The final show

So our final presentation, exhibition and critique has come and gone. Similar to last semester, we were to select either Sound Building or Urban Screen to present on a space of wall in and around the studios. In addition, we were also to collate documentation pages of all three of the studio projects (including the week long 'Ideas, Concepts and Visualizations.'

I began with the journal pages as an opportunity to revisit the previous projects before deciding for concrete which one I wanted to present. I felt that I had explored my Sound Building brief quite thoroughly, even with a further reflection a few weeks later as part of one of the idea generation activites. I didn't feel there was a lot more I could get out of this brief without redesigning and rebuilding the instrument according to some of the reflective ideas I brainstormed but this didn't fit into the short space of time in preparation for the presentation.

When revisiting the short Ideas, Concepts and Visualisations Brief, I went back and completed the activities which I had missed while I was away sick that week. The first one was called "What’s an Idea? What’s a concepts and where do I get one?" which was focused on using the process of creating art as both subject matter and concept as means of generating ideas. I chose from Richard Serra's verb list "to tighten" and explored it by use of photography, as shown below (left). An extract from my analysis of this activity is viewable by clicking on the image.

The second activity was exploring the generation of ideas through a matrix and 'cross pollinating' platonic solids to create new and hybrid forms. As this activity was originally intended for a group of three, I scaled back the 6x6 matrix to a simpler 3x3. The result was the image above (right) and my analysis of the activity is viewable by clicking on it.

Finally, I returned to the activity which I had started, where we had interviewed each others precious objects with no knowledge of them and then based on common ideas that arose, we were to develop a visual signifier for our own object. I didn't complete this because I was completely stuck for ideas but after completing the other two activities, the ideas came more easily. Final result is as below with more detailed analysis viewable by clicking the image.

So that left Urban Screens as the one to present. I had been hoping to successfully complete the programming as we had intended it to be but was again constrained by the lack of time. So instead I made a dummy version of how it was supposed to look with preloaded headlines, Tweets and Flickr images but using content which the program had generated over our trials. By finishing up the journal and documentation work for this project, I was able to look over my initial research again to generate some new ideas as to how it could be improved.

Our current visual aesthetic of the screen output was, as we had established from trials and presentation, pretty static overall so not very eye catching. It was constrained to a very geometric format as we had tried to stick very closely to our concept, something the viewer would only be able to take in if they stopped to look at it. If I was to develop it, I would find perhaps a more abstract way to visually represent the 'data' (i.e. text sources) to make it more dynamic and eye catching, so the viewer would WANT to stop and look at it, and then take in the meaning.

As we were no longer retrained to the A1 poster format for presentation, I chose to present my project in several simple glass frames to give the impression of several screens on the wall. My main two 'screens' of content I literally added the image of a screen frame around it while I used invididual frames to highlight and simply explain visually how the programming worked.

I expanded upon the visual imagery of the circuit board which I have been using throughout by mimicing the connections of a circuit board between the frames. These visually worked very successfully and I feel helped unify the individual frames and convey one of the key concepts of the project, that is, the global connection made possible by technological advancements. (Click on image for other documentation photos from this project).

Overall, I felt it all came together well but was taking it off the wall again before I knew it. I realised later that the space of wall where I had set up my exhibition was the exact same spot of wall I had used in the very first activity this year, the social mapping. It was a nice connection to make and even in the space of a year I feel we have come so far from programming the Lego NXT robots. The Urban Screens project served also as an introduction into year 2 with the logistical challenges of sourcing outside assistance and I am pleased we managed to make it work. This too was a reflection of one of the years' initial activities where we were out on the streets of the Auckland CBD in the situational shuffle.

I feel more confident now in moving to bigger projects outside of the direct university sphere and I look forward to continue to build on what we have learn so far this year and take on the challenges of Year 2.

Urban screening

Tuesday we once again arrived at Dick Smith and were left on our own to go ahead and set up and run our project. Even though it resulted from a technical glitch that we couldn't have our content on all the screens, it was interesting to have for comparisons sake to have the three variations of content displaying simultaneously.

One third of the the screens had the usual content of music videos from C4 TV, a third of them were completely blank and the other third was displaying our content. This gave us a good indication of whether customers were interesting in the screens as a product for purchase or whether they were watching the content.

We were interested to find that regardless of the content, it was actually the screens themselves people were more interested in, rather than the content (or lack there of) which seems almost contradictory to the purpose of the screen. (One man seemed particularly interested by my laptop sitting in amongst the screens.)

Despite it being during their rush hour (12:30-2:00), there seemed to be few customers in the store and not many of them interested in the screens in the first place. Regardless, the RSS content happily went and it was the videos which kept causing the program to crash.

The original idea of the screen in Dick Smith appeals for the mesmerizing nature of the mirrored content filling ones field of vision completely. Once our content was up there, we realized it wasn't enough to simply have the content displayed on multiple screens but the reason the music videos worked so successfully was because they were filled with movement and energy, where ours was mostly static. If the refresh rate on the RSS had been faster it would've possibly improved this but we were limited by the speed of the network, despite the fact that it was programmed to refresh every 4 seconds.

We managed to get video documentation observing people interacting with the screens and screen shots every 4 seconds which, when played in sequence, is also white interesting as it provides footage also from the webcam point of view.

After one last attempt to get the Flickr RSS element of the programming integrated and working, the slow progress meant that I was unable to have it done in time for presentation so on Thursday we went ahead regardless. Despite also the fact that I was suffering from stomach wrenching pains and had to curl into the foetal position halfway through, I feel it went quite well. Once again the program went on happily with only the video crashing.

Discussion with Kim and Charles during presentation prompted us to consider things such as the nature of the content, which brought us back to the ideas we had during our first city exploration in the four different purposes of the screens (advertising, entertainment, surveillance, informative). We realised that in it's current state, ours reflected only two of these (informative and surveillance) which then also presented a nice parallel in that the other third of the screens were still displaying the music videos (entertainment).

If we were to keep developing our project with this in mind, as well as integration of the Flickr images, it could be interesting to integrate also videos from YouTube RSS (using the same keyword which triggers the Twitter and Flickr feed) which could fulfil this entertainment purpose. The problem with this would be overloading the limits of the program which as we discovered, we have already pushed when integrating two videos and the live webcam.

I wouldn't want to integrate any elements of advertising but rather based on our observations the screens are in fact, advertising themselves in this context as a product available to purchase. This was an idea we tried to reflect in our concept as the screens themselves were available for the viewer to purchase so in that, the content was 'available' to the viewer; everything in the virtual public sphere is readily accessible with the screen as a window or vessel. The screen as a consumable product was another idea they prompted us to discuss and explore.

