APD week 5 Play and Forces

This week the topic is Play and Forces. After the lesson, I have been thinking of forces that I was interested in. Then I think of playing with echo as an input force.

At first, I have tried to measure it in a physical format through vibration. It is related to some games that I have played, the tin can telephone and underground tunnel telephone in the playground when I was a child.

After doing research and consultation, I have decided to scale down the idea in an experimental and physical form of work. The design of the test is inspired by " Drawing Melody" (2016) which is designed by Manxue Wang. Players can use different external devices to input notes as designed. I have tried to sing the melody. Then I started to wonder if the output is reversed and transmitted as other sound effects or forms.

Manxue Wang. " Drawing Melody". 2016. https://experiments.withgoogle.com/drawing-melody

An echo is a form of vibration and collision within space. Literally, it is a form of a feedback of sound through repetition and amplification. Feedback of sounds has been used and recorded in many different projects and fields. It can be created from hitting or speaking. This gives me a direction to physically measure the feedback of sound for a weekly responses.

So I started by recording different feedback of sound and try to engage in its possibility through Ableton, and produce different soundtracks. The Ableton is connected to an external keyboard to jam different soundtracks.

I try to experiment with this force with Ableton.

Sound and music usually comes from musical instruments and mixing. Therefore, I try to experiment by making my own instruments to get different feedback of sound. Randomly, the sources are assigned to different keys in the keyboard each time.

Method:

Test 1 is to produce soundtracks while I was typing for assignments and daily work.

Soundtrack 1: use the feedback from the daily routine.

Soundtrack 2: use the feedback from different musical instruments.

Test 2.1: I will input the feedbacks from playing different instruments.

The output recorded while typing different random words/sentences:

"DOG, AS A DOG, TO EAT, EAT A DOG, EGG" etc

Records in : Play and Force

Response:

This week's project is not as good as expected. The variations of feedbacks from sound are not explored and developed deeply. However, the play of using the echo as a replacement of letters is an interesting idea that developed from test 2. A further interactive game could be developed through this idea. As we communicate, we often text or use voice messages. It then keeps me wondering if we can communicate with these concepts by using different feedbacks of sound. We can develop our own communication systems with our friends through different "morse codes" that we created with echoes.

The most difficult part is the design of the recording echo. It is hard to explore in the field as most works in the field are related to sound more than echo. T

The experiments are interesting as the output are unexpected each time. Similar to the play that I have played as a child, even though the objects or way of producing echo are controlled, the outputs are transformed and affected by other feedbacks from the environment. This is demonstrated through the test when output is recorded while specific sentences are typed through the keyboards. The concept could be developed further when the output is also an input source for the play. The interactions between echoes can generate new feedbacks as an interactive play among the echoes. The input in the keyboard acts as a catalyst to trigger different combinations between the feedbacks.

Sound Similar work has been engaged by Norbert Schnell in his work "Shaker" (2016). It also explores the idea of generating new output through sampling the feedbacks automatically. Peter Kirn's work "Feedboxes" (2016) also studies the forces from echo. The feedback loops and is converted within the chamber differently each time. The sounds are recreated and amplified in the champers.

References:

Routing and I/O — Ableton Reference Manual Version 11 | Ableton

https://www.ableton.com/en/trial/

Building a Drum Rack in Ableton LiveAbleton Live 10 for Beginners - How to Create a Drum Beat - YouTube

FEEDBOXES are autonomous sound toys that play along with you - CDM Create Digital Music