TERM 3¶
Design Studio¶
Teachers:
Oscar Tomico
Tomás Vivanco
Mariana Quintero
Dafni G.
Goals
-Look for sound art references.
-Define Interventions.
-Curate project.
-Mdefest.
Final Interventions
Sensorial Desitions/FabChallenge 3
Looking different ways to create sound/physical world projects, for the Fabchallenge 3, we gather up with Tati, José and kai, to create a project that involves music creation, technology, and art.
Conceptualization.
For me the conceptualization of this project was a nice opportunity to see and learn how this kind of projects can start, from concepts that make sense to us, to a certain physical order, using technology and analog tools.
The project consist on the creation of a tool that enables people to create an art piece, following their senser and using their bodies. So as they were touching the paper with their hands or body with paint, they were creating music at the same time, so with the metallic plate below, they were triggering sounds by conductivenes.
After, all the physical results were exposed as art pieces, and connected to playtronica (midi player) to be reproducers of the music that they represent.
Wildcard week/Robotic musician
I also explore to automatize the process of creation with digital tools, I used the same cooper board that we made for sensorial desitions, and I programmed the ABB140 robotic arm, with the help of Eduardo Chamorro, to enable the robot to play certain notes with music. As i had the controller, I was able to create music alog with the robotic arm. I found that is also a huge opportunity to co create with machines in the future.
MDEFEST.
Title: Sonic Ecologies Exploring the Relation between sound, technology, nature and the physical world.
When was the last time that you played with mud? Why objects are designed to last forever?, why we have lost the connection with nature? What is the relationship with sound and our physical world ?
These are some of the questions that will be explored with this intervention. Sonic Ecologies is a serie of specific designed interventions that will be happening in the city of Barcelona and its natural surroundings, Ending with MDEFEST trail road in the natural park.
The intervention is designed to work as a cycle, with human intervention opening and closing the loop, and It’s divided in 3 main stages. Stage 1: Recollect the Clay from Collserola Park, or el Garraf. These two are natural parks in the surroundings of Barcelona that in some areas, have Clay soil that is used for crafts and fabrication. During the recollection of clay, the natural sounds of the place will be recorded to use them for the exposition.
Stage 2: The Clay will be installed in different metallic and conductive totems, these totems will be connected to an electronic system that will be throwing sound signals when the clay is touched, so it will be modeled in a collaborative way by people that will be participating in the expo. Its expected that the resulting shape will be abstract like sculptures.
Stage 3: For the final act, there will be a hike organized to Collserola park, where every participant will take a piece of the clay that was made by different people the day before. The pieces of clay will be set up for a music performance that will be played there. After the performance, all of the clay pieces will be returned to the park as little sculptures, as nendo dango seeds, or as traces of human intervention. So with that approach the object will have its own natural cycle, where it was taken, used and returned where it belongs.
This project represent how I want to strive forward, because it questions a lot of concepts that today we as designers are fighting for change. First of all I want to change or make a meaningful statement is our relationship with our senses. The meaning and importance of sound of everything in our lives is something that we have make ourselves so comfortable, that we are use to it. But in certain situations that it bother us, or like us, we pay attention to it. For example the other day we were having a meeting with classmates in Poble Nou, but when somebody started to speak, the huge noise of the machines of a construction site, started to work, so we couldn’t hear anything. So in particular that moment changed our reality and behavior, so we had to leave. I was very annoyed because it is a thing that is not taken in consideration by the design of the construction plans, or the machines at all, to lower the noise of the construction site. I imagine the neighbors having a very rough time all day because of that “fault” of consideration by the construction industry. So there is a huge opportunity for designers to try to change or improve that kind of issues.
Another topic that im questioning with this project, is the way we see and interact with everyday of objects, creating this instruments of clay, in a way is a statement against the status quo of why all things have to be made by materials that last forever and contributes to an industry that is polluting everything, like plastic, steel, etc. Maybe in the future we will return to the use of noble materials and we will be able to grow , use and return to earth based products. with open source technology as Arduino, today is possible to use a piece of clay to make music, and to revive that relationship with earth that so much people have lost, making the relation with natural elements strong again in an ecological way. I hope that in 10 years from now, these topics and other ones Im trying to demonstrate, resonate much more with more people, and make sense to the ones that are seeking ecological ways of living and interacting with their own subjects, not necessary in a profesional way, but in a way of seeing life. that everything lives in a cycle, and eventually vanishes into the ground, to start again.
Testing clay conductivity
To be shure that the clay will work for the exhibition, first it was necesarry if the material conductiveness is suitable for the experience.I connected a metal plate to arduino feather touch sensors, getting very good results from it. Touching, squeezing, and feeling the clay.
Creation of the clay pieces
It starts with the recording of the environment where the clay is taken from, with that digital file, its is possible to obtain digital files to create graphic profiles of the sound file, finally sorting the profiles in a 3d shape to print them with clay.
Collaboration:For Activities 2 and 3, there will be collaboration with other classmates collectives. The first one is with Tati and Chris in Akasha Hub, where there will be designed the interactive controller for the event, and the clay stations, making the participants an active way to play with clay.
With Slowlab collective, we will do the Hike, that will consist on a hike to Collserola, where people will take the pieces of clay and more sensorial activities, so in the top there will be a meditation where people will be hearing the generated sound in the past exhibition, then leaving the objects in the park as part of the offering of the project.
Documentation
The project works as a cycle, so the final pieces will be returning to ground, and they will fade through time. For showing and sharing the project, it is necessary to create an audiovisual piece that will communicate the project in the digital space, and also to apply to faires and bienales.