Organized Noise

O RGAN I Z E D N O ISE

A M U S I CAL I N S TRU M E N T CH ALLENGE

O RGA NIZ ED NOISE

I D T E C H II / SP RING 2018

““What is music but organized noises?” ~ Edgard Varese

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C o n ten t s B A ND P O S T E R

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PRO J E C T B R I E F

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TI M EL I N E

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THE T E AM

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V ISI O N

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PROTOT YP I N G

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I NS TRU M E N T S

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WOK & ROLL ........................................ 12 GOOD VIBRATIONS ........................... 14 XYLOSTONE ......................................... 16

CA D R E N D E R I N GS

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WOK & ROLL ........................................ 19 GOOD VIBRATIONS ........................... 20 XYLOSTONE ......................................... 21

A NA LAGO U S I N S T RU MENT S

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A NA LAGO U S M U S I C

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B I L L O F M AT E R I AL S

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PRO D U C T I O N

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CRE D I T S

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WET WILLIE & T Will Stafford www.willstafford.com hannah fink www.hannahfink.art jessica smith www.jessleighsmith.com p. 4

THE WHALES

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PROJEC T B RIEF

CLIENTS Henry Yoo, Matthew Hoey

CLASS ID Tech II

DATE Spring 2018

BAND NAME Wet Willie and the Whales

PROMPT “For this exercise, student must design and produce new types of musical instruments and create new capabilities of performing with the instruments for musicians and an experience of witnessing the performance for live audience. Three types of instruments to be designed are Tonal, Percussive and an Open type. The goal of the exercise is to help expand the imagination and capabilities of musical & performing artists, to bring about new experiences to the audience, using the design processes and methodology.

New types of producing sounds(music), as well as new ways of producing the sounds(music) are valid parameters.�

5

Wks

Timeline

$0

2

Budget

Field Trips

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T IMELINE BRAINSTORMING

01

Group members brough in ideas and sketches for potential musical instruments.

PROTOTYPING

02 FEEDBACK

03

Feedback from peers and teachers guides further test prototypes and design adjustments.

REFINEMENT

04 PRESENTATION

05

Wet Willie and the Whales performed for an audience of classmates and professional judges.

Rough prototypes are made to test the acoustic properties of the initial ideas.

Instrument designs are refined and effort is put into presentation and display of instruments.

T HE T EA M

W I L L S TA F F O R D will.a.stafford@gmail.com Will Stafford comes from a fine art and construction management background, and brings a love of raw materials, the natural world, and found objects to the group’s eclectic makeup.

HANNAH FINK harofink@gmail.com Hannah Fink’s aesthetic is a bit of everything, and ultimately defines the groups harmony of opposites. Her material expertise in metal gave us the insight needed to work with our chosen materials. Moreover, her fabulous video editing gave us new opportunities to draft interesting musical experiences.

JESSICA SMITH jesmi423@gmail.com Jessica Smith is a digital maven, and a connoisseur of all things reflective, transparent and iridescent. Her broad experience in the tech world made it possible to expand the group’s library of sounds into the liminal space that exists between the purely physical and the entirely digital.

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All three group members are candidates in the Masters of Industrial Design program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

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VI S I O N

Our enthusiasm for natural sounds, white noise, and ambient music gave rise to an exploratory process that led us through a series of sound experiments--in the kitchen with household objects, and outside in the landscape. This magnetic pull towards materials, and natural resources, became the central modus in our search for interesting sounds.

To augment the soundscape we were developing, we decided to incorporate bone conduction technology--used by the hard of hearing to bypass the outer ear, and transmit the physical vibrations of sound to the bones of the inner ear. This allowed us to create a foil to our analog environment with electronic and digital technology, while maintaining a focus on physical vibrations. Eventually, our task became the art of layering these sounds into a musical environment worth spending time in.

However, our enthusiasm for water as a medium of sound was quickly admonished by the laws of physics.

As a liquid, too much water absorbs the soundwaves, deadening the vibrations we had carefully curated.

