Aargh
layout & text for the catalogue of the convergence festival
In 2015 I was working as a resident at Overtoon, a platform for research, production and distribution of sound art and sound-based installation art. During my residency I developed a site specific work site for the 9th floor of the office building Overtoon occupied.
This particular building stands high and free in the city center of Brussels. Wind has a big impact on it. Already on a regular day, opening windows on opposite sides of the building, turns the offices into drafty spaces. On a more windy day you strongly hear the effect of the wind inside the building. The howling of the wind in staircases and shafts. The whistle of the wind through cracks, cavities and fissures.
In my installation I tried to use the energy created by the wind as a force or input to create a sound installation .
The Overtoon office building form the outside
11th Floor
Airflow
High-low pressure
Contents
Inspiration
For several years I played with the idea to create a mechanical speech synthesizer. A system copying the mechanisms of the human speech production organ. Not so much an object that speaks, but an object or installation with sounds reminiscent of talk, whisper, moan, groan ... My inspiration for this installation was twofold.
Wolfgang Von Kempelen
This 18th century's Austrian inventor Wolfgang Von Kempelen is probably most famous for his invention of the mechanical Turk, a chess playing automaton, a far reaching and elaborate hoax. The story goes that he invented the mechanical turk to impress Maria Theresia, Empress of Austria, to give him the money to work on a manual operated speech synthesizer. While it took him 6 months to finish the mechanical Turk, he spent almost 20 years researching and working on a representational and functional model of the human vocal tract, a speaking machine. In 1789 he published his 20 years of research in : 'Mechanismus Der Menschlichen Sprache Nebst Beschreibung Seiner Sprechenden Maschine'. He could be considered as one of the pioneers of speech synthesis.
At the pool
I have this recollection of a holiday in France. A warm summer day, late afternoon, reading a book at the poolside. Despite the fact that I was alone at the pool, I kept hearing voices. Engrossed in the book, it took a while before I realised that this sound was not coming from people, but was caused by the following phenomenon.
The movement in the water caused the flaps on the water filters of the pool to open and close. Water flowed in and out of the filters. As a result, the air inside the filters was compressed and pushed out of the compartment through a small opening in the lid covering the filter. That caused vibration on the lid. The housing of the filter working as a sound box.
Standing next to the filters I couldn't make anything out of these sounds, but from a distance, when my attention was no longer focused on the sound but rather on reading, my mind turned these sound back into voices. A fascinating phenomenon.
This is a small sketch I made, a cross section of the filter system
Period
I started working on this project soon after the launch of the Overtoon group exhibition Sense of sound, in the beginning of march 2015. I ended my residency in May 2015 with an exhibition which ran from April 23rd until May 21st. This date was chosen to make the opening of the exhibition coincide with the Convergence festival in which I participated.http://www.overtoon.org/productions/2015/aargh/
The exhibition ran for almost a month, open from Wednesday until Friday. Always in the presence of the artist.
In June 2015 the installation moved to Prague, and was at display during the State of Stability exhibition at the non-profit gallery Skolska.
In august 2015 I presented the project at the 3D Biolab symposium, invited by rixc within the framework of Mons Cultural Capital 2015.
From the beginning of 2016 the project continues in Nantes at Musee Dobrée, http://lenoyau.org/doku.php?id=about.
I don't consider this project closed. Although started as a site specific project, the research is still ongoing and each new instalment will evoke new contraptions and ways of presentation.
Already the move from on site to gallery space focus on sculptural element, functioning cut the tie with the building, ground floor in an enclosed area. this relation shape and sound. and mechanically evoke.
Exhibition shots
Overtoon, Apr-May 2015
Skolska, Jun 2015
This page documents and collect all kinds of information about my project.
Voicing
Here I'm collecting information about what I call voicing : different experiments in which I try to copy the function of the vocal cords. I'm exploring different tracks. Musical instruments in which all different kind reeds --> Martin riches installation speaking machines in which he pretty myuch copied the principles of organ techniques. reed pipes.
Wind organs and the likes
Cavity resonators
One the first experiment was based on information I found on Godfried Willems Raes' logosfoundation. For his work Whisper he used cavity resonators to produce sound. These small cavities with orifices on both sides are somehow like Helmholtz resonators. Because they can be driven with air at low pressure, I thought it might be an interesting solution to produce sound driven by the wind working on the facade of the building.