They also asked us to talk about the challenges we encountered during the project which were mostly logistical and technological; Organizing the use of the location and writing the program to make it do what we wanted it to demanded that we be flexible in adapting our ideas and concept. Similarly, other things out of our control also came into play, such as the limitations of the program and the network.

In preperation for exhibition week, I hope to be able to finally integrate the Flickr feed and perhaps alter the visual aesthetic of it, especially as it will be exhibited in a different context. In the end, I enjoyed some of the beautifully random interplay that came from the random selection of words and Tweets, which is why I am also eager to see it bring up a similarly related (but possibly unrelated!) image. The passive interaction from the global public sphere is what drives our content and this part of it, I am pleased with as it is unexpected. We are merely providing the window to it through the vessel that is the screen.

On Air in 3, 2, 1...

Friday afternoon and we got our first chance to try our content out on the screens at Dick Smith Electronics on Wyndam Street in the City. After a few minor issues, we can get our content displayed on eight of the display screens, about 1/4-1/3 of all their screens. We has issues arrise around the inability of the signal from the laptop to travel into the splitter which then daisy chains into another splitter and 8 screens. This is unfortunate but we could find no way to make it work otherwise. Regardless, it still has a good effect.

We are able to place the laptop among the screens so at least that is one more screen present and also the inbuilt webcam is able to directly record the viewer as they engage with an respond to it. We have the program set up to take a screen shot every few seconds which will make for interesting documentation. An example is shown below from our trial on Friday. The news headlines and Tweets shown in this example are from prerecorded feed as opposed to live.

Finishing up the last bits of the programming in time for our actual run tomorrow, I am disappointed to say that I have been unsuccessful in combining the various elements of the content into a single program. I have used quite a roundabout way to stop the live RSS feed from making the videos and and webcam lag but was unable to amalgamate the program to incorporate the Flickr Feed. This is particularly disappointing as that particular piece of code was tricky but I managed to make it work by itself. The problem arose with incompatibility between the two programs in use of different versions of XML libraries and my inability to rewrite one to the other. I came very close so there still is the potential to fix it up in time for presentation to the class or exhibition week which I will definitely aim to do.

So on the eve of our real run, I have let the RSS real time feed run for a while and some of the results have been interesting in terms of the relationship in the news headline and the Tweet pulled only by relevance of randomly selected keyword:

'Fake' passport seller to stand trial
23:30:08
@JosephJonasFans hey ! i just got a news that i don't know if it is true ? nd i just wanna know if it is true !! i know u can answer me !

Plunket distressed by RNZ decision
Plunket
@mcquillanator Rubbish. Once I realised it wasn't Plunket the organisation but the person, it was sweet! Haha
23:32:43

Hit-and-run driver may be showing nerves, say police
say
Just wanted to say that I love KTU and @paulcubbybryant is amazing!! http://myloc.me/164dN
23:35:18

NZ potter Dame Doreen Blumhardt dies
dies
RT @Bristolnews: Bristol woman dies after being hit by car on zebra crossing: http://bit.ly/xV37H Zebra outside Orpheus, Henleaze.
23:37:52

Court upholds five's P convictions
five's
Counting crows? One's bad, Two's luck, Three's health, Four's wealth, Five's sickness, Six is death.
23:40:27

'Ignorance' behind Nazi Facebook photos - council
Facebook
New facebook page http://bit.ly/2iJG8y
23:43:02

Morrison shapes up for action movie
Morrison
@empiremagazine RT On the subject of 24, did you know that James Morrison, aka Bill Buchanan, runs a yoga class in LA? - Amazing fact!
23:45:36


Man threw daughter, killed her, court hears
hears
is looking for around 4hrs a week part-time work in London. If anyone hears of anything let me know
23:48:11

Search for missing trampers on hold
Search
gmn cara searchnya? lah wong g ada kotak search!
23:50:45

Inmate murder accused in court
murder
did they conveniently avoid Omprakash ? @rkartha: How the Muthoot murder has hit the Trivandrum airport development http://bit.ly/4ighTD
23:53:20

New Plymouth Airport wins best regional
regional
For any railfan followers I may have: I'm taking Amtrak Northeast Regional train 95 from Philadelphia to Williamsburg. 12:03p EDT departure.
23:55:58

Call to TVNZ weatherman as friend only - therapist
weatherman
Why cant the weatherman not come down on his wee pony and tell me its gonna start pishin down before i walk to asda?
23:58:33

Climate scientist oblivious to media policy before sacking
in
Common word was filtered
close
What's the current #webos version for the #Palm #Pre in Germany? Is it 1.13 ? Thanks for the help in advance!
0:1:07

Depending on the keyword chosen, sometimes the headline and the Tweet are directly related, as with the headline "Morrison shapes up for action movie" where Morrison was selected as the keyword. Other times, the two are completely unrelated as with the headline "Man threw daughter, killed her, court hears" which then pulled the Tweet: "...looking for around 4hrs a week part-time work in London. If anyone hears of anything let me know" by keyword of 'hears.' I do not see this as a disadvantage or fault of the program but rather sits within our concept around the technologies of the virtual public space, where often when searching for something, you find something completely different.

My favourite of the ones above is quite possible the headline "Court upholds five's P convictions" which then became "Counting crows? One's bad, Two's luck, Three's health, Four's wealth, Five's sickness, Six is death" by keyword of "five's". Though not directly related, it seems almost ironic and yet poetic.

So though I am still not feeling entirely prepared for tomorrow, we're going to go in with what we have and make the most of it. The program is far from refined but I still feel somewhat pleased with what we have been able to achieve so far.

NullPointerException

The last week or so has been spent focusing on putting together the programming for pulling and displaying our content as well as the logistics of getting permission for use of said content as well as the use of the location and screens. Last week we visited electronics stores and spoke to the managers and passed on a hard copy of our project proposal. At James advice, we have been attempting to follow these up with phone calls, emails and visits in person and finally this morning we have gotten the go ahead from the area manager.

We have also been soldiering on with out programming so once our content is ready, it will be easy to adapt it to the premises and their setup. It has been interesting to see our concept develop seemingly naturally as we have begun programming. After our experiences learning Java (i.e. which we all found extremely challenging), it was to be feared as possibly the most complicated part. I have however found that I have gotten to the point in my understanding where I can pull at my knowledge from both programming papers (Processing and Java) and combined with common sense and helpful resources (and the indispensable aid of Kim) has been sufficient to work out and achieve the outcomes we set out to create.

