This past week I’ve been focusing on music, writing for voice and experimenting with the combination of different sensors as a means of controlling sound effectively and meaningfully. I’ve also been building a write-up around a project idea I’ve been developing over the last few weeks. It’s been important for me to build a greater sense of context around the project and now I'm starting to piece together lots of bits of inspiration and research that I've been collating over the past month, ranging from favourite childhood books to Welsh and Norwegian folklore.

I’m primarily writing the music for voices. The installation being a series of objects, each representing a specific voice in a small choral ensemble, the audience invited to play the part of the conductor, breathing life into these sleeping voices through interactions that shape melody and harmony. The eventual aim being to build a sample pallet for each voice: two Soprano singers, two altos, two tenors and two basses. A selection of samples for each voice; melodies, sustained notes, and percussive vocal sounds assigned to an object that physically represents that voice. Rather than working with any set lyrical content I’m experimenting with extended singing technique, creating melody around hums and vowel singing. With the help of a vocalist this week I’ve been learning more about what’s possible through alternate forms of singing as well beginning building a set of samples for a bass register singer. Having not been involved in writing for vocals much in the past I'm finding it really interesting and slightly challenging in communicating musical ideas. A few references have been particularly useful:      

https://vimeo.com/61608556

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBVWCs1KW4

A strong reference over the last few weeks has been the work of Norman McLaren, an animator whose work delves into the marriage of sound and image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3-vsKwQ0Cg

I’m interested in the way that his combination of sound and visuals almost simulate moods, emotions and character. The abstract shapes and patterns that he animates feel responsive, with their own traits and personality. It’s interesting that the effect is lessened when separating the elements, for example only listening to the music or watching the film without sound. It’s this relationship that I’m interested in, I want to achieve a similar clarity between music, light and interaction in creating something that feels alive, and aware of the person interacting. At the moment I’m working with NeoPixel strips to create animations with light, visualising the movement of sound. I haven’t yet combined all three elements so I’m really interested to see the effects of motion in sound and visuals as a response to interaction.