User:Anita!/more things

I guess for now this is a page for the second year

Continuing the city soundscape

In the end, I ended up with a lot of recordings of solo walks and cycles. What to do with them? I listened to all of them, annotating what sounds I would hear.

These are two examples of the soundscape.

screenprint result

trial on paper, too thin

First, I tried on transparency paper, i liked the idea of attempting to create a small sewn zine with overlapping maps, but thinking back, after trying it, i ended up screenprinting this on cotton fabric, as it would allow for me to really use the material to my advantage, placing all the wondering walks and cycles on one singular map, instead of one route per map if that makes sense.

Now I will begin sewing the connections between the sounds, creating many layers.

I also like the idea of somehow also connecting the original audio files, but I am not sure yet of how and if i will do that. Maybe its nice to also just try to imagine the spacing between these sounds, the length of the walks, how close of far they feel, not hearing the sounds, but imagining what we remember they sound like. But lets see

Thinking about research

I want to continue working with sound in the context of public space, that I already know, but how? Listening is something I focused on a lot during the last Special Issue, and it is a topic that I know i want to experiment with more. While listening in the past, I have tried to focus on different aspects of it, for example, listening in a nominal way (yes sound, no sound), which forces you to focus on observing the rhythm of sound.

I also know that I want to incorporate some form of garment construction technique into the final project, but that relates more to the end representation project than the research itself.

PMMoMs

“Sound is pervasive, it spreads out in a space, connecting all bodies that it encounters. It is not an object or an attribute of an object but is generated by the reciprocal relationship between context object and subjects.” Elena Biserna in Going out

What?

A large scale textile soundboard (made as an interactive textile), containing a series of noises collected from public spaces. The soundboard can be played to create different city noise soundscapes, inviting the person playing with it to listen, move and imagine a path. Different points produce different sounds caught in the city. The person playing has to move and 'perform' because of the distance between the push sensors playing the sounds, enhancing the physicality aspect and physically embodying the soundscape.

Why?

Sound connects. It is not physical but exists so powerfully in space. It identifies places but is not usually thought of or used to describe one, other than the simple ‘noisy’ or ‘silent’. Imagining and playing with mundane sounds, exploring the landscape with no visual aid, to notice and create new imaginary paths.

Workflow

Select and record single sounds from most Rotterdam squares. At least 10 sounds, from thoughout the day. Record and pick the sounds to be used Design a soundboard Program the microcontroller Sew the circuit for it and connect Test and play by myself Adapt based on tests Test and play with public Adapt based on tests Readyyyyy

Timetable

October - recording and listening, early prototyping (drawing circuits, read more on interactive textiles) November - recording and listening, learn more about interactive textiles, do smaller projects involving them December - recording and listening, experiment with circuit connections, sewing circuits January - recording and listening, start testing on a smaller scale

Relation to previous practice (two sentences, draw on Text on Practice)

Listening, sewing, list making, noticing, moving and playing in public space.

Plan!

???

two different plans, that will enhance each other and inform each other. for research in book and research in public space. i would like the structure of the thesis to be kind of like a conversation between these two sides, kind of like sounds talking to each other.

Interactive textiles

Ways to make a textile interactive: - conductive ink screenprint (the area with ink could be connected to push or touch sensor) - metal fibers woven into fabric (possibility of spinning my own yarn to knit with for the soundboard) - optic fibers (according to https://textileinnovations.wordpress.com/research-focus-2/, "– transmit data signals, transmit light for optical sensing, detect deformations in fabrics due to stress and strain and perform chemical sensing.")

I still have to do extensive research on this, to properly select the best tool for me. It could be interesting to weave using re purposed optic fiber, to include pieces of the public infrastructure of the city into the piece itself but might be unrealistic as a thought.

Silkscreen printing would probably be the easiest option, but my least favorite one at this moment in time. The metal and conductive properties of the circuit soundboard being an actual part of the fabric, how it is constructed and flows seems much more organic and genuine to me, so even though it might potentially be more time consuming, I would prefer either weaving or knitting the circuit.

Plan:

reasearch the interactive fabric construction
talk to people at fabric and interaction station
weave a small patch and connect it with microcontroller and push sensors

Project Proposal! for real

“Sound is pervasive, it spreads out in a space, connecting all bodies that it encounters. It is not an object or an attribute of an object but is generated by the reciprocal relationship between context object and subjects.” Elena Biserna in Walking, Listening and Soundmaking 

bleep bloop

What do you want to make?

