Artists' Statements
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LEOMJ17_pp029-050.ps - 10/29/2007 8:55 AM Artists’ Statements is crucial; this is something crocodile removed one by one and the connec- CLIP ART clips are very good for. tions soldered. Even at this stage, Phil Archer, 61 Wymer Street, When building (admittedly very a set of crocodile clips has its uses. Does Norwich NR2 4BJ, U.K. simple) circuits from scratch, I instinc- a connection need to be held in place E-mail: <[email protected]>. tively prefer to employ a Peter Vogel while it is soldered? Use crocodile clips. [1] approach, in which components are Are components getting too hot for the Sound examples and photographs related to soldered together directly, bypassing fingers? Use crocodile clips. Also, when this article are available at <www.philarcher any breadboard or circuit board. Mov- it is time to record the new creation for .net>. ing all the necessary components from posterity and that minijack-to-XLR breadboard to circuit board has always converter cannot be found—break out I was initially unsure whether these seemed too much like hard work, and the crocodile clips and connect them glorified strips of wire were worthy I worry that my euphoria at creating a directly. of the title “gizmo,” but my reliance working circuit will cause a lapse in Circuit-bending requires a similar on them in my work outweighed any concentration as I attempt to rebuild it. flexibility—whether in exploring the doubts in the end. The “crocodile clip” Instead, in the prototyping and test- circuit board in a live performance or or “alligator clip” is possibly one of the ing stage of construction, crocodile searching for bends to permanently most useful and elemental pieces of clips hold all the elements in place, build into the device, a crocodile clip equipment in my toolbox, employed often gripping multiple components in or two make useful hunting compan- in various ways during the creation their maw. Elements can be exchanged, ions. Once one set of jaws has clamped of a work. points can be bridged and even entire itself around the leg of a chip, the My practice is heavily centered on separate circuits integrated in a snap. other head is free to roam (clasping a circuit-bending and hardware hack- These works in progress are fragile and resistor between its teeth if one is not ing—the creative modification and ephemeral constructions, relying on feeling too reckless), tracking down appropriation of existing objects to the strength of springs rather than other interesting points to bridge. entice the unexpected from the famil- copper tracks to preserve them from As interrelationships are formed iar. In such hands-on electronics, the collapse. among homemade circuitry, modified ability to make and break connections It is always with a slight sense of sad- consumer electronics and end users, between components quickly and easily ness (and trepidation) that the clips are these qualities of flexibility, ephemeral- Fig. 1. Phil Archer, work in progress, alligator clips and components, 2007. (Photo © Phil Archer) ©2007 ISAST LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 17, pp. 29–50, 2007 29 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/lmj.2007.17.44b by guest on 03 October 2021 LEOMJ17_pp029-050.ps - 10/29/2007 8:55 AM ity and fragility also permeate the work interest over recent years. For many in will also allow an audio line-in if the produced. A hardware-hacking, circuit- the field, the proliferation of cheap intention is to process sound through bending approach to music brings with audio hardware devices and the poten- the loop. it the realization that no connection, tial sonic complexities found in multi- An additional sonic feature of the circuit or object is monolithic; nothing processor DSP chips have opened new connectors can be described as dirty is ever “finished” or too sacred to be possibilities. With the use of cheap cross modulation. It relies on the non- reworked or incorporated into another molded plastic Y connectors, I have linear modulations that occur when the system. Any component could easily be rejuvenated and reinvented just about output of two or more of the above connected to any other component, all my studio equipment new and old setups are squashed into the same input any circuit to another circuit; every- and accessed a rich interactive relation- of another piece of hardware (ampli- thing becomes a potential element in ship with the resulting electronic feed- fier, mixer, EQ, etc.) through Y connec- a network of new configurations and back. tors. The level of interference from relationships. By wrongly wiring any piece of audio each signal, and the resultant mix of hardware, a sometimes-vast palette of the composite signal, is an unstable Note sonic activity can be discovered. Singu- balance of the input signal levels. Vary- lar dynamic processors or equalizers ing connector