My absolute moment of joy came at about 11pm on Monday night where, after about a week of searching, experimenting, trial and error, I finally managed to work the Flickr API to display and image on the screen. This was configured to search by tag and creative commons so it will relate to the content pulled from news headline feeds and Twitter, while ensure also that we do not breach copyright restrictions.( Images are licensed under 'BY' which require attribution only so from here it is a matter of displating also the username of the creator of the image.) It was the point where I realised that I have begun to enjoy programming the same way I enjoyed maths in that is it something really quite challenging and requires careful and precise calculations, but when that successful outcome is achieved, it is absolutely rewarding.

We have at this point about four seperate programs to perform all the functions which generate the various aspects of our content, including:

- Generating and placing in pre-recorded content,
- Reading, displaying and saving footage from a live webcam feed
- Pulling a keyword from the news headline to feed into the twitter feed and Flickr search.

Now, this is where we are starting to have problems with integrating the different parts of the code so they don't interfere with each other. My concern also is with the demands of the program on the computer once all the elements are integrated as already with two videos, the live webcam feed and the rss feeds has caused it to crash.

As it is visually coming together, it is exciting to see how the elements are begin visually integrated and imagining how it will look and the effect it will have when in context. As outlined above, we are beginning to have an idea of the meaning it will convey. At this point, our intended effect on the viewer is to make them stop and engage with the screens and the content. It could be interesting also to observe how viewers interact with the screens when the usual content is on and compare the effect as ultimately, with this project we are trying to create a conversation between the space, the screen, the content, the passive contributor and the viewer.

Back in the streets of the CBD

Since presenting our concept last week and establishing our fundamental concept and logistical possibilities, this proved to be a good base on which to plan our visual aesthetic. At this point we have chosen to focus on the electronics store as our location and have begun seeking permission from such locations.

The screens in these locations display identical content on all the screens visual concepts have been prepared for this sort of set up but also in the case where we are able to display different aspects of our content on different screens, as shown in the image below.

It also shows two different potential treatments of the content. The image to the left reflects the traditional form of media formerly used to inform the public sphere of important societal issues and concerns. With the technological expansion, many if not most newspapers have had to reinvent themselves in a digital medium to stay in business. The scrunched nature of the newspaper reflects that for many newpaper business, the printed word has become uneconomical to maintain and is slowly becoming obsolete. This reflects one of the impacts of the digital age.

The layout, which reflects the newpaper style, displays content from news headlines and / or Twitter feeds, periodically updated and refreshed.

The second possible treatment came by realization that the multiple screens in a space was reminiscent of security systems where multiple areas could be surveyed at once. This idea prompted the idea of using several webcam feeds of the surrounding area in and outside the store to tap into the idea that this virtual space is still interlinked with the awareness of the physical space we occupy, both in immediate and wider surrounding area.

This design more successfully reflects the technological aspect of our concept and if we are restricted to the same content on all the screens, it can be adapted to suit this layout also by repetition of the layout shown below.

This combines the same elements of content with the same visual aesthetic, possibly also more successful as it shows a clear link to the idea that technologies have allowed us to be globally interactive. We have already begun to try composing this in Processing and bringing in feeds. We have enquired not just at potential locations but have also contacted Flickr, NZ Herald and Twitter to ensure we follow all requirements to avoid breaching any copyright restrictions on displaying content accessed through feeds.

With time starting to run short, we need to have this up and running on site next week but the wheels have been put into motion.

Delving futher into the space

a

To work on padding out our concept, we narrowed our options down to four possible locations and expanded on the possibilities of these in terms of the meaning behind the screen, the location and the impact the context would have on the content of our screen.

The "outdoor arena" which I discussed in my previous post presented itself as a setting which, like a screen, can offer an escapism from your immediate surroundings, in this case, a chance to stop, slow down and sit down away from the bustle of the city. The screen in this context is reminiscent of the traditional domestic ad private use of the screen in the home where everyone would escape the outside world to sit around the TV. In this sort of situation, our content would bring the notion of the virtual public sphere into the pysical, showing the viewer that while they were in this physical setting, it would be showing the wider physical world changing which we can access through the screen through the expansion of technology. We have however had to write off this idea as the logistics in getting a screen and powering it outdoors would be beyond budget, as well as risks with the weather.

The screen in the shopping mall too had to be written off as it's predominant focus is for advertising which would put an entirely different meaning to our content, as well as the fact that the nature of it's location is that it is only glimpsed for a few moments by passing people and would be difficult to hold their attention.

The two ideas we are focusing on at the moment are The Link Bus and The Electronics Store. Again, as outlined in the previous post, the Link Bus already contains existing screens to provide a diversion from the everyday mundane activity of the commute. The public space is only accessible by paying a fare and the passengers which occupy the space often facilitate little interaction, focusing instead on the screen. The disengagement experienced with the immediate physical space is substituted with the engagement of the virtual world displayed on the screen, that is the virtual public sphere. The notion of the bus and transport enable easy access for the commuter to the wider public sphere, the same way that technology has integrated into our lives to enable easy access to communicate with the wider world around us which we may not otherwise easily be able to physically access. This is relfected in our content and runs parallel to the existing content on the screens which display information about the businesses and services offered near the bus route.

Where this one of our strongest ideas so far, it carries a lot of potential logistical problems which we will look into before writing it off completely. Otherwise, we have also identified electronic stores as another potential location. These store often have entire wall displays of television screens displaying the identical content, often for entertainment such as music videos. The effect is that the viewer is confronted with these screens, filling their entire field of vision in what is almost a hypnotic effect. This quite literally represents the presence of screens in our everyday life but on a scale which is unignorable; one may think that it is an exaggerated example but just walking down Queen Street, the viewer encounters probably the same amount of screens. The content also raises the idea that where it is there for the customers entertainment, it is at the same time displaying and advertising the product itself and keeping the customer in the store longer. While the customer watches the screens, they too are also being watched on the store's surveillance system.

The setting also literally places the viewer in amongst the technological advancements which has resulted in the expansion of the public sphere into the virtual. The main kinds of people who go into electronic stores are the younger generation who have grown up with the technology, and the adult population who has seen the exponential growth of the technology. The product appeal to our 'want' instincts: we WANT the latest and the newest gadgets, we WANT to be in touch and keep up to date, we DON'T WANT to be left behind. By having the latest, we are convinced we are in touch with the expanding world. Despite their high price tags, we often sacrafice to have them, or just go inside the store to have a look around at the things we want, even if we know we can't have them.

Logistically this is the most feasible idea as we would be dealing with more directly with the people involved in their operation and location and we have several options with the city area.

