week 8

My Contextual Analysis

I feel my research has given me the strongest possible support for my Virtual Space concept. I did have a lack of understanding about the module but knew what was expected of me and knew the aim. Going to see the sonic bed was a setback. I did not feel I would find exhibitions with better examples of Virtual Space itself. Our Virtual realities lesson with Mitja Kostomaj was an eye opener, he had shown us what was expected of us by showing us videos of students in Potstein University, Germany and their virtual space prototypes. It was fantastic. The notes I took from the lesson was a real help. My first idea flew out of the window when I saw the videos. I then went to Kinetica and everything just fell into place. My determination to not let my hard wok go to waste drove me to find something I thought would be fantastic and impressive to watch. Ray Lee was a real inspiration and I’m so grateful, especially for the staff working at the museum who helped me in more ways than one.

The most relevant part of my research has got to be Ray Less Kinetic sound machines -thats what they are called if I failed to mention them earlier-. Electromechanical sound generators by Ray Lee and Jim Bond were the perfect examples of Virtual Space. Many different installations gave me the options of different routes I could take in creating my own virtual space environment. From mechanical structures to mechanically produced sounds.

My initial idea was to use sound in my Virtual Space project to create interaction virtually with a PC. The Virtual Space Technology that creates real-time expressive performance using sound couldn’t be more relevant to the research I have developed. The problem I now have is comparing Virtual Sound with Virtual Space. Virtual Space is about being lost in what you see but for some reason Virtual sound is not viewed in the same way. Although I saw Ray Lee playing nothing and just moving his arms in the air, I heared a voilin play. The relasionship between my eyes and my ears were reassesd. I know from memory and life experience that if I heard a violin play I’m bound to see someone playing the violin. I saw no violin but I heard it play, its was as thought the sound was plucked out of space to play in the air around me. The same would go for the way people in the eighteenth century saw Virtual reality in paintings. Like paintings of the trenches. A solider looking at his painting who would have experienced war and distruction could feel horror has been made to look beautiful.

To add the words Space and Sound at the end of Virtual would seem pointless. Definition of the word Virtual from http://encarta.msn.com Generated by computer: simulated by a computer for reasons of economics, convenience, or performance. So wether it’s seen or heard Virtual, under any catagory (Sound, Space or Sex), would always be the same.

week 7

Inspired by Ray Lees performance I was determined to create something that was just as fantastic. I looked through the web for two days and stumbled across a video. I can’t seem to upload a video to this blog but you could find it on this link http://www.billaboop.com/

You should also check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqyjnFNQ96Q

Watching these videos reminded me of Ray Lee’s performance

Information from www.billaboop.com

KTDrumTrigger is a VST plugin with custom editor that triggers MIDI notes based on the sound level of the incoming audio stream in different frequency bands. It allows you to “detect” occurrences of percussive sounds in an audio stream and send out a MIDI event whenever that happens.

It works like this: incoming (mono) audio is split up into different frequency bands using three tweakable filters. The signal in each of these bands is sent through an envelope follower. When the envelope reaches a specified threshold level, a MIDI note on message is generated. The trigger module has some built-in hysteresis and minimum inter onset time settings to avoid fast successive triggers due to noise on the envelope curves. Visual feedback of the filter and trigger settings is available….

Note that this is a rather simple system for finding drum onsets in an audio stream. It will probably only work reliably on isolated drum tracks (no mixed-in music), it’s quite sensitive to volume changes and it might not always be possible to separate the different types of drum sounds using simple filters. However, if you just need a fast way of transcribing your isolated drum tracks into MIDI so you can tweak them further or apply the groove to other parts, it might well do the trick and save you a lot of time

That said, no one says you *must* use this on drum tracks! You might come up with some other applications where this thing comes in handy or use it to extract a rhythmic sequence out of an instrument track (although this will only work with instruments that have clear onsets). As always: tweak those knobs and experiment!

This is a great demo made by ModuLR and demonstrates how KTDrumTrigger can be used for turning beatboxing into synthesized percussion. More info on how he did this can be found in this thread on KVR.

