Author: Jonathan Chang

Week 1

Today, we were introduced to DIY electronics. In an exploration of the ‘Victorian Synthesizer’, I immediately developed an interest in working with physical circuitry as I had worked with it a bit in the past. Displayed below is a photo documenting a Victorian synthesizer I made with some items in the speaker. When the circuit was completed, it caused the paper and beads inside the speaker to jump up and down in quite an aesthetically pleasing manner.

This allowed me to think of some ideas regarding the presentation of my gallery work, potentially building speakers that could somehow visualize the sound that was coming out of them.

Week 2

In today’s session, we were introduced to Puredata; a visual programming language that is capable of many things, one of which is synthesis and much more. Learning about this open-source software was very eye-opening to me as I had tried to learn various types of programming in the past but never got the hang of it- though learning Puredata was quite intuitive for me to pick up. It was also quite eye-opening to learn about the software’s capabilities, such as video processing, 2D and 3D graphics, input devices, and much more. As someone who wants to incorporate visual elements into my sound work, this was very exciting to learn.

Week 4

In this session, we dove deeper into Puredata and explored more of its capabilities, real-world applications, and a bit more about how to use the software. Learning more about the software really made me keen about working with it for my hand-in to come.

Week 6-7

Today, we revisited DIY electronics, and I was extremely keen to get back into it. While trying to build a synthesizer, I began to realize that circuitry maybe wasn’t for me- I found that the notation used in the diagrams was extremely difficult to memorize and therefore read. I also couldn’t exactly manage to get my soldering technique perfectly, leading me to need to repeatedly shave down oversized pieces of solder. After two weeks and three different attempts, no matter how much I enjoyed the act of putting everything together, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it and decided that creating something in Puredata might be a better option for the hand-in.

Week 7

The Hand-In: The Plan

Having decided that I wanted to create something in Puredata, I now had to decide what I wanted to create, as well as a plan for that project. I had initially thought of doing something that incorporated visuals, however, I could not manage to download the plugin that I would have needed to do so.

I then stumbled across the idea of making an interactive drum machine in Puredata- which I had already previously done in my free time following a tutorial I had found online.

I learned a lot through following this tutorial, however, there were a few things that I didn’t like about it- things I wouldn’t want to include in my final project. The first thing that I didn’t like about it was that the rhythms themselves were not customizable, and the drums were sequenced through a random object. Another thing was that it felt a bit unclear to navigate from an onlooker’s perspective, that was something I definitely wanted to avoid with my finished project.

Week 8

Idea Development & Research

I knew I wanted my finished project to have somewhat customizable rhythms, but still maintain its user-friendliness. I thought that this could be achieved by somehow creating pre-arranged sequences that the user could select in real-time. Upon further researching how I would have been able to do this, I came across arrays, ‘array get’ commands, and ‘array set’ commands, which when structured correctly, allowed me to do exactly what I wanted to be doing in combination with a step sequencer.

Week 10

When it came to piecing everything together, everything was quite intuitive, however, I did run into a problem. I wanted it to be that the user could input the BPM rather than some other (commonly) unfamiliar measurement of time. After a bit more research into metronomes in Puredata, I created a sub-patch for a counter which allowed the BPM to be displayed to the viewer through one of its inlets (pictured below).

— Week 18 —

The Voice

In this lesson, we explored different approaches and techniques when working with the human voice. I don’t personally have a lot of experience working with vocals in my work, though I do have quite a lot of experience working with vocalists as I used to conduct choirs. It was very interesting to learn about vocal techniques beyond ones used in singing.

— Week 20 —

Psychoacoustics

• All the sound that humans perceive is psychoacoustic; from the moment sound goes through the ears it is no longer a physical thing, but rather a complete matter of perception
• This means that absolutely everything we hear is, by nature, different to how it actually sounds, attributable to each individual’s own peculiarities of perception, as well as the humanly limitations of hearing

Glossary

Misophonia – a condition in which individuals experience intense anger and disgust when they are confronted with sounds made by other human beings. (Schröder, A., Vulink, N. & Denys, D.)