Presenting these ideas to the class on Wednesday, I realised we broke the rule of presentations by placing far too much words and content on the slides (which are viewable by the clickable links above) which makes the presentation less successful as the audience is conflicted by trying to focus on the exessive content on screen and the presenters speaking. I also realised as soon as we got up there that we had not yet put any though into the visual aesthetic of the content. We had focused on the concept, the locations, the logistics, how to pull the content together but I had only very quickly and crudely thrown together a vague visual representation of our intended content. This was quickly called up during presentation and so our next phase is to plan how we will visually present our content in a way which will unify our concept, screen, location and content into a coheive whiole. I see this as an opportunity too to pull at my design skills which I haven't used much this year.

Next step too is to put the wheels of the logistics in motions by writing up letters outlining our intention and requesting permission from both locations and potential rescources (such as news websites, Flickr, Twitter etc.) to ensure we don't encounter problems around copyright. This way, once our concept and visuals are soundly established and we get the go ahead from lecturers, we will be ready!

Link to the world

We once again take to the streets of Auckland City, this time looking for what has so integrated ourselves into our public spaces that we hardly notice them. When you actually begin to look, you find screens everywhere, removed a recontextualized from the traditional domestic setting, sitting around with the family. Once we began to think about it, we notice four predominant purposes and uses for these screens: providing information, entertainment, advertising and surveillance.

And in fact screens are often used as a form of "Out of Home Advertising", which encompasses other forms of media such as billboards, have proved to be a much more effective at providing instant impact and appeal, in particular to people and consumers on the go. It is a highly visible medium but tends to appeal more to people through engagement rather than intrusion such as other traditional forms of advertising and, based on the context, is tailored to maximize communication with target audiences.

Though screens in urban spaces aren't necessarily always purely for advertising, it is important to remember that someone put the screen there to get something out of it. Many retail stores down Queen Street have screens with what would be classified as entertainment for the shopper but in each store, the content of the entertainment is relevant to the 'theme' of the shop (i.e. content of outdoor activities in sports equipment stores, pop music videos in clothing stores targeted at teens) and has the underlying purpose of keeping that shopper in the store longer which increases the chance that they will purchase more. Venues such as bars often screen big events (often sports) to create a communal, social space to bring together people of common interests, and if they are having a good time, they will stay longer and buy more drinks. So even when screens seem to be for entertainment, it can still act as a very subtle advertisement for the location itself.

Though we aren't focusing for this project on urban screens purely as a form of advertising, the concepts of contextualization are important. The other important aspect is that of the public space. Where the public sphere used to be a literal physical space for coming together to discuss important issues, we have chosen to take this idea of the virtual public sphere which has emerged through the internet; the virtual world has become the place where anyone can discuss their opinions and thoughts on important issues to facilitate change.

We are wanting to make this connection between the virtual and physical public sphere through the idea that despite what physical space you are occupying, the virtual public sphere enables to you be connected to what is happening in other physical spaces around the world. Our basic concept at the moment is based on periodic photographs taken of a space to show how it changes and what happens throughout the course of the day. When each photograph is taken, a program will pull RSS feed from a recent newspaper headline (traditional informative media), occurring as close as possible to the time the photo was taken, and take a key word from the headline which will then further pull from other RSS feeds from sources such as Flickr (images), Tweets (comments) and Blogs (opinions). This combination of media will represent the ways in which we process, understand and experience events, unlimited by physical distance to interact. It is the idea that we can almost be everywhere in the world at the same time.

Ultimately, the content and conceptual meaning will be impacted by the context in which we choose to use our screen. Possible locations (with logistal complications aside) for this are parks or public transport.

Public open spaces within the city can tap into that idea of the traditional domestic use of a television as a place to stop and sit down and engage with the content as these parks within the city offer that chance to escape from the fast paced rush of the city to sit down and engage with a different setting and atmosphere. Interestingly enough, we also noticed the large open space outside the shopping mall is overlooked by the upstairs food court where diners sit looking out the window at this open space with the same sort of fixation as one would a television screen but rather the physical space outdoors has become the content.

Public transport raises ideas around public sphere within the context of public transport; there is a borderline of the public space as you have to pay a fare to access it and once on it, you often don't engage with those around you. Busses such as The Link are equipped with screens which provide all four types of content which we have identified (advertisments, new, weather and location information, surveillance footage and snippets of movies) and the context creates the perfect situation for engagement as people often have nothing to do during such commutes, giving them something to focus on. At the same time, the idea of transport and movement links to the idea of events happening in the world around you, as though you were moving around the world.

The next step now is to focus more in fusing the concept with what is logistically possible in preperation presentation of concepts next week.

Reminissions

A bit of a belated continuation of the activity from last week where we looked at What's and Idea? What's a Concept and where do I get one?, I interviewed my object the same way in which I was required to approach the objects which belonged to other people, that is, removing all assumptions and associations, letting the object speak through the qualities which I can perceive.

I found this a little bit easier and worked around adapting the questions I had asked for the other objects. I think some of my bias and familiarity did come through in the end but I tried to answer based purely on the visual aesthetics and their connotations. Interview can be found by clicking here.

Next step now is to look at the interviews conducted by other people with my objects and from there I found it interesting to look at the different styles and approaches other people had taken to this activity.

I liked that Jason made assumptions on weaving together almost a character for it, giving it a set name (pillyD) and experiences ("I came close to being lost while on school camp") I do not know if this was the case, but I am wondering whether he was relating it to a similar object he has or once had and basing his answers around that whilst still basing it on physical features of it ("Have you always had an image?; No, my owner gave me a transfer"). I thought it was daring to try guess at fairly specific details of the object which are in fact pretty open ended to guess at correctly but I enjoyed reading about it.

I felt that Lisa tried more to personify it, giving it more human characteristics and reactions to her questions (" I’m old enough now though i feel young as I’m in a good condition.") Though I feel like she kept some of her questions fairly obvious ("what colour are you?; Creamy white"), with a few of the questions she began to tap into some of the less obvious connotations behind the physical characteristic and letting the object speak for itself ("I’m a blanket i was used to keep warm, to comfort a child, to be an important object in the life of a child that is my use and will forever be my use for generations.")

Ryan seemed a midground between Lisa and Jason, trying not to stamp it with any fixed meaning or assumptions ("Does your owner like Donald Duck?; All kids like Donald Duck..."), but evidently also trying to find some meaning from the physical ("you're in a good condition, were you well looked after?; yush my owner loves me") and the connotations of what it was ("is the current owner the intended recipient of you?; "Probably it was made for the family.")

Overall, the related words arose repeatedly from all three interviews were faded, frayed, thinned, old, unstitched, delicate, repaired which related to the immediate physical appearance of it from which everyone could understand that it was an old object which had been in someones posession for an extended period of time. The other main idea came from the words precious, comfort, reassurance, emotionally, depressed, child, relationship, small, Donald Duck, and cartoon which began to read past the physical into the connotations of the object and letting it speak for itself and the sentimental value behind it. They were all able to understand it as a momento from childhood which had endured many experiences and emotions.

