Carp

Gomez-Gargaud

Pinball Pianola from Lucas Abela on Vimeo.

I’ve devised a Frankenstein experiment, combining the greatest musical invention of all time, the Piano; with the coolest amusement machines ever conceived; Pinball, to create an interactive sound installation like no other; ‘Pinball Pianola’, a musical device constructed by replacing the keyboard, hammers and front paneling of an upright piano, with a pinball cabinet butted up perpendicular against its exposed strings. Embracing high and low culture this instrument allows virtuosos and wizards alike to pit their skills in a game where musical compositions are created as metallic balls jettisoned into the game clash with the pianos resonating wires. This experiment the first of in a series of individually crafted instruments I’m constructing at Artspace as part of my Australia Council music board project fellowship that introduce musical elements into the iconic game of pinball, making sound generation - not scoring - the games’ main objective.

Seoul, Korea 20th September 2010. A new iPhone film made by Jana Winderen on her recent trip to Korea.

Jana Winderen is an artist educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics, chemistry and fish ecology from the University in Oslo. She has since 1993 worked as an artist, curator and producer.

Jana Winderen

A cricket’s syncopation is cause for celebration.

Bettina Wenzel composes and develops vocal pieces and intermedia performances

Her research in extended voice techniques started with attending vocal training courses at the „Centre Artistique Roy Hart“ (Malérargues/France) between 1992 and 2000. Derek Rossignol, Ian Magilton, Jonathan Hart Makwaia, Noah Pikes and several other founding members - whose teachings are based on the groundbreaking discoveries of Alfred Wolfsohn(1896 -1962)- gave the first impulse to her personal vocal research.

Her compositions are a constant endeavour into vocal sounds, that reach beyond the limitations of the human voice.

Of special note: “Downfall” from Mumbai Diary; purchasable from Gruenrekorder.

Bettina Wenzel

Available from Experimedia.net. All of the sound we hear is only a fraction of all the vibrating going on in our universe - David Dunn

What is presented in this CD is a very alien world, a hitherto unheard aural environment that breaks with all our preconceived notions of what underwater life should sound like. All our traditional conceptions and inherent cultural conditioning are overwritten, deemed void and deleted. The work contained in this CD redefines our notions of underwater life and presents a world of alarming sophisticated communication; a myriad of signal generation, perpetuated by a plethora of intelligent species. In this booklet, Pollardstown Fen and the mechanics of insect stridulation are examined before an explanation of the contexts of the sound recordings and the methodologies employed are discussed. While every attempt at comparative analysis, spectral analysis and species identification from the known literature have been made, a certain interpretive license has been used in suggesting the meaning of the sounds recorded. Without doubt, further detailed investigations are necessary to be convinced with scientific certainty the meaning and context of each communication. Another consideration is that no mechanical devices were operating on the Fen during the period that these recordings were made. The recordings are not contaminated by any electrical interference. Other than an occasional overhead aircraft, no other sounds from above the water are present in the recordings.

Pollardstown Fen is one of the last remaining calcium-rich spring-fed post-glacial valley fens in Western Europe. Preserved by the constant flow of water from 40 springs, the fen is an alkaline marsh of around 550 acres on the northern margin of the Curragh, Co.Kildare (grid ref. N765160). An ancient landscape with a unique ecology of rare species, Pollardstown Fen is of international importance and is designated a Statutory Nature Reserve, Natural Heritage Area, Special Area of Conservation, Ramsar Site and Biogenetic Reserve.According to extant research, amongst the plethora of stridulating invertebrates that exist in the aquatic ecosystems of Pollardstown Fen, are the following water beetles and water bugs: Water Scorpion (Nepa cinerea), Greater Waterboatman (Notonecta spp.), Lesser Waterboatman (Corixa spp., Sigara spp., Hesperocorixa spp., Callicorixa spp.), Water Beetle (Acilius sulcatus), Great Diving Beetle (Dytiscus marginalis), Whirligig Beetle (Gyrinus substriatus). Each of these water insects are known to produce sound through a process called stridulation.

Tom Lawrence Soundcloud