Dylan E. Turney

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale,...

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:56:42 +1300

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”, from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

For related content, please view the full “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” program at our website.

Thoughts On Final Exhibition

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:15:00 +1300

So it once again has come to that time of the year where we need to present our work for the tutors. I have hence teamed up with Nick to present our Cinematic Flaneur project.

We thought it necessary to have our camera rig on display, especially since Nick put the time in to polishing it up for presentation. Unlike many of our contaminates, we have set up a projector as opposed to using a TV. In retrospect I actually prefer this format as it only seems natural to show a film from a projector.

The pressure around to putting together the installation was quite a ride, from printing and designing our conceptual statement to finishing off the SolidWorks drawing to installing the projector in the roof!

Make sure you check it out this Thursday! Nick and I are very proud of the installation.

Binding Lights ‘Binding Lights’ is a short...

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:14:00 +1300

Binding Lights

‘Binding Lights’ is a short experimental film about the personification of the Auckland CBD during the late hours of the night.

The film itself is an encapsulation what the city is on a personified level, but not through it’s population, but through the static presence of architecture and advertising. Filmed during the late hours of the night, once the majority of the population were removed from the situation and the absence of natural sunlight, it becomes abundantly the impact artificial lighting has on the city.

Through artificial lighting, the city literally begins to make light of how it wants to be portrayed, whether this be through the bombardment of neon advertisements, the lighting of architecture it deems beautiful or simply lighting up areas to create a sense of safety.

But much like humans portray themselves on various social networking sites, the city places higher emphasis on illuminating areas that are deemed worthy, and lesser to no illumination on the areas that the city wishes to draw your attention away from.

Filmed using a similar setup to Stereostopic 3D, this allows to present the film in a unique way that allows the use of experimental framing, by doing this the viewer can see very different levels of detail from two different streams of video. This helps place emphasis on the well illuminated and lesser illuminated areas simultaneously by allowing the viewer to see the same area, from two different levels of zoom.

The background sounds from the footage are left by most part in tact, as the noises created by the population that reside within the city an essential part of the piece. Because despite the film being about the prominence of selective lighting, the city is also personified by the noises that are made within it, but not to the same selective effect of artificial lighting.

Music: ‘VCR’ by The XX

7pm Thursday, 4th NovemberGround floor, AUT Tower (WT),...

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:54:36 +1300

7pm Thursday, 4th November
Ground floor, AUT Tower (WT), Rutland St, CBD, Auckland

Come join Year One, Bachelor Of Creative Technology students as we celebrate and exhibit our work from the semester.

There will be a variety of experimental films, live performances and audio installations to view and interact with and this is an excellent chance to ask the students about their body of work.

We hope to see you all there, it’s an open invite so feel free to bring anyone that’s interested!

Facebook Event

I am pleased to preview ‘Dead Drops’ a new project which I...

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:55:02 +1300

I am pleased to preview ‘Dead Drops’ a new project which I started off as part of my ongoing EYEBEAM residency in NYC the last couple weeks. ‘Dead Drops’ is an anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space. I am ‘injecting’ USB flash drives into walls, buildings and curbs accessable to anybody in public space. You are invited to go to these places (so far 5 in NYC) to drop or find files on a dead drop. Plug your laptop to a wall, house or pole to share your files and date. Each dead drop contains a readme.txt file explaining the project. ‘Dead Drops’ is still in progress, to be continued here and in more cities. Full documentation, movie, map and ‘How to make your own dead drop’ manual coming soon! Stay tuned.

Dead drop (Wikipedia)

In the meanwhile drop some files here!

87 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY (Makerbot)Empire Fulton Ferry Park, Brooklyn, NY (Dumbo)235 Bowery, NY (New Museum)Union Square, NY (Subway Station 14th St)West 21st Street, NY (Eyebeam)

An extremely interesting piece of work which in turn is also a social experiment. Would be awesome to implement something similar like this in New Zealand.

Post Aural Terrain Thoughts

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:56:53 +1300

I found the ‘Aural Terrains’ a difficult project to truly comprehend. Understanding sound proved to be more difficult than I originally imagined, as I never really thought of sound as something outside of traditional music. However over the four weeks I soon discovered that the world of sound is far more expansive than I originally expected.

I found the world of sound almost captivating on how it can be perceived in completely different ways, such as improvisation. I originally thought improvisation was simply building upon music while you were actively playing it. But after a while I soon discovered that improvisation is so much more, anything from timing to singing notes and bouncing noises off each other.

I have also become far more appreciative of noises that often go unheard from day to day life, and how even though we block them out on a day-to-day basis, some of these noises are completely beautiful and captivating. Editing these noises together to supplement each other proved to be an interesting exercise and really opened my mind up to the concept of sound at.