From these common ideas and words, I now have to develop a visual signifier to communicate these same qualities without directly representing my object, which I feel the purpose of which is to explore the symbols and triggers from which understand both established meaning and associated meaning from contextual factors.

Interview with the self

Today's activity was useful in exploring the creation of a concept. It was a good chance to revisit the meanings behind our instruments after having a week to disengage from it and reflect upon it refreshed. I will also take this opportunity to post my final video of my performance.




So I suppose what immediately stands out, why Coca Cola Bottles?
Several reasons, in terms of an instrument, the shape of them gives a really good sound when pressurized. In terms of concept, the Coca Cola contour bottle has become an icon, it is instantaneously recognisable and designed to be as such. You can look at my piece and even though the bottles have had their labels removed, there is no doubt what they are.

What sort of comment is this making on Coca Cola?
It is making a comment not specifically to Coca Cola but large scale companies and the marketing measures they put into place to enforce consumer branding and awareness. It is like instantaneous recognition young children make with the Golden Arches to get that branding in at a young age and imbed that loyalty into them.

In what other ways does your design reflect this?
The structure which houses the bottles is to allude to the shelf presence of Coca Cola, the monopoly if you will. You walk into any dairy or supermarket and there will be an entire shelf or fridge just top to bottom with the different sizes and ranges of Coke. You know with a supermarket that nothing is ever placed accidently, shelf space is like property, each shelf position has it's own value based on it's position relative to eye level and distance down the eye, all calculated in terms of studies of the psychology of shopping. It is all about marketing, consumerism and consumption, we are being manipulated to buy. My instrument takes the Coca Cola fridge out of context , it is taken in isolation to reflect this idea that you are manipulated to see only the Coca Cola and no other brand. Physically you are confronted with the presence of it, it fills your entire field of vision.

So was your use of the bottles initially for their sound or the concept?
I started with the concept, simply consumerism, that which I have been interested in for a long time. I worked through some ideas around this but none which I could really apply musically. I was thinking of using multiple of an object from looking at Andy Warhol's work, in particular his Soup Cans as these alluded to the same umbrella of ideas, so from there the Coca Cola bottles seemed the obvious direction with suggestion from Phil Dadson. His musical experience was a great help in applying my more visual idea.

Why are you so interested in this concept?
I have been working in retail for over three years now so have seen first hand some of the chaos of consumerism. Working in a large scale homewares store over Christmas one year I saw not just the mad rush, the inflated emphasis on buying, the sales, the stock going out as faster than it came in. It seemed unbelievable with the amount of stock we were selling that people still needed to buy more. It didn't seem possible that the supposed need for all these objects was never fulfilled. I am also quite environmentally conscious so when I began to look at the other end of the objects life-span, the mindless disposal into landfills is directly related to this mindless spending and buying which we are manipulated to do.

So who is the target audience of your work?
I don't make any bold positive or negative statements, this particular work is quite neutral, mostly stating the facts that we chose to ignore. I actually have a level of respect for those who come up with marketing tactics because they really are clever. It isn't necessarily a bad thing but I want to make the general consumer aware of why they consume the way they do. We all know excess consumption, such as that of Coca Cola, is bad for us but wonder why we do it. I like to understand things and like to create things that help people open up to something they may not have been aware of, think of something in a new way.

You've explained the visual aesthetic but how does it relate to the fact that it is an instrument?
Music and jingles also play an important part in marketing. The high pitched 'ping' noise alludes to the tone adopted by Coca Cola in their advert, they portray magical worlds, happy people on beaches, celebrations, special ocassions; all part of the positive images and experiences they want you to associate with consuming their product. The particular advert my instrument is a reference to is the magical journey which takes place in a fantasty world inside the vending machine. This seems to have very little to do with Coca Cola but emparts a cute, happy feeling enhanced with the sweet, music box like tones.

How does this piece relate to previous works you've done?
In a previous project to design and build a wearable human interface, I created a stark white plaster human face with switches, which, when triggered would set off a stream of images relating to emotions. This relates to the 'facelessness' of consumerism, we are perhaps a blank canvas so open to manipulation. We are at the mercy of clever marketing who can control how we feel to make us want to buy a product. We are the white plaster face, our inputs are triggered by advertisments, the output is an evoked emotion.

How would you build on this concept in future projects?
I want perhaps to make something that makes a stronger comment because the hot issue at the moment is in creating a sustainable planet, a goal we are far from. I want to make something people can interact with, take art off the walls, something people can physically interact with and take some understanding with them to change some aspect of their life.

20 questions

Despite being struck by plague and having to have missed two lessons of this studio project, I was pleased that the days' activities were self contained so I didn't feel like so behind, though it was interesting trying to make sense of the shapes and constructs around the studio.

I liked the sound of today's activity which began with bringing in a personal object which required almost no thinking as to what I brought along. When asked to pull them out, it was suddenly strange bringing it into this new context, writing about it proved to be much easier as the personal significance of my object again didn't require much thinking.

A personal object of personal significance - something you value because of it's meaning to you, not its worth. Write an explanation of why your object is important to you and what meanings you attach to it. (click on the below image)

The objects were all then placed upon the table for scrutiny. We all seemed perhaps a bit hesitant, due to their personal significance perhaps leaving us feeling vulnerable. My gentle Mimi seemed out of place amongst the half a dozen or so electronics. Upon given the task of having to 'interview' the objects, each object was taken for scrutiny. It was strange to have my object taken away from me but then it was interesting watching Ryan as he interrogated it, analyzing in great detail the physicality of it, exploring the texture, the shape, the nature, but he handled it gently, valuing it for this physicality and the meaning behind it. I liked this as it explored the character which I had recalled in my analysis of its significance to me. Jason similarly asked my permission before picking it up which showed the same level of respect for the object.

I also noticed more people were inclined to interview the digital object, perhaps because we engage better with technological objects; they are more customizable, easier to engage with and understand, we can associate with a similar thing we posses ourselves so can relate to. Some of the other object, perhaps like mine are fairly ambiguous and we lack the contextual understanding of the connotations and associations, bringing to it their own instead. This was an approach I took in my interviews, trying to imagine as though the objects as though they were mine. Click on the below images to see the interview.

I felt this activity was useful in exploring the potential conceptual meaning behind an object by using our own experiences and objects as a starting point. From here now, we have to go back to our own objects to explore it as though we had no emotional link to it, the way the others in the class experienced it and then attempt to represent it based on our own interpretation and the interpretations of others.

