Joyce Hinterding
Floric Antennae 1
Education Resource:Connecting the Arts with STEM
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
STEAM
Connecting the Arts with STEM
‘Leonardo Da Vinci combined art and science and aesthetics and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again’ Ben Shneiderman
Art, Science and Mathematics are human attempts to understand and describe the world around us. Scientists, technologists, engineers, artists and mathematicians use different methods and traditions that appeal to diverse audiences, but their goals and motivations are the same. There is known usefulness, power and beauty in STEM*. What is less familiar is the unexpected connection between STEM + Arts. Artists have always been curious about the world. From the observation of human anatomy in the movement expressed in ancient Greek sculpture, to Da Vinci’s investigations into flight or early 20th century Futurists’ energetic interpretations of a new machine age. You don’t have to dig deep to find acute relationships between innovation and the Arts. More recently, the emphasis on the inclusion of the Arts in STEM has resulted in a renewed acronym: STEAM. Adding A in the STEM mix emphasises the current dynamic potential of creativity and design for innovation, but more than that, STEAM acknowledges the importance of connection. The complex environment in which we live has re-determined the need for collaboration and communication across disciplines and knowledge domains. This is called transdisciplinarity. It is a new way of thinking about, and engaging in, inquiry. Australian artist, Joyce Hinterding, communicates the powerful intersection between science, technology, and maths through her interactive art installations. By exploring her work Floric Antennae 1 2018 we can understand the realm of transdisciplinary practice more fully. Transdisciplinarity is a connected space where different fields of knowledge provide balanced input in order to make sense of the relationship between disciplines and experience.
Giacoma Balla, Streetlight (detail), c 1910-11
Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field 1977
*STEM is an acronym. You probably already know that it refers to the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Way back in the 1990s, the National Science Foundation in the US invented the acronym to acknowledge the importance of the four STEM disciplines in the economy. This is how STEM emerged as a basis for innovation.
This resource aims to: • provide an opportunity for teachers and students to make meaningful connections between STEAM disciplines • encourage collaboration between subject faculties in the teaching and learning of complex concepts • spark curiosity in students in areas that they may not have previously shown an interest • look in depth at Floric Antennae 1 through interconnected lenses of Science, Mathematics, Visual Arts and Engineering Each knowledge area has topics for discussion, in-class activities, links to further information, explanations of terms and concepts, and links to NSW Curricula. 2
UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Meet the Artist
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Artists and designers have been pivotal in our understanding of the presence of naturally occurring phenomena. Pioneers such as composers John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, and artist Walter De Maria, gave aesthetic form to energy that surrounds us and make us aware of the intensely electrical environment that we live in. Australian artist Joyce Hinterding creates multimedia artworks with sound, electricity, and electromagnetism. She produces large sculptural antenna works, experimental drawings, video and sound-producing installations, plus experimental audio works for performance. She works as solo practitioner and in collaboration with artist David Haines, exhibiting both nationally and internationally. Hinterding began her investigations while studying design at Melbourne’s RMIT. She used jewellery making skills to construct percussive instruments and performance props as a way of exploring “the way our bodies resonate with the environment”1. Hinterding later studied electronics at TAFE in Sydney, combining her interest in electronics with an enduring love of the handmade. While spending time in New York City, Hinterding built her first Very Low Frequency (VFL) Antenna and created Electric Storms Installation in the roof of the Bond Store for the 1992 Biennale of Sydney. The audience was invited to experience and comprehend the unseen electrical activity surrounding them in this environment. In a later work, Aeriology,(1995),20-30 km of copper wire was wrapped around the columns in different venues creating a shimmering presence. The resulting work forms a large and beautiful antenna that gathers enough energy to power the sound of the signals it culls from the electromagnetic environment.
During the 1990s, Hinterding began exploring the artistic use of graphite, which may not seem exceptional as pencils and powdered graphite are common in drawing. But Hinterding began using graphite for its electrical properties. She encountered the possibility of using graphite while first teaching herself about electronics. Hinterding’s more recent works have expanded her investigations into graphic antennae, fractal mathematics and energy scavenging.
