Buff: Cubic globe and NEUTRON STAR sucking in companion star
Neutron, neutron neutron star!
Tuesday,4May
Mid Ocean Ridge
The largest feature of this planet is the mid-ocean-ridge, at perhaps something like 65,000 km (40,400 mi) long while the total length of the system is 80,000 km (49,700 mi). Covering 80% of the ocean floor, with breadths of 500-4000 miles and heights of 1,500m (5,000 ft) though even at this height, it sits at around 6km under the ocean’s surface. This entry is to illustrate how the use of information in a different illustrative way can reveal something (like a feature) that can change our perspective on our environment and maybe our relationship with it. For example; habitually if I specifically wanted to imagine a massive/huge/big mountain rage/system (for example) for any particular reason, when I would have thought about the himalayas, perhaps now I might imagine colossal combinations of underwater ranges.
Tuesday,4May
QUANTUM SCALE WHICH ISNT SO QUANTUM BUT MORE POWERS OF 10
Anyway! Heres some bacteria Im gonna draw tomorrrrrr:
Monday,22March
Digression: Helium Baloons
Helium baloons and light: Off the point I know, I just really like the very end bit when people are saying good night to each other.Burble London, open to the public to celebrate London Fashion Week, launched at 8.20pm on Sunday September 16, 2007 at Holland Park, London.
The Burble is a massive carbon-fibre structure reaching up towards the sky, composed of approximately 1000 extra-large helium balloons each of which contains microcontrollers and LEDs that create spectacular patterns of light across the surface of the structure.
The Burble is held down to the ground by the combined weight of the crowds holding on to the handle bar. They may position it as they like. They may curve in on themselves, or pull it in a straight line - the form is a combination of the crowd's desires and the impact of wind currents varying throughout the height of the Burble.
As people on the ground shake and pump the handle bars of the Burble, they see their movements echoed as colours through the entire system. Part installation, part performance, the Burble enables people to contribute at an urban scale to a structure that occupies their city, albeit for only one night.
More info: http://www.haque.co.uk/burblelondon.php
Sunday,14March
Metals, materials, resonating.
Kettle drums are round, bronze, and pitched.The resonators in a marimba are usually made from aluminium, the length of tubing required for the bass notes exceeds the height of the instrument. Some manufacturers, compensate for this by bending the ends of the tubes. Others, expand the tubes into large box-shaped bottoms, resulting in the necessary amount of resonating space without having to extend the tubes. This result is achieved by widening the resonators into an oval shape, with the lowest ones reaching nearly a foot in width, and doubling the tube up inside the lowest resonators.
I know a welder, who runs his own welding company who can put us in contact with manufacturers if necessary. For the time being we should all go to the metal scrap yard in Shep-bush near me. We can go to my sisters house for some tea afterwards. Anyway, we need some beaters and some elastic bands to test resonance. With the help of a glue gun, we can make beaters with sticks and bouncey balls and felt cover that can be removed. I have all these things at home, all these things are in uni shoppe too.
After onedotzero Im going, come along! It might seem a little early to look for materials but I disagree with that because the only way to figure out how to do this is through trials.
Saturday,13March
Stylophone and Glass Gong
Stylophone:From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Original Stylophone being played
The Dübreq Stylophone is a miniature stylus-operated synthesizer invented in 1967 by Brian Jarvis. It consists of a metal keyboard played by touching it with a stylus — each note being connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator via a different-value resistor - thus closing a circuit. Some three million Stylophones were sold, mostly as children's toys.
The Stylophone was available in three variants: standard, bass and treble, the standard one being by far the most common. There was also a larger version called the 350S with more notes on the keyboard, various voices, a novel 'wah-wah' effect that was controlled by moving one's hand over a photo-sensor, and two stylii.
Rolf Harris appeared for several years as the Stylophone's advertising spokesman in the United Kingdom.
THIS VIDEO MADE ME LAUGH! THEY ARE POSSIBLE THE MOST SERIOUS PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, its not THAT good! Not compared to Rolf's exquisite demo! Any way the glass gong video makes me think about the variety of materials we could use to make sound, and how easily we could get out mits on them.
And lets not forget how easy modern technology can make things, none of us own iphones and this is a far cry from what we are planning on doing but it illustrates a true point that we have many of resources at our disposal.
Saturday,13March
More Marimbajobo: From Wikipidia
The marimba (
pronunciation (help·info)) is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars (usually made of wood) are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys to aid the performer both visually and physically.
pronunciation (help·info)) is a musical instrument in the percussion family. Keys or bars (usually made of wood) are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys to aid the performer both visually and physically.Bars key
The marimba bars, like xylophone keys, are usually made of rosewood, but bars can also be made of padouk or various synthetic materials. Rosewood bars are preferred for concert playing, but synthetic bare preferred for marching band and other outdoor use because they are more durable and less susceptible to pitch change due to weather. The bars are wider and longer at the lowest pitched notes, and gradually get narrower and shorter as the notes get higher. During the tuning , wood is taken from the middle underside of the bar to lower the pitch. Because of this, the bars are also thinner in the lowest pitch register and thicker in the highest pitch register.
