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Main /
TransDisciplinaryResearch2023
1. Building an 8 Channel Ambisonic Microphone. 2. Songs of Dead Birds(resurructing the Dodo) 3. UNDECIDED.
List of parts. Raw materials needed for Brahma field 4 first order ambisonics microphone. 1. Tetrahedral array holder to fit in aluminium tubing 2. 4 x 14 mm electret microphone capsules 3. 4 x 100 k resistors 4. 4 x 4.7 mfd 47 volt electrolytic capacitors 5. 12 pin din connector male 6. 38 mm od al tubing 100 mm length 2 mm thick (can be less) 7. 10 mm thick aluminium plate 40 mm to be turned to fit with hole for din connector 8. Aluminium mesh 100 mm x 50 mm plus 50 mm x 50 mm
Today we look at the parts and make a plan of getting them this week.
Animator with an avid interest in all things science,tinkering and generally screwing around. Wandering through a Design Computation Masters while freelancing as a graphic designer and animator. With the goal of combining and synthesizing an artistic practice. My style of learning and doing seems to stem from a childhood of taking things apart to see how they tick.
25-28/9/23 - Introduction to each other and the Work done by ArtScience Blr by Yashas, Projects included the making and marketing of the Ambisonic Microphone, Sounds of the dodo, The Lekha Archives and The Brain mapping. [Drive folder for all sorts of data upload etc](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AwhoE_bj7cNYnUqHG_eG8vrJvI2LlwFX?usp=drive_link) 05/10/23 - Reading and upload works on the functions of Ambisonic recording and microphones, the Evolution and Family tree of the dodo , Books - Coming To Know and A Slightly Curving Place books on the works of Sound Artist focusing on Umashankar Mantravdi. 09-10/10/23 - Making peizo contact mic etc 12-13th/10/23 - workshops by Alessandro Olla - Italian sound/performance artist on the usage of field recordings in musical compositions etc [documentation videos] : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DxIlEW06x69PuQW8KZ35q9P4ORA_9DcX?usp=drive_link 16-19th - Unable to do much due to illness...... but started self learning(?) to touchdesigner visual coding software for generative art and Pure data visual programming for music/sound synthesis [work so far] : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_1BPop5m3zcNBhhC9rjQEOHb7NCTXbGI?usp=drive_link 23-25th - holidays - further working on touchdesigner etc 26th/10/23 - rebriefing on the project and getting working on A splitter and VGA module for a eurorack set up + designing a sleeve template to guide cutting the container for the ambisonic mics[Documentation for splitter]: https:// [Doc for VGA module] : 30-31st/10/23 - continuing work on splitter etc
A folder for uploading stls etc [folder]: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_6kiJteUxXjuoreckkQ91ufTm5QFYy8a?usp=sharing
A trained architect, interior & furniture designer but got bored. Began exploring design by day ever since, an aspiring musician/sound designer at night.I run a sustainable(slightly) soft furnishing studio based out of Bangalore. We design & manufacture textiles using agri-waste. Currently navigating through human & planet centric design at Srishti. I like to know how things work. The goal is to situate myself in environments and find a way to positively impact people & processes in any domain. With the almost fictional free time I make for myself, I like to mess around with sound using a bunch of tools and instruments I have average skill with. I play in a couple of cover bands for fun. Debut album coming soon (since 2021). YNWA.
28/9/23 : Basic summaries of the ongoing work at ArtScience Blr Lab by Yashas. We covered a)Building an 8 channel Ambisonic Microphone, b) Songs of Dead Birds (recreating the call of the Dodo), c) Brain Computer & d)Lekha, an archive for artists 5/10/23 : Reading ' Coming to Know ' by Nida Ghouse -> Deepening understanding of ambisonics & how Mr. Umashankar Mantravadi's journey that culminated with building his own 'Brahma' Ambisonic Microphones
With a clear academic background in Art history and Aesthetics I'm interested in understanding and exploring the intersections of art and technology here at Srishti. I have written and presented academic papers on subjects such as '*Complexity, creativity and generative art* ' and '*Acts of Vernacular creativity in India: The digital publics*'. Apart from that I have also been active in the creative industry as a young and independent curator and facilitator for the past three years. During which I worked with numerous artists, artists collectives, designers, galleries, and art collectors. I'm interested in widening my knowledge about the new and recurrent practices that are emerging at the crossroads of art and tech. I want to focus my curatorial practice to be more oriented toward Artificial creativity and tech-driven art practices in India with a more formal and informed perspective.