formats are available 1. Peter Vogel is a pioneer of interactive sculptural electronics whose works emphasize the aesthetic with the audio output connected to the to accommodate different jack sizes, qualities of electronic components and circuits. audio input create what I call “guerrilla but added spectral coloration can be oscillators.” My notion of raw synthesis gained when using stereo versions, as Phil Archer completed a Ph.D. in composition involves either more objects in the loop they sometimes cause comb filtering or at the University of East Anglia in 2004 and chain or the out-to-in connection of other phase-related artifacts, or simply is currently working at the Norwich School of more complex DSP-based processors, confuse balanced in/outputs. Art and Design. His main areas of interest are allowing multiple effects to be inter- Of course it is possible to use the circuit-bending and hardware hacking, the creation of electro-mechanical musical in- nally chained and configured. To access Tudoresque approach of running the struments and interfaces, and the use of these the sounds created by such an act, one inputs and outputs of many objects into in live performance situations. needs a “tap” out from the closed cir- a mixing matrix that can create and cuit loop. The use of a Y connector at access a number of potential feedback the output jack stage provides this (Fig. loop points and routings to a master AUDIO Y CONNECTORS: 2). A further connector on the input output. Another option is to use a MY SECRET FOR INSTANT GUERRILLA OSCILLATORS, AW YNTHESIS AND IRTY R S D Fig. 2. A three-band parametric equalizer and a simple distortion pedal each create guerrilla CROSS MODULATIONS oscillators by connecting output to input, using Y connectors to access resulting sonic activ- Andy Keep, Department of Music, ity. (Photo © Andy Keep) Both outputs are combined in a further Y connector at the input to a mini amplifier, creating potential dirty cross modulation in this small modular feedback Bath Spa University, Newton instrument. St Loe, Bath BA2 9BN, U.K. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Perhaps I am overly enthusiastic about audio Y connectors, but I have realized that nearly all my performance and research over the last 5 years has been made possible because of them. It is not that I think they are aesthetically pleas- ing in themselves, even though I have a small collection on every desktop, shelf and workbench in my home and studio. Some have been lying around since the 1980s, when I used to try and squeeze as much action as I could from a few cheap pieces of music technology. Now I use lots of them, as the core configu- ration element in creating instant non- linear performance instruments and processors that exploit electronic feed- back. Live electronics entered an exciting post-digital phase with the possibilities created by the mixing and matching of any era or technology of audio equip- ment to create unique modular per- formance environments. Both live electronics and the use of electronic feedback have received much renewed 30 Artists’ Statements Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/lmj.2007.17.44b by guest on 03 October 2021 LEOMJ17_pp029-050.ps - 10/29/2007 8:55 AM soldering iron and create custom hard- wired looping components or objects. However, the Y connector offers access to any discrete loops for modular per- formance or any interrelated configura- tions. This allows for fluid potential topologies of electronic feedback instruments that can be explored, configured and reconfigured easily during performance. It is also a really quick way to assess potential instrumen- talization of any piece of hardware when searching through old equipment that has been stored in the back of the studio or garage for years. Used surrep- titiously, this method can be very useful when looking to purchase any bargain or second-hand equipment, so I recom- mend: Always keep a short jack lead Fig. 3. John Wynne’s father’s hearing aids, 2007. (Photo © John Wynne) and a Y connector in one’s pocket. Andy Keep is a U.K.-based performer of live sations we assumed he would not be Feedback issue of Resonance magazine electronics, in the closing stage of practice-led able to hear without his hearing aids, (2002), but the general perception of doctoral research into “Responsive Perfor- although we may previously have been feedback is overwhelmingly negative. mance Strategies with Electronic Feedback.” He is also a senior lecturer and teaching fel- misled by the selective nature of his In a recent study at Salford University, low at Bath Spa University, designing and hearing loss when he was at home. it took second place only to vomiting teaching fluid approaches to performance and Just handling these objects makes in a list of the sounds people found composition using a wide range of audio tech- you feel old: your fingers seem clumsy most upsetting or irritating.