Project Evaluation

Project Details

Project Overview: This unit will be used to form part of my final masters project. For my final project I have decided to create a digital/analogue self-composing Glitch Orchestra that will be presented as an audio/visual art installation. The individual parts and elements of the orchestra will include the numerous glitch experiments that I will be testing in this self-negotiated unit.  

Final Masters Project Aim: To create a self-composing Glitch Orchestra that combines a variety of glitch based digital and analogue, audio and visual techniques. 

Project Aim (software development):

- To create a piece of audio/visual glitching software that can output glitched versions of pre-selected audio and visual works.

- To create a randomised patch that will communicate with am Arduino Interface to control all of the analogue elements of the orchestra.

Self-Negotiated Unit Aim: To research and experiment various audio and visual glitch techniques. Due to the large scope of this piece, I decided to use this self-negotiated unit to research and experiment with a variety of audio and visual glitch based techniques. Testing how each technique works, exploring the ways in which these techniques can be manipulated to suit my needs, as well as determining if these approached are suitable for my final project.

Glitch Orchestra: In order to create this piece I will be use numerous analogue players[1], and aim to either manipulate the formats they use[2], or circuit bend the players themselves[3] to manipulate and force glitched audio / visual outputs. In addition, I will be creating my own versions of force glitched audio and visuals that will be integrated into the piece. The audio based outputs will be created using a simple code cut, copy and paste technique, along with data moshing techniques. The digital video manipulation will use a similar approach, along with overlapping techniques that manipulate P frames. Glitch art images will also be integrated into the digital video output. All digital files will then be loaded into MaxMSP/Jitter and will be randomly glitch further. The files will then be fed through a random generator that will ensure that the outputted files are randomized. The audio files will be outputted via studio speakers, and the video and still images will be outputted via a digital projector on to a screen/wall. Each time the broken record plays, the VHS repeats, or the painted CD stutters and skips an entirely new performance is produced.

  

I aim to use MaxMSP to create patches that will fulfill the following tasks:

1) Audio Glitch Patch: To further glitch the pre-glitched audio that is imputed into the patch.

2) Video Glitch Patch (Jitter): To further glitch the pre-glitched videos/still images that are imputed into the patch.

3) Random Generator (Arduino): To create a random generator patch that randomly selects an output. Each output will be connected to an Arduino interface that will control the power to each individual analogue player within the Glitch Orchestra[4], causing each player to turn on (play) and off (stop) at randomised intervals.

Exhibition: I intend to present my work a large-scale audio/visual installation.

Context

Noise: Around the turn of the 20^th century the modern soundscapes were drastically changing as the world became more and more industrialised. It was the introduction of machines and early industrial advances that forever changed the soundtrack to people’s lives with the increase of noise. Noise was all around, interfering, interrupting, and something people would try to ignore and block out. It wasn’t until Luigi Russolo’s Futurist Manifesto outlined how this new soundscape had the potential to expand the tired sonic pallet with the inclusion of these new timbres into composition. Collins describes this musical evolution as the ‘the emancipation of noise’ (Collins 2008: 33). The introduction of noise-sounds offered the composer an infinite sound pallet from which to choose, widening the sonic possibilities. However, this radical compositional approach wasn’t widely accepted. As Collins suggests ‘noise is taken to be a problem: unwanted sound, unorganised sound, excessively loud sound (…) something extraneous’ (Collins 2008: 31). Yet Russolo believed that his new approach to composition would one day lead to a ‘taste and passion for noises’ (Cascone 2000: 18) from the listener. Cascone explains that this ‘was probably the first time in history that sound artists shifted their focus from the foreground of musical notes to the background of incidental sound (…) implicitly inviting the audience to listen to background sounds’ (Cascone 2000: 14).

Errors and Noise: Jumping forward a number of decades and artist are still using noises within their compositions. John Cage began the evolution of traditional instruments with his prepared piano[5] and soon moved onto turntable manipulation[6]. Later Milan Knizak took this idea further with his destruction and manipulation of the vinyl[7]. As technology moved from vinyl to tape, and from tape to CD these manipulation techniques continued, with new sets of artist who began ruthlessly destroying and altering these new technologies. Artists such as Oval and Collins who were altering the internal wiring of CD players, adding tape, scratching and painting the undersides of CDs in order to create new sounds and compositions. Even the smallest scratches could produce interesting mistakes, errors and noise. These manipulated CDs produced a “stuttering” that was different each time the disc was played. This extended the ‘possibilities of performance in a number of ways’ as the artist ‘could have no idea of what would happen’ (Stuart 2003: 48). Collins recalls that he’d stick ‘something in to a machine and watch[ing] it come out different the other end’ as ‘it is never certain each time just how the player will cope with the errors’ (Stuart 2003: 50). Causing a random outcome with each and every playback.

