Workshops Part 1
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The Hell Harp of Hieronymus Bosch. the Building of an Experimental Musical Instrument, and a Critical Account of an Experience of a Community of Musicians
1 (114) Independent Project (Degree Project), 30 higher education credits Master of Fine Arts in Music, with specialization in Improvisation Performance Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg Spring 2019 Author: Johannes Bergmark Title: The Hell Harp of Hieronymus Bosch. The building of an experimental musical instrument, and a critical account of an experience of a community of musicians. Supervisors: Professor Anders Jormin, Professor Per Anders Nilsson Examiner: Senior Lecturer Joel Eriksson ABSTRACT Taking a detail from Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden Of Earthly Delights as a point of departure, an instrument is built for a musical performance act deeply involving the body of the musician. The process from idea to performance is recorded and described as a compositional and improvisational process. Experimental musical instrument (EMI) building is discussed from its mythological and sociological significance, and from autoethnographical case studies of processes of invention. The writer’s experience of 30 years in the free improvisation and new music community, and some basic concepts: EMIs, EMI maker, musician, composition, improvisation, music and instrument, are analyzed and criticized, in the community as well as in the writer’s own work. The writings of Christopher Small and surrealist ideas are main inspirations for the methods applied. Keywords: Experimental musical instruments, improvised music, Hieronymus Bosch, musical performance art, music sociology, surrealism Front cover: Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly -
Studio Bench: the DIY Nomad and Noise Selector
Studio Bench: the DIY Nomad and Noise Selector Amit Dinesh Patel Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2019 Abstract This thesis asks questions about developing a holistic practice that could be termed ‘Studio Bench’ from what have been previously seen as three separate activities: DIY electronic instrument making, sound studio practice, and live electronics. These activities also take place in three very specific spaces. Firstly, the workshop with its workbench provides a way of making and exploring sound(- making) objects, and this workbench is considered more transient and expedient in relation to finding sounds, and the term DIY Nomad is used to describe this new practitioner. Secondly, the recording studio provides a way to carefully analyse sound(-making) objects that have been self-built and record music to play back in different contexts. Finally, live practice is used to bridge the gap between the workbench and studio, by offering another place for making and an opportunity to observe and listen to the sound(-making) object in another environment in front of a live audience. The DIY Nomad’s transient nature allows for free movement between these three spaces, finding sounds and making in a holistic fashion. Spaces are subverted. Instruments are built in the studio and recordings made on the workbench. From the nomadity of the musician, sounds are found and made quickly and intuitively, and it is through this recontextualisation that the DIY Nomad embraces appropriation, remixing, hacking and expediency. The DIY Nomad also appropriates cultures and the research is shaped through DJ practice - remixing and record selecting - noise music, and improvisation. -
Sound American | SA Issue 6: Five Questions with Nicolas Collins
SOUND AMERICAN ABOUT THIS ISSUE JULIUS EASTMAN'S PRELUDE TO JOAN D'ARC + TOM JOHNSON'S RATIONAL MELODIES + GÉRARD GRISEY'S PROLOGUE TO LES ESPACE ACOUSTIQUE + ANTOINE BEUGER'S KEINE FERNEN MEHR + STEVE LACY'S DUCKS + FOUR SAXOPHONES ON BODY AND SOUL FIVE QUESTIONS: KURT GOTTSCHALK ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS STORE SUBSCRIBE TO DRAM ARCHIVE OF PAST ISSUES + SA Issue 6: Five Questions with Nicolas Collins FIVE QUESTIONS WITH NICOLAS COLLINS Nic Collins: Photo by Viola Rusche New York born and raised, Nicolas Collins studied composition with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University, worked for many years with David Tudor, and has collaborated with numerous soloists and ensembles around the world. He lived most of the 1990s in Europe, where he was Visiting Artistic Director of Stichting STEIM (Amsterdam), and a DAAD composer-in-residence in Berlin. Since 1997 he has been editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Music Journal, and since 1999 a Professor in the Department of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His book, Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking (Routledge), has influenced emerging electronic music worldwide. Collins has the dubious distinction of having played at both CBGB and the Concertgebouw. Visit Nic at: www.nicolascollins.com ***** Five Questions with... is a feature of Sound American where I bother a very busy person until they answer a handful of queries around the issue's topic. This issue features composer, educator, and writer Nicolas Collins. Collins is best known for his ability to find music in the inner workings of everyday electronic objects. CD players become laser turntables, laptop motors create instant electronic music, and the laying of hands on circuits control unholy manipulations of children's toys. -
