new_site/index.php?ptitle=Past%20Exhibitions&mfile=event_exhibition_main.php?mode=past):
[i]A spatial composition for an ensemble of kinetic sound machines.
Sound artist Ray Lee continues his fascination with invisible forces with this automated installation of his extraordinary kinetic sound sculptures.
An elaborate system of electro-mechanical sound generators, spinning oscillators, and noise machines creates a complex, multi-layered sound composition and a compelling visual spectacle.
The installation features an array of ‘Sirens’, large metal tripods whose rotating arms spin around, powered by electric motors. Hand built electronic tone generators power loudspeakers at the end of each arm creating an extraordinary sonic texture of pulsing electronic drones.
Ray Lee takes apart old analogue technologies and reconfigures them for a contemporary context. He is interested in the way that science and philosophy represent the universe and his work questions the orthodoxies that emerge and submerge according to the currently fashionable trends. He creates spinning, whirling and pendulous sound installations and performances that explore ‘circles of ether’, the invisible forces that surround us.[/i]
It was quite an experience. The sirens were pretty good. Not as much Doppler shift as you'd expect, but they were arranged so that you could stand with sirens on three sides of you and be fairly well surrounded. As well as the sirens there were two tables covered with an aluminium sheet, on one were three ball bearings, moving at different speeds around circular paths. Presumably magnets underneath. On the other two steel washers sharing a path. To each aluminium sheet was taped a microphone. Good sound.
There are (damn, it's so hard to concentrate - as I'm typing I'm listening to a band playing vegetables (!) whilst waiting for Alexander Thomas to be streamed into my ears) sorry about that, some video clips of the sirens at other installations here (http://emedia.brookes.ac.uk/raylee/frameset-downloads.htm), at Ray Lee's website. Also check out the Metal Detectors - used as theremins, they were swung around, passing close to a metal object.
And there was a big old cabinet theremin - not Ray Lee's ethervox, not an RCA or any moog model I have seen pictures of - one I did not recognise - its most distinctive feature was a circular volume loop - like the aerial from an old portable TV. Also the installation was barely lit at all - I did a lot of peering intently at it to no good effect. It was played by two curved metal batons attached at one end to rotating wheels like a piston making them move to and away from the pitch and volume antennae, nodding donkey style, at different rates.
An enjoyable sonic experience that passed the time nicely until I travelled a few more stops on the tube to the Horse Hospital.
Upstairs was Ray Lee's Circles of Ether, of which Kinetica's website says (http://www.kinetica-museum.org/new_site/index.php?ptitle=Past%20Exhibitions&mfile=event_exhibition_main.php?mode=past):
[i]A spatial composition for an ensemble of kinetic sound machines.
Sound artist Ray Lee continues his fascination with invisible forces with this automated installation of his extraordinary kinetic sound sculptures.
An elaborate system of electro-mechanical sound generators, spinning oscillators, and noise machines creates a complex, multi-layered sound composition and a compelling visual spectacle.
The installation features an array of ‘Sirens’, large metal tripods whose rotating arms spin around, powered by electric motors. Hand built electronic tone generators power loudspeakers at the end of each arm creating an extraordinary sonic texture of pulsing electronic drones.
Ray Lee takes apart old analogue technologies and reconfigures them for a contemporary context. He is interested in the way that science and philosophy represent the universe and his work questions the orthodoxies that emerge and submerge according to the currently fashionable trends. He creates spinning, whirling and pendulous sound installations and performances that explore ‘circles of ether’, the invisible forces that surround us.[/i]
It was quite an experience. The sirens were pretty good. Not as much Doppler shift as you'd expect, but they were arranged so that you could stand with sirens on three sides of you and be fairly well surrounded. As well as the sirens there were two tables covered with an aluminium sheet, on one were three ball bearings, moving at different speeds around circular paths. Presumably magnets underneath. On the other two steel washers sharing a path. To each aluminium sheet was taped a microphone. Good sound.
There are (damn, it's so hard to concentrate - as I'm typing I'm listening to a band playing vegetables (!) whilst waiting for Alexander Thomas to be streamed into my ears) sorry about that, some video clips of the sirens at other installations here (http://emedia.brookes.ac.uk/raylee/frameset-downloads.htm), at Ray Lee's website. Also check out the Metal Detectors - used as theremins, they were swung around, passing close to a metal object.
