tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69351558939046695572024-02-21T14:18:56.614+00:00SaccadesPhotophonics • Eyes • EarsRob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-33231979816562322432011-02-19T20:34:00.002+00:002011-02-19T21:03:37.738+00:00AmberThis is perhaps closer to the visual music genre than the other videos I've posted on this blog. That said, unlike most visual music works, it's rather a static piece, and conforms to some of the ideas of 'structural' film as outlined by both Malcolm Le Grice (it readably attests to the mechanisms and principles of it's own making), and P Adams Sitney (its structure is simple, hermetic and pre-determined)... even though it's a video.<br />Like much of my work, the sound and image are generated from the same light sources, and recorded simultaneously. What you see/hear are shop windows along Regent Street in Central London, with their various digital lighting systems buzzing away. The cross-fades in the audio coincide directly with the cross-dissolves in the image, mimicking each other.<br />This was shot in the spring of 2008, and edited with the assistance of Nick Phillips shortly after. Incidentally, the insects you see near the beginning are green lacewings, and that was the only window they swarmed on. Who knows what attracted them to that particular one... was there a strong UV element in the light? Was it the particular frequency of the modulations we hear? Maybe they just liked Laura Ashley's summer collection...<br /><br /><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/20140686?portrait=0" frameborder="0" height="300" width="400"></iframe>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-46266261672785854042010-11-21T20:25:00.005+00:002010-11-21T23:56:39.812+00:00Voice Figures<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dQR8VLv-qu0GNZjy-9uj1Aw2lyaaFIcYr5zoBc7_pJLTQZFQ0w3zz-P9fCuMrF3MMmUaGwXhru0E0hcII12_4fmCUBv6RzXiQ1b-C_S3FJXwI2Ghf1bt12we8nI8neX5Guf7mkVZJXg/s1600/Crop4.jpg"><br /></a>Quite a lot has cropped up on the web about Margaret Watts-Hughes's 'Eidophone' in recent years. The Cymatics crowd talk a lot about it (it kind of is Cymatics, but from the late 19th Century). Louise O'Connor and Nick Laessing have made some and performed with them. What you won't find, however, is any more than a very few images of her 'Voice Figures' - that is to say the ones that <span style="font-style: italic;">were</span> available from the 'Making of America' archive, but which now seem to have disappeared (unless of course I've got that wrong - quite possible). This does her work a disservice, so here are some scans from the 2nd edition of her 'Eidophone Voice Figures' pamphlet, which is the better of the two. Sorry about the British Library's watermarks, but hey, you can't have it all...<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgYytHAic6ZFfXr0b5W-qCGU_D_xVtO6qBUA6Ctm6cwCdc9-40Bf_O-WiP2d_WOWPbd4Ldvo4Uq-BpuPOaBlmOXoddkqwu12zKG4Izy6RexRMKcaoSKuyisu15PYa7X9uNM1RQmPk4cs/s1600/Crop3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 316px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgYytHAic6ZFfXr0b5W-qCGU_D_xVtO6qBUA6Ctm6cwCdc9-40Bf_O-WiP2d_WOWPbd4Ldvo4Uq-BpuPOaBlmOXoddkqwu12zKG4Izy6RexRMKcaoSKuyisu15PYa7X9uNM1RQmPk4cs/s400/Crop3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542111751352609762" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIsVxxLn6AcybwpwV4OrAdFIb0KQbL30xa6HNm0n_9c-aW6HoCwd3jlPlRrgc7ckFX4PnEXAPDP7EyTzUjMuSsmXDoy8hVmLYa5xGfOCdE8mGAQgj4ijk-HtFaEjF6ylKhL5jFcgutI4/s1600/Crop2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixIsVxxLn6AcybwpwV4OrAdFIb0KQbL30xa6HNm0n_9c-aW6HoCwd3jlPlRrgc7ckFX4PnEXAPDP7EyTzUjMuSsmXDoy8hVmLYa5xGfOCdE8mGAQgj4ijk-HtFaEjF6ylKhL5jFcgutI4/s400/Crop2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542111743140880690" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUK6xc6C3XJyqj_1B5-6McQX5DvfYhU6K2YrrXzRwoJ2q_lyzWucTAdUXtdc5HPED3KfAkngcYcUiYw5RGatrqMikxS2E1NIzVSWjWbl8tcVk5bO3fE2YG8WxgJXYiaj2f1O4h4YudNPI/s1600/Crop1.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUK6xc6C3XJyqj_1B5-6McQX5DvfYhU6K2YrrXzRwoJ2q_lyzWucTAdUXtdc5HPED3KfAkngcYcUiYw5RGatrqMikxS2E1NIzVSWjWbl8tcVk5bO3fE2YG8WxgJXYiaj2f1O4h4YudNPI/s400/Crop1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542111735736518690" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxV2To6sOQYRZwLQpsgEic-DAhjmFN9GKDxZEssXmqVAMg_wIolagPvv2b2orJYQIXTBvNIziU1WBXxyiPQEULmVezJSsG3zpemx7pOavhyphenhyphend8LqXh3u5uTnp9u3vnFR6fezm7eBmeQBUc/s1600/Crop5.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxV2To6sOQYRZwLQpsgEic-DAhjmFN9GKDxZEssXmqVAMg_wIolagPvv2b2orJYQIXTBvNIziU1WBXxyiPQEULmVezJSsG3zpemx7pOavhyphenhyphend8LqXh3u5uTnp9u3vnFR6fezm7eBmeQBUc/s400/Crop5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542111762956197570" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dQR8VLv-qu0GNZjy-9uj1Aw2lyaaFIcYr5zoBc7_pJLTQZFQ0w3zz-P9fCuMrF3MMmUaGwXhru0E0hcII12_4fmCUBv6RzXiQ1b-C_S3FJXwI2Ghf1bt12we8nI8neX5Guf7mkVZJXg/s1600/Crop4.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dQR8VLv-qu0GNZjy-9uj1Aw2lyaaFIcYr5zoBc7_pJLTQZFQ0w3zz-P9fCuMrF3MMmUaGwXhru0E0hcII12_4fmCUBv6RzXiQ1b-C_S3FJXwI2Ghf1bt12we8nI8neX5Guf7mkVZJXg/s400/Crop4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542111771651536626" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Watts-Hughes was a Welsh soprano who gave up singing when she married, to concentrate on philanthropy and scientific research. It was during an attempt to measure the power of her voice that she discovered by accident the Chladni-style patterns that she has become known for. Using seeds placed on a rubber membrane stretched over a container into which she sang, she reasoned that by recording how high the seeds leapt, some kind of measure could be got of the voice's health and sonorousness. Although she wasn't expecting patterns to emerge, her inquiring mind drove her to experiment into all kinds of formulations of powders, mixing them with fluids to produce various effects, and eventually hitting on the idea of using pigmented paste smeared on glass plates to record what she produced.<br /><br />Watts-Hughes ran an orphanage for boys (yes - she was that amazing) and hung her work in the windows around the house:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >I</span><span style=";font-family:";font-size:9pt;" lang="EN-US" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >nstead of blinds or curtains drawn across the lower panes of the windows, there are wonderful designs in colour, strange, beautiful things suggesting objects in nature, but which are certainly neither exact repetitions or imitations of anything in it. Perfectly drawn designs of shell-like forms, of trumpet and snake-like designs, twisted and involved in complicated curves… strange and suggestive indeed are these window panes that the little boys at Islington have to look through. They see weird caverns at the bottom of the sea, full of beautiful beautiful coloured sea anemones and mussel shells, headless snakes, entanglements of leaf-like forms, all seemingly vital with the same laws of growth as those which inspired the creation of the designs in Nature which they suggested.</span></span></blockquote><span style=";font-family:";font-size:9pt;" lang="EN-US" ><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ></span> </span></span></span><style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-US" >Quote from Isabel Barrington in <i>The London Spectator,</i></span><span style=";font-family:";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-US" > October 26, 1899. <i>In: </i></span><span style=";font-family:";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-US" >Curtis, H.H (1919) <i>Voice Building and Tone Placing: Showing a New Method of Relieving Injured Vocal Cords by Tone Exercises.</i></span><span style=";font-family:";font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-US" > London: Appleton and Co. pp.225-227.<br /><br /><br /></span>I haven't included the images of natural shapes described in this account as they're well represented elsewhere. These plates are more interesting, I think, because not only do they point to a scientific methodology in what Watts-Hughes was doing (particularly the last one), but also they are <span style="font-style: italic;">time based</span> media, produced by dragging the Eidophone's membrane across the glass as she sang. In that sense, they are kind of proto optical sound recordings; although admittedly not in an analytically useful sense like the 'Phonautograph's', but rather more beautiful.<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:9pt;" lang="EN-US" ><br /></span></span></span><style>@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; </style>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-55171835896649856652010-11-17T12:11:00.007+00:002010-11-17T12:39:01.979+00:00Tethered Objects<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiab-sE4UcDpI8bk9S2LzEfUgmVnH95oDpJAM9Ovl7UdB_C6XkN7H_Ne1PPFkr1Q6z1nrIxBuvDnKhAp10HURLz2RoukzwStNhm2c7rqfqIAvv6RtPuvKT2u_TOC4qh-8NrTUSZOqnKpVs/s1600/IMAG0041.jpg"><br /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQ26M9H-ocSBw6RQUwu55_5_1p-6S7nOpWW-NBT6RA1TdCeWiX9z1eKsJRpnPJCInoWyaAREqazs1aV5VTOvOr-pkMg1PHVl0k6OEGGjSzr3bXRJTo-f2fhwWHrLOnKH8PFYJdlhMqzs/s1600/IMAG0037.