28th Sep 2023: General briefing on the TDR - Art science Blr and what working in this lab entails. Further detailing on the past and on-going projects by ISRO and Art Science Blr. 29th Sep - 3rd Oct 2023: Independant research on the topics like Ambisonic microphone, The dodo bird and the lekha project by the lab. Gathering information and research papers on the subject. 6th Oct 2023: Going through the various books by Umashankar Mantravadi and read "A slightly curving place" and wrote reflections on the same. 10th Oct 2023: Attended the workshop and talk by Manuel Beltrán on Institute of Human Obsolescence and Data workers union 11th Oct 2023: Field recording using ZOOM H2 and Zoom H2n in and around the campus 12th and 13th Oct 2023: Workshop by Alessandro Olla wherein he shared his artistic explorations with sound as a medium. The worhshop also included field rec. and remixing using Iris2 RX and other audio mixing softwares. 16th Oct 2023: Rebriefing on the TDR and our role. Selection of my personal engagement and project as part of the TDR wherein I work on on-boarding artists on LEKHA and curating their artworks and creating a feature on LEKHA. 26th Oct 2023: Talk by Ayisha Abraham and discussion on her archival project. Editing the interview footage of Ayisha.
A creative thinker with a bachelor's degree in economics. Always thought art and design was intersting but realised its true value in my life when I reading (and kinda creating) about art in an extreamly low phase. Tried out different types of design fields to fing my niche. I belive in impactful creativity and design, hence I want to build products that help people and provide them valuable experience. Nerdy for tech. Really excited to explore and learn. daily log week 1., 2023 - Our first day at Artscience lab. Got briefed about the lab, the ongoing projects which we can participate in, and how we can connect it to our individual learnings. We then cumulatively chose what we as a group want to work on, which was building an ambisonic microphone from scratch, which meant immersing ourself in the field of sound, music and learning about microphones and their mechanism. As a curious side project, we also started researching and annotating about the extinct bird 'dodo' which is related to Yashas sir's personal project. week 2., 2023 - I, for the very first time, saw an ambisonic microphone. There were two models of it. In order to understand how it worked and what it can do, We we asked to roam around the campus and record various types of sound (for eg. loud, quietest,etc.). We then reformatted the audios that we collected from format A to format B and then experienced those recordings in a four channel output system at the lab. I also learnt about binaural music and beats which was new to me. week 3., 2023 - This was an ineteresting week where multiple things took place. I got more familiarsed by the sound terminologies. I started developing an understanding of sound as a medium of expression and art. We were also asked to pick up an individual project. During these five weeks, I got introduced to immersive media by Yashas sir, which was fascinating to me. Hence, I chose to work on something which revolved around immersive media, in order to learn and explore in that field. This week also covered a wonderful workshop by Manuel, who is a PHD student and a professor at Srishti. We got to look and have a one-on-one discussion with him regarding his work and thought process. week 4., 2023 - After discussing my field of interest (for the individual project) with Yashas sir and keeping in mind the time constraints, I decided to create a website which consolidates all the VR work that have been done in past by Artscience lab. I learnt basic HTML and started to learn the 3D software blender. Also attended Alessandro Olla's workshop at the lab which also included us roaming around and recording sounds with him. week 5., 2023 - Attended the artist - Ayisha Abraham's talk about her work today, at the lab. Learnt about her style, thought process and ideation about her work and her life. Link to consolidation and documentation of all of our work - https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1AwhoE_bj7cNYnUqHG_eG8vrJvI2LlwFX
I'm a sound designer, audio engineer, experimental electronic musician, and a film maker with over a decade of experience. My work spans multiple disciplines. Beyond the creative realm, I also find fulfillment as an educator, I've spent a lot of time designing courses and organizing workshops on these subjects, which I've facilitated at various universities over the years. My creative endeavors are deeply rooted in design, technology, science, experimentation, exploration and innovation. I'm an avid enthusiast of modular synthesis and consider myself a bit of a nerd in the field. My love for music is very diverse and I enjoy collecting and building unique instruments and sound tools/devices. Formally trained in audio engineering and visual media, I have a solid academic background that bolsters my artistic pursuits. When not immersed in the world of sound and imagery, I find solace in the great outdoors, exploring forests and breathtaking landscapes. Additionally, I love cooking food and hanging out with animals (mostly with my cat, Tekno)
Got introduced to the various projects that is currently happening at art/science blr. - Recreating sounds of extinct animals(Dodo). - Development, building and optimizing the production of brahma ambisonic microphones. - Developing and mainting The Lekha Archives. - Organizing and putting all the VR projects in one place. My work mostly focused on delveloping and optimizing systems to manufacture brahma microphones effeciently.