Showtime and reflection.

Two hours before we were due to perform I found I was lacking inspiration in playing my instrument. I found that I wasn't coming up with anything new, exciting or different everytime I went to play it. After having a bit of collaboration with Ryan and Seamus, I found that my instrument works quite well when played by two people and the scale allows for it nicely.

Come time for performance I started out playing it solo and then invited Seamus who so kindly went up on stage for the third time that night to play duet. And in fact, I am seeing and discovering over and over again the benefits of the nature of the many levels of collaboration that occur within our group, not just in the final performances but in the nature of the shared studio space. As our ideas and projects develop, we learn from and offer our individual talents and skills to those around us. Seamus, being quite naturally and by developed skill a musical had a lot of offer to the class but even as our instruments neared their finished state, we began to experiment in playing with each others instruments hence we all learned more about our own.

As usual, I was amazed at the range of different ideas and shapes and forms we had all explored to each come up with something different and unique, often reflecting our interests and existing skills. The final result I think left us all quite amazed at what we had achieved. The range of musical ability was greatly varied in the class but the overall level of performance I think, as was the consensus, greater than what any of us were expecting. Even those who weren't used to the nature of performance were proud of what they had created that they managed to come through as confidence.

What else I found really interesting was that where I'd seen some of the instruments develop from concept to finished product, there were a few I hadn't seen at all so even at the end I saw new object and ideas emerge. On top of that, one of my friends came along to the performance with her little brother and two of his friends in tow (they'd been enticed along to 'a free music thing in town') so it was also exciting to see that reaction from people the outside who were seeing it all for the first time with not a lot of background knowledge on what the project was all about. All of them were from quite musical backgrounds and really enjoyed it. I could tell that at first they were having the same sort of reaction I had when I went to see Phil's performance but they soon got into it. My friend said that she even felt inspired to go home and make something.

A lot of constructive feedback came from crit the next day. Feedback to mine was again the logistics of the upright position of the stand and that it would've been more successful in terms of playable ability if the bottles we horizontal and more spaced apart. We discussed my concept and that the stance I had originally taken on the marketing effect of Coca Cola ended up being more neutral one rather than any strong statement. Suggested ways to improve this would be to have perhaps one odd bottle out to allude to the monopoly of Coke or to link it back to the effect on the consumer, as I had looked at with the Coca Cola robot presented by SWAMP, perhaps by use of my impliments I hit it with such as a syringe. I definitely feel my design could be improved in many ways if ever chose to, whilst taking this feedback, from my personal experience playing it I'd also increase the scale of it so that it could be played by more people.

Overall I found this project a bit more challenging that the other, just because it was outside my sphere of skills. I was forced to think of design outside my usual focus on purely the visual to think also about the sound. Though it was suggested and encouraged we use Solid Works when developing our designs, I chose not to use it as by that point I was feeling too rushed for time to try pick up a new piece of software but I do see it's potential and that it would've been helpful. I am keen to learn it for future projects, especially as I would like to experiment with using the 3D printer at some point, if appropriate to a project. Otherwise, there was a less of a focus on the digital side for this project compared to the other as really it was only Ryan and Zac who chose to manipulate digital aspects to create sound while everyone else focused on the acoustic, with the occasional contact mic. I enjoyed having performance as a part of assessment and hope we have more like this again.

Preemptive performance post

It is performance day and this week has finally brought together a a myriad of interesting noises as the instruments have begun to reach completed states. We started to experiment with sounds with some improvisation activities which linked back nicely to the introduction activities we did where we paid attention to the sound around us and began to think about how we could add to this sound on the basis of listening.

We started by listening to the existing sounds in the greenroom and then we had to add something. This activity was a lot more successful when we turned out the lights as we became disengaged from the physical to focus more purely on the sounds, and hence we able to communicate and res pond more successfully. It also enabled us to escape any self consciousness. What resulted was a composition of sounds of movement, interaction with objects arou nd us, vocal sounds and some even began to incorporate our instruments. Other activites included just the use of vocals and holding a note for a breaths length which created some beautiful harmonies.

I was glad I went along to Phil's performance last week as I felt I had a better understanding of the approach we are supposed to now take with our instruments, as well as a better understanding of the way in which Phil's group were able to interact without verbal communication to create cohesive sound. It was a similar sort of effect we began to achieve in these activities an d it begun to get me excited again about this performance.

My instrument is more or less in a finished state but given enough time or another opportunity, there are still ways I'd refine it. Some of the bottles are unable to hold the compression for a long period of time and I always have to retune it. Three or four of the bottles leak completely and are unable to hold any compression so James discussed with me the need to calculate for a 'failure rate' when designing and constructing and have some spares on hand. Both James and Phil discussed with me the physical logistics of performance with my object in that it would be easier to play if the frame was horizontal or if the bottles are on an angle. I see the point they are making but for this performance I am going to stay with the vertical stand as it is more in keeping with my concept and my original focus on something which is more physically performative.

Now that we have the performance space available to us, I was able to start thinking more about this performative aspect in terms of using the space. I have experimented with setting up lighting with a red gel behind my instrument with the rest of the room in darkness so that the light shines through the bottles and the frame is mostly obscured. I will be behind the instrument but will attempt to set up the light so that my movements are shown by long shadows thrown on the ground. This is what I have to experiment with before tonight as well as becoming more familiar with my instrument and the tools I have developed to play it with.

Construction...and deconstruction

The latter half of last week following confirmation of final design was spent in the 3D lab; the holes were drilled for the bottle caps to sit in an suspend the bottle from, recesses were cut to act as slots for the 'shelves' to slide in and out of for easy removal to change placement of bottles and it was all then put together, all in relatively hasslefree manner. Where my calculations for the height of the bottles was correct to determine the height of each shelf, I hadn't accounted for the additional height to the bottle by addition of the valve.

Seeing no other or easier way around it, it was pulled apart, recalculated and painstakingly reconstructed. The best way to test the strength of a join is to try pull it apart, a task which in itself proved difficult. From there, I had to cut new recesses, fill the old ones and attach additional lengths of wood to add extra height, then put it all back together, sand it down and paint it. All made possible with the ever vigilant and helpful 3D lab technicians.

I am pleased with the overall visual aesthetic, especially when finally came time to put the bottles on. The visual impact is exactly what I'd been hoping for from the relatively simplistic design with the repetition of shape and graduations of size. Where I'd been hoping to reflect the organic shape of the bottle in my design, the geometric shape of the structure actually works quite well in contrast to it. It is a presentation of the bottles not unlike that which we're used to (ie shelves and fridges in stores) but it is decontextualized from this location. The labels have been removed from the bottles but it is still instantaneously recognizable as the product it is. I feel the implications of this are a comment on the techniques employed to emforce brand and product awareness as means of boosting sales, in the short and immediate, as well as the long term.

