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 20th
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 19th
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment