adding, subtracting, blowing my head into conceptual little bits

this was started last thursday
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it has been a different week
i am not saying good and i am not saying bad
if you were to have watched me from the wrong angle
it would have seemed like ever other week...
i spent an inordinate amount of time sitting at desk tapping at my computer

i was doing something so totally different from my usual

i was doing this...
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Proposal for NOTAM lydkunstkonkurransen. (lyd=sound kunst=art competition)

Seth Davis

[ADDRESS and PHONE NO. STRUCK FOR OPEN INTERNET POST]


BASIC CONCEPT

For the Nov/Dec 2008 lydkunst utstillingen at Henie Onstad Kunstsenteret, I propose to develop and construct a simple radio-based sound spatialization system and to use that system to immerse gallery visitors in waves of sound from around the world.

The system will be housed in a square room constructed within the gallery space (see floorplan.jpg) - no larger than five meters per side and possibly as small as three and a half meters. A grid of knob-tuned radios will be mounted on each wall -- older-model consumer radios of various styles and vintages. Each radio will be powered but tuned to an empty frequency, emitting quiet AM radio static.

A radio transmitter sits in the middle of the room. This transmitter does the usual job of broadcasting any sound fed into its primary audio input, but has also been designed to shift its broadcast frequency based on a secondary input signal. The radio grids will have been arranged and tuned such that, as the broadcast frequency changes, the radios receive the broadcast signal in specific sequence and sound washes across the walls in controlled patterns.

I will design this system with assistance from electrical engineers here in Norway and technical contacts at Harvard University and M.I.T.. The concept is very scalable and at this approximate size can be made to work with anywhere between 160 and 400+ radios.



SIMPLIFIED EXAMPLES

Radios are arranged in a line and tuned to frequencies increasing from left to right. If a triangle wave is fed into the transmitter's secondary (frequency adjusting) input, broadcast sound will move along the line of radios from left to right, and upon reaching the end will reverse direction and travel back from right to left. So long as the triangle wave is supplied this continues. If the frequency of the triangle wave is changed, the speed of transposition changes proportionally. Switch the triangle wave for a sawtooth and the broadcast signal will move left to right and upon reaching the end will jump from the last radio back to the first and again move from left to right. Wrap that line of radios into a circle and the sawtooth response yields perpetual circular motion. (see diagrams in trisaw.jpg)

Expanding the concept to a wall of radios (adding the dimension of height) takes even these simple patterns to an impressive scale and allows for the arrangement of complex multi-dimensional patterns (simple 2d examples diagrammed in grid.jpg). Expand it to a four-walled room and the viewer becomes completely enveloped in shifting sound. Sounds can move in a multitude of patterns throughout the room -- dizzying circles, expanding spirals, oscillating rings, and sporadic bursts among others. Familiar communication technology acts in a completely unfamiliar way -- ripped from its usual role and context, the common radio must be reconsidered and its value recalculated.



RADIO SIGNIFICANCE

Radio has been connecting people since the first wireless telegraphs were put to use at the beginning of the 20th century. Radio is no longer thought to be exciting or vital by most, but it is a medium that is still developing and changing the world to this day. While broadcast radio in more developed nations is becoming ever more obsolete with newer internet communication protocols and its power as a social medium is diluted by commercial interests, it is still a vital part of communication and survival infrastructure in less developed parts of the world. RFID (radio frequency identification) chips are already drastically changing the way people interact with their environs. Radio will continue to channel human stories and vibrant music to the world and will start to carry ever more life-preserving, enriching, and easing information well into this 21st century.



ARTIST'S PHILOSOPHY/PROCESS

I am most happy when I feel connected to the world around me. I create sound and concept work to explore and encourage connections between people. I believe that art is a process that involves many. The process begins long before a work is exhibited and continues long after direct involvement of the artist ceases.

Throughout the development phase of an artwork I rely on discussion with artists and non-artists, scientists and non-scientists, friends and family to sharpen my methods and concepts and to gauge the effect of ideas. I seek to involve the general public in the artistic process through seemingly simple, non-art actions. Requests for the donation of materials lead to conversations with non-artists, increasing dialogue across the perceived "art"/"non-art" gap.

All of these interactions create connections between different sectors, carrying the flexible and open thinking of the artistic mind to fields/industries and individuals that may not have much experience with the creative process. Such interactions encourage cultural engagement in others and leaves me touched, changed and more connected with the world at large through exposure to diverse individuals and the stories and ideas they choose to share during the process.