I was very glad to have found my bike pump which makes the process of fine tuning the sound a lot easier than having to get access to the air compressor everytime. I managed to get some sort of tuning done, varying tones across the sizes. In preperation for performance on Thursday, I can now focus back on the performative aspect of it and what sort of sound I hope to create, perhaps in collaboration with someone else.

Under Pressure

To inform my own research and design, I went along Tuesday night to see a four hour non-stop improvised experimental music performance. One of the performers was non other than Phil who is taking us for this studio project.

I was interested to see him perform as he had already impressed me with his ability to pick up anything and make it musical and he'd shown us a few of his own experimental instruments so I was keen to see these in action.

Upon first entering the back room of The Wine Cellar, it was strange to walk in where it had already started. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was almost unnatural to listen to at first, perhaps due to the fact that we are conditioned into a type and misconception about what music 'should' sound like. But I found that as I relaxed into the deep couches and absorbed the atmospheric lighting and space, the sounds just started to sound right. Even without communication, the three performers always seemed to thinking in tandem and creating something as though composed, at times almost like a conversation between the instruments. Imperceptible transitions changed the mood from tense, to calm, to suspenseful, to even comical at times. We found ourselves commenting on what the mood reminded us of, from chase scene, to horror movie, to walk in the park. It was a very ambient sound and I found myself absorbing it in almost a trance and, in fact, the performers seemed to be in a trance and working intuitively. I didn't stay the full four hours but was sad to leave.

Back in the studio and my own construction, following some calculations I began to doubt the feasibility of my intended construction, in particular the metal coils. I decided to go ahead and try it out with minor modifications but following a class 'show and tell' session with Phil and James, they confirmed my doubts and helped me move in another direction. I have scrapped the coils and now going for a simple wooden shelf frame with different sized bottles on each shelf. This is in fitting with my concept as the marketing of Coca Cola has reached such a point that in any store which sells it, it takes up a larger shelf presence in it's range of sizes and flavours so that it engulfs the potential consumers vision. They are forced to confront it, increasing the chance they will purchase it while adding to brand awareness and familiarity.

In terms of construction, I have my materials purchased, holes drilled in the shelves for the bottles to sit in, held in by the caps ( to reduce dampening of the sound) and the valves have been inserted into the caps. Armed with an air compressor, I began experimenting with pressurizing the bottles. Most of my joins held and I was very pleasantly surprised at the sound given off which sounded nothing like a plastic bottle. It was more of a 'ping' sound which resonated loudly even when I simply struck it with my nails so once constructed, it will be a matter of experimenting with different beaters. I managed to get a range of tones across the same sized bottles but until my support structure is completed, it is difficult to experiment with tone variation across the different sizes, but at least I know that it will work and it will be simply a matter of fine tuning.

Brainstorming and Brainwashing

This week has been slow going in the design and development phase. The most difficult part has been trying to think of my design in terms of something that will be acoustically successful. This may be a bit obvious given the basis of the project is to create a sound producing instrument but I've found myself thinking more in terms of visual aesthetic and performative capability.

Initial ideas were to create something large scale so I could really physically interact and perform with it. Aside from a few smaller ideas, my main one I though about was revisiting an earlier side project where I controlled an animation on screen by tap dancing, wired up and programmed with a keyboard hack. I though about applying these same concepts through a large scale xylophone like structure, capable of supporting my weight. Where this would work as an acoustic instrument, I could also add a digital element by wiring up the different notes and the plates of the tap shoes, perhaps to somehow manipulate the sound.


From there, I began to link it more to a conceptual basis. and context. I have always been interesting in ideas around consumerism and thinking about this enabled me to start developing my ideas. The xylophones turned to cans with product labels on them, reminiscent of Andy Warhol's 100 Soup Cans which reflects this idea of mass production, consumption and availability of consumer products and brand awareness and marketing. After discussion with Phil, he suggested a way to use this same concept but helped me fill in the musical aspect of it. Instead of cans, it changed to Coca Cola Bottles which can be pressurized by inserting tyre valves into the caps to produce sound when hit. Similarly like, again, with Andy Warhol's Coca Cola Bottles, it presents the same idea but also in a product we are perhaps we can associate with more.

I felt additonally inspired by the exhibition and artist talk we went to last week which linked to my ideas and enabled me to develop them further. The work by SWAMP (Studies of Work Atmospheres and Mass Production) focuses around these ideas and in particular I was interested in the project Coke Is It which featured a robot programmed to search for puddles of Coca Cola on the floor which it would then suck up and spray over itself. The acidity of the Coke would eat through the umbrella above it and leak into the circuitry of the robot, causing it to short circuit and break down. Essentially it is an explicit commentary on "the routine destruction we do to our bodies" by consumption of the product which we know if bad for us, but continue to consume anyway, almost like we have been programmed to do so.

To translate the concept and acousitc element back into a visual and performative instrument. Researching further into the design and marketing of Coca Cola, I discovered that the unique design of the bottle is designed so that "a person will recognise as a Coca-Cola bottle even if he feels it in the dark. The Coca-Cola bottle should be shaped that, even if broken, one could tell at a glance what it was". Similarly the unique curve which has become integrated into it's marketing has also become iconic and instantaneously recognizable. From there, I was thinking about the nature of marketing and the methods companies go to to encourage brand awareness was not unlike brainwashing. To play on the curve and contour bottle, I am wanting to create a spiral which will hold the 5 different sized bottles and spin when hit to give the illusion that the bottles are suspended in midair while the spiral is spinning. This design came from the idea of garden wind chimes, shown in the image to the left.

I intend to make five of these spirals giving me 25 different sounds to use. The only thing now I am brainstorming is the best sort of support structure to build to suspend them from. On possible idea was a child's mobile-like structure to allude to the young age from which we are targeted, like how icons such as the Golden Arches of McDonald's for a young child become connotative of good experiences.

Mission now is to collect materials and experiment on a smaller scale to ensure it will produce the result I want before embarking on a larger scale.

Exploration

Part 2 of 2

On this note, we once again took to the streets of Auckland City in a 'Sound Walk', another way to add to our growing repertoire of ways to explore and experience the city. This time, we went on the same pathway though on our own, listening and recording the sounds we hear in terms of distance, volume, frequency and other similar aspects. There was no sort of set format in which we were meant to record it so I chose to do it in terms of a timeline / graph with different colours.

