Cyclic Spectrums

I managed to make the design outcome the way i wanted it to be, which is 1) field survey 2) radar scan.

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

I realised that it was not going to be easy making something that spins and records. What about the cable? That I solved by using a wireless camera ( and burning 1 along the way ) but with the transmitter and video converter for mac, i needed power. In the end here’s what i got,



1) 12vdc power battery


2) dc to ac converter for powersources


3) radio receiver for wireless camera


4) Video adapter for mac

From object #2 process

I wanted to make something that rotates in a stable manner and the first thing that came to my mind was a turntable, I managed to find a cheap first hand numark mp3 turntable. Best thing was that it is mobile and runs on battery. I opened it up and studied the electronics and decided that there are a few things that i could hack like the activation control, the motor speed etc. I took out the needle hand and replaced it with an old camera cable release that could enable easier activation control and i added a potentiometer in between the motor and the power supply to control the speed.

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

Now that i have the basic scanning functions working, I proceeded on building my mobile scanning device. I wanted a field survey kinda of look for my instrument so I decided to use a tripod as a base, of course i had to hack it. Lucky for me i had one tripod that served this purpose.

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

From object #2 process

The concept of my 2nd object is a critique on the aestheticizing of Light pollution, from a distance through the act of seeing. I propose that sound could be an alternative or better medium in perceiving the intensity and seriousness of this problem through translating an image into a soundscape.

I wanted to scan an area for light data, initially i thought of using light sensors for what could be a more accurate translation but on deeper thoughts, I decided to use slitscan because 1 ) an image could be better identified by viewers 2) i wanted to critique the use of photography in presenting this problem.

I started using slitscan as an experimentation for my previous idea and it was fairly easy to get this part working. the problem now was how can I make a mobile instrument that i can bring around and scans the area 360 degree?

Now that i’m done with Object #01, I moved on to my second object. The starting point of this object is a personal observation which started with one of my classmates work on supposedly light pollution. In his work he tried to look at light pollution as a problem but the end product did not justify this point, instead it made pollution look good. At that point, I thought maybe the act of looking was the problem of light pollution in the first place.

I did more research on light pollution and the results were quite surprising. In the national library only 3 books relating to light pollution were found . Further research on works relating to light pollution were not productive as well, most works were done by photographers looking at light pollution. I realised a common pattern of them aestheticizing light pollution and their works looking at light pollution were not so different from artists using light as a medium. Here are some images.

- Light work in memorial of 9/11 victims NYC

- Photography work looking at light pollution

- Apparently batman doesnt think its a problem

Now that i have a circuit that is able to translate different kinds of light sources into sound, I wanted to add a function to this circuit that reacts differently based on the brightness level of the environment. My answer came in the form of a solar cell. The solar cell by itself , when connected to a speaker or headphone creates an audio output based on the light source and by connecting this to pin 1 of the lm386 chip, I am able to affect the output of the existing circuit.

Adding noise to luminance from ctrlsave on Vimeo.

 
Solar cell > Sound from ctrlsave on Vimeo.

I got this cheap multicoloured led that changes colours by itself just to play with it and see how it works with the circuit that i’m working on because the photodiode supposedly detects lights across different wavelengths. The result is a cheap electronic music sound.


Light generated Sound from ctrlsave on Vimeo.