For the graduation project, I want to make a large scale textile soundboard (made as an interactive textile), containing a series of noises collected from public spaces, more specifically squares. This is because the squares form, place and function have historically (and still today) contributed to the urban development and feel of the city.

The instrument can be played to create different public soundscapes, inviting the person interacting with it to listen, move and imagine a path. Different points produce different sounds caught in the city. The person playing has to move and 'perform' a distinct choreography each time because of the distance between the triggers playing the sounds, enhancing the physicality and embodying the soundscape.

Playing allows the user to let go of expectations and predictability, enhances chances and small changes, and helps notice things from another perspective. I would like the 'player' to take away from the experience, is the notion that city soundscapes are really worth listening to, they are so rich in information and contradistinct from one another, adding a layer to the definition of public space itself.

The fibers used for the production of the soundboard will partly be sourced from the squares where the listening and capturing of the sounds will occur. They will be washed, taken apart (perhaps dyed) and re-spun (by me) into yarn. This will be done to create a stronger connection to where the sounds originate from. The rest of the fibers used will be natural (wool), because of its specific soft and inviting texture.

Why do you want to make it?

Sound connects. It is not tangible but exists so powerfully in space. It identifies places so distinctively but is not usually thought of or used to describe one other than ‘noisy’ or ‘silent’. Imagining and playing with mundane sounds, exploring the urban landscape with no visual aid, to notice and create new imaginary paths. Re-publishing existing and real-life 'boring' common sounds. Every time someone plays with the project, it will have a unique quality to it. The player will likely not be able to repeat the sequence of sounds, making the soundscape so subjective depending on the performer, much like the sound of the city. Listening is something so important to me, and I would like for this project to turn players into 'listeners'. It is an invitation to notice these differences in the city soundscape, the small tone changes and how sequences of sound vary each time they happen.

Fabric, like sound, is so textured. It invokes memories, feelings and is such a malleable and ever changing material. It is flexible and can adapt and bounce around its surroundings like a liquid, or like sound itself. Like city noise, its texture is so ordinary that it becomes almost invisible.

Another really important part of the piece to me, is the process of making it itself, spending time in squares, observing and listening to their dynamics. Collecting discarded fibers (e.g. a single glove), and collecting 'discarded' sounds. Making my own sensors with these materials from scratch. Manually spinning, knitting and weaving all of this material to bring it together again, in another form.

How do you plan to make it?

To be able to create this soundboard, I have identified a few crucial development elements: Learn how to make my own conductive yarn, spin test yarn with different concentrations of metal and test them out on smaller circuits. Collect fibers, wash and re-spin them into yarn that I will use for the textile.

Collect sounds, and fibers from squares in Rotterdam. This will be done by using a series of different listening methods, experiments and exercises I will come about during the development of the project. These methods will be documented and explained in the thesis, and they will set the tone for playful listening.

Design and test an 'interface' for the textile, decide the spacing between the sensors on a prototype circuit, have many people dance to it.

Work on small experiments of patches as well as installation shapes to test touch and find what people are drawn to interact and really play with.

What is your timetable?

October - recording, collecting and listening, drawing circuits, read more on interactive textiles, prepare for public moment and source materials needed for interactive textiles (yarn). Learn intarsia knitting.

November - recording, collecting and listening, test spin conductive yarn, do smaller projects involving woven (and knitted) circuits. Public moment tests and adaptations, coloquim with Michel (another testing opportunity), finalize proposal.

December - recording, collecting and listening, experiment with circuit connections, weaving circuits

January - recording, collecting and listening. Test distances between sensors (outside of the fabric) with larger groups, observe the choreographies people perform while playing. Start testing with woven (or knitted) samples.

February - recording, collecting and listening. Start selecting which sounds to use and why. Experiment with sounds on the sensors (in their skeleton form before they are integrated in the fabric)

March - recording, collecting and listening. Sound editing, making adjustments and playing with the music/instrument. Experiments with overlays, pitch adaptations, 'cheat codes' of combinations of pressing spots that will allow for sound manipulations to happen.

April - Finish preparing all materials for the final fabric. Spin yarn, finish the circuit and code, see what is missing for the piece and collect everything

May - Making the final fabric! And troubleshooting

June - Troubleshooting, graduation show, collective publication

Who can help you and how?