In the picture below you can see a very simple experimental setup I did at home on my desk, just to see if it could work. I routed the audio picked up by the microphone through a single instance of KTDrumTrigger with one low pass filter and one high pass filter and recorded the generated MIDI back to a track in Cubase.

1. An empty shoe box with a mouse mat on top (use the backside of the mat to get a muffled sound).
2. An almost empty can of transparent metal varnish (anything that will produce sounds with higher frequencies when hit).
3. A simple microphone.
4. Two old drum sticks.

NEW IDEA/ CONCEPT PROPOSAL

(Assuming you have watched the videos on the links provided) I intend on creating similar Virtual artwork using real-time expressive performance (like Ray Lee) using VST or Virtual Studio Technology (plug-in) to create music and effects.

Information from soundonsound.com

The VST (Virtual Studio Technology) system was developed by Steinberg to enable a complete studio to be created in software. Even in its earliest incarnation, it allowed third-party developers to produce real-time effect modules that could ‘plug in’ to the host application. However, when Steinberg introduced the second version of the VST plug-in standard it also became possible to send MIDI data to and from such effects. This enabled developers to add more features, such as MIDI control of effect parameters and locking of effect settings to tempo. The inevitable result of this advance in the protocol was that this MIDI information was also used to run synth engines, rather than just effects processors. It is these synths, masquerading as effects plug-ins in order to fit directly into the sequencing environment, that are called VST Instruments.

 To begin I will need a VST compatible host that is able to load the plug-in. My set up will be very similar to the image above but also using my body to create sounds. The audio signals (sounds) will pass through the microphone and will be analysed     and converted into MIDI events. I would need a MIDI device or MIDI VSTi (VST instrument) that will be triggered by the plug-in. 

 A VSTi can create a huge variety of sounds from MIDI and Audio sequencers.

The host I have chosen to use is called Wavosaur. Wavosaur is a software useful for mastering, sample looping, sound designing, audio mangling etc. It’s

- Fast and efficient :selecting, zooming etc.
- Reliable waveform representation (without parasitic phenomenons due to graphic aliasing).
- Real-time manipulation for effect (no more “few seconds modal preview”).
- ASIO & VST support.

 

Images from www.wavosaur.com

 

 

 

 

Week six

So.I got there three minutes late and watched the performance. There about 40-50 people

there and he was on the other side of the ropes, touching his fragile looking machines. It was a wonderful sight, maybe because I was so glad to be there with all the arty people. He tuned and played with his toys. One the magnetic metal table

he flicked a switch, approached the table and threw two nails on it. It made the people in front of him jump backwards. The table quickly snagged the nails and the pointed side of the nails rotated, following the perfect circle track marks already visible on the table. Way way better than what I saw yesterday. He kept moving from one machine to the other and back again. It did not feel rehearsed but I’m sure it was. Why? Well . Yesterday Ray Lees machines were in complete darkness but each machine started randomly (I first thought). Switching themselves on at different times so when it all goes dark you would not know which machine would start first. Today Ray Lee was working/ playing on the machines and he knew which one would play next. He then switched them off when he was ready.

When he got to the Sirens he adjusted what he needed to and the Sirens span with the noise level increasing. I noticed that every individual Siren had its own distinctive noise (one was a car horn). He played on the sirens for ages. I was a bit worried for him because they span so fast and his head was so close to them.

There was this odd looking machine in the centre of the Sirens and it had a rod on either side . He switched it on and started to do some very precise hand movements, adjusting what he needed to on the machine at the same time. He moved closer and further away from the metal rods, the closer he became the higher the pitch and vise versa. He went on for a while, making random noises. It got boring and people started moving. Then a violin started playing in an oriental theme. His hands were trembling, his eyes were closed tightly, he was really focused. It was so beautiful, almost romantic. The Sirens unexpectedly started again, whether it was planned or not the invisible violin and Sirens were perfect . Another sound was also there, it sounded like a dinosaur snoring with its mouth closed, a heavy base.

