Cinématique

I don’t often post projects that are not directly sound related, but today I have to. Cinématique by Adrien Mondot is an impressive dance performance! Normally I feel like a video of a dance piece really does not capture the atmosphere of it in a good way, but Cinématique is so visually appealing, it is great just watching the video, and doing so makes you want to see the whole performance.

The video is used in a clever, effective way, and you can only imagine how sound could be used to add another dimension to the experience. 

Julian Treasure - Sound Health

We’ve heard Julian Treasure speak about sound at TED before. This time he talks about sound health and listening. Ironically, the sound of the video is not really good enough to get the examples he plays. What he is saying is - although for a sound professional not new - something we all should be taught at school. It would make the world a much more pleasant sounding, and thus healthier place to live in.

F L U X

What sounds do these moving abstract images make? Candas Sisman created this nice example of how motion and sound can come together. The objects twist and turn in a way that would be impossible in the real world, yet the sounds they make seem to fit to them perfectly.

F L U X was inspired by the sculptures of Ilhan Koman, and created for the Ilhan Koman Hulda Festival in Istanbul, 22 September - 31 October.

Sound Waves and their Sources

For six years now I have been teaching a beginner’s lesson with as main question “what is sound?”. It covers the vibration of air molecules, amplitude, pitch, timbre, overtones, all the things you have to know before you want to start working with sound on a more serious level.

It is fun to see how many decades ago the same lesson was thought in this video. The video covers exactly the same topics, be it in a compressed format, while it takes me and hour and a half to tell the whole story. This will be a fun addition to my words.

Although the YouTube title says the video was created in 1933, I assume that should be 1950, looking at the Roman number MCML - correct me if I am wrong. Looking at the video and the animations used, that seems like a more plausible date. And to eager students visiting my blog: this is what we will be talking about! 

Found on Nick Seaver’s Noise For Airports

Piano Migrations Installation

For her Piano Migrations Installation, Kathy Hinde took the inside of an old upright piano and transformed it into a kinetic sound and video installation. The projected birds seem to excite the strings as they fly by and sit on them. 

The twitching and fluttering of small machines, fastened to the piano, touch the strings and cause them to resonate. The image is analyzed by the controlling software to make sure only the string closest to the moving bird is heard.

Dataflux

Dataflux, created by Kit Webster is a wonderful installation with synchronized sound and images. The visuals are projected on seven pillars, and the sound greatly enhances the experience of movement. Dataflux has some resemblance to Minus 60° by Karl Kliem. Again I cannot help thinking of Ryoji Ikeda’s work when watching this video, also because of the name, as it’s very similar to Ikeda’s Dataplex. For Dataflux Webster created software that renders the visuals live. 

Kit Webster will be one of the artists at this year’s Liquid Architecture festival in Australia taking place in June and July. 

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Classic: One Apartment and Six Drummers

Today we will watch a classic many of you will have seen before, but as it was made long before Everyday Listening was born, and I really like this to be part of my archives, here we go once again. Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers (2001) shows us a surreal situation in which six musicians ‘play’ the apartment of an unsuspecting couple while they walk their dog. 

I still love watching these smartly dressed drummers leave their Volvo for a well-planned guerilla performance. It is a wonderful and inspiring idea. The whole world can be our instrument, all we need is great musicians to play it!

The Balance

The Balance is a beautiful visual representation of two sound waves colliding. The video created by Lithuanian artist Rimantas Lukavicius, shows us the sound traveling trough air, a thing we will never be able to see.

There is no explanation to be found on how the video was made, and if an analysis of the actual sound we hear was used as input. I guess it is just the aesthetics that count, this time. 

(via @kamisir)

Hello World! by Christopher Baker

Hello World is an audio and video installation with the subtitle 'How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise'. Christopher Baker shows us an immense amount of personal video diaries played back at the same time, creating a cacophony of voices, sharing their secrets with an imagined massive audience.

The installation is "a meditation on the contemporary plight of democratic, participative media and the fundamental human desire to be heard". There is no way we can listen to every single person. I love the way the multi-channel sound composition sometimes focuses on individual speakers and sometimes plays everything at the same time, creating an immersive swarm of voices around the visitor.
Via Joachim Baan