Sound Recording Methodology

211 JAR

Initial Site Montage

Recording Methods

Step 1 Beginning with the phenomenon of vibration I gathered as many recordings as possible of various vibrating conditions within the site, 211 JAR. My initial recordings were not amplified enough to distinguish any sounds. This image shows how I was trying to amplify and capture the vibration emanating from the wall. I could feel the vibration when I leaned my head against the wall and could hear the vibration but could not seem to capture the sound on a recording. To capture my recordings I created my own piezo disk microphones that I clip on to the object and it picks up the vibrations of whatever it is attached to.

Step 2 Field Recordings Next I set up a aeolian harp that ran radiates out from the ventilation system to various points in the room

The aeolian harp, also know as a wind harp amplifies airborne objects. So in this case it amplifies the sound passing along the wire, like in the game "telephone," therefore operating like a stringed instrument. The ventilation system transfers vibrations along the wire causing the wire to vibrate.

The Capteur

Project 1 Immaterial Ontological

This part of the project, the "capteur" is looking at ways to record and document the immaterial phenomenon of either light or sound or both that relates architecturally. I was looking for a dynamic temporal condition that has to do with the interface of a building. The interface relates to a threshold condition, between two rooms for example, a window between the indoor/outdoor and trying to document the condition of vibration of that interface.

I have chosen a site in the John A. Russell building, in room 211. I like to sit at the back of the class, and I noticed that during one of my classes when you rest your head against the back wall you could feel the vibrations of what I thought was the ventilation systems kicking in occasionally. The problem for me was how to record that condition aurally over a period of time. There is sound and therefore there is some kind of diffraction, but it is so subtle that in order to capture that sound I would have to augment or magnify the sound some how.

Vibration is an architecturally considered sound. There is material resonance throughout a building, for example windows vibrating, or wind rushing through the ventilation system. The recording must incorporate the following:

1. The Dynamic - something which changes or is cyclical. A public space that is complex temporally

2. Polytemporal & polyrhythmic - where several things going on

3. A place that has some significance of human interaction of human interaction

4. Polyscaler - looking at all scales microscopic to architectural scale

In order to record the sounds I needed to find some sort of modulation, for they are almost imperceivable, to make vibration audible. The recordings are to pick up what is actually going on. The technique will require some sort of interface to pick up on the recording. The threshold condition is a material condition, and that is what will be recorded, therefore maintaining an architectural discussion. I will be using an H2 Handy Recorder to record analogue sounds electronically.