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQ26M9H-ocSBw6RQUwu55_5_1p-6S7nOpWW-NBT6RA1TdCeWiX9z1eKsJRpnPJCInoWyaAREqazs1aV5VTOvOr-pkMg1PHVl0k6OEGGjSzr3bXRJTo-f2fhwWHrLOnKH8PFYJdlhMqzs/s400/IMAG0037.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540492951580695090" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi31fvwFQgmQhG2ZciR2L38Nt1dOn1fhAE42ZQAjmSktSmre-jbmOChQluU2qyDQjYgsw6ToyCw3R_yjKlPYzTTiy8snDZIU230xkbRzRxYKhCaD6CENrn0EetAlWaiVy0gGo0gA1KnDo/s1600/IMAG0038.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi31fvwFQgmQhG2ZciR2L38Nt1dOn1fhAE42ZQAjmSktSmre-jbmOChQluU2qyDQjYgsw6ToyCw3R_yjKlPYzTTiy8snDZIU230xkbRzRxYKhCaD6CENrn0EetAlWaiVy0gGo0gA1KnDo/s400/IMAG0038.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540492938699918194" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPth6jLm5F8tr2j52fivicFLjiQq5zpLNUXITLhD5IcKSlLhL_JsT_uGn7NZ7-29BlrnYwf2tPCuLnkf-sYNkYmw3eEtMNLIm9J3AgDuAPKcL50OGJ-amCaAs6iKTLJ5IH2uQ8MkJSF34/s1600/IMAG0040.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPth6jLm5F8tr2j52fivicFLjiQq5zpLNUXITLhD5IcKSlLhL_JsT_uGn7NZ7-29BlrnYwf2tPCuLnkf-sYNkYmw3eEtMNLIm9J3AgDuAPKcL50OGJ-amCaAs6iKTLJ5IH2uQ8MkJSF34/s400/IMAG0040.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540492937938227650" border="0" /></a><br />...an attempt at a couple of thermo-acoustic oscillators. I didn't manage to get these tuned properly, so there's no sound to accompany the photos. But I will. They were produced for <a href="http://testsanddemonstrations.webs.com/about.htm">'Works with sunlight'</a> at Meantime Arts in Cheltenham earlier in the year, and require a decent amount of sunlight, so they'll remain silent until next summer I should think...<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiab-sE4UcDpI8bk9S2LzEfUgmVnH95oDpJAM9Ovl7UdB_C6XkN7H_Ne1PPFkr1Q6z1nrIxBuvDnKhAp10HURLz2RoukzwStNhm2c7rqfqIAvv6RtPuvKT2u_TOC4qh-8NrTUSZOqnKpVs/s1600/IMAG0041.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiab-sE4UcDpI8bk9S2LzEfUgmVnH95oDpJAM9Ovl7UdB_C6XkN7H_Ne1PPFkr1Q6z1nrIxBuvDnKhAp10HURLz2RoukzwStNhm2c7rqfqIAvv6RtPuvKT2u_TOC4qh-8NrTUSZOqnKpVs/s400/IMAG0041.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540496005337613442" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6qKpM5OqDfXKLcXyyS3Tp_EnZSjdAFV0P1ps-WzZ_RdoAsYGRmIbRx8-UkjXJYXI3CWcFR0SsRhCKFOXIwScG99E0wEgAxpSCzY_7V5xV0q_qqJduEjwCu7PV7uLnlq-Eh1_C-G-gyo/s1600/IMAG0039.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs6qKpM5OqDfXKLcXyyS3Tp_EnZSjdAFV0P1ps-WzZ_RdoAsYGRmIbRx8-UkjXJYXI3CWcFR0SsRhCKFOXIwScG99E0wEgAxpSCzY_7V5xV0q_qqJduEjwCu7PV7uLnlq-Eh1_C-G-gyo/s400/IMAG0039.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540496413147038258" border="0" /></a>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-87273374278709933492010-09-21T00:44:00.003+01:002010-10-03T23:13:42.325+01:00Said Object<object height="225" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15123509&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=15123509&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="225" width="400"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />It's been a long while since the last post, so there'll be another one shortly. This is a piece i've just completed the edit for (this is an excerpt), and which is to be shown at Seth Kim-Cohen's <a href="http://noncochlearsound.com/">'Non-Cochlear Sound'</a> show at the Diapason gallery in New York. There's so much I <span style="font-style: italic;">could</span> write on this, that its difficult to know where to begin. However, sometimes it's better to let something speak for itself... this work asks that people bring their own ideas to it, I think.Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-19118933668317961902010-03-08T23:52:00.009+00:002010-03-09T10:25:42.730+00:00Two Simultaneous places - or How To Fold a Vibrating Wire in Three...<object height="300" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10020731&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10020731&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="300" width="400"></embed></object><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /></span>The setup here is this: four lengths of fine piano wire, strung from one end of a room to the other (about seven or eight metres). A piezo transducer picks up vibrations at one end, which are amplified through a speaker at the other. This has an old super-8 film canister lid on top of the cone, over which the strings pass, and which acts as a bridge. Several cheap laser-pointers shine across the strings to the opposite side of the room onto some photodiodes, which convert the flickering light into a voltage, which is then treated as sound. The sound in this video is a mixture of the photophonic and acoustic outputs from this mechanism.<br />I'd been wanting to buid a long-string instrument for quite a while, but hadn't got around to doing it. The original plan was to play the strings with rosined fingers Paul Panhuysen style, but it quickly became apparent that the pressure you need to exert on the string to get it to sound deflects it by around 20 to 25mm. This meant that the lasers I'd set up would miss the thing almost entirely. So I said goodbye to <a href="http://www.paulpanhuysen.com/">Panhuysen</a> and hello to <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=43:67977">Alvin Lucier</a> with the aforementioned speaker/piezo setup; somewhat crude, but it got things buzzing nicely.<br />Using the lasers in this way, it's possible to isolate points and amplify them independently and with no effect on the string, in a way that is impossible with mechanical methods. You might then surround a listener with these sources, wrapping the vibrating string into a circle. It doesn't sound like a string for the most part; it just is what it is, but I like that.<br />This particular piece is the result of a week's residency I've just finished at <a href="http://pva.org.uk/">PVA MedliaLab</a> in Bridport, Dorset. Thanks must go to PVA for inviting me, and to Duncan Whitley for his support - both moral and practical - and also to Andrew Hinton.Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-79334735227154500612009-10-17T21:30:00.003+01:002010-03-13T00:15:06.666+00:00Fever Dream<span style="font-style: italic;">Copied from handwritten notes found in a copy of "Phylogenesis of the Ear" by Louis Guggenheim MD. Author unknown.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:78%;">*Tropical – S.E Asia, Borneo, Sumatra etc. Consult Howard. Re. cases in urban centres. Europe.…<br /></span><br />[The parasite] insinuates itself between two of the tiny bones that connect the tympanic membrane and the cochlea by latching onto the ligament connecting two of the bones with its mouth parts, and consuming the ligament tissue - eventually substituting itself. In placing itself interstitially within the ossicular chain, it becomes an integral part of the hearing process – a sensorial mediator and gatekeeper.Verto Parbulus’s exoskeleton is telescopically articulated, with a powerful cartilage / muscle composite girdle connecting [the] segments, which sit in a naturally contracted state. [The muscle] acts to keep the cartilage with which it is intertwined under intense compression… When the parasite detects a sudden transient vibration of above a certain amplitude threshold, it responds with an almost instant relaxation of its exoskeletal muscle system, thereby increasing its length by typically 170%<span style="font-size:78%;"> </span><span style="font-size:78%;">(check figure)</span>. This acts to restore the integrity of the ossicle chain in an almost perfect inverse of the tympanic reflex, which has evolved to protect the inner ear from damage due to sudden loud events. It then winds back <span style="font-size:78%;">(wrong term.?)</span> the muscles after a few milliseconds, thereby dislocating the stapes from the oval window in the cochlea, and attenuating the transmitted vibrations by as much as 98%. This entity, like many parasites <span style="font-size:78%;">(?)</span>, seeks to maximise its own chances of survival and reproduction by modifying its host’s behaviour <span style="font-size:78%;">(supposition? Check)</span>. In an attempt to mitigate the traumatising gunshot dynamics bestowed upon him / her by the parasite, the host will eventually gravitate toward dynamically bland sonic environments – where he or she may make contact with similarly afflicted individuals. The mating processes of Verto Parbulus are as yet undiscovered - due in part to its rarity but also to its size and location within the body. Removal would bring on certain and irreversible deafness and studied specimens have all been acquired post mortem – usually following suicide.