‘Hinterding explores acoustic and electromagnetic phenomena and is fascinated with the electricity that surrounds us, ‘the electricity we didn’t make’. Aeriology, 1995, Artspace Auckland New Zealand
Catharine Lumby
1. Catharine Lumby ‘ Joyce Hinterding: Systemic Murmurs’, Art + Text 46 (Sept. 1993), P.50
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Meet the Artist
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Hinterding began creating large scale drawings such as Loops and Fields: Induction Drawings Series 4 (2010), and Floric Antennae 1, using graphite to scavenge electromagnetic energy. Such energy is responsive to changes in the environment, especially human interaction in close proximity to the work. What results is a site-specific sound environment with a performative aspect. The audience plays a role in the performance by interacting in various ways with Hinterding’s works.
Hinterding practices at the nexus between art, science and mathematics. Her work involves discussion and collaboration with a diverse range of disciplines in the scientific community, such as solar research, antenna design and high-energy physics.
Loops and Fields: Induction Drawings Series 4
Collecting Sounds Photo: Peter Rae
Hinterding collaborated with Michael Morley and David Haines collectively known as ‘Sun Valley’, to create Black Canyons, a commissioned work, installed and performed at Campbelltown Arts Centre in 2015. Using very low frequency (VLF) antennae, the trio recorded the natural electromagnetic forces of rocks.“It sounds electronic, I suppose,” Haines says, explaining the noise emerges, “because it’s resonating within the electromagnetic spectrum. So the sound is actually humming, popping. It’s almost like a technological sound, crackling, pulsating.”2 ‘Sun Valley’ have been recording in environmentally threatened World Heritage areas in the Blue Mountains to pick up the “inaudible soundscape” not normally heard by the human ear. The one-off performance at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, included the rock sounds backed with instrumentation from synthesisers, guitars and amplifiers, and was visually enhanced by the use of digital video.
2. David Haines, Michael Morley and Joyce Hinterding tap into different kind of rock music, SMH, 2105, retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/SMH-Hinterding
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
The Artwork
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Joyce Hinterding’s work Floric Antennae 1 started with the question, “wouldn’t it be incredible of you could draw an antenna that scavenges energy from out of the air to exemplify the radio waves around us?”3 While at home in the Blue Mountains, the artist began noticing the fractal patterns in the lichen around her. Further exploration revealed that the same fractal patterns exist in mobile phone antennae. These observations combined with an interest in scavenging energy led Hinterding to transform a picture of lichen, taken on her smart phone, into an energy collecting antenna. Made from printed graphite on glass and connected by metal studs and cables to a mixer and headphones, Floric Antennae 1 uses one long line, looping and zig zagging around itself to cover the pane of glass. This single long line acts as a successful energy conductor. When connected to an audio mixer and headphones, the sound of the ‘leaking’ electrical energy from the immediate environment surrounding the work can be heard. When the viewer touches the glass, the impact of their physical input can be heard in changes to the sounds produced. The antennae makes use of the conductive properties of graphite, usually used by artists to draw, but in this case the use of the material is extended to not only draw, but also conduct.
‘Hinterding took the basic element of drawing, graphite, and used its ability to conduct electrical energy….For Hinterding it is yet another example of the most extraordinary concept that everything is active; all materials are active’4 Douglas Khan
An individual can experience the energetic surface by touching the work and adding their own energy into the system, which makes it louder. The increase in volume opens the sound out so that you hear more of the detail or complexity within the sound. People have mildly different effects on the drawings depending on their constitution;for example,someone with hot, sweaty hands will get a much stronger response than someone who’s hands are cold and dry.