I constructed several shapes based on information I found on his site. His works are always super well documented.
This is a first batch I made.
- Cavity resonator 00.jpg
first batch of cavity resonators
- Cavity resonator 01.jpg
first batch of cavity resonators
This is a second set I made with 3D printed shafts/cylinders. The closing lids are made out of piezo elements
In the end I was not really happy with the sound produced, they have a lot of overtones, ...
- Cavity resonators.jpg
Cavity resonators
Cavity resonators
These work really well if you blow them or even better suck air through. I had them placed on the building. Still they need pretty strong wind to have them produce sound loud enough.
In a second setup I have them mounted into the floor.
Whistle
Something along the line of the cavity resonators, I guess. Air when forced through a ribbed tube, produces a whistling sound. I noticed while inflating an air bed last summer, aargh. And I guess it is the same thing which makes duck vents sound as well --> change the shape of the ribbed surface in these vents and generate sound?
Then I was thinking about the way the, shape of the and how thismight be of influence on speech, production. There are different ways of http://atkn.org/wiki/index.php/Aargh
When talking about phonation there are different ways
voiceless --> no vibration of the vocal folds
breathy voice --> vocal folds much more open to let more air pass
modal voice --> normal use of vocal folds vibrating
These are small objects with ribbed inner surface.
Reed
In this particular setup I'm experimenting with different types of reeds placed vertical in front of a slotted opening. I made a construction so I could create a variable slotted opening at the and of a 100 mm PVC tube which is being put under pressure by a simple ventilator. A small strip of material is held in front of the opening. By putting tension on the strip, vibrations and frequencies change. As a reed I used different materials, like aluminium, simple Tessa tape, Wood Veneer, and a strip of flexible 3d Printed material, Ninjaflex.
mount for PVC tubing
MDF panels to create variable slot
Mount for variable types of reed
complete set with wood veneer reed
different materials
aluminium 1mm, shaped reed
flexible 0.3 mm 3D printed strips
These are some first recordings. They are quiet noisy. You still strongly hear the sound of the ventilator blowing.
This is a different construction, to be mounted directly onto a small slot made into the PVC tubing and to test with different lengths of reed for change in frequency.
long slotted
long slotted
Harmonium
A small test with harmonium reeds. Fitted into a small box which can be mounted onto the different vocal tract shapes. I'm not so happy with it, because the sound is so typically associated with the instrument.
Others
Some experiments with different shapes
- Printed vocal03.jpg
Resonators
Hermann von Helmholtz
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/explore/acoustics/hermanvonhelmholtz/helmholtzssynthesizer/
Splab
The website Acoustic-Phonetics Demonstrations, from the Arai laboratory explains some of the main principles of acoustic phonetics.
These are a few experiments with shapes based on information I found on this website. All these objects were 3d printed in grey or white PLA using a makerbot replicator 2.
The table on the right gives the diameters along the length of the vocal tract from the lips to the glottis for the vowels i, e, a, o, u. The cad file on the right translate these diameters into a 3D shape.
japanese vowel shapes
CAD design
3D printed this gives the following shapes :
/O/
/E/
/A/
/I/
/U/
I printed some a lot bigger as well, just to test how this acts on the frequencies and the forming of vowels. The small shapes are normally about 16 cm long. They are in fact a reconstruction of the changing volumes the vocal cavity.
/E/_big
/U/_big
Gunnar Fant
Gunnar Fant was a professor at the Royal Institute of technology in stockholm specialized in the acoustics of the human voice. His Acoustic Theory of Speech Production. (1970) Mouton De Gruyter. ISBN 90-279-1600-4, contains calculations based on X-Ray studies of Russian articulations.
Based on his calculations, I created a second series of shapes.
