Whilst the broken
needle of my tester turntable was an annoying set back, it did however allow me
the opportunity to test out another planned experiment – replacement needles.
This technique requires a change in the physical player rather than the audio /
visual format, which made this experiment a little different from all the other
tests I had planned. The changing of the needle was again chosen to test how
different material could potentially change the outputted sound. During my
research into Knizak’s work I discovered various needle replacement techniques
that he and other Glitch artists have employed, using a variety of replacements
such as toothpicks and shape metal implements. I decided to try both these and
a few techniques of my own.
I found some basic instructions here - followed these,
and set about making my own replacement needle record player.
Needle (a): Paper
Cone
To kick off with
I took an A4 piece of paper and rolled it into a cone shape with a sharp point.
I then borrowed a sewing needle from my girlfriend and poked this through the
point, securing it there with clear tape. I then taped the cone and needle to
the arm and started the record. This was extremely wobbly and didn’t work as
well as I had would have expected. At one point I held the needle in place to
ensure that it was in full contact with the grooves, and it began to pick up
more sound. The cone was working as an amplifier, yet the sound was extremely
quiet. As the cone was so unsteady, needed my help to stay in place, and the
fact that the output was so low makes this technique an unsuitable addition to
the glitch orchestra. Perhaps a thicker needle, thicker card, a larger cone and
stronger tape may have made this a little more successful. I will not be
exploring this option any as I don’t feel that the changes will make a great
deal of difference to the outputted sound.
Needle (b): Cocktail Stick
I started this
process by snapping a cocktail stick into two pieces and securely taped one end
of the stick to the needle arm. I placed an undamaged record onto the
turntable, as I wanted to be able to gauge the full effects of the needle.
Whilst this was an extremely simple way to create a new needle, there were some
issues with weighting. Because of the size of the new needle the balance became
off, and it was difficult to keep the needle down on the record. The needle
worked when I held it into place and added pressure, but the outputted sound
was muffled and crackly. The thickness of the needle made it difficult for it
to find a groove, causing the needle to constantly move around. When I tired
playing the needle without the extra weight I provided by holding it in place the
needle slide across the record to the end of the disc, and created no audio
output.
Needle (c): Plastic Knife
For this
experiment I used a disposable knife, which I again securely taped to the arm
of the player. Again, there were immediate issues with weight, and the knife
only worked when I held it into place. When I tried the knife without
assistance it couldn’t find a groove as it was too thick, and jumped to the end
of the disc without creating an audio output. The results were very close to
those produced with the cocktail stick.
Overall: All
three of the techniques I tried did not produce the expected results, and therefore
will not be used as part of the final orchestra. However, in the future I would
like to try this technique again, using a variety of different techniques. I
feel that there is a great deal of experimentation needed with this approach,
and unfortunately, due to limited testing time, I cannot dedicate any further
time to this technique.
No comments:
Post a Comment