In October 2011, I led a workshop at the University of Massachusetts Boston. I worked with media arts undergraduates from a class run by Prof. Cat Mazza of the Visual Arts Department. We focused on the aesthetic uses of microphones as instruments. We also worked directly with contact microphones and small battery-powered amplifiers, using them around the campus in a variety of settings.
In preparation for the class, I built several small piezo-electric contact microphones, which became the property of the class.
Among other things, students amplified and performed the sounds of a concrete and steel stairwell on campus.
Listen to the full audio recording of the stairwell sounding:
The student on the left applies a contact microphone to a metal strut in a hallway on the UMass Boston campus, while his classmate on the right operates a battery-powered speaker to amplify the vibrations.
A student nestles a microphone among the leaves of an outdoor potted plant.
Dropping gravel on an amplified wooden board clamped to a contact microphone.
Discovering the hidden sounds of the pier and harbor.
Suggested reading/listening for “The Unheard World: Microphones and Listening.” This is an informal list to get you started, arranged somewhat intuitively.
R. Murray Shafer
- The paper-passing exercise was drawn from his book A Sound Education.
- The Soundscape is his best-known work, and lays out his philosophies.
Annea Lockwood: check out CDs The Glass World and A Sound Map of the Hudson River.
Pauline Oliveros
- Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice and Deep Listening Pieces
John Cage
Pierre Schaeffer – French composer who coined the term musique concrète for music composed of recordings of objects and environments.
- Étude aux Chemins de Fer (1948), music made from recordings of trains. The earliest example of musique concrète. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9pOq8u6-bA
Voice Crack: cracked everyday electronics
Jana Winderen: Norwegian nature recordist and composer, makes extensive use of hydrophones. http://www.janawinderen.com/
Toshiya Tsunoda: Japanese artist who works extensively with contact microphones, recording vibrations in solid matter, often at maritime locations. http://www.frameworkradio.net/rootedition.html#tsunoda
New England Phonographers Union: An open group of people interested in field recordings and the use of unprocessed field recordings in performance. http://nephono.wordpress.com
Michael T. Bullock (hey, that’s me):
Audio recording by MTB; video and stills by Cat Mazza.