As a gas, much like the whistle on a kettle, the sound is harsh and unpleasant, and as a solid, it is difficult to create the conditions necessary for a transportable, and reusable, instrument.

Ultimately, water became our muse.

Our band began to call itself Wet Willie and the Whales, and continued to conceptually incorporate water into the experience. The Xylostone uses river rocks, we play whale song through Good Vibrations, and put tap water into Wok & Roll.

PROTOT YP I N G

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Wok & Roll Tonal / Percussive Humble household objects can sometimes have surprising musical traits.

With this instrument, a simple wok and bocce ball become the palette for a variet y of noises. A contact microphone amplifies these sounds.

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WOK & ROLL

CATEGORY

PERCUSSIVE TONAL ELEMENTS

WOK BOCCE BALL PIEZO MICROPHONE

GUIDE TO USAGE With an inch of water inside, a piezo mic attached, and plugged into an amp, the Wok is ready to Roll. While it can be played intuitively, as any touch will create physical vibration that is picked up by the piezo mic, we have found that some techniques translate into a musical experience better than others.

The Roll: Place a bocce ball inside the wok with water, and move the wok in a circular motion. Slowly at first, then graduating to ever faster revolutions, the sound will change in pitch from low to high, creating a whoosh we used as the background layer to our created experience. A chip in the ball we use also adds a pleasant, random, rhythm to the tonal charge.

The Tap: Tapping the resting ball with your fingers will create a warble heard only through the amplifier. Grabbing the ball, and then tapping the ball on the dry part of the wok will give a sharp ping, while tapping the ball in the water of the wok releases a lush “Om,” like a yogi’s chant.

The Splash: Removing the ball from the wok and splashing your fingers in the water also gives a pleasant sound.

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INSTRUMENT NAME

INSTRUMENT NAME

GOOD VIBRATIONS

CATEGORY

OPEN ELEMENTS

METAL BOWLS AUDIO JACK BONE TRANSDUCER SOUND PRODUCER (smartphone / speaker)

GUIDE TO USAGE Since Good Vibrations is an experience as much as it is an instrument, it is difficult to misuse. Once the bone conduction transducer is placed on the roof of the main bowl, the listener simply needs to commence playing the sounds and stand or sit under the headpiece. By pressing one’s ear up against the bowl the music can be fully heard, otherwise the faint ghostly remnants of the song can be heard through the bowl.

Alternatives: To convert the installation from a personal into a shared listening experience, all one has to do is place the transducer onto a large, massive body that will transmit the sound vibrations. For example, a large metal sculpture can become a vibrating speaker through which multiple people can listen to music by pressing their ears up against it.

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Open

The only piece in the ensemble to be a speaker rather than an instrument, Good Vibrations presents an intimate yet immersive approach to listening to music. The unit uses bone conduction technology to transmit the music through contact with the listener ’s inner ear.

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good vibrations

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XYLOSTONE

CATEGORY

PERCUSSIVE TONAL ELEMENTS

RIVER ROCKS STEEL BARS SOLID ROCK BASE

GUIDE TO USAGE The Xylostone is primarily percussive, but is constructed with a tonal range of percussive elements, giving it an arbitrary microtonal scale. This range of capabilities gives it broad potential for musical use. Our experience suggests two main techniques.

Clacking: Clacking stones together across the tonal range offers many opportunities for pitch specific rhythm. The bending nature of steel also permits some pendular swinging, and repeating clacks.

Scraping: Using a stone to scrape across the base of the Xylostone gives a full bodied scratching sound.

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INSTRUMENT NAME

CA D R E N D E R I N GS

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X YLO S TO N E

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

G OO D VI B R AT I O N S

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

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W O K & RO L L

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

SOLIDWORKS Educational Product. For Instructional Use Only.

AN AL AG OU S INST RUMENT S

01

T I B E TA N S I N G I N G B O W L

WAT E R P H O N E

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02

SONAMBIENT SCULPTURE

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GEORGE CRUMB

“In a broader sense, the rhythms of nature, large and small - the sounds of wind and water, the sounds of birds and insects - must inevitably find their analogues in music.”

