@ Ecology & 3D Design (Martin Racine)Department of Design & Computation Arts, Concordia UniversityMontréal, Canada - 12th Feb. 2008

LALYA GAYE

Re-use of everyday physical artefacts in live electronic music and design for public space

Recycling:

>> to avoid overloading the environment but even:

>> what creative constraints and new opportunities sustainable / recycling thinking brings to design and art practices?

Make use of the interesting properties of recycled everyday objects!

Sound-art – design for public space – locative media

OVERVIEW

• DIY, hacking, recycling, flea market, containers, vintage aesthetics

• Using what is already there, what is available at hand.

• Nicolas Bourillaud - Postproduction: “a recourse to already produced forms”

“Artists today program forms more than they compose them: rather than transfigure a raw element (blank canvas, clay, etc), they remix available forms and make use of data.”

BACKGROUND

Electronic musicians re-using everyday objects as part of their custom-made music instruments:

vegetables, office accessories, junk, discarded consumer electronics found in containers...

Recycling in Sound-art

Vegetable OrchestraRecycling in Sound-art

Vegetable OrchestraRecycling in sound-art

Viennese orchestra performing with instruments made of fresh vegetables

Live acoustic concerts

Audience offered vegetable soup at the end of the performance

pepper trumpet leek violin

cucumberphone aubergine clap

Recycling in sound-art

8TUNNEL2Recycling in sound-art

Göteborg-based sound-art duo (Daniel Skoglund & Isak Eldh)

Home-made sound machines made of

• junk found in containers

• rotating switches

• electrified carbon drawings

• audio feedback loops through vegetables

Live improvisation

8TUNNEL2Recycling in sound-art

SOUND

KANTA HORIORecycling in sound-art

Japanese sound-artist amplifying small sounds of actuated everyday objects

Experimental electronic music with focus on physicality and poetics of everyday objects vs laptop “reading-your-email” syndrome

KANTA HORIORecycling in sound-art

Re-use and activation of office supplies, balloons...

Space of randomness and improvisation: letting objects have their own life

Qualities and acoustic properties of objects put in the centre

Use of magnetic properties, size, weight, acoustic parameters, etc.

KANTA HORIORecycling in sound-art

VIDEO

Kanta Horio - particles

Kanta Horio - EM#2

Kanta Horio - susPapView

Kanta Horio - bvoid

Kanta Horio - etherrubbish

MIDI SCRAPYARD CHALLENGEJONAH-BRUCKER COHEN & KATHERINE MORIWAKI

Recycling in sound-art

“The Scrapyard Challenge Workshops are intensive workshops where participants build simple electronic projects (both digital and analog inputs) out of found or discarded "junk" (old electronics, clothing, furniture, outdated computer equipment, appliances, turntables, monitors, gadgets, etc..). ”

MIDI SCRAPYARD CHALLENGEJONAH-BRUCKER COHEN & KATHERINE MORIWAKI

Recycling in sound-art

Workshops for “(...) encouraging an open and collaborative space for creative ideas and hands-on prototyping”

MIDI SCRAPYARD CHALLENGEJONAH-BRUCKER COHEN & KATHERINE MORIWAKI

Recycling in sound-art

No electronic skills required: pre-assembled MIDI modules to connect to the junk

Midi for sending both control and actuating signals

Electrical contacts -> signal

Continuous vs discrete connections

MIDI SCRAPYARD CHALLENGEJONAH-BRUCKER COHEN & KATHERINE MORIWAKI

Recycling in sound-art

VIDEO

With simple means and a bit of imagination, junk everyday objects can be animated, repurposed, augmented, given a new life.

Giving a new electronic life to everyday objects.

MIDI SCRAPYARD CHALLENGEJONAH-BRUCKER COHEN & KATHERINE MORIWAKI

Recycling in sound-art

Re-use of everyday objects in sound-art:• giving new life to unanimated objects• new opportunities for artistic expression • physical properties of objects + layers of meaning attached to them

Recycling in Sound-art

Design for public space

UBIQUITOUS COMPUTINGMark Weiser’s vision (1991)

– disappearing computer– everyday world literally used as interface

“The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”

Technologies:– context awareness– embedded sensor networks – global positioning– wearable computing– augmented & mixed-reality– ad hoc and p2p user networks– etc

Locative Media ADDING COMPUTATIONAL PROPERTIES TO URBAN SPACE

Design for public space

LOCATIVE MEDIADigital media with a sense of place, embedded into the real

physical world

Examples: – pervasive gaming

(the world as game-board)– space annotation (media with specific

position in space)– GPS drawing (city-wide drawings), etc

mobile vs disposable vs embedded technologies

Locative Media ADDING COMPUTATIONAL PROPERTIES TO URBAN SPACE

Design for public space

Opportunities of deploying ubiquitous technology in public space (e.g. sensors & actuators)

rich interactions• computing in the real world, where

needed, “where the action is”• social layer of meaning

Challenges in terms of sustainability• use of energy• use of material• producing waste

Locative Media ADDING COMPUTATIONAL PROPERTIES TO URBAN SPACE

Design for public space

Inspiration from sound-art? architecture? urban sports? graffiti?

- Making use of properties and features urban space?

- Adding new layers of meaning, ways of inhabiting space?

Locative Media ADDING COMPUTATIONAL PROPERTIES TO URBAN SPACE

Design for public space

paraSITE MICHAEL RAKOWITZ

Design for public space

Building ventilation systems are parasited to provide temporary inflatable shelters for homeless people

paraSITE MICHAEL RAKOWITZ

Design for public space

Parasating?Re-using existing features and properties of space and sources of energy in the environment: power, airflow, conductivity, etc.

paraSITE MICHAEL RAKOWITZ

Design for public space

>> Possible approaches for ubicomp & locative media

• Parasiting: use of existing materials and sources of energy?

• Adapting to and taking advantage of the features of space?

• Deploying and packing up temporary and re-usable infrastructures?

Locative Media ADDING COMPUTATIONAL PROPERTIES TO URBAN SPACE

Design for public space

THANK YOU!