- The first task for me was to understand what truly ambisonic is. I have had some experience in field recordings in the past, Mostly for music and films, But all of them have been in stereo, so it was a new and exciting approach to sound for me. - *Alessandro Ola* from italy was doing his residency at the lab, He has a lot of expertise in the field of field recordings. So he did a workshop in which we were split in groups and asked to go around campus to record sounds, the group I was a part of chose to do specific sounds and not ambiences. We went around collecting *foley material* from everyday objects such as paper, metal shelves, plastic covers etc etc. Came back to the lab and auditioned these sounds, however we recorded all of this in stereo using a basic zoom recorder. He also spoke about and showcased some unique tools such as *Izotope RX* (used to clean up and microscopically analyze the audio spectrum) and *Izotope Iris 2* (Which is a sample based synthesizer where you can drop in your sample to the editor draw various automation prameters directly onto the audio clip). - After the workshop was done, the next days i wanted to learn and experiment with the ambisonic recordings Alessandro did. - But before i could really listen to ambisonic recordings, I had to first set up the PC and the surround sound system at the lab. Wired in everything to the scarlett and tried importing the files in only to realize it was completely in a differet configuration (format). Something called "A format", which I wasn't aware about earlier, after some discussions and understanding what it is with Yashas, I figured out what it was. It was a combination of XY & MS recordings as 2 individual tracks. - To convert "A Format" to "B format" (B Format being the *comp* of both these tracks), there was a tool called "BRAHMAVOLVER" - But this tool was super dated and was very unstable, after testing this tool on multiple computers, we came to the conclusion that we needed to find another way to do this task (A Format to B Format Conversion) - In the meanwhile Yashas persuaded me to check out Reaper (I come from the familiarity of Ableton Live) But unfortunately Live doesn't support ambisonic. - The next day I installed Reaper along with a bunch of other toolkits (ATK & IEM) to support ambisonics. After much research I figured out that there was a more efficient way to decode ambisonic on Reaper. - So I got to work and downloaded 2 free open source codex's from RODE & Sennheiser namely "Soundfield" and "AMBEO" these are truly amazing tools and are made with the highest quality standareds. Once i figured these out, Yashas and I quickly got to making templates on Reaper to make this process even more efficient. - Once this was out of the way, we could finally decode and work with true ambisonics. Yashas and i would sit in the middle of the speakers and figure out the "right" settings to work with ambisonic sound, the possibilties are endless. - In the meanwhile, Alessandro Olla was prepping to do an Audio/Visual performance with 2 talented dancers (Aneesha & Gayatri) at "GOETHE" Insititute in Bangalore, hosted by "The I.S.R.O". Rahul (My classmate) and I had to figure out a bunch of logistical things with this performance such as HDMI cables, Lights, Sound etc at the venue. We also got to see how he had set up his performance. - His set entailed various field recordings from his travels all over the world and glitchy synthesized electronica elements, that combined with the visuals that he had prepared using "Resolume Arena", It was a cool experience to be a part of. - Back to lab, The main task we had infront of us was to build a few ambisonic microphones. Rahul and I quickly strategized and figured out the various components needed to build the microphone efficiently and made a list. We decided to go to SP road and procure things for the project and talk to vendors who would supply all the components for this build and to any future builds. - At SP road, we went to various vendors (Metal shops, Electronic Shops, Metal cutters, Mesh makers Etc) spent the whole day there... Spoke to a myriad of vendors, finalized on a few and started developing a relationship with them for the future. Getting the most fair prices for the materials. - We have finally gathered all the elements needed to build a prototype of the microphones and consulted with the metal shop to get whatever work is needed to bill the aluminum. We are starting the build over the next week...
- Super informal, I tested out a variety of my mixes in the monitoring system that we have in our lab. I slowly want to incorporate ambisonic features into my compositions. - I have created a distinct sample bank using the ambisonic microphone that we have. The sample bank has a variety of sounds ranging from ambiences to specific sounds. I am very excited to add to it, use it for various applications and to share with people. - Even before i started doing my Masters here i was very keen on building noise boxes (Piezo sensors) and effects pedals. I have some renditions of the noise boxes that I've built earlier, But i wanted to make something a bit more abstract in shape (Since I'm in Design School, lol) , So i used the laser cutter on MDF to cut out some whack shape that a friend help me make on "Rhino" - Now we are developing various attachments to go with the box such as motors, ball bearings etc. - Apart from this, I'm also working on building a "Delay" pedal using the PT2399 IC with the help of the amazing Natraj. This delay pedal will have 3 potentiometers, 1 for Dry/wet, 1 for "time" and 1 for "Feedback". - My keen interest in synthesis and electronics has led me to join hands with Rahul to build a basic systhesizer since he is on the pathe to discover what synthesis is (which also we're trying to optimize for future synth building workshops for Yashas and I) Lets see how that goes. - Rahul and I have procured whatever is needed for this activity such as Arudiuno Uno, Potentiometers, Switches, Cables and a printed circuit. - Will updated this space as it progresses....... |