Sound Research

Ge Wang makes computer music, but it isn't all about coded bleeps and blips. With the Stanford Laptop Orchestra, he creates new instruments out of unexpected materials-like an Ikea bowl-that allow musicians to play music that's both beautiful and expressive. "

video realization of the idea of Language Removal that some might know from the project "Language Removal Services" http://languageremoval.com/world_peace.php

"The last two decades have seen a striking decline in the quality of sound and listening experience. Compressed music, MP3s and streaming, have diminished the quality and flattened the emotion. Marketing gimmicks and convenience now take the place of excellence. The Distortion of Sound is an eye-opening exposé of the current state of sound starring Linkin Park, Slash, Quincy Jones and more. This documentary will open your ears and inspire you to reach for richer, more soul-stirring musical experiences. "

"Layered Memories: Searching For Sound With Yosi Horikawa follows the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy grad as he does field recordings on the World Heritage island of Yakushima and, later, plays the resulting music on speakers he has built himself. It's a behind-the-scenes look at how one of electronic music's most exciting talents transforms the everyday into something extraordinary."

"Conceptually the film was a joy to work on as sound designer, as the premise was essentially a musical conversation between Richard, the instruments, his musical collaborators and the New Zealand landscape, beautifully filmed by Alan Bollinger and sympathetically edited to allow room for the music & sound to fully engage. And thanks to a beautiful mix by Mike Hedges & Tim Chaprione at Park Road Post, I think the film achieves the admirable goal of experiencing the world of its music, rather than just observing it."

"Video recorded using direct audio out (rather than microphone and speaker/amp). The sounds are produced by an electrochemical reaction between Aluminium, Copper and Salt water (NaCl), fed through a pre-amp after basic filtering via a capacitor and resistor. The originally inspiration for the electrochemical synthesiser was the webpage "Peculiar Sounds of Aluminium" by Nyle Steiner. home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/alsounds.htm"

"A recent study revealed the neurological mechanisms behind our processing and reactions to unpleasant sounds. As always, the science behind this proves to be fascinating, and occasionally surreal"

""When I'm on location, it's a totally solitary activity. You put some headphones on, and at that moment, nobody can hear the world like you can." Chris Watson is talking to me over Skype from his home in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, explaining the details of a soon to be released smartphone app, which contains a cherry-picked collection of his sound recordings made as far back as the 1990s. Many originally appeared on CD (via Touch, who now also have an iPhone app), but Watson is enthusiastic about finding new formats such as this for his work. "The app is going to be used by individuals, and that means there's an individual at either end of the chain," he says. "I like the idea that wherever you are, you can drop into this environment." "

"In honor of World Listening Day 2014 the team behind the film IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE (coming 2015) have released a never-before-seen clip featuring footage they acquired during their visit to Denali last April. In it National Park Service Soundscape Technician Davyd Betchkal discusses the importance of listening and it's relationship to experiencing a place."

"When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout. "

"Sound designer and composer Diego Stocco (warning: lots of sound) continues his ongoing project of making music from uncommon objects and places with this new video using loops recorded from a local dry cleaner. Stocco has also made music from a tree, from sand, and even a a bonsai, among others. Of all of them I really think this is his finest. Make sure you make it past the 2:10 mark."

"Your bag of potato chips can hear what you're saying. Now, researchers from MIT are trying to figure out a way to make that bag of chips tell them everything that you said - and apparently they have a method that works. By pointing a video camera at the bag while audio is playing or someone is speaking, researchers can detect tiny vibrations in it that are caused by the sound. When later playing back that recording, MIT says that it has figured out a way to read those vibrations and translate them back into music, speech, or seemingly any other sound."

This installation plays the keys of a piano based on the movements and shapes of the clouds. A camera pointed at the sky captures video of the clouds. Custom software uses the video of the clouds in real-time to articulate a robotic device that presses the corresponding keys on the piano. The system is set in motion to function as if the clouds are pressing the keys on the piano as they move across the sky and change shape. The resulting sound is generated from the unique key patterns created by ethereal forms that build, sweep, fluctuate and dissipate in the sky. This installation was commissioned by L'assaut de la Menuiserie, Saint-Etienne, France and completed with support from the Visualization and Digital Imagining Lab and Weber Music Hall, University of Minnesota.

"Cube with Magic Ribbons is a computer visual and synthesised sound composition for live performance. The piece takes its title from a drawing of M.C.Escher which is rich with contradictory perspectives but it is also inspired by the wrapped spaces found in the two dimensional graphics of early computer games such as Asteroids and Pac-Man. It was created using a custom visual sequencer SoundCircuit, which rather than employing a conventional DAW layout, allows multiple virtual tape-heads to travel through a two-dimensional wrapped space along tracks that can be freely inter-connected. As the tape-heads travel through the resultant network, the topological layout of the tracks comes to directly influence the macro form of the music. Furthermore, as the piece unfolds the nature of this already confusing space reveals itself to be increasingly elastic and complex, yet inexorably intertwined with the musical form."

"Untitled V is a sound sculpture that consists of miniature speakers acoustically activated by a motor driven mechanism. A nylon thread is fastened through a hole at the center of the membrane; the end of the nylon thread is loosely secured to a motor turned rosined wheel to produce friction. Sound is produced by the action of the rim of the rotating wheel rubbing the thread as the wheel is turned. The two surfaces alternating between sticking to each other and sliding over each other, with a corresponding change in the force of friction. The motor speed is reduced at the lowest speed. The slow turn of the wheel creates changes in the tension of the thread, resulting as sounds (crackling impulse) in the membrane of the speaker. Untitled V creates a very quiet listening experience. "

"A behind the scenes look at how peppercorns, cardamom, turmeric, paprika, cumin seeds, ginger, chilli and coriander became a physical music scale."

Graphical notation and composition by Candas Sisman Barabás Lőrinc: Trumpet Ölveti Mátyás: Cello Candas Sisman: Electronics and Objects Budapest Art Factory (BAF) is pleased to present to you SYN-Phon; sound performance based on graphical notation by Candaş Şişman featuring Barabás Lőrinc & Ölveti Mátyás. Candaş Şişman resided at BAF for the month of June as part of its cross-cultural fertilization residency program. SYN-Phon will be exhibited to act, as a visual linguistic delivery through a cogitation segment followed by the sound performance on June 29th.

"Sound Waves and Music - Lesson 2 - Sound Properties and Their Perception"

"Research blog following the development of Sound Art through compositional and performative techniques in music, fine art, experimental film and creative computing. Each post is continually under development, and serves as a mapping of the author's listening habits and interests, please feel free to comment underneath with any thoughts or additions. If you own the copyright on any of the music/pictures/videos posted and do not want them to exist here, email the below address and they will be removed forthwith. "

For centuries, residents of Kuşköy have communicated over rural Turkey's vast distances with kuş dili, which literally means "bird language."