‘The creative process is as important for Scientists as it is for Artists, is it not just visualisation, sonification has been very significant as well’ Joyce Hinterding
Photo: STEAMpop 3. Joyce Hinterding in conversation with Alice McAuliffe, UTS Arts, 2019 4. Douglas Kahn, ‘An Invisible Matter’, Art Collector, 66 (Oct – Dec 2013), p. 107
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Process
Connecting the Arts with STEM
“This work has its origins in fieldwork, bushwalking and noticing the different lichens and thinking about them and beginning to photograph them and then doing some research on what kind of plant it is. Then discovering a world of connections… These antennae begin as a photograph of lichen that is analysed by a Voronoi process that turns the image into dots. The dots are then joined by applying the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) to establish a path that does not cross over itself between all the dots. The file is then saved as a graphic file and opened in drawing software and turned into an image that can be cut into a vinyl stencil on a vinyl cutting machine. The vinyl is applied to the glass, and I use an industrial graphite product to paint and spray onto the glass. The graphite line is then connected with a custom lead to the microphone inputs on a small mixer and headphones attached.”5
Voronoi partitioning, Kahn Academy6
Travelling Salesman Problem7
Image courtesy of ANAT. Photo by Jenn Brazier.Pjoto
Voronoi Partitioning Georgy Voronoy was a mathematician born in the Ukraine in 1868. A Voronoi diagram is a partitioning of a plane into regions or cells that resemble a honeycomb like structure. A practical function of the Voronoi diagram is demonstrated when we are looking for the closest hospital or supermarket on a map that is divided into cells, each cell covering the region closest to a particular centre. For a better understanding of how to make a Voronoi diagram, their application and how to make one yourself follow the links below. https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar/pattern/dino/v/patterns2_new https://www.instructables.com/id/Hand-Drawn-Voronoi-Diagrams/ The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) asks the following question: Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city and returns to the origin city? It is a simple problem formulated in the 1930’s which has become one of the most popular issues research in computational optimisation, more specifically the optimisation of algorithms.8 5. 6. 7. 8.
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Correspondence with Hinterding, 2019. www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar/pattern/dino/e/constructing-a-voronoi-partition www8.cs.umu.se/kurser/TDBAfl/VT06/algorithms/BOOK/BOOK4/NODE175.HTM https://github.com/Mannjamin/Travelling-Salesman-Problem
UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1 Connecting the Arts with STEM
The Artwork
Discussion Starters
1) Consider the quote from Douglas Kahn: “Hinterding uses graphite in both fixed and moving ways. She uses it to draw and to draw energy. Sound in her work is the continuation of energy.” How has Hinterding incorporated traditional, contemporary and emerging mediums and art making practices in Floric Antennae 1? 2) Hinterding’s work involves audience participation, sound elements, energy scavenging and a mixture of long lasting (glass) and temporal (sticky tape) components. Consider some of the issues of this work in the art market form the perspective of • The gallerist selling the work • The collector or institution wanting to display the work to the public • The public wanting to experience the work
In Class Activities 1. 2. 3. 4.
Create a composition that represent both visual and non-visual elements in the environment. This could be a defined area or on a walk. Include symbols or other visual representations and sound recordings. View Vi Hart’s video on drawing spirals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0 Have a go! Vi works at the intersection of Art and Maths Collect shells, pinecones ferns or other objects from nature. Draw them on graph paper. What do you notice about their shape? Look at the growth patterns and transform these into a graphic design. Look at the work of photographer Edward Weston and be inspired by the beauty of patterns found in vegetables, fruit and flowers.
Joyce Hinterding, Curve Oscillator 2016, Sarah Cottier Gallery Hot Electron Exhibition
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Illustration by Lizzie Harper
UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Science
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Algae: The Great Survivors
Algae are arguably some of the most successful organisms on Earth. To survive 3.5 billion years on a changing planet, you have to be innovative, adaptive and creative - and as a result, algae are found in almost every environment on the planet. One of algae’s innovative survival strategies is to form mutually beneficial partnerships with other species - an arrangement known as symbiosis. Algae forms symbiotic relationships with jellyfish-like polyps to form coral reefs. These living structures are so large that they can be seen from space! In her artwork, Joyce Hinterding draws inspiration from lichen, which like coral is not one organism, but a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. The algae harnesses the electromagnetic energy from the sun to photosynthesise and produce food, and the fungus provides protection to prevent the algae drying out. This partnership is so ingenious that algae is able to grow in environments that it would never otherwise be able to - including extreme cold and even in deserts!