In Africa, most marimbas are made by local artisans from locally available materials.
When playing the marimba it is preferred to strike just off center or right on the edge (for the "black keys") for the fullest tone, while striking the bar in the center produces a more articulate tone. Playing on the node (the location where the string passes through the bars) is sonically very weak, so it is only used when the player or composer is looking for that particular muted sound.
[edit]
Range
There is no standard range of the marimba, but the most common ranges are 4 octaves, 4.3 octaves and 5 octaves; 4.5 and 5.5 octave sizes are also available.
- 4 octave: C3 to C7.
- 4.3 octave: A2 to C7. The 3 refers to three notes below the 4 octave instrument. This is probably the most common range.
- 4.5 octave: F2 to C7. The 5 means "half"; the instrument :4.6 octave: E2 to C7, one note below the 4.5. Useful for playing guitar literature.
- 5 octave: C2 to C7, one full octave below the 4 octave instrument.
The range of the marimba has been gradually expanding, with companies like Marimba One adding notes up to F above the normal high C (C7) on their 5.5 octave instrument, or marimba tuners adding notes lower than the low C on the 5 octave C2. Adding lower notes is somewhat impractical because as the bars become bigger and the resonators become longer, two issues become important. First, the longer resonators present present a difficult design problem involving the necessity of constructing a taller instrument and second, very heavy mallets become necessary.
The marimba is a non-transposing instrument with no octave displacement, unlike some other keyboard instruments, which are pitched one or two octaves higher than written.
[edit]
Resonators
Part of the key to the marimba's rich sound is its resonators. These are metal tubes (usually aluminium) that hang below each bar. The length varies according to the frequency that the bar produces. Vibrations from the bars resonate as they pass through the tubes, which amplify the tone in a manner very similar to the way in which the body of a guitar or cello would. In instruments exceeding 4½ octaves, the length of tubing required for the bass notes exceeds the height of the instrument. Some manufacturers, such as Malletech, compensate for this by bending the ends of the tubes. Others, such as Adams and Yamaha, expand the tubes into large box-shaped bottoms, resulting in the necessary amount of resonating space without having to extend the tubes. This result is achieved by the custom manufacturer Marimba One by widening the resonators into an oval shape, with the lowest ones reaching nearly a foot in width, and doubling the tube up inside the lowest resonators.
On many marimbas, decorative resonators are added to fill the gaps in the accidental resonator bank. In addition to this, the resonator lengths are sometimes altered to form a decorative arch, such as in the Musser M-250. This does not affect the resonant properties, because the end plugs in the resonators are still placed at their respective lengths.
[edit]
Mallets
The mallet shaft is commonly made of wood, usually birch, but may also be rattan or fibreglass. The most common diameter of the shaft is around 5/16". Shafts made of rattan have a certain elasticity to them, while birch has almost no give. Professionals use both depending on their preferences, whether they are playing with two mallets or more, and which grip they use if they are using a four-mallet grip.
Appropriate mallets for the instrument depend on the range. The material at the end of the shaft is almost always a type of rubber, usually wrapped with yarn. Softer mallets are used at the lowest notes, and harder mallets are used at the highest notes. Mallets that are too hard will damage the instrument, and mallets that might be appropriate for the upper range could damage the notes in the lower range (especially on a padouk or rosewood instrument). On the lower notes, the bars are larger, and require a heavier mallet to bring out a strong fundamental. Because of the need to use different hardnesses of mallets, some players, when playing with four or more mallets, might use graduated mallets to match the bars that they are playing (softer on the left, harder on the right).
Some mallets, called "two-toned" or "multi-tonal", have a hard core, loosely wrapped with yarn. These are designed to sound articulate when playing at a loud dynamic, and broader at the quieter dynamics.
[edit]
Mallet technique
Modern marimba music calls for simultaneous use of between two and four mallets (sometimes up to six), granting the performer the ability to play chords or music with large interval skips more easily. Multiple mallets are held in the same hand using any of a number of techniques or grips. For two mallets in each hand, the most common grips are the Burton grip (made popular by Gary Burton), the Traditional Grip (or "cross grip" used by most professional marimba soloists) and the Musser-Stevens grip (made popular by Leigh Howard Stevens). Each grip is perceived to have its own benefits and drawbacks. For example, some marimbists feel the Musser-Stevens grip is more suitable for quick interval changes, while the Burton grip is more suitable for stronger playing or switching between chords and single-note melody lines. The Traditional Grip gives a greater dynamic range and freedom of playing. The choice of grip varies by region (the Musser-Stevens grip and the Burton grip are more popular in the United States, while the traditional grip is more popular in Japan), by instrument (the Burton grip is less likely to be used on marimba than on a vibraphone) and by the preference of the individual performer.
The six-mallet grip is generally a combination of these three grips. Six mallet marimba grip has been used for years by Mexican and Central American marimbists. Keiko Abe has written a number of compositions for six mallets, including a section in her concerto Prism Rhapsody. Other marimbists/composers using this technique include Dean Gronemeir and Kai Stensgaard.
