May 11th, 2006
Present: David, Alex, Kaffe.
we are slow meeting at 8am.
Hardware developments to Bed.
1. We have decided to get a firmer mattress. Sonic Bed_Shanghai mattress was 32′ density. [ It was that or a very flobby skinny thing that put your butt onto the protective bars covering the woofer in a moment]. This felt much firmer and in fact communicated vibration in quite a different way as it vibrates itself rather than just letting vibration pass through it, as does the current SonicBed_London’s original mattress (25′ density). Contact Pentonville Rubber, Angel for a new one.
2. The last weeks have confirmed that we do need more control under the mattress : yes, the go ahead on the 6 mono woofer plan is underway.
Mike at AudioCar, Lee Bridge Rd, is contacted for another sub amplifier, and Paul Rossi is called to see if he can help wire it all in. As the MOTU 828 only has 12 audio outs, this will mean that we have to lose 2 outs on the mids + tweets taking us down to 6 outs for subs and 6 outs for mids+ tweets. The 2 mid+tweet pairs crossing the feet corners are linked.
space, structure, experience, movement.
alex is slow on uploading.
inserted months later, here are pics of some initial hand-drawn sketches exploring the way the sonic envelope could break the box open and mutate space.
(1) 3 sketches show the body, pinned like an insect, wriggling like Prufrock, nailed by speakers to the bed.
(2) a swathe of sketches then show this square space implicitly rotating around the person, or expanding along the spine, and then mutating along the extensions, flat planes softening and hardening in turn, accumulated corners threatening to turn curvy… the last row visualises the 3d matrix of a network of sound sources with oscillating values.
(3) 4 smaller and a larger sketch show the implication that each enveloping plan acts as a node or control point modifying a larger spline curve; movement of one wall affects its neighbours in turn, loosening or tightening the envelope.
(4) a series of sketches explore the possibility of the mutated envelope suggesting distant, interconnected rooms aside from the central void, and a pocketing of residual space, with further overlap suggesting multiple adjacent cavities of ambiguous porosity…(damn that sounds pretentious)
(5) a grid of drawings explore how the previous ideas might account for richer tonal qualities of music, adding pitch as a value to the range of decibels that suggest location. Thus the tangible, experienced quality of the apparent, perceived envelope to the space might be determined by pitch, whilst its location derives from its amplitude – the spatial volume literally determined by sonic volume. as with all music, the pitch operates independently and could forsake unison with volume; the volume could rise whilst the pitch lowers, or vice versa.
(6) 5 3d sketches move away from 2d plans towards an exploration of more spatial extensions and contractions.
(7) a row of sketches suggests a possible screen-based interface to an animation which depicts the central object in 3d, mutating over time, whilst synced adjacent plans and sections iteratively change.
(8) 5 notational experiements suggest a unified circle of pulsing, varying sonic outputs which then form a new central, oscillating blob of space.
(9) 6 drawings show the simplest sequence of a square lightly dished or bulged, and the results of merging both convex and concave influences.
(10) 4 plans attempt to merge pitch and volume notations
(11) whilst the last sketches speculate on the trajectory of sounds as currents or waves washing over the body from different directions and with varying densities, or as spaces between walls which seem to be forever shifting their positions and reconfiguring their contents…