Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Typhanee

the continuing postings of sonic creatures. these are sound creatures which were made in collaboration with various people. they were asked to intuitively choose three objects and explore their combined sound-making potentials. the creatures were then named and described. i enjoyed this intuitive and organic way of working - some of the sounds were processed by me and i still question this intervention but it was how i felt at the time.

more can be read about the process that led to the sonic creatures here

i am looking forward to collecting more drawings of the creatures based on their sounds. so introducing the typhanee.

the typhanee was created by Caitlin. she used a wine glass with items inside and a spinning top. the resultant animal sounds include sound processing.




Flyus Crackius gallery





the flyus crackius as interpreted by vaitoa - a whole storyboard in fact. i continue to marvel at the genius and creative playfulness of people like vaitoa. he has even added a new creature to complete the sonic wonderland - the beaver lizerd. it includes male and female iterations of the species, stray penguin, and what look like mangled fish.

rather excitedly, i played him the next creature - the typhanee - only for him to say, 'oh i know that one - that's a small mammal'.

you can listen to the flyus crackius here.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

house study - deck


introducing maverick the sonic wonder cat - otherwise known as mav the pav, mav the rick, mr fluffy trousers, mr F.T.Rousers, black and white guy...need i go on.

sonic explorations of the house continue with recordings from the deck. in keeping with the sonic recipes of The Domestic Soundscape, i include here the ingredients for this kind of sound-making:

1 deck
1 cat
2 guitar strings tied to the deck
1 bowling ball
several ping pong balls (to taste)
1 small rock
1 metal magazine rack
1 oven grill (of course)
2 contact mics
1 zoom recorder


we set about playing to explore the deck with the above materials...mav specialised in experimenting with the guitar string, i rolled the bowling ball around and bounced/rolled ping pong balls.

here are the results:

The Long Playing Version



deck play1



deck play2






Sunday, March 7, 2010

house study - stairs



this has been my most favourite house ever lived in
. it is a quirky bach-cottage perched on a hill in the seaside village of paekakariki. we have been here four years but it is nearing time to move - we need somewhere a little more roomy and a little more modern - at least where the cold drafts don't come through in the winter-time, even though my old flameshell heater has done a stirling job up until now. there are many things i have loved about this house and i figured it was time to keep some of the sights and sounds of it in memory...beginning as one cannot help but do with the creaky stairs...

the stairs up lead to the one room on high which looks over the ocean vista. the stairs down (only two) lead to the front room. as with all stairs, there are the ever-present creaky steps...to be avoided when trying not to wake the sleepers! many a dark creaky-creep has been attempted...

the beginnings of my sound studies here are rough and ready as i get used to this process and getting the best recordings possible. home made contact mics through the M-box and maybe should have used line channel instead of mic as a lot of noise but maybe this is the nature of the grassroots approach...

anyhow - stairs 1





sketch