Symbiosis is the interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association
‘Like Hinterding’s artwork, algal biotechnology design and inspiration is drawn from observations of nature’9 UTS Deep Green Biotech Hub
Image: Jo Elphick
Algae: The Great Innovators Often thought of as mere ‘pond scum,’ scientists are turning to algae, the most ancient of innovators, to solve the increasingly pressing and multifaceted challenge of meeting the resource demands of a growing population in a way that minimises, or even reverses, human impact on ecosystems and the climate.
Woodland Lichen Illustration by Heidi Burton
Scientists, industry and businesses are combining algae biology and technology to create bioplastics, pharmaceuticals and therapeutics, cosmetics, foods and food additives, animal feed and fertiliser for agriculture, clothing and shoes, pigments and dyes, wastewater treatment services, surfboards and potentially even biofuel.
9. Deep Green Biotech Website: https://deepgreenhub.uts.edu
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Science
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Discussion Starters •
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Think of other examples where inspiration for a design/product/ service has come from nature. How might algae help to create more sustainable products and systems? Why do you think symbiotic relationships evolved? How are algae directly relevant to your life?
In Class Activity
Watch the Algae presentation with Deep Green Biotech Hub livestreamed presentation delivered by Deep Green staff exploring algae past, present and future (15-30 mins). The presentation will touch on:
Image from UTS Deep Green Biotech Hub
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the evolution of algae across Earth’s vast history, and the role it played in creating the conditions for life to thrive, including us! • aspects of algae biology and how it can be harnessed to create innovative products and processes for a more sustainable future. The presentation includes: • an interactive quiz on Kahoot where students can test their algae knowledge. • tour of algae research facilities (15 mins) - see research in action.
‘Curiosity taking cues from nature has long been part of innovation’10
Imagination Activity • •
Scott Fullbright, founder of Living Ink
In groups, think about and design a product that could be made using algae; or swapping a more unsustainable product with algae - share your ideas with the class. Sell algae: imagine you work for an advertising company, and have been given a brief to shift public perceptions about algae, from nuisance environmental problem or ‘pond scum’ to amazing sustainable resource - how would you do it? What is your tagline/slogan? Present your ideas to the class, or make a marketing poster, audio or video.
Extras • • • • •
Deep Green Website: https://deepgreenhub.uts.edu.au/home-page/algae/ Resources for teachers: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ya2if-w4Z6f555PIP_DrOD-s-eNeVVIn TED TALK - Algae Ink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uAAegPkCKo Article: https://medium.com/space10/how-algae-could-help-solve-some-of-the-worlds-biggest-problems1fa7774a16b1 Video: CNN - Is Algae the Food of the future? ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAdrNQNP8ew
10. https://livingink.co/
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Maths
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Nature’s Geometry
The natural world is full of fractals. Hinterding uses spirals and fractals in her work. Floric Antenna 1 references fractal designs such as the Wunderlich Curve and employs a fractal antenna system to receive information from the audience and the space in which the work is situated. So many natural systems previously thought off limits to mathematicians can now be explained in terms of fractals, and by applying nature's best practices, we can then solve real world problems. Artists and mathematicians are inspired by shapes and events that occur in the natural world. New types of geometry have been discovered to describe some of these phenomena.
Dendrites
Fractals are those fun shapes that if you zoom in or zoom out, the structure is always the same. That means a fractal is a geometric object that is similar to itself on all scales. Mathematicians call this self-similarity. Once you start to recognise fractals you will see them all around you. Lungs
Hinterding was first attracted to lichen via her interest in fractals. Fractal geometry is represented in the way that lichen grows. Fractal geometry uses iteration (repetition or replication). The shapes that emerge from fractal geometry look like nature. One of the most popular examples to explain fractal geometry is the snowflake. In classical geometry all surfaces are smooth. in fractal geometry, the surfaces are rough or jagged but infinitely complex.
