Hidden sounds

by Christian Rust
Filzengraben 8 – 10, [] ground zero, Academy of Media Arts Cologne

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Session no 1: In the first session, we will be using found and/or obsolete objects to build piezo soundboxes / acoustic laptops and bringing out sounds through directly interacting with objects, stuff that otherwise would have been thrown away, is broken, was found or just caught your interest. We will repurpose the obsolete and broken. All this should cause a different perspective, a shift towards an aural/sonic/acoustic exploration of ones surroundings. Looking around the room you are in, you see different objects, shapes, colors, textures and structures. This is only the visual perspective. All these objects surrounding you, also have acoustic properties and hidden sounds that one has to bring out through interaction/correspondence. Every sound in this way is connected to a certain action, a certain handling of objects and materials. Just bring some kind of box and stuff you want to attach to it. If you do have some spare parts, other participants will probably be glad, if you share. Piezos, wire, soldering stations and audio sockets will be provided.

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Session no 2: In the second session, we will be exploring electromagentic fields as sound sources. We can’t hear those heartbeats of the machines we are using or waves surrounding us every day. But we can build microphones enabling us to listen in on their electronic communications and byproducts of their functionality and use them for our purposes. We will build an inductor/telephone coil microphone and use it on laptops, coffee machines, smartphones and everything else we can find.

Information on how to build such a microphone/pickup can be found here: https://andymurkin.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/inductor-pickups-1/

A slighty more elaborate version (copy of the commercially available Electrosluch: https://makezine.com/projects/weekend-project-sample-weird-sounds-electromagnetic-fields

Yet another version including files for the lasercut case: https://github.com/LOM-instruments/Priezor

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Session no x: There is also the additional intend to connect a group of like minded people for further collaborative experimentation. We will be meeting wednesdays 4pm on a regular basis.

The following ideas or other projects of your choice could be worked on together:

– Loops and destruction – Tape experiments

– Feedback loopers and matrix Mixers

– Using motors and solenoids as sound sources and sound generators, towards a robotic orchestra

– Build your own hardware MIDI controllers

– Build your own Instrument setup/Installation