/O/
/E/
/A/
/iJ/
/O/
/E/
/A/
/iJ/
/U/
Martin Riches
Von Kempelen had goed begrepen dat voor het vormen van klanken waaruit spraak is opgebouwd, niet zozeer het strottenhoofd belangrijk is, maar de vorm van de mondholte een cruciale rol speelt. Elke klank wordt voornamelijk gevormd in de mondholte. De stand van de tanden, lippen, mond, tong, zeg maar, de fysionomie van de mond- en keelholte. Geïnspireerd door Von Kempelen bouwde de Britse kunstenaar Martin Riches 'Talking machine'6. Hij ging in zijn ontwerp te werk als een orgelbouwer. Voor elke klank bouwde hij een specifieke pijp of een stem. Sommige kregen extra kleppen om de positie van tong, lippen of tanden na te bootsen en op die manier plofklanken te kunnen produceren. Zoals Riches zou ik in een eerste fase kopieën willen maken van de mondholte. Daarvoor wil ik in 3d software verschillende vormen ontwerpen en deze laten 3d printen. Dat is vooral een onderzoek naar de haalbaarheid. Maar ook hoop ik hiermee de ideale vormen en daarbij horende klanken te vinden. Nadien zou ik willen onderzoeken of het mogelijk is deze objecten te verschalen naar meer monumentale objecten.
Articulating finnish vowels
http://www.helsinki.fi/puhetieteet/projektit/Finnish_Phonetics/vokaalit_eng.htm
These 3D printed shapes are based upon MRI scans taken from a finnish person prounouncing finnish vowels, a , e ,i, o u, y, ae, oe. For these prints I used Bronze filament from colorfabb, which I treated with to give the material a verdi gris patina.
/A/
/Y/
/U/
/OE/
/E/
/AE/ unfolded
/A/
/Y/
/U/
Vocaltractlab
Great software that not only contains a list of predefined vocal tract shapes for consonants and vowels but also allows to change the vocal tract shape with a wide set of parameters and play the voiced sound corresponding to the adjusted vocal tract shape. A great tool to explore different shapes and their corresponding sounds.
Bellow
The bellow in an organ functions as a capacitator. It's main function is to allow for a constant airflow and air pressure. I'm fascinated by their shapes, They are ingeniously http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/Tech/tremreg.htm
It was only late in the project, when I realised the floor below, the 8th floor was abandoned that I realised that I could use the building as a bellow. By piercing the floor, drilling he between the 9th and the 8th floor,
One of the first things I did when I started at Overtoon, was open op the window. I explored different ways of using the building.
Electronics
Sensors
Modern devices wind sensor rev C :
http://moderndevice.com/product/wind-sensor/
https://github.com/moderndevice/Wind_Sensor
Jeenode
Comparison Matrix of the different jeenode boards : http://jeelabs.net/projects/hardware/wiki/Comparison_Matrix
Jeenode Shop : http://www.digitalsmarties.net/products/jeenode
http://jeelabs.org/tag/jeenode/
Powering the jeenode board : http://jeelabs.org/2010/09/16/meet-the-aa-power-board/ getting started with jeenode : http://jeelabs.org/2013/02/02/dijn-01-introduction/
Programming the jeenode micro V.3 :
The jeenode micro V.3 has a ATtiny84 microcontroller on board.
This ATtiny84 microcrontroller needs an ISP programmer. This is a piece of hardware to load programs onto the microcontroller.
Good thing is you can set up an arduino board as an ISP programmer:
-http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP
The steps to take are :
Install the latest version of arduino IDE Make a ISP programmer from a regular arduino board. --> loading the ArduinoISP sketch onto the arduino. http://highlowtech.org/?p=1706 Connect the jeenode micro V.3 to the arduino board. -- check here for pin layout http://highlowtech.org/?p=1695
-http://jeelabs.org/2013/03/20/programming-the-jnu-again/
Linear actuator
firgelli linear actuator http://learn.robotgeek.com/demo-code/123-arduino-linear-actuator-tutorial-preset-position-button-control.html
Servo
http://www.savoxusa.com/Savox_SC0254MG_Digital_Servo_p/savsc0254mg.htm
Arduino mega
Code for changing the frequency of PWM on arduino mega
http://sobisource.com/arduino-mega-pwm-pin-and-frequency-timer-control/
http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/TimerPWMCheatsheet
and some more related info about this topic :
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/SecretsOfArduinoPWM
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardMega
http://softsolder.com/2009/02/21/changing-the-arduino-pwm-frequency/
http://www.pellinglab.net/diy/diyco2incubator/arduino-and-circuits/
Documentation
Aargh @overtoon studios
Prototypes
Inspiration
Von Kempelen's machine used a bellow, that drives a reed, much like a reed drives the pipes of an organ. The sound of the vibrating reed is modulated by a resonator. A mechanical copy of lungs, glottis and vocal cavity. Dat zijn de drie essentiele onderdelen. Ook in de instrumentenbouw, zoals bijvoorbeeld in een kerkorgel, vind je die drie elementen terug. Tijdens mijn residentie bij overtoon wil ik onderzoek voeren naar deze drie elementen. In eerste instantie hoe deze te ontwikkelen in functie van de specifieke klanken waar ik naar op zoek ben. En dan in tweede fase een onderzoek naar een ruimtelijke en beeldende benadering.