Glitch: ‘The glitch is a powerful interruption that shifts the object away from its flow and ordinary discourse, towards the ruins of destructed meaning’ (Menkman 2011: 29). Cascone believes that ‘the glitch movement can be seen as a natural progression in electronic music’ and that the genre tends to be ‘based on experimentation rather than empirical investigation’ (Cascone 2000: 16) more like a mess around. This new Post-Digital approach to computerised composition allowed composers the same compositional noise freedom Russolo was exploring in the early 19^th Century. Thompson describes the post-digital as ‘work which inhabits the cracks in the digital dream, seizing on usually marginalised digital detritus and forging new aesthetic from technological error’ (Thompson 2004: 214). Collins suggested that the inclusion of noise into music was the ‘the emancipation of noise’ (Collins 2008: 33), whilst Thompson believes that ‘post-digital music may be at least partly about the emancipation of the glitch’ (Thompson 2004: 214).

Experimentation: My work draws inspiration from the likes of Milian Knizak, Christian Marclay and Yasunao Tone, all of whom have used glitching techniques to produce and create brand new and exciting audio compositions.

For the experimentation stage I created a list of glitch techniques from glitch artists, along with some of my own unique ideas to try out for myself:

1) Burnt, Scratched and Taped Vinyl Records

2) Broken Records (1/2, 1/3 & 1/4)

3) Needle Replacement

4) Scratched, Painted and Taped CDs

5) Audio Cassette Manipulation

6) Digital Glitch Art

7) Digital Glitch Audio

8) Digital Glitch Video / Video Degradation

9) MaxMSP

I found that on the whole, most of the experiments were a success. Yet, was surprised to find that needle replacement and patterned painted CD techniques didn’t work at all. I quickly learned that there is a very fine line between glitch and complete failure.

I realise now that may have been a little ambitious with my original project plan, and I tried to fit too much work into a relatively short space of time. Even though I did manage to fit in most of the experiments[8], in retrospect, I should have cut the number of experiments down, allowing myself more time for further experimentation and testing. I was careful to not spend too much time on each experiment, as I had so many to fit in. Again, the addition of MaxMSP and Jitter into the project was extremely ambitious, as I simply did not set aside enough time to fully explore and research either. I have come to find that MaxMSP is an incredibly complex program, and worry that I have bitten off more than I can chew with its inclusion. This part of the project took the longest time, and I only managed to produce one basic patch[9] after hours and hours of practice. During the next unit I aim to investigate the program further to determine the likelihood of success, and will aim to come up with a plan B[10].  

Unfortunately, during this project I experienced some personal issues, which have impacted upon my work. This made it increasing difficult to stick to my original project plan, resulting in some aspects of the experimentation becoming rushed. However, this process has certainly sharpened my skills, helped me to develop skills in MaxMSP/Jitter and allowed me to try out numerous techniques. Overall, I was extremely pleased with the results these experiments produced. I managed to test everything that I had planned, but it would have been far more beneficial to allow myself some spare time to experiment further. I failed to allocate enough time for the written and editing elements of the project. Again, this took up a great deal of time that could have been reallocated to the testing stages.  

---

[1] CD Player, Tape Deck, Record Turntable, Portable TV/Video, Video Game Console.

[2] Example: Painted CDs, Sctratched Records, Degraded Tapes etc.

[3] Example: Bending the circuits by hand, re-soldering the electircs, removing/adding parts etc.

[4] CD Player, Tape Deck, Record Turntable, Portable TV/Video, Video Game Console and analogue projector.

[5] Adding objects to create new timbres.

[6] Replacing the needle with objects such as toothpick.

[7] In order to produce intentional jumps and skips during playback.

[8] I was unable to fully test LP records in the following ways – scratching, paiting, gluing, taping, burning.

[9] Random Number Generator (that failed to incorporate any audio or visual components).

[10] Such as working with a colaborator.

Experiment 9: Max Patch

After much trial, error and great frustration, I finally designed a Random Algorithm, which I hope will work with the Arduino card. In theory this simple patch should be able to simply link with the card, and will randomly send power to the individual parts of the orchestra. Once the Algorithm is activated (by the main switch) it continuously sends out bang messages via the loadbang object, whilst, the number of bang messages sent are controlled by the random object. The random object with an argument (number) of 600 sends out a random number between 0 and 599 to the integer (whole number) box below. This random number is then fed into the right inlet of the metro object. This argument populates the metro, which then dictates how frequent a bang is sent to the button object below. The bang message travels through the button and reaches the random object below. This random object has an argument of 6. This means a number between 0 and 5 is then produced and sent to the integer box below. However, you will notice that there is an object between the random object and the integer object. This +1 objects adds a 1 to the outputted number. Thus changing the random outputted number range from 0 to 5, to 1 – 6, in order to replicate the function of a die.      

