March 03 
seeing wind
Probleemstelling actuele kunst, partim AUDIO ART- Moniek Darge
1972-1979,
Coralville, Iowa and Duluth, Minnesota
Clear adhesive tape was used to cover
1/4 inch Scotch recording tape placed against finely-sanded and
degreased metal surfaces which inluded a twenty five foot 1873
bridge span and one mile of railroad track (for which I paid a
$50. fee to the CRANDIC railroad in Cedar Rapids, Iowa).
Both structures had
been in place at least fifty or more years. Five and six month
recordings were accomplished respectively. Lacking access to the
analyzing equipment at the University of Iowa, I was unable to
separate the various noises which I heard on tape playback. I
did attempt to use the IBM "metal behemoth-monster"
punch card printers but I gave up in frustration when I dropped
the shoebox which held my (bridge/railroad track) data.
Data
based upon colored sketches of points were laborously keyboarded
onto IBM punched cards. Outputs, after time, plotted out combined
depictions of lightning, bird migration traceries and spatially
imagined planes (in
printout, at front left bottom plane);
sound samples (top,
middle and right planes)
and lightning (left
corner vertical plane )
IBM
punch cards,1974-1975 University
of Iowa, Iowa City roll printer output.fr/Plato IV terminals
were also available.
Publicly
presenting audio recordings via local KUNI AM was more satisfying
than was this attempt at phenomena sonification via
the Zeta plotter.
*TAs
Jim
Bowery, (scroll
down to 1974),
Kerry Shores
FROSTPRINTER scroll
down
Interactive
electronic/kinetic/sound construction required a below freezing
enclosure to realize its imaging potentials. The Coralville barn on the previous page was used
for testing in winter. Challenge:
frost sonification FP was
conceived to observe while listening to an evolving frost print:
the convergence of sound and its image. ((THIS WAS AND REMAINS
A PERSONAL CHALLENGE: THAT OF PAIRING UNIQUE NATURAL SOUND SOURCES
AS REALTIME INHERENT IMAGING))) All frost prints were erasable
using AC hot wire activation, e.g. as used in toaster for bagels.
the four "barn"
window details:
***TOP
LEFT: -
This
was the master plug used to effect all erasures. The x-covered
pane of glass functioned as does a car defroster. All plastic
tubes in the four double-paned areas in the Frost Printer had
access for warm water drop inputting and drainage tubes for melted
prints.***TOP RIGHT: -
(ideal
barn operating conditions, well below freezing) This sandwiched
glass has double sheets of glass- one is window grade and the
back was a double pane silver-backed mirror. Near the top at the
far right is the transceiver. It's a double layered circuit board
which contains three interconnected components and is solar powered.
1, A combo receiver/sending transmitter- sends and receives infrared
light simultaneously and 2, a frequency converter which reads
any light interruptions occurring between faceing panes. 3, The
frequency-to-voltage converter permits listening in the audible
range. Session: The left-directed transmitted light delivers a
splayed wash nearly blanketing the interior area. An eyedropper
sends some warm H2o into the chamber from the top left tube. The
dangling infrared receiver (bottom r) could be hand held and be
moved freely, though awkwardly, about an inch in front of the
glass. Registering in the "eye" represented dots of
variations reading in front of the ice buildup. Thicker glass
had a lower pitch compared to nearly transparent ice. Tape editing
which effectively required splicing all the dots was only a minor
consequence; the major revelation was that my hand needed to be
tied to a stainless steel bar (none was available) to even come
close to hear a single "lineal scan." I had at least
a dozen lines ahead of me. It was reinforcing, a rewarding inside-the-concept
process that I took from this particular 1/4 of the windows and
was my favorite. Sound's image continues to elude me.
***LOWER LEFT: -
This
was a high turnover frost print maker and I used heavy water flow
flushings to literally wipe or at least try to do image layerings:
quick wash over one did slight erasing to it and was allowed to
escape quickley; slightly cooler wqter enter the chamber using
the eyedropper- it quickley froze atop the previous...and so on.
It ended with a near panic outcome. Attempted subsequent layers
began freezing over too fast and trheatened to burst the pane.
Flushing with warmer and warmer water left me with an unacceptable
print. Input, left center; bottom had the bendable drain tube
and the twin drains helped alleviate an ice cracking. ***LOWER
RIGHT: -
To
"pick up" expected tiny vibrations, unique analog sensor
varieties were used, including, as mentioned, infrared tranceivers,
vibration- prone Shadow and acceleromters. The sometimes quick,
sharp cracks of miniscule proportion could be heard during monitoring.