The Mincer by John Richards
22 00 00 88 -- online since 1993 ISSN NO : 1071 - 4391 The MIT Press Home > Journal > Essays > LEA-LMJ Special QUICK LINKS : Please select... vv oo l l 11 55 SEARCH LEA ii ss ss uu ee LEA E-JOURNAL GO TABLE OF CONTENTS LL oo ss t t aa nn dd FF oo uu nn dd : : t t hh ee MM i i nn cc ee r r 11 Advanced Search INTRODUCTION EDITOR'S NOTE LL oo ss t t aa nn dd FF oo uu nn dd : : t t hh ee MM i i nn cc ee r r Click here to download pdf version. GUEST EDITORIAL ESSAYS John Richards ANNOUNCEMENTS Music, Technology and Innovation Research :: GALLERY CentreSchool of Music :: RESOURCES De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK :: ARCHIVE U.K. :: ABOUT jrich [at] dmu [dot] ac [dot] uk :: CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.jsrichards.com KK ee yy ww oo r r dd s s Found art, live electronics, musical interface, DIY, bricolage, appropriation, gesture, feedback AA bb s s t t r r a a c c t t This paper discusses the author’s Mincer: an ‘evolved’ sound generating object of which the mechanical properties and physical material of a meat mincer (grinder) are exploited. Through looking at the Mincer in detail, the author suggests a number of characteristics of the device that reflect current trends within the field of live electronics. This includes working with and appropriating found objects, do-it-yourself (DIY) electronics, bricolage, an emphasis on physical gesture, and sound generating systems celebrating super-hybridity. -
Creative Musical Instrument Design
CREATIVE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT DESIGN: A report on experimental approaches, unusual creations and new concepts in the world of musical and sound instruments. A thesis submitted to the SAE Institute, London, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree in Recording Arts, awarded by Middlesex University. Author: Andrea Santini Student: 42792 Intake: RAD0503X Project Tutors: Christopher Hayne Darren Gash London, August 2004 c r e a t i v e m u s i c a l i n s t r u m e n t d e s i g n Abstract The following document presents the results of an investigation into the current reality of creative musical-instrument and sound-instrument design. The focus of this research is on acoustic and electro-acoustic devices only, sound sources involving oscillators, synthesis and sampling, be it analogue or digital, have therefore been excluded. Also, even though occasional reference will be made to historical and ‘ethnical’ instruments, they will not be treated as a core issue, the attention being primarily centered on contemporary creations. The study includes an overview of the most relevant “sonic creations” encountered in the research and chosen as representative examples to discuss the following aspects: o Interaction between body and instrument. o Sonic Space o Tuning and layout of pitches o Shapes, materials and elements o Sonic objects, noise and inharmonic sources o Aesthetics: sound instruments as art objects o Amplification and transducer technologies These where chosen to provide some degree of methodology during the research process and a coherent framework to the analysis of a subject which, due to its nature and to the scarcity of relevant studies, has unclear boundaries and a variety of possible interdisciplinary connections. -
A Radical and Hopeful Experiment in Early Music Education
Lauren Hayes Sound, Electronics, and Arts, Media, and Engineering Arizona State University Stauffer B, 950 South Forest Mall, Tempe, Music: A Radical and Arizona 85287, USA [email protected] Hopeful Experiment in Early Music Education Abstract: Discussions of pedagogical approaches to computer music are often rooted within the realm of higher education alone. This article describes Sound, Electronics, and Music, a large-scale project in which tutelage was provided on various topics related to sound and music technology to around 900 schoolchildren in Scotland in 2014 and 2015. Sixteen schools were involved, including two schools for additional support needs. The project engaged several expert musicians and researchers to deliver the different areas of the course. Topics included collective electroacoustic composition, hardware hacking, field recording, and improvisation. A particular emphasis was placed on providing a form of music education that would engender creative practice that was available to all, regardless of musical ability and background. The findings and outcomes of the project suggest that we should not be restricting to the university level the discussion of how to continue to educate future generations in the practices surrounding computer music. We may be failing to engage an age group that is growing readily familiar with the skills and vocabulary surrounding new technologies. Sound, Electronics, and Music was conceived as reasons, including “learning environment, family a ten-week program. The aim of the project was circumstances, disability or health need, and social to harness a latent potential for accessible music and emotional factors” (Scotland 2009). education, which could engage pupils regardless The curriculum was designed by the author, of their musical and socioeconomic backgrounds. -