Hyperacusis – when everyday sounds seem much louder than they should. (NHS Website)

Phonophobia – a persistent, abnormal, and unwarranted fear of sound. Often, these are normal environmental sounds (e.g., traffic, kitchen sounds, doors closing, or even loud speech) that cannot under any circumstances be damaging. (Zamzil Amin Asha’ari, Nora Mat Zain, Ailin Razalia, NCBI Website)

Sonophobia – an unusual fear of loud noises

Ligyrophobia – ” “

— Week 21 —

Graphic Scores

Today, we explored a more visual way to create sonic art; graphic scoring. Popularized in the 1950s, graphic scoring is the depiction of music through visual notation that is different to traditional scoring, which in my opinion, can lead to very interesting unconventional work.

Although my attempt at creating a graphic score was done in an (obviously) lighthearted and non-serious manner, I did find that through this exercise (as well as looking at and performing other people’s graphic scores), I was able to further explore the concept of subjective perception. Within a discussion regarding my score amongst my peers after the exercise, I found that there was quite a bit of dispute regarding what each ‘symbol’ on my score represented. However, there were a couple people who knew exactly which sounds I had in mind when drawing these symbols, which I found extremely interesting.

— Week 22 —

DIY Cultures

Avant-Garde

• Promotes the defiance of tradition where boundaries are pushed and non-conformity is encouraged.
• Draws the mainstream towards it
• The name comes from the word Vanguard- The leading part of an advancing group of soldiers

Underground

• Promotes the defiance of tradition, though in a different way to avant-garde, because rather than drawing the mainstream towards it, it generally makes an attempt to only exist outside the mainstream.

• Could be considered more exploratory, or less ‘consumable’, and therefore making less money

Previous to this lesson, I had not put much thought into which DIY culture I connected with the most, though now, I feel like someone who resonates more with being labeled as avant-garde rather than underground, it was very interesting to learn and think about where I stood.

— Week 22, cont. —

Development

CREATIVE PROJECT BRAINSTORM

What are my favorite avant-garde//underground features in music that I’d like to feature in my piece?

• Rhapsodic (informal structure); I feel like there is a major hole that is missing in contemporary music, and that’s rhapsodic club music. A few ideas I have are inconsistent phrase lengths and tempo changes
• I love when club music producers use sounds and instruments from their respective (traditional) cultures, because it re-contextualizes sounds that are already unique into a more contemporary setting
• One of my favorite things about underground music is how utterly noisy and ‘messy’ it can be sometimes, especially with genres like gabber, hardcore, and hardstyle.

To achieve my desired outcome, I’ve gathered some samples of traditional Peking opera, linking to the first topic discussed in this unit; voice. As my I am of Chinese descent, I felt that it was appropriate to use an ancient practice of vocalization deriving from China. I have also gathered some sounds of traditional Chinese percussion, typically used in percussion ensembles. To juxtapose with the very organic and raw sounds of traditional Chinese percussion, I have also begun to digitally synthesize a collection of metallic hits, as well as some kick drums influenced by both 90s and modern hardcore/gabber.

— Week 23 —

Afterthoughts // Reflection

Having finished my piece, I can proudly say that I’ve captured the exact atmosphere I sought and included all of the features I wanted to include. I found myself dragging inspiration from artists like TSVI, who makes downtempo club music/industrial soundscapes, 33EMYBW, who makes experimental club music with lots of Chinese percussion, and Osheyack, who makes quite raw and organic sounding hard-dance.

