Category Archives: History of Design – G1

Hyperessay: The Cave of Sounds by Music Hackspace, led by Tim Murray-Browne

About the artists
Music Hackspace is a London based community for innovators and hobbyists passionate about music technology and sound art. Organises regular DIY workshops and events. Tim Murray-Brown, who led his team to create The Cave of Sounds, is a composer in residence at the Music Hackspace as a part of Sound and Music’s embedded composer scheme. His work focuses on interactive sound, particularly public installations that provide people with a space to explore and discover without being told what to do (musichackspace, 2018).

Interactivity, as described, is the reciprocal exchange between the viewer and the artwork, the ability to manipulate media and objects intuitively and with immediacy. In this Hyperessay, the main topic focuses on interactive media and participation and I will be analysing the relationship of movement to sound, using interactive media to recreate historical experiences and the idea of indeterminacy.

The Cave of Sounds (2012), a collaboration between eight artists from Music Hackspace and by Tim Murray-Browne, is an interactive sound installation exploring the power of music to bind individuals together and the visceral urge to use technology to broadcast our identity. Inspired by the prehistoric origins of music, the work is formed of eight original musical instruments, arranged in a circle facing inwards, each of which can be played by intuition and by the audience itself.

In this unique piece, each instrument has been designed and created by an individual (from the team) as an embodiment of their own artistic practice, but also to exist together as a new ensemble. The eight instruments are as follows (via The Cave of Sounds):


The Animal Kingdom (top) & Lightefface (bottom) via caveofsounds.com.

The Relationship from Movement to Sound

In the hands of the audience, the work is crafted to provoke participants to connect and resonate with each other through musical expression. Software linking the instruments gently adjusts their sounds to converge musically as well as detecting musical connections between participants and visualising them onto a central projection (thecaveofsounds, 2012).

With the instruments, there are endless possibilities as participants are given the freedom to choose any instrument and play it as and when they like. With that, this piece of work becomes an ultimate collaborative ensemble and transcends traditional methods of music making – from movement to sound, from technology to prehistoric sounds. The sound translated from the movement of the audience broadcasts their identity and reflects the behaviouristic qualities of them – the choice of instrument, the method in which they play the instrument and the duration they play it for. The boundaries between instrument creator, composer, performer and audience are increasingly blurred as the audience have now, the highest control over the ensemble, determining the outcome. The audiences’ role are paramount as, without them, there is no ensemble and this sort of interactivity is similar to a dialogue, where it shows reciprocal exchange and immediacy initiated from their actions.

Using Interactive Media to Recreate Historical Experiences

The Cave of Sounds also explores the juxtaposition of prehistoric music and interactive media. It uses both to connect the audiences within the space, providing an immersive and new experience. It is ironic, yet unique, that an ensemble of prehistoric sounds can be replicated, reimagined and re-experienced in a whole new modern context with technology. Who would have ever thought that hitting wooden drums or playing an old flute can be translated into buttons, sensors and actions? Thus, The Cave of Sounds is one interactive piece which explores sounds that strongly replicates an era far from today. The advancement of technology has enabled us to bring us to the past and has enabled us to familiarize and experience concept almost impossible to be realized and heard (music from the prehistoric era).

Indeterminacy & Entropy

As we all know, interactive media with participation is no musical or ordinary staged performance – it is very real, intimidating, personal, chaotic and free. The Cave of Sounds is exemplary as it involves the audience to create an ensemble as they play their chosen instrument amongst the other participants. A preceding example of such interactive media would be Jon Cage’s Variation V (1965), where, in this audio-visual performance, sounds created are affected by movement. The dancers’ movements are triggered by photocells, which triggers waves of sounds and also the projections on-screen (medienkunstnetz, 2018).


Variation V (1965) by Jon Cage (via medienkunstnetz)

Similar to Jon Cage’s Variation V (1965), chance techniques are used to avoid the habitual tendencies of deterministic musical composition. This embraces entropy. Although both artists have chosen the types of sounds, textures and objects, the specific musical sequence of sounds was left to chance. This degree of interactivity in the musical composition process enables a shift of control and creative decision from the artist to the audience and process. Both Variation V and The Cave of Sounds demonstrates the idea of indeterminacy by creating unpredictable, indeterminate relationships between music, dance, image and movement. And because of this indeterminacy, these interactive pieces are always in a continuous state of transformation, never finished, always changing and not an absolute finality in its realization. 