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">*talk to tropical deseases in Dulwich. h.o.d may have some data on epidemiology. also cochlear implants...can we get output?</span></blockquote><br />Also, for further reading see:<br /><br />Cattermole-Tally, F (1995) The Intrusion of Animals into the Human Body: Fantasy and Reality. Folklore, Vol. 106, pp. 89-92.<br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fverto-2&show_comments=false&auto_play=false&color=82322d"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fverto-2&show_comments=false&auto_play=false&color=82322d" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-80377637280097250092009-07-18T22:59:00.010+01:002009-07-19T20:46:59.883+01:00The Haptic OpticHow do you record an object properly? Is it always pertinent to photograph, or draw something, for example? How about something which is similar to both, but is really neither?<br />A while back I began to explore the possibilities of making rubbings of three dimensional objects. These images are of one I made of the adapted cabinet that Daphne Oram used to house the oscillators and wave-shaping units in the Oramics system, working on it with the lid and doors open, and as carefully as I could to avoid any damage of the circuitry. I developed my own materials which would mark without the need for graphite etc, so that I could use just my fingernails and a specially made tool. The finished piece is painted black on the reverse to bring out the marks...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibw1up9v6vlDZRJtnR1qBuiytJS7ulSYblC5NHsn6w6HWrtZOn14QuDvPJ7UX0v4snWmkRbykDmYc-UeuCvtWgcBaqX50D94FhWz_cfGbVcWIAnOPsNV_dvsYwq6h8VzUP5Vw9hatJiDc/s1600-h/DSC_3231.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 414px; height: 622px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibw1up9v6vlDZRJtnR1qBuiytJS7ulSYblC5NHsn6w6HWrtZOn14QuDvPJ7UX0v4snWmkRbykDmYc-UeuCvtWgcBaqX50D94FhWz_cfGbVcWIAnOPsNV_dvsYwq6h8VzUP5Vw9hatJiDc/s400/DSC_3231.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359941367941749506" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxE7gZAsrgy3KBj0uNrTpOKvM9kqH9EAzjU_X2tLKgmsFVmFkROx2vejSq6Hra0KDfJ5HwMhUSUcg6doaxCBjDsq342woKkg-QxpTRDpd8vWgj9w1syvsSy49zBdOpgj3gO5oEJeKgzYY/s1600-h/DSC_3239.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 489px; height: 325px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxE7gZAsrgy3KBj0uNrTpOKvM9kqH9EAzjU_X2tLKgmsFVmFkROx2vejSq6Hra0KDfJ5HwMhUSUcg6doaxCBjDsq342woKkg-QxpTRDpd8vWgj9w1syvsSy49zBdOpgj3gO5oEJeKgzYY/s400/DSC_3239.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359940815848706098" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglDdr6JP78mxfUSzoXrUODHwTv1SJMu6htxzqCxu0vIVWUume4LAj1eFFJPcVHUI0mwGi27Hx3rMbDuMthSWjyYZHAwlPLzI0mJz9seSxo68QVe2ozd6rj9-KZJck7YSTGOTjxpIbbBoM/s1600-h/DSC_3241.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 365px; height: 550px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglDdr6JP78mxfUSzoXrUODHwTv1SJMu6htxzqCxu0vIVWUume4LAj1eFFJPcVHUI0mwGi27Hx3rMbDuMthSWjyYZHAwlPLzI0mJz9seSxo68QVe2ozd6rj9-KZJck7YSTGOTjxpIbbBoM/s400/DSC_3241.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359939949274607714" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0p0suqWXbBBteS86tfSq_Lnt7-vP_hjMeYDUb1xR0hvJp0BQYxXjU2cKUSodxhLEjgqJ_Q6W8fILWANXAYEvEFCHbhQhYgrwS8Xc2Ybr9T7lS_TUhvCf2PMGltGevz8FyCt_1NFDk5m0/s1600-h/DSC_3243.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 365px; height: 563px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0p0suqWXbBBteS86tfSq_Lnt7-vP_hjMeYDUb1xR0hvJp0BQYxXjU2cKUSodxhLEjgqJ_Q6W8fILWANXAYEvEFCHbhQhYgrwS8Xc2Ybr9T7lS_TUhvCf2PMGltGevz8FyCt_1NFDk5m0/s400/DSC_3243.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359939252545972626" border="0" /></a><br /><br />For some time I've been mulling over the sort of world the Atomist/Epicurian theory of vision conjures up - where seeing consists of the apprehension of a succession of 'skins' which fly lightning fast from the surfaces of objects and into the eye - ancient cinema. As I've mentioned previously, this fantastical space seems to me to somehow articulate the in-between-ness, or irrationality of transcribing light into sound. So I've begun to make 'spectres' (eidola, simulacra) from machines which deal with light and sound as materials. You could even call them wave-fronts perhaps...<br />The finished piece is redolent of a technical drawing, dislocated and contaminated with noise, or a map of a war-torn installation produced by proto-photographic means. Every fold in the material shows up as a white mark as it is manipulated into position, so an odd record of movement and registration is generated, all by intimate touch.<br />Next, will be the contact printer that used to belong to the London Filmmakers' Co-op.Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-58959109838368712662009-05-13T21:34:00.005+01:002009-05-13T22:26:23.907+01:00Light TrapsIt's all been done before in all sorts of ways you know - by the structuralist/materialist film makers in the '70's, people like Guy Sherwin and Liz Rhodes (not that I'd compare myself to them of course), and using video, the Vasulkas amongst others. Nonetheless, it can be satisfying to discover you've made a video that has the camera in it as an explicit and essential ingredient.<br />I was attempting to synthesize some audio by pumping it through an LED, and then burning some wood to produce smoke and heat-haze noise in the sonified signal (see a much earlier post below). Of course, there was a breeze and it just drifted either onto me, or in fact anywhere but in between the LED and the lens. But then I noticed this as I was fiddling with the tripod...interference patterns generated by the high speed flicker of the LED heterodyning with the scan rate of the CCD chip in the camera. At least that's the best explanation I can come up with. I ought to (will) try this with a few different cameras, and eventually come up with an installation.<br /><br />The audio being pumped is itself from light signals - emanations from a shop window on Regent Street (I forget which), which rather oddly, was covered in lacewings...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/djQjGrIDZvs&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/djQjGrIDZvs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-91565335111260590612009-04-14T16:16:00.006+01:002010-03-13T10:06:43.718+00:00Spectra (Signalling Hut component)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3fzq0520D42VpdfyHjrsfPpGDtK1HMHx8MtXRADJu54aahrqO8fEF7GELlOoCi8jtpOj8dDx_IQgDGHqYgD3RbTQhB7o5FWa35h5VKg5kerTLQyQG56ySbNDG5vv-itnYNJNpQ7vlSo/s1600-h/IMG_1273.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 367px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3fzq0520D42VpdfyHjrsfPpGDtK1HMHx8MtXRADJu54aahrqO8fEF7GELlOoCi8jtpOj8dDx_IQgDGHqYgD3RbTQhB7o5FWa35h5VKg5kerTLQyQG56ySbNDG5vv-itnYNJNpQ7vlSo/s400/IMG_1273.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324572731111202850" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDr8LI4VuYzSFKcyD9KF1w98ijZShFLHLqasbsGnNZ_RykRk7odYkCM96bF68TbAAiIFQhp-3AJqJtMdwC8qghrONsmfBwbj4Squp_XzTIrYaoWa4acfVcvXfEw9v6ONEZ5pclF8yVs8/s1600-h/IMG_1269.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwDr8LI4VuYzSFKcyD9KF1w98ijZShFLHLqasbsGnNZ_RykRk7odYkCM96bF68TbAAiIFQhp-3AJqJtMdwC8qghrONsmfBwbj4Squp_XzTIrYaoWa4acfVcvXfEw9v6ONEZ5pclF8yVs8/s400/IMG_1269.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324572726612934034" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWPQK4lIJAQOZuBscNxYiAaQMpzdO57feFcVOnoXl3FZ2CkqKolxNdO_W9kNUegmIi7IMwEDpAa5qwKEljCTFEQoQT7sacpqNpsfDY1ZfuXwjjNzLjYdnf7VL5COG296lM5grSE6FDbl0/s1600-h/IMG_1277.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWPQK4lIJAQOZuBscNxYiAaQMpzdO57feFcVOnoXl3FZ2CkqKolxNdO_W9kNUegmIi7IMwEDpAa5qwKEljCTFEQoQT7sacpqNpsfDY1ZfuXwjjNzLjYdnf7VL5COG296lM5grSE6FDbl0/s400/IMG_1277.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324572722417639874" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsYxxj52B8Rh31a4ee_2bO7E0h_EbTcUTBpklUcW0S46kpeKP_ST2nOMiSNzJKJp2w3g5c60pfp8QG8b0dWzigx50CjaAmRpC8XZmLVEH8ipx0T8Dk9PSZ_Q_IPpzhAYeVvQ89evgK7OM/s1600-h/IMG_1276.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsYxxj52B8Rh31a4ee_2bO7E0h_EbTcUTBpklUcW0S46kpeKP_ST2nOMiSNzJKJp2w3g5c60pfp8QG8b0dWzigx50CjaAmRpC8XZmLVEH8ipx0T8Dk9PSZ_Q_IPpzhAYeVvQ89evgK7OM/s400/IMG_1276.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324572689329519154" border="0" /></a><br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">They were hot there, and cold there, and some had been born, and most had died. Their houses were boxes, tents, scooped out dogs, brick towers, and actual houses. Some dug into grass; others camped in shadow; many worked in the house dispersing rice and books and were not permitted to sleep on the floor. There was to be no unfolding of blankets or spreading of sheets. Never could a barrier or blind or corner be erected in the house, nor could cloth be clipped or crimped or hung. They sheltered off of one another and slept in heated chains of body. No one could sleep for more than one dream. The dream happened during the day, and the dream was the storm, and the storm was whatever you could name.