I began my piece with an atmospheric downtempo section, where I layered very metallic and digital synths and dark soundscapes on top of occasional & sporadic raw drum patterns. The piece then progresses into its main section, where numerous layers of Chinese percussion are layered over a hardcore-style beat. Rather than using any synths as a lead as would be commonly done, I used a recorded clip of an erhu mimicking a bird chirp as a lead. The piece shortly breaks into chaos as it transforms into a more modern approach to gabber, with a heavily distorted kick and strums of a guzheng used as additional texturizing. Finally, the tempo once again changes- This time into 203bpm, where I produced the main kick rhythms in half time, but had all the other elements of the track in double time, creating an energy that’s almost confusing for the listener.

I feel that with my piece, it was created with the intention of listening rather than depicting a certain story, however, I do feel like it does depict a sonic journey of some sort, as the structural elements of the piece change so frequently that it almost keeps the listener on their toes at all times. I’m very satisfied with how my piece turned out and I have definitely learned a lot that I would like to apply into my personal practice.

____________________

Element 2: Individual Sound Work

Synthesis

In a lesson on creative synthesis, we were given a full walkthrough on subtractive synthesis. I’ve always had a relative familiarity with synthesis, although I feel that this lesson pushed me to actually be more engaging with it and spend more time with it to achieve desired sounds and effects. While playing with the synth, I stumbled across a sound that to me sounded very metallic when played in higher pitches. I achieved this with a combination of detuning, addition of noise, a low-pass filter, and ring modulation.

Recent Influence

I’ve found myself going to quite a lot of hardcore/gabber nights recently and thinking to myself: “how could I make this music more interesting?” So in thinking of what makes music interesting to me, the things I thought of were textures/heavy layering, contrasting noises (digital & organic noises juxtaposed together), and combining old-school & new-school elements of music together. However, if I was going to be making a hardcore track, what typical characteristics of hardcore would I have in my final piece that would retain the essence of the music? What comes to mind is high tempos, repetition, heavy bass, cheesy vocals, and usually quite industrial timbres.

Making a Sound Bank

To gather all of the noises, textures, and sounds that I wanted to put in my piece, I firstly revisited the metallic noise I made with subtractive synthesis. I’d put it into an arpeggiator to create a metallic percussion pattern, reminiscent of ambient percussion used in modern industrial techno. The kick was relatively simple, the kick was made out of two different kicks I’d previously made on ES2 in Logic. One kick was not distorted but had quite a big ‘rumble’, achieved with a HPF & 1/8 dotted note delay. The other was a much more punchy and distorted gabber kick, made from a square wave rather than a sine like the other one. I’d also gathered various organic percussive noises like coins rattling, stomping on the ground in various places, and even distorting & microsampling my own voice to use as percussion. And to gather cheesy vocal samples to use, I downloaded the Jungle-Jungle sample pack, a staple of bedroom dance-music producers.

– Week 4 –

Sound Art in the British Context

Introduction

Sound Art in the British context is an unfinished, constantly developing story.

“What I’m trying out at this stage of my life is new formats, or new settings maybe, or formats and settings that have been tried before but then been forgotten or pushed aside because established formats
have such a powerful hold on our thinking.” ( Toop p.582)

This article is an interview with David Toop made in 2014.

Summary

Toop finds “sound art” problematic. 1. The economy of the art world. (issues of value – e.g. Banksy, Monet, exclusive, elitist, class, privilege, crime, capitalism, status of artists, precarity, austerity)- provide examples and case studies to back up your argument. 2. The creation of an object (even if a text, concept, or installation) – “sound work was always about a process”

Reflection and Discussion

There are a few contradictions in Toop’s discourse – on one hand, he talks about how process and artistic process should be a natural instinct rather than a job. By characterizing art as “work” he sets up barriers, and is then complicit in the capitalist appropriation of “art”. On the other hand, making art takes practice, and is hard work – art is a practice, a skill, a technique

Questions

“Sound art” first used in 1983? Where? By whom?

Who is David Toop?

Is all expensive art money laundering? Tax havens?