In other words the challenge was to amplify and record at a fast
speed to get the expected high frequencies and later, listen to
a playback slowed-down. The copy results: lows reached an inaudible
range and the middle to high frequencies popped out above the
noisy din. This dual sound-imaging building session included copying
to another cassette. Both tape background noises were excessive.
This was too loud. The sound originally monitored did not show
up during the final playback. Using a pair of $29.95 cassette
recorders did their part, in those pre-Dolby evenings in the barn
this experience just required a finer oxide coated tape. That
also proved not to be the only answer either. Some of these dense
cassettes await their "possible DSP cleanup" and are
in line for eventual archival double-sided DVD recording.
signature nameplate w/drain
tube (Left), and on (Right) 
w/notation research
cycle-12287411197412275:c.74-75 Correctly hung-
Frost print
analog imaging photographed by Gloria Brush, including this one
in high resolution
((compare
and contrast realtime BELOW with this LEFT printout from a carbon-based
3M printer))
a
different frost print: zoomed details below give signs of melting
by these electrically-activated wires (and potentially a complete
start-over erasure) from a variable heating element
Keywords: infrared, transceiver,
frequencey converter
URL: infrared light -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared
transceiver -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transceiver
frequency converter -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_converter
A freeze frame frost print
from digital camera in 2007 displays the grey scale backlighted
by natural light. Ongoing imaging objectives would be to monitor
a realtime frosting process using white light's spectrum to scan
-from behind- for holograhic output. Keywords: teleSuonohologram * *
holovision * * teleSuonovision
return home
Maple
leaf scan (x20k
magnificaton);
sonogram detail of its topography 
return
home
A scheduled press conference took
place in the west side of our house under willow trees; WMT television's
cameraman and host delayed me temporarily from making this mono
reel-to-reel recording. The protective tarp has yet to be hoisted
against the rain; however, within this context host Earl Eldridge
of Cedar Rapids Iowa faces the foldable card table. This setup
eventually was itself dwarfed by drooping weeping willow leaves
directly over us and against the back hedge row. Six DSP +/-synced,
copy/pasted monos, were assembled into this 2 track. Throughout,
I was huddled and shared the recorder space w/a sock-covered RCA-74
Jr.Velocity ribbon microphone and Shure ProMic Mixer: 4 in/1 out
to the mono Nagra 4.2L recorder. #s2-4 inputs included a variety
of sensors. A Frap & its preamp was attached with warmed bees
wax to a 9 gauge wire between two trees approximately hundred
feet across our front garden, a micro-light weight Barcus-Berry
used wax and was pressed against stainless steel wire recorder
wire laced across a window frame= Draft Monitor. A fingernail-sized
strain gauge was gently wedged into a dry bark crack of a willow
so as to monitor wind-stirred, tortional tree trunk vibrations.
The willows released heavy droplets on the 9 gauge during the
slow warm rain. Unexpectedly the lightning wipes out some of the
audio (via the mic line in). The miniscule in/out window draft
sound provides a scale marker and these are preempted by meandering
Thor soundings. An eventual electrical ground short competes with
the fade out. 
b'neath Willows July 1974
40 FEET EXIST BETWEEN THESE TWO
TERMINAL POINTS OF INSECT MONITORS - On both ends, crystal pickups
coupled to a variety of strands being super sensitive had comparable
result to an air microphone. In the shown solid wood board, the
turnbuckles resulted in a collection of taut stainless wires,
and produced sounding results favoring high frequencies. The
targeted insects were sometimes too shrill. The best monitoring
sessions occurred at dusk during very hot and humid evenings.
On playback indoors while simultaneously listening out the window
insect undulations produced holographic-like aural spatial sensations.
. 
A detail of the recycled oak tree
stump -shown above left- provided additional "conditioning"
in this soundwork series (by providing a solid floor to overall
sound). The new brass windribbon (x) and copper rattle array-suspended
from it- were secured to the visible metal eye (above r in windribbon)w/the
bag secured to an opposite eye of same turnbuckle- had a monitoring
accelerometer also atuned to the water laden bag- and terminated
at this node. The bottom of the rubber bladder held strain-gauges
attached with silicon rubber. Event. Oscillating waves occurring
on the metal windribbon during wind gusts appeared to be consumed
(softened) when both signals were syncd and referenced to utc
time codeing on the cassettes 2nd tracks.
environmental
sound sculpture proposal for downtown Iowa City, Iowa (drawing
for 1975-76 competition)
A low rise mastaba earth form was
to be covered in red and white clover (for no mowing).