It is also apparent from both examples, that there is a continuum, or in fact, an evolution in interactive media. In Variation V, as much as the performers were also the artists, composers and dancers that make up the entire performance, typical audiences lacked the freedom to be in it. Thus, this separates it from The Cave of Sounds, where audiences can freely include themselves in the piece, creating more entropy. Tadeo Sendon, a sound a digital artist, responses to this aspect, saying, “Although music plays a greater role in our lives than ever before, creating music is an activity often limited to trained professionals. Made up of a set of newly conceived musical instruments, The Cave of Sounds seeks to disrupt the boundaries between performer and audience. Regardless of training, visitors are invited to actively participate and experiment with new ways of creating and connecting with each other through sound.” (Sendon, 2018). This form of participation is more commonly seen today with interactive media artists, as our technology today has made ideas more concise and user-friendly. From Roy Ascott’s “Behavioral Art and the Cybernetic Vision,” he mentioned that the aspect of creative participation is an inclusive form of art, with a basic principle of “feedback. And this loop makes the artist/artwork/observer an integral whole. This important quality of participation and interaction is exemplary in The Cave of Sounds.

References:
http://timmb.com/pdf/murray-browne2014cave-of-sounds.pdf
http://caveofsounds.com/
http://www.tadeosendon.com/cave-of-sounds-tim-murray-browne-1/
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/variations-v/ 
http://musichackspace.org/author/timmb/
https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/17s2-ap9044-sem-1/wp-content/uploads/sites/2276/2018/01/ascott-behavioral-art.pdf 

Hyperessay Key Work Selection: The Cave of Sounds by Music Hackspace/Tim Murray-Browne

The Cave of Sounds, a collaboration between eight artists from Music Hackspace and led by Tim Murray-Browne, is an interactive sound installation exploring the power of music to bind individuals together and the visceral urge to use technology to broadcast our identity. Inspired by the prehistoric origins of music, the work is formed of eight original musical instruments, arranged in a circle facing inwards, each of which can be played by intuition and by the audience itself.

Created during a ten month residency at the Music Hackspace, each instrument has been designed and created by an individual as an embodiment of their own artistic practice, but also to exist together as a new ensemble.

In the hands of its audience, the work is crafted to provoke participants to connect and resonate with each other through musical expression. Software linking the instruments gently adjusts their sounds to converge musically as well as detecting musical connections between participants and visualising them onto a central projection. The Cave of Sounds also explores the juxtaposition of prehistoric music and modern interactive technology. It uses both to connect the audiences within the space, providing an immersive and new experience.

The eight instruments are as follows (via The Cave of Sounds):

Sonicsphere by Panagiotis Tigas

A palm-sized sphere with an embedded wireless gyroscope that you can use to warp and charter spaces of heavy digital timbres.

Joker by Wallace Hobbes

A punchy drum kit you play by wearing a mask and tapping your fingers onto conductive tape.

The Animal Kingdom by Daniel Lopez

A world of sounds you awaken and shepherd by casting hand shadows in the shape of animals onto a table top, which are read and interpreted by an interior camera.

Generative Net Sampler by Tadeo Sendon

Experimental audio samples, created from digital field recordings of the internet, are triggered as you move through invisible cylindrical trigger zones, detected using a 3D camera.

Lightefface by Kacper Ziemianin

A deep drone you control by shining lamps over 24 light sensors, each of which modulates the intensity of a different harmonic of a fundamental frequency.

Campanology by Dom Aversano

Generative rhythms derived through the mathematics of church bell ringing patterns, controlled through free movement of your hands using a 3D camera.

Mini-Theremin by Sus Garcia

Using hand gestures, you control a DIY theremin running through a pitch-tracker, turning it into a controller to mangle noise synthesis.

Wind by Tim Murray-Browne

A breathy flute sound you play by moving your hands around your body through a grid of harmonious notes, sensed using a 3D camera.

 
The Animal Kingdom (top) & Lightefface (bottom) via caveofsounds.com.

With the instruments, there are endless possibilities as participants are given the freedom to choose any instrument and play it as and when they like. With that, this piece of work becomes an ultimate collaborative ensemble – from movement to sound, from technology to prehistoric sounds. The boundaries between instrument creator, composer, performer
and audience are increasingly blurred as well.

Similar to Jon Cage’s Variation V, chance techniques are used to avoid the habitual tendencies of deterministic musical composition. This embraces entropy. Although both artists have chosen the the types of sounds, textures and objects, the specific musical sequence of sounds was left to chance. This degree of interactivity in the musical composition process enables a shift of control and creative decision from the artist to the audience and process. Both Variation V and The Cave of Sounds demonstrates the idea of indeterminacy by creating unpredictable, indeterminate relationships between music, dance, image and movement.