Von Kempelen had goed begrepen dat voor het vormen van klanken waaruit spraak is opgebouwd, niet zozeer het strottenhoofd belangrijk is, maar de vorm van de mondholte een cruciale rol speelt. Elke klank wordt voornamelijk gevormd in de mondholte. De stand van de tanden, lippen, mond, tong, zeg maar, de fysionomie van de mond- en keelholte. Geïnspireerd door Von Kempelen bouwde de Britse kunstenaar Martin Riches 'Talking machine'6. Hij ging in zijn ontwerp te werk als een orgelbouwer. Voor elke klank bouwde hij een specifieke pijp of een stem. Sommige kregen extra kleppen om de positie van tong, lippen of tanden na te bootsen en op die manier plofklanken te kunnen produceren. Zoals Riches zou ik in een eerste fase kopieën willen maken van de mondholte. Daarvoor wil ik in 3d software verschillende vormen ontwerpen en deze laten 3d printen. Dat is vooral een onderzoek naar de haalbaarheid. Maar ook hoop ik hiermee de ideale vormen en daarbij horende klanken te vinden. Nadien zou ik willen onderzoeken of het mogelijk is deze objecten te verschalen naar meer monumentale objecten.
From the book : Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff
"People have spent a great part of the 20th century obsessed with the future. We were looking forward. The rise of the digital age held the promise that the future would bring change of unprecedent magnitude, invigorated by new technologies. Computer speeds would double each year, and along with that, it seemed, anything would follow.
The future has arrived. The future is now. Our society has reoriented itself to the present moment. We are no longer leaning forwards towards the future but living in an eternal present, where everything is always on and happening in real time.
It's not a mere speeding up, however much our lifestyles and technologies have accelerate the rate at which we attempt to do things. It's more of a diminishment of anything that isn't happening right now - and the onslaught of everything that supposedly is.
Yet this now is an elusive goal that we can never quite search. And the dissonance between our digital selves and our analog bodies has thrown us into a new state of anxiety: present shock.
As a result , our culture becomes an entropic, static hum of everybody trying to capture the slipping moment.
Luigi Russolo, The art of noises
Rushkoff is referring to the 2 decennia before the change of the century. The rise of the digital era. But this same view of a future, energized by new technologies, is what drove the futurist at the end of the industrial revolution.
| roars claps noises of falling water driving noises bellows |
whistles snores snorts |
whispers mutterings rustlings grumbles grunts gurgles |
shrill sounds cracks buzzings jingles shuffles |
percussive noises using: metal wood skin stone baked earth ... |
animal and human voices: shouts moans screams laughter rattling sobs |
Russola's intonarumori which hold energy potential power promise <---> view of rushkoff about influence of technology on modern day society.<--> what would this sound like now?
Russolo categories of noises contain human like sounds --> the idea that they could be be mechanically reproduced by machines --> Von kempelen. <--> intonarumori
Jean Baudrillard, America
"There can be no silence up in the mountains, since their very contours roar. And for there to be silence, time itself has to attain a sort of horizontality; there has to be no echo of time in the future, but simply a sliding of geological strata one upon the other giving out nothing more than a fossil murmur” [America, Jean Baudrillard]
Pierre Huyghe
site specific installation for documenta kassel in which fiction and reality seem to blend, artefact and natural artefact and nature
baudrillard <--> search for sideral
The individual's ability to get a handle on the present - to experience duration, to resist the condition of time as product, ...
