User:Yoana Buzova/ second

Tentative Title

voice terminal (worktitle of an an ongoing experiment )

Introduction

During the past nine months I have been experimenting in different fields, using different approaches and tools. I made a few small projects in which exploring these areas. The steps further to take are work on some ideas for projects that would elaborate method.

At this stage I think I my graduation work will be connected to me previous practice in several ways. First it will have a strong connection to sound. Second I will continue with my methodology of collecting and reusing the collected material trough my way way of encoding it and then decoding it again. Third, it will take a tangible form ( a sound object, installation)

I am currently working on voice message ( or just sound) collecting mechanisms.

• One variation is a sound collecting object to appear in public space. I am working on it ...process and documentation HERE

in the first prototype I started working with whatever was at hand, and reusing obsolete media objects discovered it may be an interesting way to trigger attention. I used an answering machine as a recording and playback mechanism and disguised it in an old radio case. Next step is to create a more complex device that can record, playback and store messages (possibly dynamically online as well) using a raspberry pie.

• Second platform to collect recordings is an online version. A website, where you can leave a sound message. I have made a simple tumblr prototype, using speak pipe HERE. I am looking into building my own way of online audio recording skipping using any service.

contextualising : oulipo / cybertext /

notes : create structure, rules (score) possibly discover a collaborative narrative / look at difference in content depending on certain tags (location, time, gender...) /

is the voice still considered difficult to hand out……we are easier to leave a text message than leave a voice message / does it make us feel more anonymous when our voice is not revealed does the voice reveal more / make us appear less or more confident / it reveals gender / race / age/

Relation to previous practice

the previos months I have mainly been working in the model of practice-based research. In the second trimester I started my self-direction project, provoked by the subject of signals and code. My approach was towards encoding and decoding simple urban patterns I collected. I photographed streets at night and then taking them as input, I created a visual code from the lit house windows. The code I played on a music box i built myself. The result are minimal, generative compositions of urban activity. I took information of a large scale ( whole streets and their buildings) to reinterpret it and notably descale it into a gentle sound, coming from a small mechanical object. As a continuation of the project and aiming to close the loop I started, I built a discrete but resistant urban installation, aiming to bring the data I processed back to its place of origin – the streets. The melodies are looped in speakers, made of concrete, placed in the city. The speakers, in contrast to the music box are resistant, heavy and keep repeating the otherwise transient moments. This iteration where the translated gentle, almost fragile information (composition) is distributed and preserved was the endpoint of the project and made it a complete piece. Relation of my interest to my previous work described above - ----> This work deals with processes of encoding and decoding and translation of data. It encloses information into tangible objects. Maybe as an unconscious result of my BA studies in photography, I take the position of a viewer, I collect data and use it examine and explore later so it can be the starting point of my work. Work is created during exploring diy strategies, conceptually and physically contrast/different materials and techniques

Key Words / themes

Fascination for making objects

using, mixing / commonplace objects

practice-based research

Tangible

Encoding – Decoding / reinterpreting

Translating and transporting information / taking it from one domain to another, from one place to another

Compressing - Decompressing

Scaling – Descaling

environment - sound

DIY strategies

False consciousness

questions:

exploring, experiencing information from a source different than a computer, screen / a custom, unfamiliar object

sound, voice, shout, whisper, intimacy

voice/anonymity

preserving information in another form ( what happens when data is suddenly gone)

unpredictable behaviour -predictable behaviour // offline-online

how predictability has shifted from the public space to be present online as well did this make us at least unpredictable offline?

unrealised (unconscious) collaborations, generative collaborations

a sound map --> a voice map

Relation to a larger context

Performativity

Situationist approaches to psychogeography, urban tactical media and activist strategies of reclaiming the streets.

Works I find related to my interests /practice /method

Georgina Starr - Whistle

Zimoun – sound installations

Michael Kontopoulos - Machines that almost fall over

live open worldwide microphones project started 2006

sound maps ( field recordings) started 2006

Practical steps

The steps I will take in the process of developing my work are focused around practice-based research. Similarly I worked throughout my self-directed research during the second and third trimester. I start by building prototypes of small project ideas and doing some related reading at the same time.

My steps will be documented in my prototyping page aka WORKLOG. The steps, discoveries and results of the works will influence and shape my research.

References

'Playing with words. The spoken word in artistic practice' Edited by Cathy Lane (2008)

Gregory Bateson 'Steps to an Ecology of Mind' (1972)

Mladen Dolar 'A Voice and Nothing More' (2006)

Yolande Harris, Phd thesis: Scorescapes On Sound Environment and Sonic Consciousness

Dr Hartmut Obendorf, In Search of “Minimalism”— Roving in Art, Music and Elsewhere

The Voice of New Music by Tom Johnson New York City 1972-1982 A collection of articles originally published in the Village Voice MUSIC

++ tech literature

two books by Nicolas Collins Handmade electronic music and Hardware Hacking