He stopped playing with the invisible violin. The Sirens kept going for another 30 seconds, he stood there watching the Sirens like he was part of the audience and one by one they stopped. The car horn sound being the last to stop. And you wouldn’t believe it but I was the one that started the clapping. YEAH!

I noticed a  guy with a video camera,  I walked over and asked him if he could make me a copy of the tape and we exchanged details. His name was Peter and he just happened to work in the museum. We got in a little conversation, he said the video is originally for the Museum but he could make me a copy by JUNE. I know, so long! I noticed that Ray Lee was finally free from conversations so I went over , I don’t know why but I was a bit star struck, I went all giddy and giggling and smiling like an idiot. I told him his performance was great and said I came the previous day. He asked me what I thought of it yesterday before his performance. I said it was very interesting but I was disappointed because of the lack of information about the pieces. He said “Right!” and I said it was worth coming today. I asked him how long one piece took him to complete and he said he had been working on them all for many years. I asked him if he had used codes to activate the sensors, making them play a certain pitch when something moved. He said it was all mechanical, no codes and said some other technical jargon  I didn’t understand. I was so happy, I couldn’t believe the information I got. Then I just had to ask if he would like to take a picture with me and he said……………..

How awful do I look.

I was then asked to go to Kinetica this Saturday to help take down Jim Bond’s and Ray Lee’s exhibitions. A chance to get to know the artists and see how their work is put together. Can you believe that?

All I’m waiting for now is the copy of the video.

WEEK 5

Today, I decided to go to Kinetica. It was the only weekend I had off. There were two exhibitions. Downstairs were works by Jim Bond and upstairs were works by Ray Lee and would you believe it, they were art/technology that incorporated sound. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Sound art was what I was looking for.

These pictures were taken downstairs. Instillation and Sculptures by Jim Burns.

This is the Pin Drop machine

The magnet switches on and picks up a small pin. When switched off the pin drops and the sound wave travels down a sensor which magnifies the sound into the little speaker.

Steel Head. This head scared the hell out of me. It was resting (as the image shows above), I was staring at it and it moved, lifted in a creepy way, it paused every millisecond and lifted it’s head to look at me. Sooo cool.

The problem with the works being displayed was the lack of information given by the gallery and the artist. Very few of them had names displayed and the ones that did also had materials and measurements listed. I asked an employee why there were no information displayed and she said “The artists don’t like describing their work. They want the viewers to look at them and explore what they are looking at.”

I took a picture of this newspaper article on my way out (it was displayed at the entrance). The pixels were messed up so I found the article on the web.

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Into the labyrinth of sounds in motion

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Into the labyrinth of sounds in motion Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 04/01/2007 Ray Lee explains the invisible forces behind his bewitching kinetic sound sculptures to Ivan Hewett “A maker of kinetic sound sculptures” is how Ray Lee prosaically describes himself. But there’s nothing prosaic about his most recent opus, which is about to receive its London première.   Captivating: Lee’s installation sounds like a vast choir of invisible voices Part installation, part performance piece, Siren is full of bewitchingly strange sights and sounds. “I’m interested in invisible forces,” says Lee, “especially when it’s to do with action at a distance – things such as magnets and electromagnetic waves.” It’s a pleasingly quaint idea in an age when “action at a distance” has become the norm. Every time we flick a switch or make a mobile call, we make things happen far away. But, like many people who work in the area of kinetic art, Ray Lee has a yearning for the days when these things inspired wonder and sent a shiver down the spine. I’m feeling it myself as we stand in the near-darkness of the venue for Siren. This is a labyrinth of interconnected arched brick-lined spaces underneath London Bridge station, known as the Shunt vaults. Corridors flanked by more vaults lead away in all directions into the inky blackness. These vaults now house a bar and theatre collective called The Shunt Lounge, which has commissioned Lee to re-assemble Siren following its first outing in an aircraft hanger in Oxfordshire. Why Siren? Because when it’s set in motion, Lee’s installation sounds like a vast choir of invisible voices. These “voices” are, in fact, electronic tone generators, mounted at each end of long metal bars, which rotate horizontally around their mid-points like up-ended ceiling fans. There are 30 such rotating arms, each sitting on a tripod. Some of these are at chest height, others tower three feet over the audience’s heads.   advertisement   “I got the idea when working on a visual installation at a disused mill in Derbyshire,” says Lee. “I made machines that embodied the idea of spinning, and then afterwards I thought, ‘What would happen if I added an aural element?’ I discovered that, when you put sound in motion, fascinating things happen. It changes the way you perceive space.” Imagine a forest of horizontal propellers, all spinning independently, together emitting a mysterious and euphonious chord, and you’ll have some idea of Siren. But the set-up is only the raw material for what Lee insists is more than an installation. “It’s a set of sculptures, which I hope are interesting to look at. But it’s also a proper performance piece, which lasts about 40 minutes, and is carefully choreographed. I perform it with Harry Dawes: we worked together a lot in the ’90s as a performance art company called Lee & Dawes. “The two performers enter each in their identical felt suits, switch on the oscillators, tuning each one carefully. Then the arms are set in motion. Gradually we increase the speed to a maximum of 75 revolutions per minute, the lights are turned off, and all you can see are the little red lights at the end of each arm whirling at different speeds. Then the motors are turned off, the arms slow down, and there’s this extraordinary moment when finally they all come to rest. It’s as if the air has suddenly frozen.” So in Siren there’s drama of a sort, there’s an amazing spectacle, and there are fascinating sounds. Is there music as well? “It’s very important to me that this piece has musical value,” says Lee. “We tune the oscillators to a definite mode, and, as we tune the bass ones first, it means the piece takes on a discernible shape, a kind of long upward glissando. Also, as the sounds whirl, you get these interesting sonic effects.” Are these anything like the “virtual melodies” that arise in certain kinds of contemporary music? “Exactly. There are things that emerge from the whirling sounds that may really be there, or they may be aural illusions.” But surely these sounds could be created with much less fuss by digital synthesis. “I very much doubt whether anything so rich could be created using digital means. But that’s not the point. These machines are a kind of anti-digital statement, they’re about as purely analogue as you can get. They exist to do one thing only, which is make this sound. And it’s important that the sound arises as the result of operating the machines in a very precise way. That’s why this is intrinsically a performance piece, which I want to be intensely live. It’s part of my personal crusade to make music a more visually entrancing experience.” ‘Siren’ is at The Shunt Lounge, Joiner Street, London SE1 (www.shunt.co.uk), Jan 17-19, and as an installation only at Kinetica Museum, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 (www.kinetica-museum.org), March 15-29     Post this story to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit BUSINESS Sterling’s march Will the pound go higher than it was in the Thatcher era? TRAVEL No guilt trips The number of people volunteering on holiday is rising. FILM A big hitter Tobey Maguire, star of Spider-Man 3, on his £8m role. BOOKS Top 100 reads Vote for the nation’s favourite books in our Literary Census. <img height=1 width=1 border=0 src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imp.gif?client=ca-telegraph_uk_420×200&event=noscript” mce_src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imp.gif?client=ca-telegraph_uk_420×200&event=noscript” />

I was so dissapointed to have very little information about the pieces I was looking at. Another employee (assistant gallery manager) told me Ray Lee was coming over to kinetica the following day to perform and I should be able to get more information. I was so excited because I had the money and didn’t need to go to work the following day. Something that rearely occurs. So I bought a ticket.

Week four

This week went in but missed the lesson. I asked some friends who were still there what happened. They had Ian and he spoke of afterlife and some other Virtual stuff. I was glad because I wanted to know more about 3D Studio Max and the softwares I could use in developing my idea. So I continued with my research and went to work.

These are the notes I got from the book Virtual Space. It helped me in my historical comparison for the module.