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">MARCUS, B. 1998. The Age of Wire and String. London: Flamingo. pp.81</span><br /></blockquote><br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fspectra-inside&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000000"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fspectra-inside&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-40048524008056363132009-02-19T21:38:00.014+00:002009-04-20T23:52:05.691+01:00Two Machines: 2 - Oramics<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg68zeCnT77qyaL3PwZ14pgUcPukV2GbmR0CM_7J8d0qIWJiaBisfDdDN_yHw3FXB-5xL1lJNcE47gktBUkyAl-rMJnaUAjL0hmSaY5M0UOqlgE8mfpNUDlGU1tLOINBwpfzcqGZFQPmT0/s1600-h/oramics13.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg68zeCnT77qyaL3PwZ14pgUcPukV2GbmR0CM_7J8d0qIWJiaBisfDdDN_yHw3FXB-5xL1lJNcE47gktBUkyAl-rMJnaUAjL0hmSaY5M0UOqlgE8mfpNUDlGU1tLOINBwpfzcqGZFQPmT0/s400/oramics13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310945333206519026" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The <a href="http://120years.net/machines/oramics/">Oramics</a> system is currently residing in my workshop, until it gets moved to a permanent home. As you can see, it's in a bit of a sorry state, having had several owners since the passing of <a href="http://daphneoram.org/">Daphne Oram</a>, and having spent the last few years in a barn. My reason for posting these images was partly so that I could talk about patina; and I use this word in its broadest sense. The Oramics system (it is in fact two machines, a rack of amplifiers and two speakers) wasn't designed in the normal sense of the word, it is an agglomeration of small inspirations and problem solving, tweaks and bodges. As such it has an aura of endeavour and complexity which is impossible to fake or design - a patina of many, many meaningful decisions and actions effected over years.<br />This patina is not about surface and age (as the dictionary would have it), but rather it is a composite of visual noise, manifest functionality and guessed-at heuristics; a personality transmitted as though a radio signal, or more pertinently, modulated light.<br /><br />As with the ANS, there were things going on with Oramics which will most probably remain unsolved - small modifications, planned but never realised features. Amongst the odds and ends that have accompanied the main instrument is a rather mashed up <a href="http://120years.net/machines/ondioline/index.html">Ondioline</a>. Why was Oram planning on adding a keyboard element? It's been retro-fitted with a lot of wiring, terminating in multi-pin sockets, so this part of the project got to a reasonably advanced stage. Odd, considering the incredible amount of ingenuity and resources directed toward producing a sound who's every parameter could supposedly be altered with a paint brush. Perhaps Oram got bored with having to define pitches with carefully placed little squares of electrical tape stuck to film, and just wanted to tickle some ivories... We may never know.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF1OkWAGRLGTxwwES1xgUi2BKtlo74k94BxnUucpgFb2lhaxlWGrjFBnl9KifPnelDmCWu6TvIOHFBEpr0iMorNBESPHkJCZNu7zgBJHosJo5Cg4olI9m__20ol2_9gARrnBsDZzShhrM/s1600-h/oramics15.jpg"> </a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FiVkFhPkYcTPtuS86Udni2CSJo4UY1yozjsikJZamDccyehMQkzwA844JXWCvvOQtF78ReL2SfUCSeWXV125Qv5S8lPy-a1iH7iM7ZW-gCrtLWtEHXQrjvE7JpKtURL8d9aO3XI6J-Q/s1600-h/oramics10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FiVkFhPkYcTPtuS86Udni2CSJo4UY1yozjsikJZamDccyehMQkzwA844JXWCvvOQtF78ReL2SfUCSeWXV125Qv5S8lPy-a1iH7iM7ZW-gCrtLWtEHXQrjvE7JpKtURL8d9aO3XI6J-Q/s400/oramics10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310948896718208178" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgGqCR1ckmxyMykNr21I2_iD4v34JDnsrQAZUuEt1Iq0t4bJU1JIWTeAWV3CF3T6V-2eBeahgUyBZ02pF6EDGlZPmJKlng6Y1q4szkBgyHW2lxNXBO-iwl40BLK_Jty9ayKETuDc_pAk/s1600-h/oramics3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXgGqCR1ckmxyMykNr21I2_iD4v34JDnsrQAZUuEt1Iq0t4bJU1JIWTeAWV3CF3T6V-2eBeahgUyBZ02pF6EDGlZPmJKlng6Y1q4szkBgyHW2lxNXBO-iwl40BLK_Jty9ayKETuDc_pAk/s400/oramics3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310950626496690098" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3B9GYILOFqI1kO_FQZiZ7KNo9xxqqyFni6l-WNjOLtXTxy_KOSVQwhdOaN410vPMYdkbnaLdeISYpjwfXYFi0x3YaKkmf_gHj4GTl3uoNE_HVkbgKjJoaXcCIBtrx-QV71gLZUlNT58U/s1600-h/oramics6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3B9GYILOFqI1kO_FQZiZ7KNo9xxqqyFni6l-WNjOLtXTxy_KOSVQwhdOaN410vPMYdkbnaLdeISYpjwfXYFi0x3YaKkmf_gHj4GTl3uoNE_HVkbgKjJoaXcCIBtrx-QV71gLZUlNT58U/s400/oramics6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310948896239258578" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7IT65xj-F0g4iNLINsH0VMq1CLFCGrtbIIHGOHHfITXNh3ODTq7M2I0DONCGr8ptoKbSwp0f_XJvnpxC2shZ02Jz0J6M2FImrubyDM5VgWxQflwQ9Yiqj25t3Epmv4B8h8SQdNoKOZY/s1600-h/oramics5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; 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display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_inncLWi9QdOmF5GibByQBs0JV5dRyayLwbhy2R7AwqxlimyOkr3DJWDwNssXjBOUwn7KE608ju7ZyovYVMc6nlNmUNlKhmAzE3Ns3z0LP0p6we4Falitm6JcsN56prM6qKZxCBDKQ9E/s400/oramics1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310945344121688450" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkRvEtdGgLrMyotpbdfUEZqxpUk_JS47axTS6bBWCTOLUQ253-mqOkG-6Co9NaIEdpi-CxKlZ3kNTYFOd5kPGoqwzpeEsJj6Y-MAcOMJuIRKiakTtSmzGXK3t9gxLNxmMGEd9mH7fGno/s1600-h/oramics8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkRvEtdGgLrMyotpbdfUEZqxpUk_JS47axTS6bBWCTOLUQ253-mqOkG-6Co9NaIEdpi-CxKlZ3kNTYFOd5kPGoqwzpeEsJj6Y-MAcOMJuIRKiakTtSmzGXK3t9gxLNxmMGEd9mH7fGno/s400/oramics8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310945344356186002" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbdzpV4nfeyA_gdPVEFYonyoyFO9IVT16jZ_RD2wI7eLDY20b3Uz60qN1M3ezIfzC4zVb_OhfjVw3v8e1ccSCIWf-kAuinD5U7ifIlrIpyu7gEfH3qzI1GW8vgQEcbyeVfxluVKInndzI/s1600-h/oramics11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbdzpV4nfeyA_gdPVEFYonyoyFO9IVT16jZ_RD2wI7eLDY20b3Uz60qN1M3ezIfzC4zVb_OhfjVw3v8e1ccSCIWf-kAuinD5U7ifIlrIpyu7gEfH3qzI1GW8vgQEcbyeVfxluVKInndzI/s400/oramics11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310945338351713346" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFVYlEcgkvv-CZCTTRGG04HqnkhFPuzfcDyToEz-hb6M0TIzglk-av0ZDznwYm12_2Ir1eVqEhnzZmegAEfrizKdMqr4HWqfJ9nUb7_qHELGwDxUruPk66wtRKLzbvY2w4-dmjbWfvK1I/s1600-h/oramics9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFVYlEcgkvv-CZCTTRGG04HqnkhFPuzfcDyToEz-hb6M0TIzglk-av0ZDznwYm12_2Ir1eVqEhnzZmegAEfrizKdMqr4HWqfJ9nUb7_qHELGwDxUruPk66wtRKLzbvY2w4-dmjbWfvK1I/s400/oramics9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310945325758549410" border="0" /></a>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-67229748976332051232009-02-15T23:57:00.008+00:002009-02-16T00:35:47.525+00:00Two Machines: 1 - The ANSOf all of the one-off electronic musical instruments I've seen (either in the flesh, or photographed), the ANS is simply the most beautiful. It's now resident in the Glinka Museum in Moscow, probably for good, and when I made some recordings on it recently, needed considerable maintenance work - the lowest tonewheel is out of action and there is a lot of 100Hz bleeding into the audio. Stanislav Kreitchi (who has looked after the machine for many years) tells me he'll get it up and running properly - but I don't think even he can solve the small matter of the Velvet Rope...<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7fBHTnEfb8dW0B4PVHwPKkHK8XmmjyxLmsBMOZ2f6e9k6qgIbGcphCYfgQRLzp4ijZMUHJHFZsJyIjK3kdVjHwBAROPvqAGc_GBz24GzbyCehqGuPxIzFoPDL8lsYv7RnUdRCByB3jQ/s1600-h/DSC00389.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7fBHTnEfb8dW0B4PVHwPKkHK8XmmjyxLmsBMOZ2f6e9k6qgIbGcphCYfgQRLzp4ijZMUHJHFZsJyIjK3kdVjHwBAROPvqAGc_GBz24GzbyCehqGuPxIzFoPDL8lsYv7RnUdRCByB3jQ/s400/DSC00389.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303180317794307202" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfdT8R7n0eZ7MBI5-6bgb0pMqGl9fjNw8JFzt6DXWuXknBFcZ207Odz8KAV_KcXp68NPpkaMCh4lBmA4Wx7DWMT8Urx9JFrwwUBkQV6MPDs4UPFmRVeBGz8CGY4H1mFazagQ4RDJn3ns/s1600-h/DSC00388.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; 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display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbZ3w9kvqf2ZuXV532FVuFylXxci8HHPMf-RhKAf0bIXwfgT5S4V-690lvxSqF7HRNIt6KRwgDXCzXeO-srM2qsdWSt9C-3bV1wtuwkSv5UL51ivpw-54VHZEE_18PYiV0-NfvmULi-w/s400/DSC00373.