Critical Digital Making in Art Education. Группа авторов
three examples of Vague Research Studios (VRS) events are introduced that involve material sound. We have attempted to challenge ourselves by tweaking and fine-tuning some conventional divisions that relate to listening and sounding. For example, not accepting the division between human-machine, and instead, noting and developing other divisions of phenomena. The vague events we have chosen to perform are outdoor events. By moving outdoors, new sets of experiences are possible. Obviously, there is nowhere to plug in for electricity. One must use batteries, solar panels, or generators to run the sound system. There are other new sets of experiences. For instance, in woods one is unlikely to find any tables or chairs; in this case, we must work on the ground. Another aspect of operating outdoors is ←40 | 41→the opportunity to reflect on the materials that have been selected to bring along. There is a responsibility to care and plan for the materials that are brought outdoors and brought back, and to leave no traces.
The vague events here rely on an audio system which allow for plurality and richness of perspectives. By decomposing the technology system into separate components, the relation between phenomena as energy, sound waves, and sound signals can be explored. Following are three examples of how this concept presents opportunities to experiment with sound through material-digital sound, ultimately creating other stories and sensibilities. In the experiments, we explore the components of the sound output—the speaker.
Material Sound
Use the simplest speaker element as a loudspeaker in your system and play any sound or music. Find any material that you have around you; it could be grass, sticks, leaves, soil, or garbage and put it on the speaker element. Look carefully when the materials start to move as the sound makes the tissue move on the speaker driver. Now take away the material and touch the speaker with your body. This is a very simple way of touching sound, you can touch sound also via the air, but then you need a stronger amplifier to create higher volumes and that requires more electric energy. For us, sitting on our knees bending forward to touch the speaker driver and feeling the music that materializes through touch and listening became a meditative movement of the body. Feeling the sound while adjusting and engaging in the outdoors, allows for both the material sound and the natural conditions to become a part of our experience and memory. The sensation feels inexplicably meaningful. The conventions of listening to digital sounds outdoors becomes apparent. Making use of nature and the wilderness as a context for the events, instead of a lab or a studio, challenges the setup and the performance. Limitations in modern facilities such as transportation, electricity, and maintenance must be considered, as well as everyday necessities like water, food, and restrooms.
By focusing on touching sound through its vibrations and by relating to the source of sound differently than through earphones, other phenomena appear. Listening becomes an apparent phenomena of the body, the sound technology, and the environment. The division of earphone and human ear is not the emphasized intra-action here. The movement of the individual person’s eardrums are, in this specific intra-action less emphasized. Instead, the tree’s movement by the wind make sounds, the leaves and sticks on the ground move from the vibration, the touch of the skin from the vibrations of the membrane of the speaker, the sun shining or not all becomes a vague event of listening. This illustrates that specific material engagements do matter in “(re)configuring the world” (Barad, 2007, p. 91).
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Enchanted Listening
In the vague event, enchanted listening, we explore how sound intra-acts via a tuning material, a paper cone, the body, and its movements. First, connect a sound source to a simple speaker element. Now play any sound and listen to the sound from the speaker. If a cone is constructed of paper and encloses the element, the sound will change. Even a cone made of light cheap copy paper will change the sound quality. The electrical sound signals are amplified via the components of the elements and are converted into vibrations and air pressure. When the sound that is converted to mechanical vibrations leaves the speaker element, the cone, acting as a membrane, transforms the sound, the form, and the material of the cone. When the cone is held, and moved around, the sound can be felt in your hands; a body sound relation. The more you refine the cone and engage with the sound, the more you notice about material relations with sound. There are many sound qualities as there are people. Everyone will create an individual relationship with the cone’s material and form, as well as the way the cone moves towards the element.
The form of the cone, the diameter of both the bottom and top will affect both volume and sound quality. The sound will change when the cone is moved away from the speaker element or closer to it as in Figure 2.1. This vague and relational quality of sound causes listening to be an intense sensation that uses impulses to change the sound quality. Small changes in the quality of sound begin to be heard. Once these spontaneously changed sounds are heard, you begin to listen to both the sound playing and the sound from the nearest environment with a higher intensity and engagement.
Here listening cannot be divided from making of sounds. The listening and sounding cannot be held apart, they are vague and connected. I listen and I move my body and the cones because I listen. These movements create other qualities of sound and these sounds makes me want to listen more. In turn, I want to make more sounds. The agency of listening and making sounds are not pre-decided, but mutually transformational (Lykke, 2009). Here, intra-action allows for an active part in traditionally passive listening. Again, the phenomena of being part of the environment as opposed to being situated in the environment surfaces in the experiment (Barad, 2007).
Figure 2.1: Enchanted Listening with paper cone. Source: Vague Research Studios, www.vrstudios.se
Haunting Sound and Impossible Speakers
In this last example of vague events, the simple speaker element is deconstructed into even smaller units. Strong magnets, an electrical coil, and a paper cone are also used. Here, the performance of sound could be described as having a lower quality, in terms of volume and other technical aspects. However, as in the previous events, the material relation with sound is more than a defined technical performance, but ←42 | 43→in this event the simple act of listening become challenging. You will need a strong magnet or multiple magnets, an amplifier, a paper cone, and an electric cord shaped into a coil by using the middle part of the cord. The coil should be made to fit the smaller end of the cone. Use paper tape to hold the cone together and to fasten the coil to the inside of the paper cone. Connect the cords to the amplifier and connect the amplifier to your mobile phone and go outdoors. Place the magnet where you want your sound to come from. Magnets can be attached to anything made out of metal. Paperclips or metal string can be used if you wish to attach the magnets to other materials. In our event, the magnets have been connected to a stone by wiring metallic string around it. This means that one aspect of this experiment is the stone and magnet, and the other aspect is you holding a cone that is connected to a cord which relays electric signals from your phone.
Select a sound in your phone and play it. When you move the coil/cone near the magnet you will start to hear the sound at a low volume. In order to hear better, hold your ear near the large opening of the cone. This weak, but quite distinguishable, sound adds a haunting quality to the aural experience. The first time we listened to one of our favorite songs, we were drawn in to listen to it in a different way. We had to make an effort to listen. Our ability to listen became heightened. It was as if our memories in relation to the music grew stronger by the lowering of the ←43 | 44→volume and the eeriness of the sound appearing by just moving a paper cone over a stone in the woods. It reminded us of the strength and quality of being haunted. This reminded us of that which haunts you also stimulates your imagination. The fascination that a paper cone, electric cord, and magnet can serve as a speaker