things I made at ITP and after: sketches, prototypes, and other documentation
Taking a look back at the breadboarded circuit always turns up something I’ve neglected on the schematic: in this case, it’s the vibrating motor.
I’m also a little concerned; I haven’t heard the amplified sound from the MP3 player through a circuit we had on another breadboard.
Work continues on the schematic for Dust. I have spent hours in Eagle drawing this thing.
Design Questions:
I also started creating a PCB design. I want to print it out this afternoon to see the physical size and see if this corresponds with the size we want to make the wearable item.
My friend Mark P. Sullivan always said he wanted to make windchimes with all of the dead hard disk drives he had collected over the years. This came back to me as we struggled to find ways to make music with tops, so I started disassembling all of the broken drives I could find to listen to the sound of the platters
Case Mods
We modified our original protoype using one of the disk platters. Several small screws were placed within a cavity in the top beneath the platter in the hopes of making a sweet ringing sound. This was not successful. The centripetal / centrifugal (I always confuse them) force kept the screws jammed against the walls of the top as it spun so it didn’t make any sound.
This is the best spinning top we have so far. Its proportions are comparable top those given in an article we found about machining tops from aluminum.
Whistling… Not Quite
I tried to drill holes in the platters, thinking it might be possible to get a whistling sound as the top spun. The only sound I produced was a pop as the platter shattered. It appears that the disk platters are not metals as I thought. They shatter like glass.
I constructed another test top out of a metal cone from a ceiling-mounted air vent we found on the junk shelf. I did my best to match the “ideal” top proportions.
This one doesn’t spin very well — and is quite dangerous when launched from the power drill.
The Audio Art class will present a show of our work on the 9th Floor of the Tisch Building on Sunday, April 29th from 5-8pm. Email me for further details.
On Saturday, Shlomit and I built another prototype of our audio art installation.
We went to Home Depot in search of bamboo and springs, but came back with 1/2″ (ID) PVC and cast iron flanges.
The bamboo remains a cost-effective option ($1.79 for a package of 4-5 x 5′ stalks).
We attached 3/4″ x 1/2″ reducing adapters onto one end of ~5′ x 1/2″ (i.d.) PVC pipes and screwed them into a 3/4″ flanges mounted on a sheet of plywood. We painted the PVC poles hunter green to loosely reference a field of tall grass.
We created the prototype with two poles on it to see how the poles would flex as people move through them.
It was a great day to work outside and we were pleased with the progress we made.
Construction Lessons
- When cutting plywood, cut through the side you wish to display so the ragged edges are hidden
- Plan the flange installation better so the holes will line up on the top and bottom playwood pieces
- We will need to custom cut a 4′x8′ plywood sheet to get the 6′x3′ installation we want
Sound
We made further progress as we began to discuss the sound of the field. Both of us were drawn to the opening bars of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The was some initial confusion about whether we were listening to the “Rite of Spring” or the “Firebird Suite”, but I resolved that as of this writing. The solo oboe (or perhaps clarinet?) provides a mysterious sonic backdrop for exploring a new space. We plan to edit a small sample from the first track and control its playback using the sensors we are planning to attach to the PVC poles. As users enter the installation, they will have the opportunity to push their way through our sound field. Each subsequent PVC pole they push will play the next piece of the sample we’ve chosen. If they walk push through the field at the right speed (according to the mood of the selected piece), they will hear the melody as they move.
Design
Top Design Principles
Machining Tops from Aluminum Stock
Beautifully Handcrafted Tops
Paper Clip Top
History
Where did the Spinning Top Come From
Every possible way to slice up the properties and names of tops….
Movies
The sounds Ian Russell gets out of his tops are quite diverse considering he is only using a ribbed wooden fruit bowl as a resonator.
Glossary
shaft – stem, peg
body
center of mass
axis
Alice Planas and I have been investigating the idea of speech as music. The following is a summary of our in-class presentation from Friday, April 6.
Why?
- We’ve both done field recordings
- Alice interested in the creative potential in the raw content she’s been capturing
- I want to see what can be done compositionally with speech as a “generator,” for melody; many people seem to have musical voices
Process
- Tried two approaches initially: compositional & computational
- Attempted to write melodies from in-class recordings by listening and transcribing. This is time-consuming — and made further difficult by the distraction of the meaning of the spoken words. Perhaps it is easier when you don’t know the people who are speaking or don’t care about the content of the discussion… but in our case we were too close.
- Attempted to create a pitch-following patch in MAX/MSP. The idea behind pitch-following was to separate the frequency spectrum into separate slots – ideally a half-step apart and then track which slot had the greatest energy level.
Pitch-Following Resources
- Fiddle – MAX/MSP patch for continuous pitch tracking
- Paper: Strategies for Continuous Pitch and Amplitude Tracking in Realtime Interactive Improvisation Software
- My earlier experiments
Listening Selections
Larry Austin – 3 tracks audio portrait of Joan La Barabara (obtained at Avery Fischer Media Center in Bobst Library)
Joan La Barbara – 73 poems
Thomas Buckner – “His Tone of Voice at 37″
Paul DeMarinis – Music as a second Language:“An Appeal”
Laurie Anderson – “NY Social Life” (requires NYU ID/password)
Bobby McFerrin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtXrKo8Btfc
It’s that time again: ITP Spring Show 2007
Come see what we’ve been up to all semester. Bring the family.
Tuesday, May 8, 5-9 pm
Wednesday, May 9, 5-9 pm
Continuing in the process of creating expressive personal objects, I performed a piece called “Spinning Out of Control”. I was working to express the feeling of anxiety that comes from trying to keep too many facets of life spinning simultaneously without assistance.
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