March 03 
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
keyboard-entered, plotted by hand from sketches of bird migration
traceries (front
left bottom plane);
sound samples (top,
middle and right planes)
and lightning (left
corner vertical plane )
from IBM
punch cards resulted in 1974-1975 University
of Iowa, Iowa City roll printer output. 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" windows:
***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.
Correctly
hung-
details
w/visible electric-erasure lines
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
This freeze frame frost
print from a digital camera in 2007 displays the grey scale backlighted
by natural light. The imaging objective would be to monitor a
realtime frosting process using white light's spectrum to scan
-from behind- with holograhic output . Keywords: hologram * *
holovision * *
Maple
leaf scan (x20k
magnificaton)
and sonogram of its topography
Floatplanes environmental
sound sculpture proposal for downtown Iowa City, Iowa (drawing
for 1975-76 competition)
(new images?) 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 auto
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 at the 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 .
The intermediate
FLOATPLANE model below affects the
appearance of a floating object.
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
WINDSCUBE scroll down
This 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.
Freefalling snowflake whooshings
sounded on our HIFI.
This Terrain Instrument
prototype
was capable of obtaining the measurable
snowflake 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