Fern
Antenna designers use fractal geometry to increase bandwidth and gain, while shrinking the antenna size. That means a lot of information can be received in a limited space. Floric Antenna 1 can be categorised as a fractal antenna because these antennas use a fractal design to maximise the length of material that can receive or transmit electromagnetic radiation. As the fractal shape becomes more complex the perimeter increases.
Tree Image sources can be found on the final page of this resource
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Maths
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Spirals
There are many beautiful designs in nature. Spirals occur naturally in many places, such as flowers and plants. One of the most beautiful spirals occurs in the shell of the chambered nautilus, a sea creature that lives in the South Pacific. As the nautilus grows, it builds and moves through a series of ever-larger chambers. Each chamber has the same shape as the one before it. A spiral is a curve traced by a point that moves around a fixed point. The moving point gets further and further away from the fixed point. There are two ways to draw spirals in maths: logarithmic and arithmetic (or Archimedean). The curve of the shell of the chambered nautilus is a logarithmic spiral. The loops of a logarithmic spiral are spaced further and further apart as they wind outward from the centre. The successive distances from the centre form a geometric sequence. For example: 1, 3, 9, 27, 81‌ The logarithmic spiral was discovered by Renee Descartes who was born in France in the late-sixteenth century.
The Archimedean spiral has loops spaced at equal intervals. It is named after Archimedes, who lived in the third century BC and wrote a book on spirals. The groove of a vinyl record is an Archimedean spiral. Because of the equal spacing, the successive distances of the loops from the centre of the spiral form an arithmetic sequence. For example: 0, 4, 8, 12, 16‌
The Wunderlich Curve
The fractal design of the Wunderlich curve is constructed using rotations and reflections of an initial seed shape to create patterns which can be connected to form a space-filling curve. Wunderlich curves can be constructed iteratively in a fairly intuitive fashion. Mathematician Walter Wunderlich is attributed with the discovery of these three space-filling curves. Wunderlich curves involve squares of size 3n x 3n. Fractal iteration of the Wunderlich leads to very complex patterns. Hinterding has employed a variance of the Wunderlich curve in Floric Antenna 1.
Image sources can be found on the final page of this resource
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Maths
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Discussion Starters •
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• The Mandelbrot Set
Look at the fractal images from nature, can you see the basic fractal shape? Discuss where you might have seen a fractal in your environment. You most likely carry a fractal antenna in your pocket every day because in the real world, fractal geometry has powerful application to portability and miniaturisation. What do you think this is? The Mandelbrot set is considered the most remarkable discovery in the entire history of mathematics. Watch the film and discuss. https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/fractals-colors-infinity/
Arthur C. Clarke explains fractal geometry of the beautiful Mandelbrot set in ‘The Colours of Infinity’. Someone in the film calls it the thumbprint of God. Who is that?