In order to secure the required number of radios, I will need to run a steady and multi-faceted donation campaign. Print and internet elements will be necessary, but the majority of my efforts will be directed towards securing radio appearances. In the run of these interviews/appearances I will not only directly invite listeners to donate radios, but will also, through discussion of the work and its philosophies, indirectly prompt listeners to consider, among other things, their relationships to art, the connecting powers of both technology and the human capacity to help and share. By requesting used items I bring into question the values placed older objects, traditions, and technologies in our often disconnected contemporary engangsbruk/disposable society.

Radio serves as both the primary material/medium of the work's final form and a very large part of the process.



SONIC CONTENT

As I am not proposing a single specific sound work but rather a system of presentation, I also propose, with the help of NOTAM, to openly solicit original compositions from sound artists and contemporary composers around the world for "broadcast". Contributors will be invited to compose for specific patterns and variable speeds of motion. Complex positioning signals are possible and can be developed in conjunction with compositions for maximized control within the system, but contributors will be encouraged to embrace elements of uncertainty inherent in the non-synched system.

The system will be well-suited to playful live interaction between performer and environment. If it fits with the exhibition, the system can be scheduled for small electro-acoustic performances/experiments by skilled musicians from throughout Norway. Positioning can be controlled manually in instances where a musician would like to play specific spatial relationships or automated to the performers needs. The delay in a radio system is more than enough to negate the possibility of audio feedback within the system.



IMPACT

This work operates at multiple levels. As a gallery installation it provides a unique sound immersion experience, but it also reaches far outside of the gallery to non-art audiences. It holds the potential for live performance in an intimate setting. It encourages audiences to consider and strengthen their connections with the world around them.



BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Seth Davis is a cross-disciplinary artist working with concept. He gives form to concept primarily through sound, but also through performance, video, and event and social work.

He is a graduate of The Studio for Interrelated Media at The Massachusetts College of Art where he developed interests and competence in recording, composition and events production. Post-college work as a studio recording engineer brought skills and experience that serve him in the realization of his own audio concepts and compositions. An unquenchable curiosity about the world brings him ideas from the sciences and natural and human worlds he inhabits.

He is currently studying at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, working towards a degree in electrical engineering and hopes to design and build musical instruments and creative electronic solutions for himself, other artists, and the rest of the world.

[the images/diagrams don't seem to display their blacks properly in my blog - but if you click on them they are fine]





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so. yeah. gauged by how folks are responding - it is pretty cool. please give me your responses! (plz.) in a blog comment. even if they are iffy or confused. keywordØ constructive criticism. ?
i haven't done anything like this in a while or maybe ever -- propose one of my ideas in a formal professional-ish way... to people who might give me money. total budget/prize of 70 000 KR / ~$12,500 - and i get to keep whatever i don't use. yeah... never. and then i would be obligated to spend my entire summer mostly working on and thinking about this thing.
i have never had such a small obstacle course between a semi-raw idea and funding.
"propose your idea and if we like it you get money." with the stuff i think about that is not a usual opportunity. so -- not counting when my dad gave me $10 for some 6th or 7th grade scratchboard drawing of a sparrow or chickadee landing on a hand for some postcard design he sent out to promote his real estate company -- this is would probably technically be my first (notable) professional work as an artist.

it could be awesome - i could maybe get to do a little radio tour (that's dreaming) around northern europe. probably nothing more than a college station would have me.

still a large part of me doesn't want them to pick me.
some babble on the tons of issues wrapped up in here:
lots of i don't like making plans. i don't like be obligated to something.
fear of - i am not afraid of fucking up and it not all working out.
(the tech is solid but could be noisier than i expect)
(the system has some serious limitations)
what i am afraid of is being picked and given money and help and then fucking it up and it all not working out when someone ELSE could have been picked and had their little seed encouraged/nurtured. so... that breaks down to i am worried about wasting resources (time, energy, money) and i am worried about the potential damage to my never-existant-before-being-chosen-(if-it-happens) reputation as an artist.

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week later news.
nothing on the proposal (i would hope they couldn't make a decision so quickly) but i have a new italian flatmate. his english is not so hot. finally found some fiskekaker in the dumpster and some tiny bottles of "spicy" oil and lots of the usual stuff. i have crushes on all the wrong people - in the sense of triangles and cross-wires. classes started two days ago and i am feeling pretty clever with the tongue but i use modal verbs too often which means i am more used to using the infinitive form of verbs than i should be and so sometimes i use the infinitive when i should use simple present tense - which is usually just one "r" different - but still not proper. i have to wake up in the dark but find i don't need a snooze at all which is good because my cell phone alarm has none. i go to sverige (sweden) from the 27th to the 31st for a skitrip but i have only been skiing (cross country) once in my life.