Tuning:
Saturday,13March
MARIMOJOB: copy paste from webjob
Building Your Own Marimbas, Xylophones & Vibraphones is Easy & Fun - and You are Saving Heaps of Cash!
 |
Yes, even YOU can make these exact instruments in a snap with these Step By Step plans and video instructions - and it's much easier than you might think!
Imagine... You have a whole range of professional mallet instruments... the musicians are fascinated and you STILL have budget to spare!
If any of these apply to you, then read more.....
You are looking for a serious concert instrument, not a toy, but you simply can't afford a commercial instrument |
You are a percussion student or a parent of a percussion student, and you are looking for an inexpensive practice instrument for the home |
You are looking for a really fun project to build which will be a real talking pont and source of joy for years to come. |
Are looking for an inexpensive way to get Instruments for Schools for classroom percussion ensembles |
You are you looking for an instrument that will suit a student right through their high school years, even for music exams |
Tuesday,9March
Weather Symbols
To consider for the structure or our moving theatre.Also it could be quite interesting to have some kind of print out for people to take away with them, almost like an order of performance, which could always just be the symbols in order of appearence.. Perhaps our own diagram that we have illustrated ourselves and responded to for the performance?.. Just a suggestion.
Tuesday,9March
beautiful diagrams of something, generally horrible.
I think it's worth taking these images into consideration even just as images alone, the beauty of palette, composition and the structure. It's nice to see other interpretations of weather, how aestetic can be forgotten OR seen as just as important - how and in what context are these things considered?
What is more important to us? Coming across as a beautiful piece of work, or making sense?
Tuesday,9March
BIG XYLOPHONE
Coming up with a piece of music together and collectively performing it will look wonderful. The xzylophne is very reprasentative of rain, it's tinkering sounds and repetative movement when playing. I think this is quite a funny but great example of what we could do with this, sound wise - definately not costume...
Friday,5March
Idea
Ive just had one for part of the machine and the sound it will make. I need to draw stuff but it does include rapid prototyping and casting from the printed prototype which is something I really want to learn more about. I will ask in computer land at Cambers on Monday concerning the brains of any technicians well versed in 3D modeling. Else I would like to ask a friend out side school or some external institution. What I think I have in mind is like a rotatable sliced of cloud top with valves in it that can be struck, which are made of a different material and semi-suspended. We could have guitar strings over (or starting from) some part of out central devise and with other rotatable parts they can be struck, we will how ever have to use a hollow space behind the striking length to catch and amplify the sound, of course we should also use electric amps too.
(FROM DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS BLOG)
On week 5 we made a visit to the 3D printing (rapid prototyping) facility in Central Saint Martins, being part of University of the Arts London fortunately means we can use this. Designing something on a 3D modeling program, be it MAYA or be it google's freeware can be processed in to physical structure.
Wikipedia: Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a much wider range of applications and are even used to manufacture production-quality parts in relatively small numbers. Some sculptors use the technology to produce complex shapes for fine arts exhibitions.
It works by 'printing' layers of plastic that are only just molten one on top of the other. It does so with two types of plastic; one which makes up the actual model and one which is a support, which is added if necessary and can be broken down in some kind of solution (revealing only the model).
This opens whole can of worms. Not only IS everything possible (regarding you master to some degree at least the basics of 3D modeling- which is very difficult I have been told or find someone to help you do it) BUT also this has introduced the possibility to make stop frame animation of a physical work, which is something I am very interested in doing at a later point while at Camberwell.
Im more determined (not just mildly interested) in learning how to use a new software, any software that can make this possible. The machinery used to develop these real models is fascinating. Theoretical and practical all in one operation! Another interesting thing about this process is that one could possibly make casts from the printed models with plaster or clay to be filled with any other material e.g. steel. Or we could use 3D lazer scanning (as shown in the case study during the demonstration) of other objects, people, parts that can in turn be printed. Possibilities are immense.
Any way, Im thinking of a process similar to this:It works by 'printing' layers of plastic that are only just molten one on top of the other. It does so with two types of plastic; one which makes up the actual model and one which is a support, which is added if necessary and can be broken down in some kind of solution (revealing only the model).
This opens whole can of worms. Not only IS everything possible (regarding you master to some degree at least the basics of 3D modeling- which is very difficult I have been told or find someone to help you do it) BUT also this has introduced the possibility to make stop frame animation of a physical work, which is something I am very interested in doing at a later point while at Camberwell.
Im more determined (not just mildly interested) in learning how to use a new software, any software that can make this possible. The machinery used to develop these real models is fascinating. Theoretical and practical all in one operation! Another interesting thing about this process is that one could possibly make casts from the printed models with plaster or clay to be filled with any other material e.g. steel. Or we could use 3D lazer scanning (as shown in the case study during the demonstration) of other objects, people, parts that can in turn be printed. Possibilities are immense.
ALSO! THESE ARE GOOD TO WATCH:
Friday,5March
ARNE NORDHEIM
Here's a link to Arne Nordheim's 'Solitare'.I know it's a bit long and heavy, but perhaps it could point us in a direction for the music? I think it's quite evocative in places and would work well with accompanying visuals to create an illustration, atmosphere, meaning. What y'all think?
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