/under_construction/temp//liamwells/video/sound/2008/
/info
/mov
/mp3
/contact
Documentation Recording, 2pm.
Three Gongs - Sound Installation, Junction, Cambridge, April 2007, 2.00-2.14pm
Documentation Recording, 5pm.
Three Gongs - Sound Installation, Junction, Cambridge, April 2007, 5.00 - 5.20pm
Three Gongs is a lo-tech interactive installation, which maps fluctuations in sunlight to control/ generate audio signals filtered through the surface of wind gongs. The piece was intended/ designed to evolve constantly over the duration of its one month long installation in the Junction, Cambridge.
Three handmade oscillator circuits generated audio signals. Each circuit consisted of an oscillator constructed from a CMOS Hex Schmitt Trigger IC (CD40106), the pitch of which is controlled directly by a light dependant resistor (LDR). Each oscillator circuit also consisted of a CMOS Binary Divider (CD4040) used to divide the oscillator tone down to a number of rudimentary octaves and tempos . Three octaves of oscillator tones were played into the surface of the gong at different physical points, via piezo disks taped to the gong. Contact mics attached to each gong routed the filtered tones into small speakers located on the floor under the gongs. The circuits were left un-boxed on the floor around the installation, leaving visible to the viewer each aspect of the piece. The gongs were hung facing into each other to create maximum difference tones.
Listening to the piece in site, the viewer/ listener could hear a number of combined sounds, each pitched by the available sunlight. Sounds combined in the piece were; the pitch of the oscillator through piezo disk, the pitch of the oscillator filtered and amplified through the metal disk and indeterminate tones generated by the constant reverberation of the surface of the gongs. The gongs sounded, activated by the audio signals played through them. These sounds combined created a complex sound environment, pitch dependant upon time of day (slow, clicking/ banging tempos at night, high pitched long held tones and reverberations during the day). The high ceiling and large scale of the Junction installation space allowed tones to accumulate and reverberate around the space, activating the space itself as part of the sound making object.