References:
http://timmb.com/pdf/murray-browne2014cave-of-sounds.pdf

Cave of Sounds

Hyperessay Artist Selection: Tim Murray Browne

Tim Murray-Browne is an artist and creative coder from the UK creating interactive installations and performances. His work explores how our ideas and identity relate to our lived experience. It includes ensembles of bespoke musical instruments performed by the audience, audiovisual landscapes generated by the movement of a dancer, interactive light and sound sculptures that respond to the viewer’s position and immersive one-on-one performances to transform an individual’s memories into calligraphic images. It has been exhibited around the world at venues including Tate Modern, The Victoria & Albert Museum and Berkeley Art Museum.

In Murray-Browne’s website, he discusses his practices and ideas further from an interview with Create Hub.

“This is what draws me to working with interactive technology so much — particularly when it involves the moving body with music and abstract imagery. Music and dance have this strange way of saying so much while also saying nothing. The abstraction lets us explore our human activities together before we get focused on the specific personal details of our lives. In some sense, you can reduce human experience down to this dialogue between what we do and what we sense. Mixing interaction, music and dance lets you create an abstract microcosm of experience. This is a space where you can explore this complex relation between identity and environment.”

Some thoughts:
There are many artists who work with technology and media. However, Murray-Browne’s works stood out to me as many of his works and idea explores the relation of the moving body and sounds. His works show an immersive experience where people can participate and connect, even if they are physically apart in the space. Also, through his works, there are many elements similar to interactive works in the past – exemplifying how these ideas of interactivity and connectivity have influenced contemporary artists like Tim Murray-Browne.

References:

About

Review: The Modernist Era

After reading different takes on modernism by the artists, what intrigued me was this sentence by Milton Glaser, “So Modernism became a wonderful way for detoxifying dirty people and dirty ideas.” He then explains how Modernism rejects the emotional ideal and is lacking in passion and sexuality. And that is why corporate identities find themselves aligned with Modernism as he refers Modernism to great progression, endless frontiers and ceaseless developments.

While Glaser might believe so, I feel that there are many angles to look at this. Reducing things to its simpler forms does not always take away the meaning of it. In the case of Modernism, many art movements were experimental and looked at ways of expression. Simplicity was some of their ways to express; it does not mean that they are lacking thereof.

From Rudolph deHarak, he also mentioned, “These Modernists breathed new life into design, cutting away all unnecessary graphics appendages and leaving only the essentials.” Many artists during that time, Max Bill, Josef Muller-Brockmann and Max Huber and many more, had works manifested into a timeless style which were thoughtful and systematic. The works were bold, intensely creative and dynamic and perhaps, this is the beauty of Modernism which Glaser overlooked.

 

Review: The Age of Information

“We brought discipline to design.’ 
‘We are systematic, logical and objective – not trendy.
Trends kill the soul of design.

This quote, by Massimo Vignelli, piqued my interest and I adore how designers like him use a modern approach to solve design problems. Massimo Vignelli is a famous designer who has practising design in New York for nearly 50 years, during which time he has made a big impact on all forms of design, from graphic design, to furniture, to clothing; all thanks to his design methodology. Vignelli paved the way for visual communication with his methodology. Having to reject the idea of trendy IS design and design should be a change motivated from within.

Vignelli has countless outstanding works; corporate identity works for Gilette, Knoll Associates, American Airlines and New York Transit Authority. 


Piccolo Teatro di Milano 1964

  
American Airlines logo (left), Knoll Associates (right).

Another quote from him is, “We want to make it clear that we are not commercial artists, illustrators or advertising designers. We are information architects who structure information. Like architecture, what we do is not only structural but it is also appearance and visual form.”

He explains “information design” clearly and establishes his stand on the roles of a designer. What he said, made a lot of sense to me. And I think many people, and even designers, overlook the significance of how information is being constructed so concisely with thought and meticulously. For Vignelli, the focus was never on the aesthetics, It was about solving problems and recognizing the needs of people.

The next article, focusing on the rise of corporate identity, evidently shows Vignelli’s design-with-purpose methodology and how his way of thinking aligns with the creation of corporate identity. The “visual image” we get from a brand can be affected by many factors; society, media, brand consistency and identity etc. Very likely, brands with consistent and good brand identity, are successful or at least, on their way to becoming successful. These visual materials are what consumers feed on; they see, they observe and they retain information. The better the companies are in “constructing” their information and their brand identity, the stronger the impact.

