June 1, 2015

8.30 am. I picked up the weekend’s windfall of email, and made a few responses to the more pressing messages prior to a 9.00 am MA inquirer’s consultation at the School. The party’s over; the undergraduate and postgraduate shows are, now, unplugged:

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9.30 am. I responded to MA and PhD applications. I wish applicants for the Fine Art degree would enclose either a CD of, or a link to, their current visual art work. It would help expedite a decision far more quickly. 10.00 am. A sound-editing tutorial with one of the MA fine art students, who’s a photographer. The manipulation of sound files is, in essence, analogous to that of photographs (either chemical or digital). In this case, the student’s recordings are, like their photographs, documents of the objective world. I suspect that they’ll get a handle on the — what is presently — unfamiliar technology very quickly. 10.30 am. I gathered together and stored my own sound equipment, which had been used by a BA student during the show, and headed for homebase. As I left the School, a new exhibition was being installed in the large gallery:

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Rebecca Collins, the author/curator of the exhibition, is a PhD student at Theatre, Film & Television Studies. The Opening begins at 6.00 pm on Friday. 11.15 am. I continued with admin until lunchtime. (One of Otomo Yoshihide’s extraordinary feedback guitar performances provided a sonic backdrop.)

1.30 pm. After lunch, I set up Handboard 1 (a powerful network of filters that is capable of ripping a sound source into bits — quite literally) and retested the recording process that I’d established in relation to Handboard 2 on Saturday:

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Before recording began, I balanced the new DJ deck, attached it to the mixer, loaded a vinyl, and took the record for a spin:

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Balancing the tone-arm is a small feat: too light, it bounces across of the surface of the record; too heavy, it risks burying itself in the groove. I enjoy this type of problem, as well as the physicality and manipulability of vinyl recordings.

3.30 pm. On with preparations for the recording. I’m focussing on exploring one filter at a time. In principle, one ought to deploy the least amount of technology to the greatest possible effect. Possibilities are already beginning to open up.  Analogue equipment cannot easily and precisely recall the parameters set to produce a particular sound after the devices have been switched off. Consequently, I have to make a recording immediately a useable sound is sculpted.

6.30 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. Set-up Handboard 1 and made a digital capture of a sound made through the OTO Biscuit, before shutting down the studio for the night.

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