A time negotiated in keeping with external constraints. A fiction extended into reality. An alternate coding of temporal practice. ....
Mechanisms for reclaiming time, as it is live for the individual
The agency of the individual by working through the infinite interpretations and folds of reality that are possible at every moment, p 2 - A fiction extended into reality. p1
Snippets
This is the new now. Our society has reoriented itself to the present moment. Everything is live, real time and always on. It's not a mere speeding up, however much our lifestyles and technologies have accelerate the rate at which we attempt to do things. It's more of a diminishment of anything that isn't happening right now - and the onslaught of everything that supposedly is.
People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future. We created technologies that would help connect us faster, gather news, map the planet, compile knowledge, and connect with anyone, at anytime. We strove for an instaneaous network where time and space could be compressed. Well, the future's arrived. We live in a continuous now enabled by twitter, email and the so-called realtime technological shift, Yet this now is an elusive goal that we can never quite search. And the dissonance between our digital selves and our analog bodies has thrown us into a new state of anxiety: present shock.
As a result , our culture becomes an entropic, static hum of everybody trying to capture the slipping moment.
when things begin accelerating wildly out of control, sometimes patience is the only answer. press pause..
instead of cultural comparison the dessert offered an absolute renunciation or sweeping away of culture
People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future.
The individual's ability to get a handle on the present - to experience duration, to resist the condition of time as product, ...
A time negotiated in keeping with external constraints. A fiction extended into reality. An alternate coding of temporal practice. ....
Mechanisms for reclaiming time, as it is live for the individual
Tijdens mijn residentie bij overtoon, wil ik een in situ werk ontwikkelen voor het torengebouw waar overtoon gevestigd is. Meer specifiek voor de 11de verdieping. Deze oude kantoorruimte wordt door het collectief W.O.L.K.E. als tentoonstellingsruimte beschikbaar gesteld. Tijdens een vorig project dat ik realiseerde in deze ruimte, viel me op hoe bijzonder onderhevig deze is aan de invloed van wind op het gebouw. Horizontale wind veroorzaakt vóór het gebouw een overdruk en naast, boven en achter het gebouw een onderdruk. Tijdens mijn residentie bij overtoon wil ik graag de mogelijkheid onderzoeken om die energie te meten en/of te gebruiken in een in situ klankinstallatie.
Centraal in dit nieuwe werk staan tijd, perceptie en de beleving van tijd. Thema’s die ook aan bod kwamen in mijn voorgaande installaties. Ik wil die thema’s verder uitdiepen in deze nieuwe installatie en vind hiervoor mijn inspiratie in onder meer :
- Douglas Rushkoff's boek : “Present Shock”
Volgens de Amerikaanse schrijver Douglas Rushkoff heeft onze maatschappij zich onder invloed van de technologische ontwikkeling volledig geheroriënteerd naar het nu. We leven in ‘eeuwig nu’. We verkeren in een soort van ‘Present shock’ waarbij we krampachtig trachten het nu te beleven.
- The Art of noises, futuristisch manifest door Luigi Russolo,
Wat Rushkoff beschrijft staat in een schril contrast met de ideologisch visie die Russolo in zijn futuristisch manifest verwoordde. De vraag stelt zich hoe zijn Intonarumori vandaag de dag zouden klinken, 100 jaar na het schrijven van zijn manifest.
- Wolfgang Von Kempelen
Opvallend aan Russolo’s manifest, is dat hij bij het categoriseren van nieuwe klanken, ook menselijke klanken een plaats geeft. Hij was er dus wel degelijk van overtuigd dat hij aan de hand van technologie menselijke klank kon reproduceren. De 18de eeuwse uitvinder Wolfgang Von Kempelen was een van de eerste die een sprekende machine ontwikkelde. Een toestel dat via een blaasbalg en een riet enkele woorden kon vormen. Hoe eenvoudig zijn toestel ook was, Von Kempelen toonde er de principes van de die, en legde hiermee de basis voor synthetische spraak.
- Untilled, Pierre Huyghe’s, Documenta 2012 Kassel
The agency of the individual by working through the infinite interpretations and folds of reality that are possible at every moment, p 2 - A fiction extended into reality. p1
pavel buchler