References:
http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-massimo-vignelli
http://www.designishistory.com/1960/corporate-id/

Review: Art Nouveau Piece


Poster advertising Tropon, Henri Van de Velde, 1898, Belgium. Museum no. CIRC.992-1967. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

This features a packaging by Van de Velde for the German food manufacturer Tropon and to create publicity. Amongst all the art pieces, this is my favourite one as I greatly appreciate the Art Nouveau style. This advertisement for egg whites adopts an abstract form rather than a realistic one. It illustrates the graceful yet structural elements of Art Nouveau; organic shapes, sweeping curves and decorative features. His design also evokes the shapes and colours of the egg. Even though it is highly stylized and abstract, main elements such as the colour of the egg, the roundness of the egg, is still incorporated subtly.

References:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/art-nouveau-an-international-style

Week 5: Bauhaus Shapes & Colour

The Little Red Dot? Where? All I see is a blue circle.

All Singaporeans should know that “the Little Red Dot” refers to Singapore. It is a nickname often used in the media, as a reference to Singapore. It refers to how the nation is depicted on many maps as a tiny red dot. The concept behind this piece is about Singapore, as a small country, being able to achieve immense growth throughout the years since independence in 1965. Today, this thriving city is the result of many generations’ of hard work.

Inspired by the Bauhaus art movement, I used the “ideal” colours of the square, triangle and circle to create a harmonious piece. The different shapes represent many different aspects of Singapore. When I explored the relationship between the colours and shapes, I felt that the red square looked rigid and intense, suitable for an aspect such as political power and political stability. The yellow triangle, looked warm yet edgy, which reminded me of how Singapore is uniquely multicultural and that this fusion has made the Singapore society and community exuberant. Lastly, the blue circle, which is the largest in proportion, represents the growth of Singapore, technologically and as a smart nation. Even though a circle may look dull, the blue gave it its vibrancy. Just like how Singapore may be a really small country, but it is developed and advanced for its size. Known for being a smart nation, I felt blue was the most suitable colour; a colour of intelligence, wisdom and trust. Rather than keeping the shapes straight, I arranged and intersected them, representing the harmonious, good balance in all aspects Singapore has. Regardless of being recognised as a “red dot”, this country is definitely more than just that.

Week 4: DADA

“CHOPE”
This is the Dada poster which I have created using a collage technique and typography. In this piece, there is no perfect sense as to why those objects were chosen or placed where they are. I used an element of chance to determine the placement and as for the objects, they were the first few things in my mind when I thought of “Singapore”. Some of them randomly appeared in my google search while I was searching for those in mind and I included them in as well. The essence of this piece is about the extent of absurdity Singapore’s “Chope” culture is and I wanted to show this through my poster using the nonsensical, satirical elements from Dadaism.

Chope

  1. (Singapore, informal) To reserve a place, such as a seat in a fast food restaurant, sometimes by placing a packet of tissue paper on it. (Definition by Wiktionary)

Singaporeans, known for being “kiasu” (translation: scared to lose) and living in an extremely fast-paced city, can literally chope anything or do anything so as to be the first. For example, Singaporeans can queue HOURS for the gongcha bubble tea, or rush and snatch for anything that’s free. The way that our people live, is in such a way where we “cannot lose out” and must excel in every aspect (or for many people). Although these traits are unique to Singaporeans, I do feel that it also reveals the negative side of society when it is to the extreme. Nonetheless, I think it is quite funny how people use satire to respond to this culture and how we all culturally understand “chope” as Singaporeans.

PROCESS

Attempts using an element of chance.

    

2nd GIF was a fail though.

ABCD (Self-portrait) A photomontage from 1923–24 by Raoul Hausmann (Left)
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, 1919 by Hannah Höch (Right)

I was inspired by these two Dada artists. Many of their works are nonsensical and satirical; either towards the government, about the society or a certain issue. Hausmann is a founder member of the Berlin Dada group and portrayed satire and political protest in his works. He is known for his criticism through his art and I adored how he incorporated his message in his works. As for Hoch, her key themes are: political issues and the switch of gender roles and she is well known for her collaging technique.

References:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hausmann-the-art-critic-t01918
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hannah-Hoch

Week 3: William Morris Research


by eQuilter

Merton Fabric by William Morris

Beautiful decorative depiction of chrysanthemums in garnet which I felt was culturally appreciated by Singaporeans due to its vibrant red and the chrysanthemums; which are common and recognisable in Asia. They are very similar to the chinese oriental patterns as well, which I believe many people in Singapore love. (Probably can see them on carpets, cushion covers, bed sheets, etc. and they’re lovely!)