It is imperrative to leave aside approaches that are technology-centered and instead, situate the artistic images of virtual reality within the history of art………

Eighteenth century Italian artists like Bernardo Bellotto were brilliant interior designers, masters of Stucco work and Fresco who transformed many castles and monasteries with scenes of festivity and ceremony. Bernardo in the eighteenth century was a great figure oillusionistic painting in Italy. His paintings were aiided with “a small camera obscura and a larger portable one with a tent.” The camera was taken to take pictures when hetraveled to England and other european destinations. @.a new fusion of art and technology.”

Another artist- Paul Thomas Sandby used camera obscura and travelled the scotish highlands as “photo graphical drafts of men in the service f mileteray urvey of scotland.” The army was very interested in the accurate drawings of terrain, detailed panoramic visitas and views of the landscape to control the occupied territories efficiently.

I’m in the century where the name virtual reality means computers, 3d cinemas and television. Back in the eighteenth centuary their virtal reality was seen in paintings. Virtual reality was a representation of something real through the eyes of another. As advance as virtual reality is today it is understandable when people like myself become facinated with paintings precieved as beautiful. Viraul reality has come a long way but I couldn’t call a painting virtual because of what I already know as virtual today. I do have a clearer understanding of Virtual reality and Virtual Space was and what it has become.

Week 3

This week we had Mitja. He’d shown us more example of Virtual Art over the web. I was impressed.

He spoke of digital art with performance and he had and some stuff I cant remember names of but I took notes of the names.

Levin G. Messa

Di voce

Fimema.org

Then he mentioned Kinetica the museum and my life changed forever (change lasted 30 minuites).

Kinetica logo.

He told us of the technology exhibitions they had and I was hoping and praying they had exhibitions to do with sound.

Taken from the site http://www.kinetica-museum.org

Set strikingly against the backdrop of the old Spitalfields Market in London’s East End, Kinetica Museum opened in October 2006.

Kinetica is the UK’s first museum of kinetic art. It will actively encourage the convergence of art and technology, providing an exhibition space in central London where the most important examples of kinetic, technological and electronic art, both past and present, can be properly stored and displayed.

Our vision is to create both a historical and contemporary art collection of seminal and cutting-edge multi-disciplinary works that date back from the 1920s through to the present day, focusing on the pioneering and influential importance of such works.

Second week

Yes I noticed. The first part is called day one and the second is called week two. What you gonna do edit it? I dare you. I’m an artist touch it and see my skills.

So I went to Watermans to see the Sonic bed. Trust me it wasn’t a big deal.

At first you’re taken back because its this big piece of wood in and empty aircraft bonker looking environment. When I walked in, there was a woman and a tolder laying on or in the bed (you could be doing both). She was pregnant and as soon as she saw me she got straight up and took the kid with her. It was an intemidating environment, there I was in my sexy hoodie top with my hoodie up holding a camera, ruck sack baggy trousers looking hot as hell and she was scared. The thing about the place though was that you had to leave your things on a side bench feet away from the bed itself, your on your own, nowhere to hide, in this big empty cold space. She had her bags and stuff on the bench and her shoes were outside the bed so I understand why she got up so quickly but I was offended that she would feel threatened . I dont care I was looking nice.

Anyway she ran off and I took off my shoes, learned from her mistake and kept the shoes close to the bed and held on to my bag. I layed on the bed waiting for this magic to happen. Apparently the vibrations from the music (yeah! there was music, it was loud, cross between bag pipes, a war siren and bangra drums) was supposed to flow through the body and do something special. I dont know if it was the intimidating environment or it could have been that woman that offended me by looking out for herself. It was just loud music with vibrations. a cross between a vibrating bed and speakers. I did give it time and kept an open mind, even closed my eyes to feel something but nothing. I came a long way so I decided to explore the bed and dismantled it a little.

It wasnt the high quality virtual art I was looking for.

Oh yeah! I erm……yeah. Was in the class Ian mentioned some books and I got one of those books. It’s called Virtual Vpace. A very interesting book about the history of art and how art should be looked at as a virtual world. I took some notes. I’ll put it down in week four or five. Should have returned it three weeks ago, I now owe the library seven pounds, actually ₤3.50. Paid half yesterday.