Published Research in the Field of Experimental Music, 1988 – 2007
COMPOSING INSIDE ELECTRONICS Published research in the field of experimental music, 1988 – 2007 Nicolas Collins PhD by Publication University of East Anglia Department of Music September 2007 © Nicolas Collins This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author’s prior, written consent. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Summary of Critical Analysis 4 Musical Background 5 Survey of Published Research 10 “Imaginary Landscape – Electronics in Live Performance, 10 1939 and 1989” (1988) “Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room” (1990) 12 “Low Brass: The Evolution of Trombone-Propelled 13 Electronics” (1991) “Ubiquitous Electronics – Technology and Live Performance, 16 1966 – 1996” (1996) Creating Music: New Instrument Design (1997) and “My First 19 Sony” (2003) “The Fly in the Ointment: Proto-Web Music by the Hub” 21 (1997) and “Of Mice And Men” (2002) Pfeifen im Walde (1994) 22 Leonardo Music Journal (1998 – present) 24 “At The Tone The Time Will Be...” (1999) 27 Noisy.org (2000) 29 “All This And Brains Too -- Thirty Years of Howling Round” 30 (2002) A Call For Silence (2003) 31 “Remixing the Remix – or How to Be in the Right Place at the 32 Wrong Time -- Twice” (2003) “Sound For Picture: Teaching Music in Art School” (2003) 33 Handmade Electronic Music -- the Art of Hardware Hacking 34 (2006) “Live Electronic Music” (2006) 39 Conclusion 41 Selected Bibliography and Discography 42 References 47 Collins 2 INTRODUCTION This document is a survey and analysis of my research and publications, submitted together with selected published works covering a twenty year period, for evaluation for the PhD by Publication in the Department of Music at the University of East Anglia. -
Hacking Through Contemporary Electronic Music an Interview with Nicolas Collins
Hacking Through Contemporary Electronic Music An interview with Nicolas Collins By Clément Canonne With electronic music comes the possibility of hacking instruments. How does hacking affect musical instruments and the ways of playing them? In this interview, Nic Collins, a pioneer in musical hacking, describes his journey at the crossroads of experimental music, computer music and sound art. Nicolas Collins is Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Influenced by Alvin Lucier, David Tudor and punk culture, his work is at the intersection of experimental music, computer music, and sound art. During his career, he invented numerous musical devices by hijacking or altering existing technologies: CD players that play the sound produced by a disc when it is paused (Broken Light, 1991); attached to a trombone, a signal processing system that combines a digital reverb and a Commodore 64 motherboard (Tobabo Fonio, 1986); or discarded electronic circuits “reanimated” by probes that interact with other electronic components to create feedback (Salvage, 2008). He also wrote Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking (Routledge, 2009), an influential introduction to the world of musical hacking. Books&Ideas: How and when did you become interested in music? Nicolas Collins: Both my parents were art-oriented, so I grew up in New York in the 60s with a deep immersion in the art world—that was where they took their children instead of the circus. It was galleries of avant-garde art, Jean Tinguely and stuff like that; they were very interested in technological art. I got interested in music in high school, it was from 68 to 72— I think it may have had as much to do with the idea of being anti-something as for- something. -
Analog Electronics and Circuit Bending
Chapter 14. Meeting 14, Practices: Analog Electronics and Circuit Bending 14.1. Announcements • Controller/Interface/Instrument Design 1: comments and grades this weekend • Due Wednesday 6 April: Controller/Interface/Instrument Design 2 Proposal • Due Wednesday 13 April: Performance Frameworks Draft Must email me now with special requests for groups 14.2. Quiz Review • ? 14.3. Reading: Ghazala, The Folk Music of Chance Electronics: Circuit-Bending the Modern Coconut • Ghazala, Q. R. 2004. “The Folk Music of Chance Electronics: Circuit-Bending the Modern Coconut.” Leonardo Music Journal 14(1): pp. 97-104. • How did Ghazala get started building instruments? • What are the basic techniques of chance electronics? • What is Ghazala’s notion of the immediate canvas? • How is the coconut a useful metaphor for building new instruments? • For Ghazala, what are living instruments? • Why might Ghazala’s approach be seen as a democratization of music making? 14.4. Reading: Collins, Handmade Electronic Music • Collins, N. 2009. Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. • Laying of hands: radios, circuit boards • The cracklebox 141 • Adjusting, replacing, and manipulating clocks in toys • Using potentiometers, photoresistors, and alternative electrodes • Circuit bending: the difference between bent and hacked? 14.5. Hardware Hacking: Mini Telharmonium • Materials: DC Motor, amplifier, aligator clips • Motor creates pulses that, when fast enough, produce a tone 142 143 • Variation: jumping speaker; using a speaker as a microphone 144 14.6. Hardware Hacking: Electromagnetic Transduction • Materials: Tape head, phonograph cartridge, guitar pickup, amplifier, aligator clips • Can read magnetic variations and transduce vibrations • Guitar pickup and iPhone 145 • Tape heads and ID cards 146 14.7. -