As for circuit bending I probably found that the most difficult from a technical aspect, soldering the components together was simply frustrating. However the palette discovered through experimentation using different materials in conjunction with the circuit bending was quite vast, it proved to be a great foundation for working on my final performance.

Whilst experimenting at home, I discovered that placing the microphone in my mouth could create more unique sounds. This resulted in a wide range of unique and often unheard noises. In conjunction with materials that I placed inside my mouth in conjunction with the microphone an interesting palette of sound art was created. One of these was via the use of Berocca tablets, which created an interesting fizzing noise, which was the basis for my final performance.

Although my performance didn’t proceed the way I had hoped, it did prove the point that audio performances can be technically challenging and that Risk management is extremely important. In future I will try be more thorough in my preparation of presentations to create a more diverse, well realized and fully functioning performance for the audience.

Aural Examination This was my final piece for the Aural Terrains...

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 12:26:45 +1300

Aural Examination

This was my final piece for the Aural Terrains project, although it didn’t turn out exactly like I hoped it did create some compelling and interesting noises. It’s just a shame the volume needs to be turned right up to be able to hear it.

Music By Numbers This is my final piece for my ‘Maths And...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:22:19 +1300

Music By Numbers

This is my final piece for my ‘Maths And Art’ project. The reason I coined this piece ‘Music By Numbers’ was down to the fact that the music itself had absolutely no traditional foundation. The glass harp was tuned by the golden ratio, so none of the wine glasses even identified to a traditional note.

The composition of the piece is quite compelling, it starts of quite slowly using a very simple pattern and carries on with these very basic patterns right through until the 40 second mark. From this point on we move into the second section of the piece, which has been divided by the golden ratio. For the second section the notes were arranged using the Fibonacci Number pattern. This was also used for the timing for part of the arrangement.

I am unsure why, but during in the middle of the piece where the tempo is picked up it almost sounds like a techno beat or a high speed guitar riff.

Although recorded outside, I rerecorded the wine glasses inside for a crisper sound. I am annoyed I didn’t anticipate needing a Zoom audio device, as it would of been good to get the best quality sound.

Overall I am mostly happy with this final piece, it elaborated on a point I made in my essay about the relationship between Maths and Music and how the two are dependent on each other. Although after the creation of this piece I am not entirely sure, as the piece had not traditional musical construct but yet at times sounded melodic.

One unexpected result was that of the clicking between the note changes, although ultimately unintentional, it created a quite nice sense of beat and structure for the song. As for the golden ratio to divide the two sections, I’m not sure if it was all that successful from a creative stand point, but it still worked seamlessly into the piece.

Resonating Wine Glass, From Physics To Art Here is a combined...

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:51:47 +1300

Resonating Wine Glass, From Physics To Art

Here is a combined image of all the the different wave images created in sound booth combined in Photoshop to create an interesting piece of work.

Resonance Of Wine Glasses, Visualized Here is a visual...

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:46:00 +1300

Glass #1

Glass #2

Glass #3

Glass #4

Glass #5

Glass #6

Resonance Of Wine Glasses, Visualized

Here is a visual representation of the wineglasses that have been rendered in Adobe Soundbooth. It is extremely interesting the different patterns that emerge through each glass.

Glass #1 is the lowest note (with the most water) and Glass #6 is the highest note (with the least water).

Click here for higher resolution photos.

Resonating Wine Glass, Tuned Using The Golden RatioTest This is...

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 02:32:00 +1300

Resonating Wine Glass, Tuned Using The Golden Ratio
Test

This is a small test I did to test out the concept of a series of wine glasses tuned using the golden ratio. Ultimately I think it was a successful concept with the wine glasses singing at the required fidelity that was required.

It will be interesting to see how it all fits in with the final composition in which I’ll film tomorrow. It will be hard to judge if in reality it will work convincingly. I might have to implement a stop motion editing technique to make the piece enjoyable and up beat.

I am excited to see how this will all come together tomorrow! Hopefully even with the lack of mathematical structure it still comes off as enjoyable.

An incredible performance of an arrangement of J.S. Bach’s...

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:24:38 +1300

An incredible performance of an arrangement of J.S. Bach’s ‘Toccata and fugue in D minor’ played on a glass harp.

As the wine glasses I will be working with aren’t crystal wine glasses which are the glasses that create a crisp and beautiful sound, I will instead be using a different approach of gently hitting the side of the wine glass with a thin knife.

Although this sound is more direct, it shall be equally effective in demonstrating the aspects of my practical assignment that I will be trying to portray.

Thoughts On Resonating Wine Glasses

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:13:00 +1300

Using wine glasses I plan to create a version of a glass harp, by adding different volumes of water to each glass to create a variety of notes. Once I have created the glass harp I plan on creating an original composition using the golden ratio to structure the piece.

With no experience at composing a piece or any perceived musical talent, this may prove difficult. Although for the purposes of the project it is not completely necessary for the piece to sound amazing, only to make light of the fact that both mathematics and art can be used effectively in a creative practice.

Although after re-reading the brief I might have to augment my original concept somewhat so I am merely not replicating the work done by Pockrich. Although I am yet unsure in which direction I shall take the glass harp to make it my own, I would like to experiment manipulating the boundaries between the limitations of both mathematics and music and the impact that they have on each other.

Mathematics & Music

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:01:20 +1300

Mathematics & Music:

My Essay for my Mathematics & Art paper. Click through to download.

Intrigued by the world of medicine and technology, young Dutch...

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:15:27 +1300

Intrigued by the world of medicine and technology, young Dutch artist, Karina van Heck’s latest piece of work is a body speaker, which allows you to listen to the sounds of your internal body. Appropriately titled Body Speaker, it uses sound capturing membranes on to the skin to feed internal bodily sounds to a control system, allowing users not only to listen to their internal sounds but remix them too. This existential endeavor attempts to emphasize the importance of becoming aware of our existence and bodily condition. In Heck’s artist statement she further discusses the ideas behind the piece:

I’m inspired by the fact that we can easily look inside the human body. X-ray and CT-technology scan our body from the inside. We can lead minuscule camera’s into the body and it’s possible to get information about our organs, muscles and bones by electrodes producing readable data. Currently more and more medical equipment is being produced which workings create an illusion of medical solutions but show no scientifically proven effects.  The absurdity of the functions and designs of such equipment has been the inspiration for the ‘Body speaker’. The concept, aesthetic and the functionality are the focal points of the installation…

The sounds, produced by our own body have a function. By hearing the sounds from our own body we become aware of our own existence and the condition and necessities of our body. In times of stress we tend not to listen to our bodies quite enough. We take our bodies for granted, thinking it will keep functioning without having to be programmed. However, your body can tell you everything you need to know. Just learn to listen.

Body Speaker is currently part of a group show entitled “Pretty Smart Textiles”, which exhibits work that pertains to the intersection of design, fashion, art and technology.Pretty Smart Textiles is being exhibited at the Hague in the Netherlands until June 24th.

The Sonic Body is a newly commissioned audio-installation that...

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 13:04:07 +1300

The Sonic Body is a newly commissioned audio-installation that uses interactive technology to create an orchestra of the human body, with sounds recorded from organs, muscles, veins and bones. Developed as a collaboration between four interdisciplinary artists and a heart surgeon, the installation brings together art and medical-science to reveal the un-heard sounds of the body.

More at http://www.sonicbody.co.uk

What happens when you get four artists and one heart surgeon in a room together? A very bizarre exhibition about the inner sounds of the human body.

Our Group Performance As mentioned in a prior post, this was the...

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:43:15 +1300

Our Group Performance

As mentioned in a prior post, this was the group performance using our digital devices.

Special thanks to Robert Carter for uploading this.

Stray Thoughts On Audio

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:47:35 +1300

Over the past couple of weeks we have been experimenting with sound and how it can be used. Within the prior week we have been using circuit bending with the the use of microphones, speakers with a bunch of resistors and capacitors to create unique and interesting sounds.

We were then put into groups last Friday to perform an improvised piece together, our team had to gauge off each other using our ears to work out some sort of structure and composition on the fly. I found the whole process quite amazing how using four different people with four different electronic instruments could make a composition which was enjoyable to listen tom through the bass, treble and high pitched noises which covered the wide range of spectrum of sound.

Some of the high pitched noises played by some of my contemporaries were quite high pitched were quite unsettling and I didn’t enjoy them as some of the more interesting lower pitched noises.

The following week we have started exploring the idea of alternative sounds. One example was that where our whole class breathed in than sang a note for as long as they could, whilst doing that we were all listening to notes that we liked then sang those notes the next time round. This created a really interesting dynamic with all the different aural like noises that constantly changed and altered dynamically.

The next example we did involved a timing game where the tutor demonstrated that timing too can be an example of improvisation. It made it very clear to me that improvisation has set clear rules that make improvisation not only sound good but can be fun and easy if you obey the rules.

I am starting to formulate some ideas for my final presentation next week which I am looking forward to experimenting with different ways I can make interesting compositions based on everything that I have already learned.

The Champ A small miniature amplifier.

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:36:02 +1300

The Champ

A small miniature amplifier.

Mixology This is one of the final screenshots of our...

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:01:20 +1300

Mixology

This is one of the final screenshots of our application. I was unable to get SQLite working effectively in this applications, so all the data was stored in a NSMutableArray, which meant it was unable to be edited by the end user.

I definitely found Coco Touch interesting as a language and hopefully will have a chance to develop my skills in the future.