In Class Activity - Fractals •
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Watch the documentary ‘Fractals: hunting the hidden dimension’ to learn more about fractals. https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ fractals-hunting-the-hidden-dimension/ Experiment with generating your own fractal online: https://www.arthy.org/fractal/fractal_.php Enter different numbers in the parameter fields and modify the size if you wish. Press the compute button to see your fractal. Experiment with different data inputs and fractal types to create different fractal shapes. Drawing fractals by hand https://georgemdallas.wordpress. com/2014/05/02/what-are-fractals-and-why-should-i-care/ Drawing fractals using the Sierpinski triangle method https://www. wikihow.com/Make-a-Sierpinski-Triangle
In Class Activity - Spirals
There are many ways to draw spirals mathematically. Use the following resources in the Spiral Drawing activity on page 11. • Hand drawing an arithmetic spiral https://www.cutoutfoldup.com/601-draw-an-archimedean-spiral.php • Hand drawing the ‘golden spiral’ - the logarithmic spiral https://www.wikihow.com/Draw-the-Golden-Spiral • Use UTS Maths inside resources for more activities related to spirals.https://www.uts.edu.au/researchand-teaching/our-research/maths-inside/maths-inside-resources/stargazing-ska
Extras
A guide to drawing Wunderlich curves might help: http://www.robertdickau.com/wunderlich.html Download Wolfram Player from https://demonstrations.wolfram.com to explore a range of digitally generated activities involving different methods for drawing logarithmic or Archimedean spirals, Wunderlich curves and Koch’s snowflake fractals. 12
UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Engineering
Connecting the Arts with STEM
The design and use of antenna to ‘scavenge’ or ’harvest’ this ambient energy combines biomimicry (using patterns of lichen growth) with Voronoi partitioning to define the antenna ‘path’. Using graphite as a conductive material not only allows the antenna to capture the energy but also for us to change the energy path flow – we as humans are electricity conductors too! The antenna allows us to ‘hear’ the energy through the headphones! When complex data is processed with algorithms* to produce sounds that we can hear, this is a process called ‘sonification’. Why would we sonify data? When we visualise data, it can be easier for us to see the data patterns – and this also applies to us being able to hear data patterns!
Image: Open Shelf
The engineering activities below related to Floric Antennae 1 explore the areas of applying conductive/insulating materials, energy harvesting and data sonification.
Applying scientific and mathematical knowledge to design ‘things’(products/processes/services) that people use is what engineering is all about.
Image: STEAMpop
Research/Examples
Conductive materials and Energy harvesting: • Furniture that harvests electrical energy: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/11/thermoelectricikea-furniturecould-harvest-energy-from-yourcoffee-tocharge-your-phone/
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Tiles that generate energy from walking: https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/pavegen-tiles-generate-kinetic-energy-electricity-footsteps_n_576aba9 be4b065534f487a79?ri18n=true
Data Sonification: • What does DNA sound like? https://www.youtube.com. playlist?list=PL1k1ADlKRpMcS8h4CDcIg3wh3GApsuSeC
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What does a financial ‘yield curve’ sounds like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbiX2SSes40
Image: LX UTS Data Sonification Blog
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UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Engineering
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Discussion Starters
1. What other materials can we use to build antennas? What materials conduct electricity? Can we think of both rigid and flexible materials? 2. What different kinds of energy surround us? How can we harvest this energy? What can we use it for? 3. How can we turn data into sounds for us to hear patterns that we might not otherwise see from the raw or visualised data?
In Class Activities
Conductive materials
Refer to discussion starter 1 You will need: 1.5V battery, 1.5V light bulb, paperclips, 2 x alligator wires, elastic band, graphite pencils, aluminium foil, paper or plastic (plus any other conductive materials or insulating materials as readily available). Adapt the activity from here: https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_ energy2_lesson04_activity3 Which conductive materials can you build a flexible ‘antenna’ from, like in Joyce Hinterding’s work Floric Antennae 1? Extension Activity Securely wrap a conductive material with an insulator to build your own conductive cable that is safe for people to touch but still conducts electricity! Test it with your circuit setup.