Research and Resources Tutors, classmates and supervisor, by discussing the ideas, reading each others work and talking about research area, many references and recommendation come up, especially from areas that I have yet to look into, or quite far from my research but with overlaps in some way. This also counts for resources, sourcing and machines that I could potentially use for production.

Listening and recording People that i will encounter while listening in public space, maybe sharing personal listening stories and observations.

Prototyping the circuit + code Joseph and Manetta, the people from interaction station, workshops on wearables and interactive textiles, and possibly individuals still to be contacted with interactive textile experience like Wendy Van Wynsberghe, Anja Hertenberger and maybe more:)

Weaving (or knitting) the piece Tutors at the fabric station, by giving advice on techniques, methods and materials that would help in the construction. Station skills at the fabric station.

Testing My classmates and people around the studio. Guests at public moments, and (hopefully) also interested people I will encounter while in public space.

Relation to previous practice

I feel very connected to both listening and traditional garment construction techniques. Working with textiles is something that has been present again and again in my practice.

Before starting Xpub, I studied Industrial Product Design, and I focused on designing and producing soft objects out of fabric and paper. I also worked in a fashion Atelier for 6 months, mainly producing prints and patterns for textiles, sewing by hand and working with a mixture of delicate soft materials, metal and mylar to create sculptural garments.

In Special Issue 22, I worked on the 'curtain', a sewn modular archive as an element to 'safekeep' and protect the different projects, sounds and survival tools that were created for the SI. I also focused a lot on field recording, exploring sound in public space and interactive radio making (with Hitchikers Guide to an Active Archive with Thijs and Rosa).

In Special Issue 23, I was really inspired to work with word/sentence manipulation, connecting it with sewing and quilting. I made experiments with sewing on paper, trying to create a very literal word quilt. I wanted to try to show the 'infrastructure' of my thoughts while reading and annotating these texts in a visual way, incorporating the seams metaphor quite literally. I tried to connect ideas from different texts by making a sewn collage.

In Special Issue 24, I worked with a very similar research topic to what I will be looking into in the graduation project and thesis, focusing on listening in public space, using textiles and paper to translate the sound. I worked on 'Knitting City Noise' a work in progress that focused on static listening, from one fixed point of view by using a sound sensor in Marconi Plein. From that, the sensor recorder yes sound or no sound based on the loudness around it. I then translated this nominal data to a punch card for knitting and am currently knitting it.

I also recorded sound while moving, in a series of walks, runs and cycles around Rotterdam. I then listened back and wrote down all the sounds I heard as a list, screen printed them onto cotton and sewed the paths of the recordings creating a subjective sound map of the city.

I also worked on 'Scripts to read the City' with Mania, a publication containing a series of scripts to look and listen in public space. The project imagines an urban environment that can be read, analyzed and criticized as a text. By reading the city in this way we find other possible ways of seeing, moving and listening. In a scripted city, marked by escalating levels of perfection, efficiency and control, the emancipatory aspects of urban life are undermined, allowing little room for anything that doesn't fit the image of the "norm".

Scripts to Read the City is an attempt to foster diverse experiences and uses of space, similar to a theater script interpreted differently by each actor. The tools of navigation are a device indicating which character to play and a guide, including a set of directions and instructions.

The project explores a relation between scripts and spontaneity, chance and control, and how scripts and unpredictability can enhance each other, stimulating imagination, encouraging us to engage with space from another perspective.

We also held a workshop based on the publication at SIGN in Groningen as a part of Spread Zinefest.

Relation to a larger context

The project will build on research surrounding the practices of soundwalking and deep listening, starting from defining listening and hearing as two very distinct things. In 'Deep Listening' Oliveros observes how listening is an active practice, a fully conscious choice, whereas hearing is simply something involuntary.

References

Deep Listening A Composer's Sound Practice, Pauline Oliveros

Walking, Listening and Soundmaking, Elena Biserna

Walking from scores, Elena Biserna

LISTEN, Max Neuhaus

Inaudible Cities, Jacek Smolicki

Listening: A Research Method in Art & Design, edited by Alice Twemlow

Basta Now: women, trans & non-binary in experimental music, Fanny Chiarello

Smooth City, Renè Boer

The rest is noise, Alex Ross

Scratch Music, Cornelius Cardew