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303179508089725266" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyr_C_CGXcnD2We87eDlq3Vw1qSdSiRjJeFP-yDc4vu8ZBcig1OYkiqwELMmvD9vgNAw8VeUI7m2W20RRUucAfcoLheNb3tk8JmE6wFgWS5WOL-VG3PJ2Nfsl-o10vryuLl5wZyhnNIM/s1600-h/DSC00367.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyr_C_CGXcnD2We87eDlq3Vw1qSdSiRjJeFP-yDc4vu8ZBcig1OYkiqwELMmvD9vgNAw8VeUI7m2W20RRUucAfcoLheNb3tk8JmE6wFgWS5WOL-VG3PJ2Nfsl-o10vryuLl5wZyhnNIM/s400/DSC00367.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303179502939376546" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL2OczMxKFU6IzasA3tw0Xq8OAhgOrFPCIdIHEKDAMjdcsZ70q_S-tII3k1gEwU7eOlKGqeN4yBfxOJVsP44LijTZ7LWa-7VdHRj4_h_Hj-vlhKbHheFJtSOinIbzl_cwGzMisVV4-U1w/s1600-h/DSC00363.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL2OczMxKFU6IzasA3tw0Xq8OAhgOrFPCIdIHEKDAMjdcsZ70q_S-tII3k1gEwU7eOlKGqeN4yBfxOJVsP44LijTZ7LWa-7VdHRj4_h_Hj-vlhKbHheFJtSOinIbzl_cwGzMisVV4-U1w/s400/DSC00363.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303178085898773794" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5qNFzO8xVYvhSpMBgPXW_uMAZYTjVPqeRM7XAv8IioaAPUqDPy7KywHlTJZX5vDYm4b2aDcpmAxRelY3ua_YZ4tFsjz8XaSdugbplYI874Hwm7W8cK9w-ZYtRmnne7lgGYhIJsSRGOE/s1600-h/DSC00390.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT5qNFzO8xVYvhSpMBgPXW_uMAZYTjVPqeRM7XAv8IioaAPUqDPy7KywHlTJZX5vDYm4b2aDcpmAxRelY3ua_YZ4tFsjz8XaSdugbplYI874Hwm7W8cK9w-ZYtRmnne7lgGYhIJsSRGOE/s400/DSC00390.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303180319422042322" border="0" /></a><br />Apologies for the phone camera. Sadly it was all I had with me...Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-22797386545600840222009-02-05T20:12:00.009+00:002010-03-13T10:12:18.548+00:00xxxxx_09<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVLtdWOXt3PSGJEEgwr_Ru2C9a64Ng5kdI3UJEjBax8lJq3anweUdLZtbhAYyzkSc5ox58B9XrsLGT6AuuVWUbgCPG3TJwwcRrbcsp3FBxGxu-MntSm6iwluRSkPeoqidjsUfNGwyn2-E/s1600-h/3252131586_1eb6c876df_b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVLtdWOXt3PSGJEEgwr_Ru2C9a64Ng5kdI3UJEjBax8lJq3anweUdLZtbhAYyzkSc5ox58B9XrsLGT6AuuVWUbgCPG3TJwwcRrbcsp3FBxGxu-MntSm6iwluRSkPeoqidjsUfNGwyn2-E/s400/3252131586_1eb6c876df_b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310952975137757810" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZMWveLJ3qe96iQSWL_6q3OOGmJagaGB5H7hDQ5JfWq9zEj0Mp_8yRCkpZlkGbJP7wVA86I4XXGZlIBzc-71kIQ6W2P08TFf58jKsn3lNw5ymZr8-82GHbuNSlZ9sj9MwTNmtrgc6LlwA/s1600-h/AMP.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZMWveLJ3qe96iQSWL_6q3OOGmJagaGB5H7hDQ5JfWq9zEj0Mp_8yRCkpZlkGbJP7wVA86I4XXGZlIBzc-71kIQ6W2P08TFf58jKsn3lNw5ymZr8-82GHbuNSlZ9sj9MwTNmtrgc6LlwA/s400/AMP.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299412060508433346" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixuaafHTfrzYpwJV-D-mnUR6bMoolXwvfu2d8WYV-MboBhEp-MOu8uhx8pBEB57uzL_WOc4kOvc6xaHrm15KqtSy2G1W_LIVrs8KuGtyFuHqKDqXt0UL_jsJxh-bvxeD1S0CCYzhOuNZU/s1600-h/fringes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixuaafHTfrzYpwJV-D-mnUR6bMoolXwvfu2d8WYV-MboBhEp-MOu8uhx8pBEB57uzL_WOc4kOvc6xaHrm15KqtSy2G1W_LIVrs8KuGtyFuHqKDqXt0UL_jsJxh-bvxeD1S0CCYzhOuNZU/s400/fringes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299411451664973410" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;">Images: (cc) <span style="font-size:85%;"><strong style="font-weight: normal;">Danja Vassiliev</strong></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> & Will Scrimshaw</span><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQ6Q2c1BKbSdL775kCrxt8hSwBcc0zR0ns-_77Zz048Cw0fuA5-DchTlw85AXr3Zf-DxpiNwjE6Qglo-uR5ToPjqo4qcJxZ40ew3fBa8LiNB9NrDZ7osjAf_NH0KOHf9W8Xixf27kkm0/s1600-h/slope4.jpg"><br /></a><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><br /></p><p>Last week I had the good fortune to be invited by Derek Holzer and Martin Howse to participate in the xxxxx_09 workshop - part of Club Transmediale in Berlin. Provisionally themed 'Structures', this turned out to be an intense week of activity with some <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> <a href="http://scrying.org/doku.php?id=xxxxx:ctm09participants">talented people</a><a href="http://scrying.org/doku.php?id=xxxxx:ctm09participants">.</a> Anyone glancing through this blog will quickly grasp that coding and digital control/instrumentation systems don't enter into my work - I have a GUI-level relationship with an aging Macintosh, and that's normally as far as my interests lead. What I enjoyed about the workshop was some peoples' ability to work across the soft and hardware genres in order to get what they needed done, regardless of the type of laptop or platform being used.</p><p>So in response to all this digital activity, after a week, I produced what amounts to a piece of 2 by 1 leaning against the wall with a copper wire stretched down its length, one wooden bridge, and a small speaker acting as the other. That was the orientation the piece of wood was in when I arrived, and I thought it best not to upset it.</p><p> Pointing at the wire is a small red laser and directly the other side a photodiode feeding a tiny amplifier, which drives the speaker. This generates a feedback loop which has slightly chaotic tendencies, as the string is very slack, so you hear a slowly shifting drone, with occasional Tourette's. The thing has two outputs - the acoustic of the wire, and the laser being modulated by the wire (the second photo - notice the diffraction pattern, which I was, er, rather pleased about). This recording drifts between the two; you can tell the photophonic output by the fact that it cuts out occasionally as people wander in front of it. At the beginning one can also discern the irrepressible Derek Holzer kvetching about his hair, and lasers...<br /><br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fdereks-wig&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=00380a"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fdereks-wig&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=00380a" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object> <br /></p></div>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-7670228291210352272009-01-22T13:17:00.011+00:002009-04-20T23:43:00.124+01:00Spectra<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxx6WdNKgj-siqd-VC-RAtyxYzjqBzWSxvwdVuSoapUlUrH-8QdZCIEG1Cqr-eDhx-EWd_IAAvUETqFsPtwXXEcsDrk4mqLlc9i4BNpyeWUL8L-gHkzswf5L8NEct7MyA0HzvbW2Pkls/s1600-h/Picture1_01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 295px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxx6WdNKgj-siqd-VC-RAtyxYzjqBzWSxvwdVuSoapUlUrH-8QdZCIEG1Cqr-eDhx-EWd_IAAvUETqFsPtwXXEcsDrk4mqLlc9i4BNpyeWUL8L-gHkzswf5L8NEct7MyA0HzvbW2Pkls/s400/Picture1_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294106762597592146" border="0" /></a><br />This is a project I've been working on for a little while with <a href="http://www.mickgrierson.co.uk/">Mick Grierson,</a> whom I first met in the guts of the <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5cJKYToQrjg">great organ</a> at Goldsmiths college in London's New Cross (on Watling Street for all you psychogeographers). Anyway, we discovered shared research interests, and began following some of them up practically, eventually resulting in this method of what Mick terms audio-visual phase distortion. You'll find a <a href="http://spectra.strangeloop.co.uk/">video of it here.</a><br />'Spectra' and 'specter' are both rooted in the Latin for 'apparition' or 'vision', and most importantly for my purposes here, the Epicurian or Atomist theory of vision, which stated that images were atom-thin 'skins' (simulacra) which flew off of objects and entered the eye. Ghosts were errant simulacra, cut loose from their natural paths. I first came across this in Dario Gamboni's extraordinary book on visual ambiguity, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Potential-Images-Ambiguity-Indeterminacy-Modern/dp/186189113X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232661344&sr=8-1">'Potential Images</a>', and later on in David Park's <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1224042974&searchurl=an%3Dpark%26bt.x%3D0%26bt.y%3D0%26sortby%3D3%26sts%3Dt%26tn%3Dfire%2Bwithin%2Beye">'A Fire Within The Eye'</a> - both of which I can recommend.<br />Anomalous theories about perception can sometimes seem to provide us with the right instruments to examine experiences created by media, which might seem irreconcilable in the rationalist domain...Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-52714026811052105532008-12-02T00:42:00.010+00:002010-03-13T10:19:17.067+00:00The Auditory Camera<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNiqKZJRantk4Mavkkn0cC7KoardV4lpU-Q_8OeBuWMYi5T_L9mrfZN6zJHGVJlv7Ol8NoGGv_4FvvzSsVFA_QOPLdOoSh70t5E-Z9g5310uujjoIV8rG4dO8QMljvvSZkidS0OTidEmc/s1600-h/beeflap1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 118px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNiqKZJRantk4Mavkkn0cC7KoardV4lpU-Q_8OeBuWMYi5T_L9mrfZN6zJHGVJlv7Ol8NoGGv_4FvvzSsVFA_QOPLdOoSh70t5E-Z9g5310uujjoIV8rG4dO8QMljvvSZkidS0OTidEmc/s400/beeflap1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274995361136212290" border="0" /></a><br /><br />As I think I mentioned before, some natural sources of modulated light, when sonified, sound remarkably like their normal sonic correlates. This is both slightly disappointing and oddly comforting, in so far as it's a sort of confirmation of what our ears are already able to tell us - a kind of belt-and-braces school of information gathering. And so it is with flying insects. So far I've succeeded in recording honey bees, a cloud of midges, and short snatches of assorted unidentified bugs. The midges recording is remarkable for several reasons, which I won't go into - the reason being that the recording is too poor for public consumption, and so I'd be pontificating on something nobody can get to hear.<br />One of the problems with recording flying insects is getting the little sods to stay still enough, or at least to predict where they might be going next. With bees, you know where they come and go from. This recording is of bees leaving and entering a hive that I made in 2006, which currently rests on the roof of the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames in London. The reason it's there, and is also the same shape as the R.F.H can be found at the <a href="http://royalfestivalhive.typepad.com/">Royal Festival Hive blog.</a><br />Listening to this recording, I'm struck by how nicely it describes one of the peculiarities of photophonic sound capture - that there is a very sharply defined zone of events. A volume of space in front of the photocell acts as an area of influence, or an event space defined by the characteristics of the light source and the angle of incidence that the photocell's lens dictates. With this recording, it's the sun, who's rays are effectively parallel, and probably a 120 degree capture angle. The bees pass through this volume and modulate the sun's rays with their beating wings; anything going on elsewhere is inaudible because it's out of the frame. I avoid the term 'image' here because that's not what it is - any images generated are mental. But we still have an auditory frame, or, optical properties shunted into the auditory sphere; an 'auditory camera' if you will.<br />I'm reminded of the discoveries made by the early Concréte exponents in the truncating of sonic events, and what this did to the raw materials. These bees have become natural oscillators, triggered by the existence of their bodies within the frame of influence generated by the photocell. Outside of this frame they become simply bees again...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Update - </span>Since writing this post, I've been pointed in the direction or <a href="http://ericarcher.net/devices/sound-cameras/">Eric Archer's sound cameras</a>, which are just beautiful. There are some fantastic photophonic recordings on his site; particularly ingenious is one of an oscilloscope feedback system. Wonderful idea...<br /><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><br /></p></div><br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fphotophonicbees&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=003538"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fphotophonicbees&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=003538" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-7168661902667946292008-10-04T01:00:00.006+01:002010-03-13T10:30:28.412+00:00November 5th 2007, Crystal Palace, London<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In anticipation of the coming season. Recorded with the usual kit: a solar battery charger from Maplins and a Sony MZR35 minidisc, which I find has a very forgiving mic pre-amp.</p><p>The stuff you might expect is there - harsh spikes from exploding rockets, noise and crackles from the flares...but when I played it back I wasn't expecting to hear what sounded like ghosts groaning in the distance...</p><p><br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Ffireworks-edit&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=380a00"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Ffireworks-edit&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=380a00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object> </p></div>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-1616070800095235792008-09-09T23:49:00.005+01:002008-09-10T00:31:24.831+01:00'Glitter Path' 2Same time during the day, same place as the audio recording below. This time, I used the camera's external mic input, and the pre-amp is less flexible - hence the heavy compression. Fairly rough conditions...still not lucky enough for dead calm and sun...<br /><br /><object height="350" width="425"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gFM6IBlPs9w"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gFM6IBlPs9w" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="350" width="425"></embed> </object><br /><br />Loud, and on headphones please.Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-32889427849798456502008-08-04T23:46:00.007+01:002008-08-07T23:59:58.697+01:00Home Cinema - Part II<blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">"[The basic stumbling block] did not lie in the mechanical or optical part of the apparatus, but on the electrical side of the problem, and essentially in the light sensitive cell. I made many attempts to improve this, including the construction of a cell made from the visual purple* out of a human eye. There was considerable difficulty in obtaining the eye, but at length I was fortunate in finding a surgeon with a keen scientific interest who supplied a fresh human optic. This cell when first constructed gave a quite appreciable reaction to light."</span><br /></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Television. A Paper by Mr J L Baird', <span style="font-style: italic;">Experimental wireless and the Wireless Engineer</span>, December 1926, pp.736 <span style="font-style: italic;">Quoted in: </span>KAMM A, BAIRD M(2002) <span style="font-style: italic;">John Logie Baird; A Life. </span>Edinburgh. National Museums of Scotland Publishing. pp.64<br /><br />* Not a mistake... Scots for pupil I should imagine.<br /></span>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-46246298809547013092008-07-29T21:14:00.004+01:002010-03-13T10:22:10.717+00:00Afternoon Glitter Path* - St.Leonards-On-Sea<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>A photophonic capture of the English Channel, recorded on Wednesday the 23rd of July, at about four o'clock - a better recording than the one I made a month or so ago. Breezy conditions produce plenty of waves and a noisy signal, which goes right down below the audible threshold. This will be recorded again as a video work soon, hopefully under calmer conditions, which I think will generate rather different audio.<br /></p><p>So, it seems the sea looks as the sea sounds...<br /></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">*From R.A.R Tricker in 'Bores, Breakers, Waves & Wakes' - to describe the vertical path of reflected light down the field of vision from the surface of undulating water.<br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fshort-sea&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000e38"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fshort-sea&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000e38" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object> </span></p></div>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-83890639704208248652008-06-25T22:08:00.008+01:002008-12-09T09:03:14.771+00:00Stooky Bill's Dream<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotca2nSi_xIUp1Givmlr8FgZV4TQ925d3Z7zbto4POfidW1U0cbCGQiNWpTNptw4GD08FfWNrJ7I6W380aiUc2sEowI75j-tk-DWKZOpO0fv5T4gzxDuOPCQxr1UNTJCx2YbyHDckp7M/s1600-h/wood+sanded.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgotca2nSi_xIUp1Givmlr8FgZV4TQ925d3Z7zbto4POfidW1U0cbCGQiNWpTNptw4GD08FfWNrJ7I6W380aiUc2sEowI75j-tk-DWKZOpO0fv5T4gzxDuOPCQxr1UNTJCx2YbyHDckp7M/s400/wood+sanded.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5215934612608306722" border="0" /></a><br />Stooky? Stookie? I've seen both spellings used. 'Stooky' is winning statistically, though i'm not sure it matters. Anyway, here he is - first in an edition of eight, taken from the reproduction head in Hastings Museum. He's in his raw form; turned out of a block of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelutong_%28tree%29">Jelutong</a> (the model maker's favourite) by the wonderful Mr John Wilkinson, and not me for reasons too tedious to relate here - although i did do the sanding. He'll be stained jet black, and shellac-ed to a high sheen rather than spray-painted; painted surfaces feel dishonest. I'm hoping, for reasons to do with material symbolism, to make the others from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha">Gutta Percha</a>, the rubber from which was used, up until the invention of vulcanised rubber, for electrical insulation as well as for its wood. It's proving difficult to source though, and I imagine it's environmentally dodgy...