Energy harvesting
Refer discussion starter 2 You will need craft materials for prototyping. • Students are to ideate different types of energy around us e.g., mechanical, thermal, electrical, radiant (e.g., EM, light, radio, audio etc.), chemical, atomic • Students are to choose one type of energy type, how to harvest this energy, and what to use it for • Make a prototype from the craft materials 14
Students explain their idea in presentations back to the class. Examples: • Large scale harvesting of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydropower etc. • Harvesting mechanical energy from walking • Harvesting mechanical energy from riding your bike
Data sonification
Refer to discussion starter 3 You will need: • Computer with access to the internet • Online piano keyboard https://www.onlinepianist.com/virtual-piano • Access to online data sonification: https://twotone.io • Speakers or headphones Steps: 1. Give students a simple dataset to graph: this can be on paper or in Excel, Google Sheets 2. Students then map the data range to a musical scale (as on a piano) 3. Using this mapping, create the sonification from the same data graphed earlier, using an online keyboard. Does the sound of the data ‘match’ the visual pattern from the graph you made? 4. Now change the mapping of the data range to a different range of musical notes What does your data sound like now? 5. Students to now use the Two-Tone web-based data sonification engine to identify data trends/ patterns in complex data sets, experimenting with different data sets and sonification mappings. Extension Activity Explore data sonification software such as Sonic Pi (https://sonic-pi.net) or Processing (https:// processing.org) UTS ART Education Resource
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1 Connecting the Arts with STEM
Curiosity and Connections
Quotes from Joyce Hinterding Art shares many investigative and experimental processes with Science but has outcomes that are driven by experience and sensation, often presented in public environments. I am drawn back to the quote from Beverage on the Art of Scientific Investigation on how links are made, partly conscious, partly unconscious. The creative process is as important for Scientists, as it is for Artists, it is not just visualisation, sonification has been very significant as well.
UTS Art, Spectra Exhibition 2019, Photo: Zan Wimberley
Both Art and Science look out at the world and encourage thinking and developing understandings about what is all around us. I think that Art is an empowering process. One that allows people to observe and come to their own conclusions. It invites speculation and creative thought and gives people a means to look for an appropriate way of communicating that thought as an experience. Art does not have to prove things. We can just enjoy the mystery or beauty or question for its own sake. The truth is important, but we must have the freedom to think in unrestricted ways, and I think Art invites that. 15
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Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1
Glossary
Connecting the Arts with STEM
Antennae Antennae are used to receive information from electricity and radio waves. The pencils you’ve been drawing with are made of graphite, which is a conductive material with low resistance. It is the same material used in Hinterding’s Floric Antennae1, which acts as an antenna receiving electricity and converting it to sound. One long line will create a strong antenna. Conductors Conductors are materials that allow electricity to flow easily. Most types of metal are good conductors, which is why we use metal for electrical wire. Copper, for instance, is a good conductor. Data sonification A means of representing data as non-speech sound. The basic principles are similar to visualisation, but where visualisations use elements such as lines, shapes, and colours, sonification relies on sound properties such as volume, pitch, and rhythm. Radio Waves Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation best-known for their use in communication technologies, such as television, mobile phones and radios. These devices receive radio waves and convert them to mechanical vibrations in the speaker to create sound waves. The radio-frequency spectrum is a relatively small part of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. The EM spectrum is generally divided into seven regions in order of decreasing wavelength and increasing energy and frequency: radio waves, microwaves, infrared (IR), visible light, ultraviolet (UV), X-rays and gamma-rays. ELF radio waves, the lowest of all radio frequencies, have a long range and are useful in penetrating water and rock for communication with submarines and inside mines and caves. The most powerful natural source of ELF/VLF waves is lightning. Biomimicry Is innovation inspired by nature. Looking at nature to help us with solving complex human problems and making more sustainable solutions. The core idea is that nature has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with. Animals, plants, and microbes are the consummate engineers. https://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action?language=en
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Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1 Connecting the Arts with STEM
NSW Curriculum links