Glossary

Orthodox – “Following or conforming to the traditional or generally accepted rules or beliefs of a religion, philosophy, or practice.” (Oxford Languages Definition)

Problematize – “Make into or regard as a problem requiring a solution.” (Oxford Languages Definition)

– Week 5 –

Sound in Japan

“Sound holds a special place in Japan. The country’s distinctive
aural signatures are closely bound to its history, nature, and
culture.” (p.654)

Introduction

aural signatures – the relationship of these to history, nature and culture of Japan.

contrast between rural tradition (serenity) and urban hyper-modernism (noise)

“They do not pose a contradiction, but reflect two views into the same thing. Noise is not considered an “other” to silence.” (.ibid)

Conclusion / Future Work

Explore the state of Japan’s sociocultural conditions, its oppressive and conservative nature, and how it has altered throughout history and how that could’ve influenced certain themes in art amongst Japanese artists.

Questions

Japanese tunings and time signatures – do the latter exist?

Glossary

shishi-odoshi: (鹿威し) (‘scaredeer’ or ‘scareboar’) Referenced in “Kill Bill“, “Final Fantasy”. Relation to scarecrows.

wabi-sabi:

“Wabi sabi is an aesthetic ideal and philosophy that is best understood in terms of the Zen philosophy that has nurtured and molded its development over the last thousand years. Zen seeks artistic expression in forms that are as pure and sublime as the Zen tenets they manifest; it eschews intellectualism and pretense and instead aims to unearth and frame the beauty left by the flows of nature. Wabi sabi embodies the Zen nihilist cosmic view and seeks beauty in the imperfections found as all things, in a constant state of flux, evolve from nothing and devolve back to nothing.
(Juniper 2003:1)

“Long ago a man out walking encountered a hungry tiger, which proceeded to chase and corner him at the edge of a small precipice. The man jumped to avoid the impending danger and in so doing managed to catch the limb of a tree growing from the small escarpment. While he hung there he became aware of a second tiger, this one at the foot of the precipice, waiting for him to fall. As his strength began to wane the man noticed a wild strawberry that was growing within his reach. He gently brought it to his lips in the full knowledge that it would be the last thing that he ever ate— how sweet it was.” (.ibid)

onomatopoeia: a word that actually looks like the sound it makes, and we can almost hear those sounds as we read. Here are some words that are used as examples of onomatopoeia: slam, splash, bam, babble, warble, gurgle, mumble, and belch.

– Week 7 –

Touching Sound Art: Curatorial Practices in West Germany

Summary

“By taking these exhibitions as case studies, this essay considers the crucial role of the sense of touch, coupled with the importance of the conjunction between the senses of sight and hearing”.

“ability to mechanize and automate the connection between seeing and hearing. The fascination with automation laid the foundations for a visual
and sonorous event free of human interference in its operation.”

Inside the White Cubbe: The ldeology of the Gallery Space by the artist Brian O’Doherty. Published just a few years before the exhibition in Berlin, O’Doherty’s book discussed the mediated environment of the modernist gallery which is in fact integrated into the artworks, content.

“the exhibitions mentioned here emphasised the senses of sight, hearing and touch and yet the discourse around those events as well as the remaining documentary material is primarily visually driven” (p512)

“the connection between arts and crafts?

Artists

Luigi Russolo

Man Ray

Christina Kubisch

Bernard Leitner

Critical Reflection

more ontology: “a category which incorporated technological developments in music reproduction and electronic instruments” (Noy p511)

Klangobjekte – “where composers and visual artists used mechanical and electronic techniques” (ibid)

References

Akademie der Künste (1980) Für Augen und Ohren : von der Spieluhr zum akustischen Environment ; Objekte, Installationen, Performances in der Akademie der Künste.

DeBord, G (1967) Society of the Spectacle. publisher?

O’Doherty (??) Inside the White Cube: The ldeology of the Gallery Space . publisher?

Glossary

curator

Kantian

Greenbergian