And there was a big old cabinet theremin - not Ray Lee's ethervox, not an RCA or any moog model I have seen pictures of - one I did not recognise - its most distinctive feature was a circular volume loop - like the aerial from an old portable TV. Also the installation was barely lit at all - I did a lot of peering intently at it to no good effect. It was played by two curved metal batons attached at one end to rotating wheels like a piston making them move to and away from the pitch and volume antennae, nodding donkey style, at different rates.
An enjoyable sonic experience that passed the time nicely until I travelled a few more stops on the tube to the Horse Hospital.
Posted: 4/6/2007 8:29:36 AM
Gordon, that sounds like my kind of place.
I have used a metal detector on some of my live shows to great effect (if I do say so myself).
The last time I tried to use the metal detector the battery came loose seconds before the show, rendering it mute. We were supposed to come out in gas masks with me running the metal detector over the stage as we made our way to our instruments.
I didn;t have time to trouble-shoot the detector so I just went out and mimed it.
I have had a few people come up to me since that show and tell me how much they liked the metal detector and the way it sounded.
I'm not sure what they think they heard but it wasn't the detector.
I have used a metal detector on some of my live shows to great effect (if I do say so myself).
The last time I tried to use the metal detector the battery came loose seconds before the show, rendering it mute. We were supposed to come out in gas masks with me running the metal detector over the stage as we made our way to our instruments.
I didn;t have time to trouble-shoot the detector so I just went out and mimed it.
I have had a few people come up to me since that show and tell me how much they liked the metal detector and the way it sounded.
I'm not sure what they think they heard but it wasn't the detector.
Posted: 4/6/2007 8:29:41 AM
Gordon, that sounds like my kind of place.
I have used a metal detector on some of my live shows to great effect (if I do say so myself).
The last time I tried to use the metal detector the battery came loose seconds before the show, rendering it mute. We were supposed to come out in gas masks with me running the metal detector over the stage as we made our way to our instruments.
I didn;t have time to trouble-shoot the detector so I just went out and mimed it.
I have had a few people come up to me since that show and tell me how much they liked the metal detector and the way it sounded.
I'm not sure what they think they heard but it wasn't the detector.
I have used a metal detector on some of my live shows to great effect (if I do say so myself).
The last time I tried to use the metal detector the battery came loose seconds before the show, rendering it mute. We were supposed to come out in gas masks with me running the metal detector over the stage as we made our way to our instruments.
I didn;t have time to trouble-shoot the detector so I just went out and mimed it.
I have had a few people come up to me since that show and tell me how much they liked the metal detector and the way it sounded.
I'm not sure what they think they heard but it wasn't the detector.
Posted: 4/11/2007 5:08:18 PM
And finally I arrived at The Horse Hospital (http://www.thehorsehospital.com/). As with several other people I arrived a few minutes early, just in time to be turned away with a curt "we're still setting up." So we stood in the road all looking blank until I stared very hard at the unmissable pub facing the Horse Hospital and announced loudly "Look. A Pub!"
Apparently this was rather astute and soon I had a full bottle in front of me.
Time passed, glasses became empty and eventually we gained access to the venue. The Horse Hospital, before it became an arts venue, was precisely a hospital for horses, as evinced by the cobbled floors and long ramp in place of a staircase. So much for my theory that the name was a euphemistic softening of Whore's Hospital.
The event was At Abrahams (http://www.atabrahams.com/) - people from the worlds of science and art give short talks about what they are doing. I was there to see Sarah Angliss, a.k.a. Spacedog UK (http://www.spacedog.biz/). She was on first.
She played a short, pleasant piece on waterphone, hand-bells and saw, and then showed a selection of slides from the history of sound recording, starting with one from the days when technology had the power to genuinely astonish, of a group of children hearing recorded sound for the first time. This (http://www.ems-synthi.demon.co.uk/snaps/everynun.jpg) was another. It got a good laugh from the audience. So did the graph from the wikipedia article about the Uncanny Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley).
Which brought us to Clara. Now comes the sad bit. Sarah's dog had contracted meningitis, so she had spent the previous 24 hours in "dog hospital" and then rushed here, dropping Clara's etherwave on the way so it was not working.
Sarah's ePro was just fine, and Clara appeared to be functional, but without a second theremin for her to play she was just a child's doll with a steel baton and some gaffer tape where she had been split open and had stepper motors and circuitry stuffed inside, sitting on a tripod.