Visual Arts 4.1 uses a range of strategies to explore different artmaking conventions and procedures to make artworks 4.2 explores the function of and relationships between artist – artwork – world – audience 4.4 recognises and uses aspects of the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts 4.9 begins to acknowledge that art can be interpreted from different points of view 5.1 develops range and autonomy in selecting and applying visual arts conventions and procedures to make artworks 5.4 investigates the world as a source of ideas, concepts and subject matter in the visual arts. Science The goals are to develop student’s interest in and enthusiasm for science, as well as an appreciation of its role in finding solutions to contemporary science-related problems and issues SC5-1VA appreciates the importance of science in their lives and the role of scientific inquiry in increasing understanding of the world around them SC5-3VA demonstrates confidence in making reasoned, evidence- based decisions about the current and future use and influence of science and technology, including ethical considerations SC5-9WS presents science ideas and evidence for a particular purpose and to a specific audience, using appropriate scientific language, conventions and representations SC5-11PW explains how scientific understanding about energy conservation, transfers and transformations are applied in systems Mathematics Mathematics is a reasoning and creative activity employing abstraction and generalisation to identify, describe and apply patterns and relationships. The symbolic nature of mathematics provides a powerful, precise and concise means of communication. MA5.1-1WM uses appropriate terminology, diagrams and symbols in mathematical contexts MAe-17SP represents data and interprets data displays made from objects MA5.3-11NA uses the definition of a logarithm to establish and apply the laws of logarithms Engineering IND5-5 IND5-7 IND5-10
selects, interprets and applies a range of suitable communication techniques in the development, planning, production and presentation of ideas and projects applies and transfers skills, processes and materials to a variety of contexts and projects describes, analyses and evaluates the impact of technology on society, the environment and cultural issues locally and globally
Technologies The NSW Digital Technologies curriculum broadly includes ICT in all its forms. More specific links can be found in the way digital technologies integrate with materials to add function to artefacts, artworks and accessories, create interactive devices and mechanisms, and create digital visualisation systems or radio systems (Communications System Design).
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UTS ART Education Resource
Explorations of the invisible How can we experience unseen phenomena in the world?
engineering
Energy harvesting Data sonification
Natural environment Electromagnetic energy Biological energy Ecology Lichen Plant growth
Systems
World
Digital technology
Full of invisible signals and information
visu al a rts co
Wavelengths Fractals Spirals
Artist
Explores the world we are not generally aware of by transforming invisible information into sound
Artwork
Sound waves Electronics Input/output Amplification Audio systems
Image by Zan Wimberley
Frequency
Physics Electrical Engineering Very low frequency (VLF) Electromagnetic flow
mework l fra tua ep nc
Antennae
Communication
Aw An are in ne tera ss c of tive the sy inv stem isi ble
technology
Radio waves
maths
Audience
Invited to experience and comprehend unseen electrical activity around us Adding information
Curiosity
Changing states
Collaborator Environmentalist Observer Collector Technologist Informator
Contributive
Energy drawing & drawing Energy Derived from botanical observation Computer generated stencils Circuit diagrams Representing Plant growth
science
Interaction Sonic experience
concepts Experiential Existential Abstract Mindfulness Philosophical Spiritual
Experience phenomena Can you map these concepts through the lenses of different STEAM disciplines?
Joyce Hinterding: Floric Antennae 1 Connecting the Arts with STEM
We cannot see electromagnetic phenomena with our eyes or hear them with our ears, so we are often unaware of their presence. They occur in nature, produced by electrical storms, the solar wind and astronomical phenomena including our own sun1.
Image References Page 10 dendrites lungs fern tree snowflake
http://www.highdesertinsider.com/jpgs/rocks/MVC-017F.jpg https://fractalfoundation.org/OFC/OFC-1-2.html STEAMpop http://www.vanderbilt.edu/~jbrassil/fractals/256vtree1.jpg http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KochSnowflake.html
Page 11 bug https://lifethroughamathematicianseyes.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/spirals-in-nature/ arithmetic spiral http://projectwoman.com/tag/perfect-spiral logarithmic spiral http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LogarithmicSpiral.html Wunderlich curve https://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/SpaceFillingArioni.shtml Page 12 Mandelbrot set http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MandelbrotSet.html Sierpinski triangle https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Sierpinski-Triangle Page 13 Data sonification DSOTM
https://open-shelf.ca/160201-data-sonification/ https://lx.uts.edu.au/blog/2017/07/25/exploring-data-sonification/
1. invisible Fields Geographies of Radio Waves Catalogue, Barcelona, 2000, Page 38 Produced in collaboration with STEAMpop Pty Ltd www.steampop.zone
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UTS ART Education Resource