Initially, I will work with 6 outputs, which I intend to gradually increase as the project and my programming skills move forward. In this image example, you will see that the number 5 appears in the final integer object box. The box is then connected to 6 sel objects, which will be attached to the Arduino input/outputs. Each time a number is (rolled) generated a bang message is sent to the sel object and the selected outlet should be powered. The frequency of the outputted numbers can be increased or decreased by adjusting the 1^st random objects argument. The higher the number the more often the outputted number will be produced.

MaxMSP (Jitter)

Again, as I am new to MaxMSP (Jitter) I will be using this week to research, experiment, play around and recreate basic video patches. I have been using and working through all of the MaxMSP (Jitter) tutorials in order to get to grips with this aspect of program (the video side), and to see what is achievable. Again, I am not planning to create my Jitter video patches from scratch, as this will take a great deal of prior knowledge of the program and time. Instead, I will be working with and reworking existing Jitter patches. In addition, I have been using the following tutorials – 

Video Mixer Max MSP
Viewing Videos in Max MSP

to again recreate the patches featured in these videos. I have found that Jitter is far more difficult to use that the audio side of MaxMSP, and fear that this will take both a lot more learning and time to create my desired outcome.

Digital Video: I aim to take the digital video tests that were created in experiment 8 and feed them through Jitter. I will aim to rework the audio patch (I have yet to create) into a video format. I intend to be able to load the pre-glitched digital videos into my reworked Jitter patch, which will add further simple glitch-like effects. These outputted videos will then be outputted through the random patch (again, which is yet to be created), which will randomly control the output. The randomly selected digital visual output will then be projected via a digital projector, and will be grouped with all the other visual outputs of the Glitch Orchestra.   

MaxMSP (Audio)

Rather than this being an experimental stage of my project, I am instead using this week to research, explore and learn as much as I can about the coding program MaxMSP. I intend to incorporate this piece of software into the final performance of my glitch orchestra. I intend MaxMSP to work in the following ways:

MaxMSP & Arduino: I will be using a number of electrical devices (TVs, Video Players, 2 x Projectors, CD players, Tape Players, Video Game Consoles), which will make up the instruments, sections and core components of my Glitch Orchestra. I do not want all of these devices to play at the same time, and aim for them to switch off and on randomly via the mains switch. After some initial research, I found that one possible way of achieving this would be to hook the mains of the various devices to an Arduino device, which is linked to MaxMSP (running on my mac). Then, via my mac I intend to control the mains of the attached devices with a simple randomized patch. Whist in theory this sounds achievable and relatively simple to execute, this is an entirely new program language that I have never used before. So, in order to get achieve my dersired results, I have started with the vary basics of MaxMSP, and have been using the following tutorials -

Max MSP Audio Video

To build basic audio patches. Whilst this is an extremely slow learning process, I am making some steady progress and have managed to recreate some of the patches that are featured in the videos, and have started to work my way through the in-house MaxMSP (audio) tutorials, in order to learn all of the objects and their functionality. As this software is completely new to me, and this is the first time I have used a coding program of this kind, I have decided to keep my patches as simple as possible. I aim to recreate and edit pre-made patches in order to use them for my desired purposes. I think working from scratch will be too much to achieve in such a short amount of time. Fortunately, I have a friend who has used the program before, who will be guiding me through my patch design and coding process.

Glitch Audio: In addition to the random patch that will be working with the devices, I aim to run the pre-glitched audio (from experiment 7) into MaxMSP and through another basic patch that will glitch the audio clips further within the program. This audio will again be randomly outputted (using another version of the random patch) via two speakers and will feature as part of the digital audio section of the orchestra.   

Experiment 8: Glitch Video / Degradation

Glitch Video (Digital)

This technique is again based on the glitch art technique and used the same basic approach to code editing and file manipulation. The video files (.mov) are opened as text/edit files, which transfers the digital video into code. The code can then be edited and manipulated via cut, copy and paste techniques. I was careful to ensure that the top and bottom of the code remained, but all attempts of code manipulation via this technique failed. I tried to get around this by opening the file into Final Cut Pro and exporting this as a .mov file, but this didn’t work. I repeated this in Adobe Premiere Pro, and again I was unsuccessful. I went back to the beginning and tried manipulating a tiny section of the code, saving it, and reopening it as a .mov file. I found the even the smallest interruption in the code made the file unreadable. I research this online, but found no possible way of making this technique work with video files, as any manipulation caused the video to instantly become unreadable. 

