I didn't see your response until today (if anyone wonders what it was a response to, it was my newsletter to be found, slightly updated, here: http://bergmark.org/pressrelease3 ) since the [oddmusic] in the subject line sorted it in a email folder I didn't have time to search until now.
Thanks a lot for the very welcome thoughts.
Obviously, you and I have a lot in common. I was baffled when I saw your Springboard on the Nicolas Collins compilation dvd for his "Handmade Electronic Music, The Art of Hardware Hacking" – it's a very similar idea to my Platforms http://bergmark.org/platforms .
The "poderbass" (I must have been mumbling as usual on that lecture video) is supposed to be the Butter Bass http://bergmark.org/butter . The idea came from a dream, but there might very well have been an influence from Hal Rammel on that one too (isn't there always, in some sense?) since he has made many single-string instruments. But it was before I knew about the Gopychand/Khamak/Oop-goopi etc of the Bengal, which it is actually quite similar to. (And, I've realized also, to many medieval noise instruments and also the futurists' Intonarumori. Where their inspiration came from I haven't heard any information about, but there are at least two very interesting italian reconstruction projects going on about them. One of them brought Intonarumori (reconstructed by Pietro Verardo) to sweden for the first time ever last year. What a feast! http://www.comune.portogruaro.ve.it/portal/it/citta/storia-cultura/LuigiRussolo/intonarumori )
Yes, there are so many things I could have mentioned in my text about Muzakblocker. Phase cancellation is one of them. That would be a proper counterattack instead of just self-defence. The problem with that is that it only works in one geographical point at the time, since sound spreads in all directions and the phase cancellation wouldn't work if the phases and "counterphases" don't match exactly (not to speak of that we have two ears on different locations).
I suppose the best place for cancellation would be as close as possible to the speakers (but then again, if you have the power to do that, you probably have the power to simply turn them off!), or if you care only about yourself, inside your ears, as close as possible to your ear drum. Then other people would still hear everything but you wouldn't hear much of anything.
But other than those places, in acoustic reality, there are so many reflections from the room or walls etc that there are only two realistic ways to counter it:
1. stop the sound (preferred but not always possible)
2. be louder, especially in the same frequencies in order to mask it (plan B). Muzakblocker is a personal version of the latter. It would be interesting if people try it and report results back to me!
There are a number of surrealist groups and individuals around the world that are active in different ways today, also in the us and even Chicago. The Stockholm group has a very updated link list to all that we know about: http://www.surrealistgruppen.org/links.html (there's a link to an even longer version there including lots of other interesting things).
Thanks for your tips about Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, World Listening Project, and WFAE, I'll check them out!
Keep up your good work as well!
Odd salutations from Stockholm,
Johannes Bergmark
18 maj 2011 kl. 20.00 skrev Eric Leonardson:
> Brilliant, and congratulations on the Peak the Source release, Johannes.
> I'll share this with my Instrument Construction students.
>
> I feel we're thinking on very similar lines or directions. It's interesting that your first instrument, the poderbass (spelling?) shared a similar structural point of departure (1990, inspired by Hal Rammel) in self-built instrument making. I used a coil spring instead of a string, attached to an empty metal paint can: http://ericleonardson.org/sound/images/snd-playing.jpg
>
> The Ted video, with you head-mounted video camera, reminds me of the video I began making in January. It doesn't use a head-mounted camera, but it does attempt to show my own view of the Springboard, almost as if it is a landscape populated by the structures of the readily available objects (coils springs, eye bolts, combs, wood sticks, etc.). These are all the same things you are using in your instruments.
>
> Since "noise equals power" or "progress" in the ruling ideology here in the US, I'm intrigued by the old Sesame Street scene you described. Audio Perfume suggests a synesthetic response to muzak: sound as smell. It sparked a thought: How would one use muzak against itself? Speaking figuratively, could there be a cultural equivalent to physical phenomenon of phase cancellation.
>
> It's also intriguing to learn that surrealism lives in Turkey. As it's not not really active in the the US anymore, I wonder if its revolutionary spirit continues in the Middle East. I'll look forward to finishing my reading of your essay. There's much to say as it connects directly with the concerns of Acoustic Ecology. Perhaps you would consider publishing in the Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology. Here is the pdf link for submitting work and deadlines: http://wfae.proscenia.net/download/call_soundscape.pdf
>
> Another thought about noise and muzak, is that the World Listening Project is encouraging people to celebrate World Listening Day again on
> July 18. This day is the birthday of R. Murray Schafer. Perhaps you would be interested in participating. I invite you and anyone reading who is reading this to join in. The ways you can participate are very open, and can be as simple as you want. Here is the announcement and
> information: http://www.worldlisteningproject.org/?p=1037
>
> You may also be interested in the online content, including audio, available from last year's WFAE <http://wfae.net/> international
> conference in Koli, Finland, "Ideologies and Ethics in the Uses and Abuses of Sound":
> http://www.akueko.com/Default.aspx?p=WFAE%20Koli%202010
>
> Keep up the interesting work!
>
> Eric
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