EDGARD VARESE

“I was not influenced by composers as much as by natural objects and physical phenomena.”

JOHN CAGE

“If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego.

You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.”

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AN ALAGOU S MUSIC

B I L L O F M AT E R I A LS

DESCRIPTION

INSTRUMENT

QUANTITY

PRICE (USD)

smooth wok

Wok & Roll

1

~$15.00

bocce ball

Wok & Roll

1

~$15.00 (set of 8)

piezo microphone

Wok & Roll

1

$1.50

amp

Wok & Roll

1

~$60.00

surface transducer

Good Vibrations

1

$17.50

audio jack

Good Vibrations

1

~$10.00

metal cooking bowls

Good Vibrations

2 (nesting)

~$20.00

river rocks

Xylostone

variable

$20 (30 lb bag)

1/4” steel rod

Xylostone

3 rods

$7.50 ($2.50 / 48” rod)

flagstone

Xylostone

3 slabs

$10 each

TOTAL

~$176.50

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P RO D U C T I O N

While the intent of the instruments we created was to reveal the hidden acoustic properties of everyday objects, there are still production and commercialization factors to consider.

COMMERCIALIZATION

PRODUCTION METHODS

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WOK & ROLL

GOOD VIBRATIONS

XYLOSTONE

A mixture of found objects, Wok & Roll only necessitates the collection and assembly of a wok, bocce ball, and piezo microphone. For mass production one option could be to produce and sell these as an easy-to-buy kit.

Good Vibrations is also a collection of everyday objects.

While hand production was used to assemble the objects, it is reasonable to assume that specialized parts could lend themselves to mass production. No adhesive was used in the production of this object, rather the speaker was contained within the top bowl that remained in place due to the tension of the hanging setup.

A Hammer Drill was used to drill the stone for Xylostone.

E6000 industrial adhesive was used to adhere the stones to the rods. Drilling stone is time consuming, and labor intensive. It took 4 hours to drill the stones for the final product. For a professional mason charging $125/hr, this could cost around $500 to assemble. Unskilled laborers can produce same result for fraction of cost.

Wok & Roll could attract an audience that ranges from professional sound designers to children just beginning to learn about sound design and music.

Commercialization could occur either by selling a kit of all the necessary components or by selling specialized balls (similar to the bocce) designed to make different sounds when used.

Good Vibrations can easily be commercialized and manufactured as a single, holistic piece. The speaker can be incorporated into the headpiece and connected via bluetooth to create a “smart” yet sculptural speaker. The transducer could also be sold separately and marketed as a way of turning any large metal object into a shared speaker.

The Xylostone is unique in that it is both tonal and tactile. It could easily be used in a school setting to teach about rhythm and tone in a physical hands-on way. It could be sold either as a base and rods on which you attached your own stones and other objects or as a complete kit of parts.

Each of these instruments lends themselves to use as part of a music therapy program. Since they are each as much about the act of playing and the collaboration of making ‘organized noise’ as they are about the acoustic properties of the objects, they might be therapeutic and even meditative for those seeking solace in sound.

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“I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry as I need it.�

- John Cage

CRE D I T S

THANKS This project would not have been possible without the help of all our classmates in ID Tech and our professors, Henry Yoo and Matthew Hoey. We would also like to thank the kind judges who offered their advice and feedback and took the time to come visit with us; especially Ken Butler and the management at D’Addario who opened their studios and factories to us as inspiration. Finally we would like to thank Peter Argondizza for his feedback and suggestions that helped us put our work into context and give us a vision for where to set our sights next.

PHOTO CREDITS Analagous Instruments Waterphone: https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=waterphone Tibetan Singing Bowl: http://developmentcrossroads.com/2011/03/singing-bowls/ Sonambient Sculpture: http://www.icollector.com/Harry-Bertoia-untitled-Sonambient_i8644211

Analagous Music George Crumb: https://www.discogs.com/artist/519766-George-Crumb Edgard Varese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgard_Var%C3%A8se John Cage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage

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ID TECH

2018

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CHALLENGE