I have never extensively studied music so describing the nature of sounds it isn't some I have a lot of experience with. When encouraged to think of it compositionally, as though putting together a musical score with harmonies, gave me more to think about as I went along. Though most the recurring sounds were the same with only about five or six dominant sounds, what I found more interesting was in fact how they seemed to be composed. Thinking past just listening to what the sound itself was, the challenge was to listen to how it was and how it changed.

Like a musical score, I found interesting occurrences in the city sounds. Some noises followed patterns which seemed to repeat at more or less regular interval, such as the sin or cos graphs. The most dominant noise in the city is of course that of traffic but even that rose and fell, both in distance, volume and pitch. Then, other sounds seemed to reply in conversation with this, as the car noises died away, the more subtle noises such as peoples voices, footsteps and birds rose in apparent volume and distance, then dying as the cars dominated again, creating an inverse graph.

In terms of the journey itself, this can be expanded further depending on the location. Directly alongside the streets would be a strong introduction, softening as I entered Myers park where the streen noises were a faint accompaniment to the people's voices - imagined as though the vocal accompaniment - the wind in the trees, footsteps and other sounds occuring as the result of physical movement, the singing of the birds, and even the trickling of water into the drain. Exiting the park and up the steps which would gradually take me back to the bustling streets of K' Rd, the music of the cars would once again intensify and dominate, yet with a gradual transition between the two.

In contrast to this activity, the next day's project instead took us to the architecture department where we were sealed inside a Anechoic Chamber to experience the absense of sound. We found that with all noises from outside the room completely sealed off, we were able to focus completely on our internal noises, such as the high pitched squeal of the nervous system, and the low pitched thud of the heart. Noises inside the room as people moved, breathed and spoke were experienced in a completely different way as the accoustics of the room were designed so that sounds didn't reflect of the foam walls. When the lights were turned out, the mind was completely disoriented with no reference points with which to place sound and even a cough from across the room sounded like it was in your ear.

By developing a greater understanding of how we experience and register sound, we will be able to take this into the context in which we create our sonic objects. I felt these activities were helpful as they helped me think about sound in new ways by removing some of the filters we apply automatically in everyday life. I will use these to inform my research and develop my initial ideas and concepts.

Back to basics

Part 1 of 2

Given the task of creating an instrument from a cardboard box, I saw everyone approach it hands on and just go for it, armed with scissors, glue, knives and whatever else they could get their hands on. In my usual methodical approach, I had to sit down and think about it for a while and jot down some ideas. I think everyone else had the right idea, especially when the project was compared to that given to pre-schoolers and in that sense, I thought about how pre-schoolers would feel less inhibited, allowing them to fully unleash their creativity and see what comes out. Perhaps this is the approach required if I am to experiment with more risk taking.

As it was, I found myself sitting surrounded by an assortment of film canisters, metal and plastic strings, metal hooks, balloons and, of course, glue and scissors. Taking the basic anatomy of an instrument, the cardboard box acts as the amplifier or resonating chamber. Beyond this, I found myself fairly uninspired at first.

After brainstorming various methods of creating the various features which make an instrument, I decided to take the more hands on approach and learn by doing, and just explored the potential of the shapes and textures made possible with the film canisters. I also experimented with some metal wire which had been a spiral binding for a note pad and experimented with the pitch given when uncoiled to different lengths, and with some plastic wire stretched out with metal hooks and a styrofoam bridge, I used film canisters as movable bridges. This resulted in varying degrees of success in terms of sound, the most successful of which was the metal wire.

I found it hard to work with the cardboard box as I found it hard to present something that wasn't visually refined; every time I looked at it, it was to me still just a kettle box with film canisters stuck to it. It was important to try remember that this was still purely experimental and not meant to be a refined final product. Essentially, it was where were all at anyway and like with my experiences, we were all at varying degrees of success.

Through presentation we discovered that we had all experimented with not just the potential, but the limitations of the cardboard as a material. Some had established that their designs would work better with a more rigid material such as wood, but others found that the limitations gave it a new shape or other unexpected result which they wouldn't have thought of but gave an overall successful outcome. This reinforces the experimental approach as the best results can be unplanned, then taken to be refined.

To add another aspect to our instruments, we constructed contact microphones simply by soldering wires onto the required plates and plugs which were provided. The purpose of adding these was to pick up sounds and vibrations we might not be able to hear other wise, enhance and otherwise alter and projects the sounds in a different way. I didn't use the potential of the cardboard box too well as an amplifier, so it didn't work too well acoustically but the microphone amplified the sounds and gave more of a distinct tonal variation between the different sized film canisters which was distinguishable acoustically. What I would be able to improve on is to experiment with different tool with which to play it to give more interesting variety of sounds.

Overall what we got out of this activity is an initial understanding and basis for what is and isn't successful for creating sound from our own experiences and each others' presentations. From here, I believe this will serve as a basis to develop on and experiment with for the sonic objects which we will design, build and perform. I feel I've definitely learnt from it as music and sound isn't an area I've extensively studied in the past so this next brief will be a challenge but I am looking forward to the performance aspect.

Preemptive reflection: Semester 2

Following a briefing on what semester 2 has in store, we were also given some pointer based on last semesters' projects and presentations as to what had to be improved overall. They were points we'd briefly highlighted before but it was good to be refreshed and go more in depth. The challenge this semester is o extend our ideas with more thoroughly developed and thought out concepts by linking to context which will help us approach our ideas with more confidence, which will then lead to taking more risks to achieve an overall more interesting outcome.

In some of my more final reflective blog entries from last semester, I had recognized this (having been pointed out by James then as well) and once again I relate it back to the process I followed in my art making last year, particularly in art design. Where, given a brief, we came up with our initial ideas and context, generated a range of concepts, chose one or two to develop and refine, go back and evaluate, then go back and do it again, developing on to achieve a more refined product from seeing what works and what doesn;t work.

Following our introduction to our new theory paper, Maths and Art, when presented with a complex sentence and situation to deconstruct, analyse and think about, I feel it provided a good sort of note to start on by encouraging that sort of critical thinking, looking for further ideas.

I feel I need to keep these ideas and skills in mind during the semester to extend on what I achieved in semester 1.Though they were processes I was already familiar with, I think I instesad chose to focus too much the introcudtion of the new context of a higher and different level of study, not thinking to incorporate these skills I already had. Now more familiar with the process of the studio projects, I can integrate the two.

The other big challenge I think everyone struggles to overcome is that of time constraints and that can only be overcome with careful planning, motivation and the right mindset, or, like me, not trying to do everything. I need to work on pacing myself in terms of what is possible within the given time frame. Having also only done only one group project so far, I know that where I prefer working on my own, it is vital I learn to work in a group as well.

Overall am looking forward to the upcoming projects and papers and after a long holiday, am ready to get back into it.