<br /><br />Why the futurist/fascist thing? Well, the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/philbradley/249646326/in/set-72057594089677618/">Bertelli</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/philbradley/249646326/in/set-72057594089677618/"> </a>piece is quite simply one of the most extraordinary pieces of art I can think of, regardless of it being of Mussolini. That's a distraction from the point of the piece, which is about speed and omniscience; it sees everything at all times and projects a field of influence outward. It is also contemporaneous (ish) with Baird's early TV experiments, so Bill had been 'in the air'. It's a metaphor for machine vision, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stooky_Bill">Stooky Bill</a> knows all about that. This is his dream.Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-16202887919918008712008-06-12T00:26:00.014+01:002008-12-09T09:03:14.891+00:00Home Cinema - Part IBecause home is where the <span style="font-style: italic;">head</span> is...<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDtRSXrvtniMk5HwEsZEyKFZbr9pJf65ntLpUfrpI5a2RwFRUjGXe5ZjYDQlj5MjQ1liAPlSyJxFnagrzF0mmh7OHJERy2fHB3g4j9EdSRu5gTWFSuLpy93NyHibmJ1nxDtKV8oSf2yBY/s1600-h/Phonautograph.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDtRSXrvtniMk5HwEsZEyKFZbr9pJf65ntLpUfrpI5a2RwFRUjGXe5ZjYDQlj5MjQ1liAPlSyJxFnagrzF0mmh7OHJERy2fHB3g4j9EdSRu5gTWFSuLpy93NyHibmJ1nxDtKV8oSf2yBY/s400/Phonautograph.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5210771441454831858" border="0" /></a><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">"The expropriation of anonymous corpses as fixed capital for the production of knowledge is illustrated nowhere better than in the history of an ear attached to a machine."</span><br /></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Sterne J(2003)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> The Audible Past, Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction.</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> Durham: Duke University Press. pp. 69<br /><br /></span>Jonathan Sterne spends a lot of time on Bell and Blakes' 'Ear Phonautograph' in the first chapter of his vast history of early modern sound and its meanings. For him, this 'machine' is emblematic of a change in thought about sound's nature. What you can see in this picture is the excised middle ear mechanism from a corpse, attached to a horn into which sound (almost always the voice) was projected. Instead of a cochlea, auditory nerve and living brain, the end of the chain of tiny bones was adorned with a hogs bristle, which scratched traces onto a smoked glass slide dragged across the back of the 'mechanism'. This was a modification of Scott's 'Phonautograph' - some tracings of which have recently been sonified to <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/27/arts/27soun.php">great excitement</a> in the lab. More pictures of the Phonautograph than you will ever need can be found <a href="http://www.talkingmachine.org/phonautograph.html">here.</a><br />For Sterne, this artifact could only come about once the ear was understood as a mechanism, and once sound moved from being something which emanated from a source to something which was an <span style="font-style: italic;">effect -</span> vibrations in the medium of air acting upon the <span style="font-style: italic;">tympanum</span>. The diaphragm is king in the world of sound reproduction...<br />Something about the description of the ear being <span style="font-style: italic;">'attached</span> to a machine' doesn't ring true. This may seem like nit-picking but it feels important all the same - there's no machine without the middle ear mechanism. The ear and its interfaces are a composite, where meat and steel are coerced into a union for the sake of instrumentation. When looking at this terrible wonder, I begin to reify the consciousness that it once served; a ghost with a head occupying a notional space. It feels like an explication of the way that sound burrows into the hearer - it brings us a bit closer to what has been called the <span style="font-style: italic;">world knot</span>*; where the world ends and we begin. I bet it smelled a bit weird as well.<br />The description of a corpse as 'fixed capital' refers to Sterne's account of how the lower classes ended up as the fuel for much of modern medicine through dissection - the 'Massachusetts Anatomical Act' made legal the offering up of unclaimed corpses (ie, poor ones - families could not afford the funeral) to science:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">"The medical historian Charles Snyder casts the "donors" of the ears in Bell and Blake's experiments as the "true heroes" of the research"<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;">Sterne (2003: 69)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><br /></span></span></span></blockquote>More on early sound visualization and class later, you'll be delighted to know.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">*Schopenhauer's term. Via Edelman and Tononi's <span style="font-style: italic;">'Consciousness, How Matter Becomes Imagination'.</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span><br /><blockquote></blockquote>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-25155135995574774792008-06-05T23:49:00.008+01:002010-03-13T10:35:14.868+00:00Back-Chat<p>Another one from the archive. Here we have a krypton mini-bulb wired up to the speaker terminals of an old bang & olufsen amplifier circa 1970-ish (an old family heirloom, which is why i treat it so carefully).<br /></p><p>The source material is F.M radio, and the gating/distortion/ring modulation is probably due to the amp not liking what it's seeing with the bulb - wildly differing impedance according to whether it's lit or not - and the bulb trying its best to keep up with the amp's complaints. Also, i'm guessing that since the power output from the bulb can't go into the negative (ie, suck light in), all of the negative signal gets mixed in with the positive, hence the ring-modulator sound. I like to think of it as a sort of audio-visual amp/speaker altercation...</p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">(Reverb and compression added)<br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fbulb-voices-verb&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=380a00"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fbulb-voices-verb&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=380a00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object> </span></p>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-48438171582859753132008-02-27T23:50:00.009+00:002010-03-13T10:15:59.447+00:00Fast and Bulbous<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Never mind the squid eating dough - <span style="font-style: italic;">what about the bats?</span> A short while ago there was a fuss in the papers about the possible health risks (benefits?) of low energy lightbulbs - evidently they give off U.V and contain mercury which <span>might</span> poison somebody if one gets broken. Well that's not all they give off...here's a short piece I hurriedly splurged together some time ago (yes, I know lots of the stuff on this blog is old - I'll get up to date in the end) of ultrasound from our low carbon gewgaws.</p><p style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">(Creative audio fiddling may include: frequency sweeps while recording, multitracking (3 of), cranked bass, reverb. Always read the label)</span></p><br /><p style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fbulbous&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000c38"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Fbulbous&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000c38" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object> </p></div>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-37341155328546973742008-02-22T21:50:00.012+00:002010-03-09T10:36:10.409+00:00The Opposite of TennisMichel Chion has a wonderful way of putting things - droll without being arrogant: insightful, nose-in-front-of-your-face type stuff. Here's a typical example which concerns key differences between cinematic and televisual sound:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">In a sports broadcast, of tennis matches especially, acoustic space is uncoupled from visual space. What we hear is at a stable level, always in aural long shot - even though it actually results from the sum total of points of audition of different mikes placed at strategic points on the court. On the other hand, the </span>image<span style="font-style: italic;"> selected by the editing crew alternates distanced perspectives (high angled views of the whole arena) with close views (faces or feet of the players, via telephoto lenses). This differential treatment , especially in moments when one of the players is grumbling or ranting and raving, produces a type of sound-image relation that is common to televised sports broadcasts, yet completely unknown to the cinema: faces of men or women in close up, via telephoto lenses, superimposed on their faraway and indistinct voices. In short, it gives us a symmetrical 'close-far' in contrast to the 'far-close' more characteristic of fiction films, where the long shot of a character can be accompanied by his or her voice heard up close.