Had she had an instrument to play, she would have been a robot accompanist, following the lead theremin's melody and smoothing it out on her own theremin. Both Sarah and Clara will be coming to Hands Off, so I will get to see them playing. Also I got to play with her waterphone and saw. Apparently you can't just pick up a bow and use it - you have to get the knack of it, so I didn't exactly make a lot of sound. Also it's really hard work holding a saw bent in a controlled manner.
The other talks were about recent developments in cancer research, the future of the power industry and peak oil, and industrial design. The cancer guy was informative, funny and really had it in for homeopathy, which was used to exemplify every single bad thing about not using the scientific method.
Quite a trip out.
On the Saturday the Charltons went to Southall and did the stuff I mentioned previously. We listened to sruti boxes at Jas Musicals, didn't like the electronic ones, loved the more expensive of the manuals. Just a bit too much to be an impulse buy, so I didn't come home with one, but it's definitely on the list. Mrs C and the sprogs approved of them too.
Apparently this was rather astute and soon I had a full bottle in front of me.
Time passed, glasses became empty and eventually we gained access to the venue. The Horse Hospital, before it became an arts venue, was precisely a hospital for horses, as evinced by the cobbled floors and long ramp in place of a staircase. So much for my theory that the name was a euphemistic softening of Whore's Hospital.
The event was At Abrahams (http://www.atabrahams.com/) - people from the worlds of science and art give short talks about what they are doing. I was there to see Sarah Angliss, a.k.a. Spacedog UK (http://www.spacedog.biz/). She was on first.
She played a short, pleasant piece on waterphone, hand-bells and saw, and then showed a selection of slides from the history of sound recording, starting with one from the days when technology had the power to genuinely astonish, of a group of children hearing recorded sound for the first time. This (http://www.ems-synthi.demon.co.uk/snaps/everynun.jpg) was another. It got a good laugh from the audience. So did the graph from the wikipedia article about the Uncanny Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley).
Which brought us to Clara. Now comes the sad bit. Sarah's dog had contracted meningitis, so she had spent the previous 24 hours in "dog hospital" and then rushed here, dropping Clara's etherwave on the way so it was not working.
Sarah's ePro was just fine, and Clara appeared to be functional, but without a second theremin for her to play she was just a child's doll with a steel baton and some gaffer tape where she had been split open and had stepper motors and circuitry stuffed inside, sitting on a tripod.
Had she had an instrument to play, she would have been a robot accompanist, following the lead theremin's melody and smoothing it out on her own theremin. Both Sarah and Clara will be coming to Hands Off, so I will get to see them playing. Also I got to play with her waterphone and saw. Apparently you can't just pick up a bow and use it - you have to get the knack of it, so I didn't exactly make a lot of sound. Also it's really hard work holding a saw bent in a controlled manner.
The other talks were about recent developments in cancer research, the future of the power industry and peak oil, and industrial design. The cancer guy was informative, funny and really had it in for homeopathy, which was used to exemplify every single bad thing about not using the scientific method.
Quite a trip out.
On the Saturday the Charltons went to Southall and did the stuff I mentioned previously. We listened to sruti boxes at Jas Musicals, didn't like the electronic ones, loved the more expensive of the manuals. Just a bit too much to be an impulse buy, so I didn't come home with one, but it's definitely on the list. Mrs C and the sprogs approved of them too.
Posted: 5/14/2007 12:15:20 PM
It's been a while since my last posting - I'm busy with Hands Off - but there is just time for a [b]Shameless Plug![/b]
Now available on iTunes: Sonic Weekend (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=253546440&s=143444)
Tracks with [i]me[/i] on them:
Space Spatular
Veil Nebula (also on theremins - Ann Shenton from Large Number (and previously Add N To (X)) and Garry Hensey of Sunset People)
Extinct
Transmission Duet
Transmission Duet [extra]
Nursery Droid (no theremin, just my iBook)
Home
Now available on iTunes: Sonic Weekend (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=253546440&s=143444)
Tracks with [i]me[/i] on them:
Space Spatular
Veil Nebula (also on theremins - Ann Shenton from Large Number (and previously Add N To (X)) and Garry Hensey of Sunset People)
Extinct
Transmission Duet
Transmission Duet [extra]
Nursery Droid (no theremin, just my iBook)
Home
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