PULSE (2016)
ARTWORK
I21 4″ speakers are placed in a 7×3 lattice in a horizontal 40x120cm “sandwich” construction from two 12mm birch plywood panels, assembled with steel bolts and brass nuts and screws. An Arduino Mega drives the speakers, one at the time, with short identical 1,5ms DC pulses in a simple 21 step sequence, at a 1/16th subdivision tempo (130ms between each pulse). Audience can now “prepare” / “tune” / “color” the sound of each click with different everyday objects (See video), and build a rhythmic sequence. It was built from partly leftovers from another student installation project.
BACKGROUND
The installation was premiered at SONIC EVENT at the sound design school, SONIC COLLEGE in Denmark, where I teach courses on interactive sound design, sound design history and composition. The video is from tat event where both students and guests (more or less drunk:-) gives it a go. Someone forgot their houce ketys on one of the speaker cones.
ARTISTIC IDEA
The installation is sort of a musical instrument, or acoustic drum machine or compositional sequencer, that lets participators explore and/or work together to create something that is experienced as music. What might arise from this is first and foremost a funny experience, a musical, social experience and maybe a hightened awareness of the property of sound and everyday objects and physical materials.
Video from premiere at SONIC EVENT 2016 at SONIC COLLEGE, Denmark