Via my research I came across a video gitching program called youglitch and fed my video into the program. The software comes with various presets that can be changed in order to create a glitch-like output. Whilst this was a short cut, I found that the outputs the program created were amazing and decided to use this instead of my original code-based technique.

(add videos)

I wanted to try another technique that I had seen online here - that datamoshes two videos together, simply by laying one video file on top of the other. This results in a moshing of the two videos along with the audio to create a new glitched audio/visual output. This is created by mixing the I and P frames together. Using the AVIDEMUX software allows you to change the frames (I and P). Here you can manipulate the frames of each video (changing I frames to P frames, and vice versa), which results in the overlapping output effect. This technique was extremely effective, creating a variety of unique glitch-like results.

I will be incorporating both techniques together and will be using them within visual part of my glitch orchestra. These will be fed into MaxMSP (Jitter) and they will receive further effects before they are outputted via the digital projector. I was surprised at how much the sound output was manipulated during this technique, and have decided to incorporate the sounds, as the results are simply too interested to ignore. Again, these will be fed into MaxMSP (audio) and will be further glitched and replayed via speakers.

Video Degradation

This technique works by manipulating the analogue format of VHS by continually recording onto the same tape over and over again. Using a combined portable TV/Video player and a VHS camera I recorded onto the Video tape ten times in order to achieve a wearing of the tape – video degradation. By copying from one tape to another over and over again caused the tape to wear and eventually to image begins to fade, distort and glitch. Whilst this approach was time consuming, it was extremely easy to set up and execute (even though it required a number of wires). The only issue was getting the analogue video onto a digital format. I found that I didn’t have the required equipment to transfer the VHS to digital, and instead decided to improvise by recording the VHS screen via a digital recording source, in order to create a new digital version. Initially, I was worried that this would affect the quality, but as the whole point of the experiment is to create a faded and worn version of the original, it didn’t really matter. Both the sounds and the visuals were equally affected by this approach, which was certainly a bonus. It wasn’t until the 4^th recording that the video began to fully deteriorate. I was careful to ensure that I didn’t record over and over again, as I was worried that the tape would eventually snap under the constant strain.

This is certainly a technique that I intend to use in my final project. Instead of transferring the video to digital, I intend to keep the VHS in its original format, and will instead play it the recorded tape on the unit I used during the recording process. My only concern is that looping the tape and playing it as part of the glitch orchestra may cause the tape to snap. This is something that I will need to test, as playback should not place as much strain on the tape as the recording process.

Experiment 7: Audio Glitch

These experiments again follow the basic practice used for glitch art images. The audio file is transferred into a text/edit file, which creates a coded version of the audio file. Again, large sections of the code can be manipulated by cutting, copying and pasting them around the file. For this I was again careful to not cut the beginning, end or too much code at once to ensure that I wasn’t pushing to file to its limit and making it unplayable. The code it then transferred back into an audio file and played. I also employed data moshing into my audio file experimentation, using the same technique, but adding to sets of code together in order to create a new moshed version of the two original tracks. Again, this process was relatively quick and easy to execute. The only issue I encountered was the reworked files would not play in iTunes. I found a way around this by importing the files into Logic Pro and then exporting them as MP3s. Once I had resaved the files they the played back via iTunes was then possible.

Whilst in Logic Pro, I decided to try an original technique. I started by loading a song into Logic, and began to cut, copy and paste within the program. I chose random sections to edit at a micro level. Cutting out nanoseconds of audio. Some of which I deleted, moved around or replicated. Whilst this produced interesting results, I decided to manipulate the sounds even further by adding a Bitcrusher effect, which changed the bit rate. I added reverb to round out the sound and ended up creating an entirely new technique and sound that was extremely effective and glitch-like. The broken (cut and deleted) code caused a unique effect as Logic generated and replaced these portions with a white noise-like sound. The replacement noise varied in both length and volume, depending on how much code was missing. I really enjoyed this experiment. As I had full control over the file, I could manipulate the sounds to create a desired sound/output.  

I will be using both techniques in the glitch orchestra, as results were perfectly glitched. The initial technique created outputs that I could not predict, but the second technique was easier to manipulate. I think both techniques can be used alongside one another, and again will be fed into MaxMSP and further glitched.