Performance & Installation in the Glasshouses of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
“Suppose Life… was a visual and musical journey through both a physical space and the experiences of life. Working with original material, traditional arrangements and poems by EE Cummings, composer Dee Isaacs, director Roxana Pope and designer Iulian Furtuna developed Suppose Life as a site specific piece for performance in the glasshouses of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, between 8-11th March 2006.
Produced by Music in the Community at the University of Edinburgh, MSc Sound Designers Jules Rawlinson and Nick Wilsdon were invited to participate in Suppose Life, the objective of which was to develop output for public display through collaboration and participation in a multidisciplinary environment, using prior knowledge and developing new skills and tools.”
Further documentation of the Suppose Life project can be found HERE
Performance piece as part of Dialogues Festival, Edinburgh, March 2006.
This piece was an attempt to move away from the computer as a primary interface and move towards a more natural means of sound generation and performance. Following some previous experiments of recording underwater sounds with a submerged dynamic microphone wrapped in a condom, came the idea of passing sound through water as if it were an effects unit. Using some small portable speakers also inserted into condoms, I began experimenting with generating sound and passing it through water and sampling it through a submerged microphone. After recording a library of sounds both through the water and using a Korg MS2000 and tape effects, some musical sketches were composed. Using these sketches I built a patch for performance in MaxMSP that allowed for control of both direct ‘dry’ sound, and the ‘wet’ sound passed through the water. The resulting soundscape piece was performed live (after some extensive EQ fiddling and feedback catching with tireless sound-hero Alex Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes) whilst manipulating the water by stirring, splashing and blowing bubbles.
‘What is this shit?’, mixed media installation, Next Wave Festival.
Artist Ella Barclay approached me with a view to helping her create a sonic element to Warren - an installation she was curating as part of the Next Wave Festival in Melbourne, Australia. After several brainstorming sessions we decided that we wanted to create a sonic environment that was continually evolving, whilst simultaneously providing a claustrophobic soundscape to the maze of salvaged junk constructed in the space. Using some hacked USB dancemats I set about building an interface with multiple sensors to trigger sounds which could be hidden from the view of the public. Using MaxMSP I developed a standalone application (the entire installation was constructed on an automatically booting Mac Mini for ease of installation) that would hold multiple sound banks and effects units to be triggered by the movements of visitors to the space. The sonic content itself came from a lengthy & experimental studio session, sounds from my own library, and some gabba tunes composed specifically for the project.
‘A Conference & Showcase for excellence in music outreach & creative education’
At the end of October 2006 I was contacted by composer/conference curator Stephen Deazley with a view to assisting Dr Martin Parker in a performance at his 3 day conference. I had some involvement in the project through my dissertation, and Stephen had seen some of the interfaces I had created so it was a great opportunity to get involved. Stephen’s idea was to compose a piece of music for his Brewhouse band and students from Braidburn Special school in Edinburgh. I began attending early rehearsals where I worked with Martin to help familiarise the children with both the music and a variety of homemade interfaces. The final pieces were performed twice (at the North Edinburgh Arts Center & The Fruitmarket gallery, Glasgow) - with 5 children (Fiona, Helen, David, Jamie & Rico) using a set up of 4 laptops running MaxMSP and a whole assortment of Joysticks, USB Midicontrollers, Push-buttons, Matrix Controller, LDRs and much much more - alongside an 8 piece band (including a beautiful bell solo performed by Fiona using my Matrix Controller!)
Following experiments with the USB dancemats for the installation in Melbourne, I wanted to use some cheaply acquired USB dancemat circuits (Which came without the normal pads and so on) to build a custom controller & instrument. Taking inspiration from the monome controller, I decided to construct a simple matrix controller. The tactile 16 button controller is housed in a sturdy plastic casing, and has been an invaluable tool in various live performances ever since. I also created a standalone application that works as a drag-and-drop 16 channel polyphonic sampler.
Motion detecting webcam Interface build in MaxMSP/Jitter
The idea behind the webcam interface was inspired by the idea of a physical Metasynth - the idea being that instead of ’spraying’ particles from a granular synth, they could be physically ‘painted’ on. After sometime the prototype was constructed which provides 12 points of interaction for the user, which can be easily assigned as a midicontroller - in this case to my own granular synth. The other main inspiration was to build an interface that could be played by any musician. By using a webcamera its possible control sound from the smallest of movements such as the movement of a finger or change in facial expression to large gestures made with whole body. There is a video of the prototype in action, driving the granular synth linked below. The webcam interface is currently in further development to improve both its sensitivity and its detection algorithm.
An exercise in microphone technique & attention to detail
During my MSc I had both the access to some high quality equipment which allowed me to build a large library of high fidelity sounds. One of our assessments required us to submit 30 short sounds, focusing on sound quality and microphone technique. The brief specified that there was to be no processing of the sounds after the recording, so there was no scope for error in the initial recording. Hear some samples from my library in the related media section below.
Artist Claire Campbell had some very specific ideas for how her stop-frame animation ‘Eel Stripe’ should sound. We discussed many possibilities, and met frequently during the animation process so I could get a feel for her work. Deliberately minimal and understated, the resulting Sound design and Score I created focuses on atmospheric soundscapes and subtle textures. The final film was screened at the filmhouse cinema, Edinburgh. The film is available for download in quicktime format on request.
In December 2006 I was invited to perform in Barcelona, by arts collective Beatabet. I was involved in their France project over the summer and as such jumped at the opportunity. The performance I provided was built around a patch that took advantage of the granulator synthesizer I constructed earlier in the year. By hacking a USB Joystick, I developed a system of scanning through sound files whilst playing the granulated result and sequencing it live. Mp3 excerpts of this performance will be available soon.
Score for the short film ‘Too Much/Not Enough’ by Ella Barclay
‘Too Much, Not Enough’ was a 10 minute short from artist Ella Barclay. I created several sketches for the score of the film at her request. The film was part of a wider project called Lucky Bundle, details of which can be found in the links below.
