a video to accompany my last blog...

CYMATICS ARE BRILLIANT!

The video itself is silent, but i have to say it looks even better when you listen to music while playing it...

enjoy :)

fun experiments with sound and visuals...

This week has been fantastic!

I have been doing a series of experiments into cymatics and trying to recreate my own visuals produced by sounds.  I knew I would need some help so asked my lecturer who directed me to a technician and lecturer in the music department.  With his help I was able to use a slightly modified small guitar amp which I could then sit a metal plate on top with sand and a small petri dish with liquid and inks in it.

modifying the small amp

The experiments we had tried with sand on a metal plate didn't work as well as I had thought.  This was explained by the metal plate being slightly too thick and having a tiny warp which meant the sand tended to shift to one corner very quickly.  It was also compromised by not having a mechanical shaker to sit the plate on while playing the tone, however we did have a frequency tone generator on a phone which was plugged into the amp positioned directly underneath the middle of the plate.

adding some fine grit to the plate

We then tried out an experiment with a petri dish positioned in the middle of the speaker, which worked extremely well.  Some slightly viscose fluid was poured into the dish which was secured with blu tac on the bottom of the speaker.  As with the plate of sand we played frequencies generated by the phone app and the results were spectacular.  I have now decided to take forward the visuals I had created here and use them in the final piece I will produce.

added a drop of white ink then a drop of purple ink to the middle of the petri dish

then started to play a frequency through he speaker

the ball of ink looked like the centre of a daisy and the vibrations looked like petals in the water

it pushed most of the ink out which looked like petals but the shape of vibrations looked square

at its most agitated...a high frequency was used here

cymatics and stop motion/stop motion and cymatics

Last week I had been trying to develop more of the visuals for my project which led to a few small experiments of ways to show sound.

A small experiment with card, flour and a speaker.

This had led to me looking into cymatics and ways to use them in my video piece but the more I found out the more I began to think, actually being able to achieve the patterns in sand or liquid may not be as easy as I had first thought.

So, incase my experiments didn't go to plan I created a few other short stop motion videos as an alternative way of looking at sound and nature.  I was quite pleased with the short videos, bearing in mind they were just short sketches of what my final piece may be like.

stop motion headphones 

stop motion cut paper sound bars

stop motion pebble shapes 

stop motion wire sound spike

Next week I am to start some bigger experiments using various materials into cymatics, with some techie help from the music department.  I'm sure they will work out better than my home made attempt.

So...

Last week I had been finalising my research in my sketchbook, and thinking more about the concept development of my video as well as the visuals.

I was thinking that because the bulk of my research photos were of T-Pot Studio at Path of Condie, it would make sense to work into my piece a musical/sound theme.

Lots of people who replied to my questionnaire of '3 things that remind you of the country' gave me descriptions of some of the sounds they heard while out and about in the countryside.  So I was able to start forming a plan to incorporate sounds and music into my video piece.

This decision spurred a look into cymatics, which is where you vibrate a plate with sand scattered on top at a certain frequency to produce patterns in the sand. The higher the frequency/note the more complex the patterns and the lower frequency/notes produce a more simple pattern.  Some of these patterns, i thought, looked like the cross section of a tree trunk which seemed to link back to the photographs I had taken in and around T-Pot Studio.

I still need to consider creating a soundtrack for my video or if i will use some collected audio from around Path of Condie and the Studio.

a great many musical instruments are made from wood...

The mixing desk at T-pot Studio with a wooden frame

the last of the research...

After my initial research into rural locations I had made the decision to focus my project on Path Of Condie to see what more I can find out to inform my stop motion video.  I visited T-Pot Studio in the tiny hamlet and had a great time finding out more about life in Path Of Condie.

This research has, as I find it often is with research, been very helpful but for a while slightly overwhelming as I was still trying to figure out how I would take my project further with all this new information.

Most of my research photos reflect an interest in music, the countryside and people.
As I had stated in my Personal Learning Plan I would like to look into peoples perception of things, which I thought would tie in nicely with how we perceive the countryside and the people in it.

I have also just recently posted a little question about the countryside for people to answer on social media sites Ello, Facebook and Twitter.  I have also set up an email account for people to respond to privately if they don't want to post anything publicly.  The response I got through Facebook was fantastic but, I think because both my Twitter and Ello pages are new, I have had far less response on those sites.

Next week I should be starting to work on experimenting with visuals for my video and maybe even a  very short mock video with a rough story board to develop.

View from outside T-Pot Studio in Path Of Condie

the kitchen curtains 

the rare old mixing desk

Robin Wynn Evans on the guitar

green and black patch leads

some multi coloured patch leads

More researching of things...

This week I've been continuing with my research into rural locations and have narrowed it down to visiting 3 places. 

 I've been able to come up with some good visual and contextual ideas for my final project and importantly been able to get started on filling up my sketchbook with the decisions I've made about what location to focus on and the direction I want to take the whole project. 

I also spent a few days at my chosen location taking research photos and recording a few videos, which were all invaluable as far as being able to develop both concept and visuals for my piece. taking ques from sounds that I recorded on videos and photos of key objects and colours. I can't wait to continue developing this project and I will post more photos of my locations and some of the objects that I found to be relevant. 

Location research photos...

Tillicoutry looking towards the ochils...note the cars

Tillicoutry with some interesting graffiti under the Ochil Hills

Lots of Alloa's old buildings/Mills are now leisure centers or shops

Some old signage lost in amongst the new ones in Alloa...funnily enough it's the name Young!

This week...

With this week being a Holliday from college I have been spending a lot of time researching, photographing and visiting some locations for my degree show brief. My first thoughts for this project was to look into small rural communities and find out what main industry, if any, drives them now. I also wanted to look at some of the perceptions we have of the countryside and how lots of the stereotypical views we hold of the quaint little country village/hamlet are based in the past. Some new paintings I have seen of such locations don't even seem to have street signs in them let alone a car! I have some photographs from a few of the locations I visited but will upload them in a separate post. 

reflective blogging...

So...

This week I have concerned myself with coming up with a plan of action.  Something that can help me organise the tasks I have to do leading up to the degree show we all have coming up.

 I am a little daunted by the prospect of having a real life degree show, but with all the time plans and reflective writing that goes along with it I'm sure I can manage to not forget anything important! Which is a comfort.

I can also still add things at any given time along the way, as i remember them or as other problems arise that I may have to correct.  So far the plan I have seems to be working but I'll know by the end of my degree show I'll know if I should do anything different or not!