The Gatorra: a Technologically Disobedient Instrument for Protest Music
2018.xCoAx.org 6th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X Madrid, Spain José Guilherme Allen Lima [email protected] NuSom/USP, São Paulo, Brazil The Gatorra: a Technologically Disobedient Instrument for Protest Music Keywords: Circuit Bending; Hardware Hacking; Gatorra; Experimental Music; Electronic Music. Abstract: The present paper is an introduction to the Gatorra, an electronic experi- mental instrument developed in southern Brazil by builder and musical artist Tony da Gatorra. The author presents some of the findings from origi- nal research on its circuit design and its origins, in relation to similar de- signs of electronic circuitry made popular in hobbyist and DIY magazines. References are also discussed to establish a theoretical framework to be used as a basis of an analysis of this production in further works, using Reed Ghazala’s notion of Threshold of invention as a starting point. 1. Lyrics of “Meu nome é Tony”, by Tony da “My name is Tony and I’ve built an instrument, To speak, to express myself and to protest”1 Gatorra and Bruno Ramos. Fig. 1. Still from the videoclip for “Meu nome é Tony”. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. The artist 2. Esteio is located around 20 miles north of The Gatorra is the brainchild of one Antônio Carlos Correia de Moura, born on August Porto Alegre, with a population of about 80 rd thousand and a HDI of 0,842, which is 3 , 1951 in Cachoeira do Sul, a small city about 150 miles west of Porto Alegre, capital considered high. Tony, however, lives in one of the southernmost state in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. -
The Development of !Trumpet
NICOLAS COLLINS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE !TRUMPET1 INTRODUCTION The !trumpet is software synthesis system controlled from, and playing back through, a trumpet. It is not an electronically extended trumpet (like those of Ben Neill, Axel Dörner or Jonathan Impett, among others): the player produces no acoustic sounds by blowing through the mouthpiece. Instead, breath pressure and valve movement on the brass instrument are read by an embedded Arduino microcontroller and sent to a laptop, where the data is mapped onto various parameters in synthesis software; the resulting electronic sound is returned to the trumpet, where it plays through a loudspeaker inside the bell, and is further processed acoustically by valve position (changes in the length of tubing filter the speaker output), movement of a plunger mute (wah-wah style filtering), and orientation of the instrument in space (panning). The built-in speaker gives the !trumpet a self-contained acoustic quality, rare among electronic instruments, that blends well with more conventional instruments on stage. The speaker is constrained to the bandwidth of a conventional trumpet (mid- to high-frequencies), but the performer can direct a full-range signal to stereo line outputs for connection to a PA system when bass frequencies or higher sound levels are desired. The mute contains seven momentary switches for controlling various functions in the software. Switch closures are sent to the Arduino on the trumpet body via an infrared link (similar to a TV remote control). Two additional momentary switches, mounted on the trumpet itself, control the routing of the audio to the built-in speaker and the line output. -
Computer Bending'' and ``Circuit Vacuuming'
Proposing “Computer Bending” and “Circuit Vacuuming” as Techniques in Experimental Music Edgar Berdahl Anthony T. Marasco Louisiana State University Louisiana State University [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT be broken. Some tricks can be used to help avoid damag- ing the circuits being bent. For starters, both Ghazala and “Computer Bending” is proposed as an experimental tech- Collins recommend only hacking with battery-powered de- nique in which a performer uses a computer to carry out vices (this is also for safety) [1,2]. Moreover, Ghazala rec- computations of some social significance, while subverting ommends bending circuits that operate at only 6 or fewer the operation of the hardware or software and listening to volts — he reports that in his experience, this significantly the state of the computer as an audio signal at the audio reduces the risk of applying too much voltage to sensitive sampling rate. This technique is illustrated using a musi- components. For similar reasons, he also recommends not cal example in which a Raspberry Pi is analyzing gravity connecting wires too closely to the highest potential of the wave data. battery pack [1]. Nonetheless, when engaging in circuit Also, in contrast with circuit sniffing, it is suggested that bending, it is advisable to have multiple (ideally identical) “Circuit Vacuuming” can be a fruitful enhancement. In devices on hand, so that if one of them gets damaged, one Circuit Vacuuming, the state of a computer or circuit is can try moving on to the next device. measured or estimated in a large number of points, to be used for listening over a multichannel loudspeaker setup.