A grey-white gravel
path can be seen beginning in the top right and ending at the
bottom center. The square foundation concrete was surmounted with
used coil car springs and these suspended an outer dual frame
work and the parallel wooden beams completed the floor. The triangulated
guyed towers were to hold galvanized wires for wind monitoring.
This output was to have been preamped into power amps, which would
have produced sound in weather proof Voice of the Theatre speakers
seen at opposite corners.
The concept of
levitating constructions traces back to the late 60s as an undergrad
and specifically to a clay sculpture where in a selfportrait I
was walking as on air
(w/the aid of this open wire structure
taken (by Ceil Blair London) against a plastic sheet backdrop.)
The
intermediate FLOATPLANE model
below affects the appearance of a floating object. This model
was to have been the basis for an on site construction for chidren
and was to be located in their play area. A grass area in its
center was to have inlcuded a locally selected Dulth Minnesota
US ice-aged rock.
materials
used in the childs playground model--60'W X 40'D X 5' feetH: removeable wooden
ladder, shaved oak, auto springs, concrete base, clover &
grass interior and a sand sub base
TThis
Terrain
Instrument 
was a contuation of several levitating sounding sculptures
(floatplanes), conceived to be a perpetual Instrument which would
use computing processes to achieve sustained manifestations and
remain a continution of
my interactive international listening series of solar powered
constructions. From which future microcomputer-networkable and
auralizations from these projects could be based from wind and
snow flakes inputing realtime terrestrial data.
Conceived
in 1972, with the drawing finalized in 1978 WINDSCUBED v.2 2005
The Windscube,
a rectilinear 22 X 50 foot mainframe of cubed aluminum structural
modules, would become an integral part of the existing permanent
Forest Terrain Instrument, whose other various separate and distinct
components together occupy 400 square feet of Minnesota space-work.
These constructions are teamed with appropriate electronic sensors
and transducers of many types, to intercept individual events
within natural physical occurrences such as heat eddies, rain,
snow, and wind. The Treesway Terrain Instrument, for instance,
is activated by the actual movement of wind-blown trees. The Windscude,
however, would account for and monitor a very particular amount
of existing space. In fact, one square inch of space. Construction
would achieve a floating physical closure in space, enclosing
all above-ground sides in cubed form around trees. The trees would
have room in which to grow inside and would be the subject of
sound-monitored orchestrations as well. The Windscube would be
constructed out of aluminum alloy and galvanized tubes, and would
be free floating on automobile springs. Flexible interlocking
tubular modules for the mainframe are necessary to enclose the
trees, and for maintenance. The entire Windscube mainframe module
is to house Windinch and Snowpixel units. These represent 2,756
sound monitoring capabilities for all Windscube planes, of which
there are six. These sound-sensing electronic modules have separate
and distinct responsibilities. Each contains identical sensing
components to electronically use wind, snow, rain, heat, light,
and other events and qualities with results in the audio range.
For example, a bit of snow traversing the 8-inch Windinch/Snowpixel
would be electronically usable in sound as its traveling velocity
changes.* At a given time, the total Windscube will yield a minimum
of 13,440,616 sound possibilities and combinations -- an easy
task for the 16 bit microprocessor sampling at 8 megaHertz/second.
Construction of the Windscube's mainframe modules, sensors, and
microprocessor interfacing would achieve one-half of its spatial
goal.
head
home
Freefalling snowflake whooshings
sounded on our HIFI.
This Terrain Instrument
prototype
was capable of obtaining measurable snowflake a/or
raindrop density, spectral, velocity, angle, of those free falling
between the transmit/receive infrared sensors. This detail shows
one of the sensing apertures on the
interior left side.
2005
"... falling snow is more difficult to study.." Douglas
Durian; "... flakes have a rare acoustic quality to absorb
sound waves...all flakes are shaped differently..." Gilles
Daigle
Aside from constructing
sound from literal wind-cubed space and the trees within it, I
continue my interest in holographic image-generation from
the Windscube.
Conceptually evolved
from teleSuonoQUAD
in which Microflown
positions are used --on call and interchangeably--as input: from
Lat. & Long. for w2 listening source and/or monitorable via
the four speaker planes ((note 2 pair of overhead microphones))
return to data poetry
or Terrain Instrument archives
continue OR Back
to windwitness streams
return home