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">Chion, M (1994). <span style="font-style: italic;">Audio-Vision, Sound on Screen.</span> New York, N.Y. Columbia Unviversity Press.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></blockquote><br />I'll get back to why i've quoted this in a minute. The video I've posted here is a sketch for a short film I have planned with the working title 'Stookie Bill's Dream'. If you want to find out who Stookie Bill was, there's a short wiki entry <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stooky_Bill">here</a>, and a simply beautiful lecture on him (and his handler) <a href="http://www.tvdawn.com/tvhist1.htm">here</a>. Bill was the first TV personality (ask <a href="http://www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/david_hall/stooky_bill_tv.html">David Hall</a>) from a time when the audio and the image were <span style="font-style: italic;">the same thing. </span>I'm making my own Stookie Bill at the moment, for recording rather than as a test dummy. More on this later...<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>The video isn't a finished piece. The shots are compiled roughly in subject (fun fair, shops, vehicles etc), and broadly in the order I shot them. I didn't have the tripod, it was bastard cold (just before Christmas) and I wasn't wearing gloves, so there's camera shake and a tendency not to linger for too long on any one thing. Having said all that, there's definitely something going on here which is all of its own. The reason I quoted the Chion is that when looking at how the sound and image work, there's a spacial short circuit going on, which I think is the converse of what Chion describes - the audio syncs directly to the light sources <span style="font-style: italic;">regardless</span> of the distances - because, of course, its not audio in the usual sense - its sonified light. I've not really got to the essence of what's going on with this stuff, so i'm using this quote to illustrate a hunch - a feeling, if you will. Try listening on headphones and you'll get a better sense of what I mean. Perhaps.<br /><br />It's worth considering that although this is video footage, you really don't need a camera to experience this odd in-between space - in fact a video camera creates complications on all sorts of levels, which aren't necessarily desirable.<br /><br /><object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9463292&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9463292&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><br />I won't deny that there's a dissonance between the images and the sound which gives it a somewhat sardonic feel ( I particularly like the flamenco group, and the Burberry coat) - and I began to home in on this a bit when I was filming. Another working title for this was 'Fun', which alludes to this clash somewhat more.<br /><br />Hooray for digital lighting systems, I say.Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-33762907266924318812008-01-21T22:47:00.003+00:002010-03-13T00:21:25.315+00:00Aether Drift<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalgq_kAd7APvrHhUFQR5kvIhInRsizWoscUCv34jznurhGLyepjRVzssuSXmY5RIvlC1RxbGreq6_FGpjcA8ZSkXUlbbNje6tEQVsh3Mis7QVBxLSHD2jbrP5W9nEKoSUUEm9cPcFCuc/s1600-h/8+-+beam+paths"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalgq_kAd7APvrHhUFQR5kvIhInRsizWoscUCv34jznurhGLyepjRVzssuSXmY5RIvlC1RxbGreq6_FGpjcA8ZSkXUlbbNje6tEQVsh3Mis7QVBxLSHD2jbrP5W9nEKoSUUEm9cPcFCuc/s320/8+-+beam+paths" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158069944614327202" border="0" /></a><br /><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>There are plenty of ways to introduce audible modulations into a light source. You can modulate its power supply with a signal, you can use vibrating mirrors, you can burn old floorboards nearby (see an earlier post below), you can flail your arms in front of it - the possibilities are legion.</p><p>Alternatively, it can be made to interfere with itself. This works best with laser light as it is coherent (all the waves leave the laser in phase) and is surprisingly easy to do. Try pointing a laser at a photodiode and get the beam to reflect back into the laser aperture, which, if I'm not mistaken, produces an interference pattern through tiny differences in the reflected beam paths. What you should hear is little squeaky noises, which are the interference fringes (light/dark patterns) whizzing about as the muscles in your fingers twitch and the photodiode or laser moves.</p><p>A more complicated way is to build an interferometer like this one, which is based on the <a href="http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/michelson.html">Michelson-Morley experiment</a> of 1887, except much simplified. Essentially it splits a laser in two using a half silvered mirror, and then recombines the two beams. Nanoscopic changes in the length of the two paths will register as a shift in the interference pattern (there's a nice flash demo in the link above). My fellow traveler Mathew Chadwick came up with the idea that if an interference pattern can be seen to change due to whatever forces are acting upon the apparatus, then maybe there's lots going on which can be revealed through sonification, ie, placing photodiodes into the beam paths so you can hear what's happening. He wasn't wrong.<br /></p><p>This is a kind of abuse of an old and important experiment, in so far as the idea normally would be to isolate the thing from <span style="font-style: italic;">all </span>vibration (Michelson's second attempt involved floating the whole thing in a trough of mercury). My engineering skills are somewhat basic, or rather, I don't have that useful personality quirk that many engineers have where everything <span style="font-style: italic;">has to be just right, </span>and therefore the <a href="http://www.fisher-price.com/uk/default.asp">Fisher-Price</a> nature of my interferometer means that it's not as sensitive as it might be. The laser physicists among you will behold my photo above and wince.<br /></p><p>The recording here is the hi-lights of about one hour during a group exhibition opening party in a church in Vauxhall, London, UK, 2003. I have plans for a much larger and more sensitive one - in green.<br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Finterferometer-2&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000000"> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Frobmullender%2Finterferometer-2&show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="81" width="100%"></embed> </object> </p></div>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6935155893904669557.post-6733633934890990192008-01-16T20:18:00.000+00:002008-01-18T22:57:35.469+00:00On Balance<i><span style="font-size:100%;"><blockquote>"In the temporal bone are housed two organs with the function of hearing and equilibrium. Seemingly unrelated, one's curiosity asks why nature has seen fit to have them so associated.<br />The answer is that the two functions are basically the same. The posterior-superior division of the labyrinth retains its original role of motion sensing, the anterior inferior portion manifesting a highly specialised form of the same function. The two parts, vestibular and cochlear, communicate freely and are simultaneously affected by body movement and by external molecular movement called sound waves. Always the ear is a motion sensing apparatus."</blockquote></span></i><span style="font-size:85%;">Guggenheim, L. (1948)</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">'The Phylogenesis of the Ear'</span> , Culver City, CA, Murray & Gee Inc.</span><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Sometimes it takes a completely utilitarian look at something to surprise you. This book traces the evolutionary developments of the ear, right from the balancing apparatus of protozoa through to modern man, and it's full of little gems like this first paragraph in the introduction. I love the fact that our hearing ears developed out of organs that were there to keep our distant ancestors the right way up, and linking sound and equilibrium through this device makes a nice change to the acoustic spacial perception/computation thing we often hear about.<br /></span><br /></span><br /></span></span></span>Rob Mullenderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12922873947716742237noreply@blogger.com0