Record Cuts (Third Assignment)

Our third assignment was based on some of Christian Marclay's work with cutting vinyl records and putting them together with others. I used a band saw and hot knife to cut mine and super glued them together.

I drilled new holes and made a Care Bears Christmas record play off-center. It didn't sound any weirder than the record normally does. I combined Barry Manilow, Bill Cosby, and Beethoven record together as well and made a few variations with those. I chose Barry Manilow to keep up with the theme of my handmade instrument project, "Manilow's Lap." Bill Cosby is a topical figure in the news lately as well and I thought it'd be interesting what spoken word would sound like with the two. Beethoven is also my favorite composer and his work also sounded interesting to combine with Manilow and Cosby.

The most difficult part of the project was getting the record cuts to line up perfectly and keep them glued together. The pops on the recording are due to some gaps between the cuts and from the glue residue. The recordings remind me of someone changing the radio constantly or switching between songs on an iPod.

(Barry Manilow and Bill Cosby)

 (Care Bears Christmas)

 (Beethoven and Barry Manilow)

 (Barry Manilow, Bill Cosby, and Beethoven)

“Clicks & Pops – Sound Art: New Only In Name” 9/10/15 (Lecture Response)

“Clicks & Pops – Sound Art: New Only In Name” 9/10/15 Lecture Response

Skye Evans

9/16/15

            The lecture panel began with Brett Van Hoesen discussing a bit of sound art history and talked about Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch, Dada, and the Fluxus movements. Many people in the audience seemed to have little knowledge of such topics and I was glad to finally attend a lecture where I understood what was going on. Jean-Paul Perrotte came up with the exhibition name “Clicks & Pops” from an experience in Germany trying to describe to a friend what his electronic sound art was.

            Jean-Paul Perrotte’s “Composition for EEG and Two Computers” from 2014 was the most interesting original composition that the panel talked about. I found it fascinating that he and Caplovitz were able to have brain activity trigger various sound and video effects. I was also amazed that they were able to perform it live on stage. Perrotte refers to it as a performance piece because it is meant to be seen and manipulated live in front of people; it’s not something you can record and listen to.

            Robert Morrison has been teaching at UNR for 40+ years and his work is sculpture-based. I liked how he talked about the objectivity involved with vision, space, and minimalism. Morrison’s brother was a performance artist and he was a big influence on Morrison’s own work. Morrison’s ideas on space were intriguing and really opened my mind a bit on thinking about reverberation and how to utilize it to make people experience different sounds based on where they stood.

            I’ve taken many classes from Louis Niebur so I had already heard about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and how Delia Derbyshire pioneered sound design in the 1960s. Niebur is more of a musicologist and historian rather than a composer. Regardless of having heard it before; I still enjoyed his small crash-course lesson in sound art and how it was a woman who took the reins.

            Tohm Judson is an ex-music professor from Colorado who is now a freelance artist. I was thoroughly bored with the discussion of his work due to his interest in music and video as time-based art. Judson must’ve said “time” no less than 200 times and his theoretical insight on time was something I had already heard plenty of times before and he added nothing new to the topic. I also disagree with his remark that, “Sit absorption is dying because it takes too long to appreciate anything.” This is from a guy who makes games and wants to encourage people to interact and experience the art.

Sit absorption may be dying in the gallery space where people are confused about how to interact with digital art but it certainly isn’t anywhere near dying in the household. Maybe Judson just needed to be more specific but many of his comments were so generalizing that I’m sure he meant to come off exactly how he had. Judson’s talk was the least engaging of the four and was certainly the most absurd.

            

"Manilow's Lap" - Make Your Own Instrument (Second Assignment)

8/31/15
For the assignment, we are supposed to use found objects to make a playable instrument. I didn't want to make something percussive since that's the easiest thing to do so I decided to try my hand at making a banjo.

I'm going to use an old tennis racket for the frame and neck, a basket for the resonating chamber, Barry Manilow & Johnny Mathis records to seal the chamber, and a Homeward Bound VHS tape as the drum head. I'll have to buy strings as well.

9/9/15
As of today, I've finished the instrument. I call it "Manilow's Lap." It has evolved a bit from my original idea. The VHS tape drumhead didn't work out so I used the Johnny Mathis record sleeve for the head and put Barry Manilow's face on top. I used a combination of old acoustic bronze and nylon strings. The tennis racket stayed out of shape so I used a bunch of zip ties to hold the resonating basket in place and to keep the racket's handle a specific size to attach the guitar neck.

I had to take off a guitar neck from my existing guitar in order to tune the strings and have a real neck. Miscellaneous wood pieces I cut on the band saw act as the bridge and holds the neck up. The bottom of a Pepsi cup keeps the instrument laying relatively flat on a table but it's easier to hold in your lap.

It's very delicate and seems like a one-and-done instrument. Using a Corona beer bottle neck as a slide is optional. It is tuned to open-G with a D in unison.

I'd like to say that it sounds good but I think the strings are too far away from Barry to have any real resonance so it sounds like an electric guitar without amplification. It's fun to play though and I'm glad I was at least able to make any sound with it at all after two weeks of work on it.

Music Concrete Loop (First Assignment)

For our first assignment, we were asked to record natural sounds we experience in our daily lives. These sounds were then combined through various looping mobile applications and played for the class and throughout the University of Nevada, Reno campus through handmade cardboard tubing.

The sounds that I recorded were walking up and down stairs, walking down a hallway, someone talking on a phone (unbeknownst to him), humming the "Doug" theme song, a clicking pen, and outdoor sounds. They were all combined in the Looper application at varying volumes.

The recording sounded better when they were played through real speakers. The differences in panning and the clarity made the sounds quite distinct and "loopable." When the recording was played in the cardboard tubing, the sounds were mashed together and lost the aspects that made it listenable. It sounded like a metal singer growling the entire time when it was in the tube.

When we walked around campus, I could really only hear my own recording since it was a deafening growl. The looks that people gave us were pretty funny and as a whole when we circled up, there was really a cacophony of sound.

The recording:

What it sounds like in the cardboard tube: