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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment