The extra dimension: exploring 3D use of the accordion bellows
(2023)
author(s): Kaat Vanhaverbeke
published in: KC Research Portal
In my search for extradimensionality in accordion playing, I have explored the three-dimensional use of the accordion bellows. This concerns moving the bellows forward or backwards at different angles, instead of typically maintaining a straight line. This research dives deeper into how the 3D bellows technique influences accordion music interpretations. A survey spread to accordion teachers worldwide made clear that this technique is quite unknown and undiscovered.
In 4 case studies, video recordings of musical interpretations were compared using a linear bellows concept versus using 3D bellows. After intensive reflection, benefits of the 3D bellows technique became clear. Firstly, it allows a better balance between the right and left-hand manual. Different frequencies and harmonics could be discovered through the 3D use of the bellows, which could lead to more resonance and timbre nuances. Furthermore, the technique enhances direction and phrasing in accordion music, reinforced by the visual perception of 3D bellows. However, the technique should be reviewed in different musical styles: in baroque compositions, for instance, the 3D movements are preferably less explicit. Considering some prerequisite skills, an important concern in the practice process has been when to apply 3D bellows.
The research suggests that 3D bellows can be included more explicitly in accordion practice and pedagogy today. It was found to be a useful tool to deepen musical interpretations and musical hearing in accordion students and professionals.
Ephemer(e)ality Capture: Glitching The Cloud through Photogrammetry
(2021)
author(s): Tom Milnes
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
Ephemer(e)ality Capture: Glitch Practices in Photogrammetry details artistic practice using cloud-based photogrammetry that actively invokes glitches through disturbance of the imaging algorithm by utilising optical phenomena. Reflective, transparent, specular and patterned/repetitive objects were used to confuse the imaging algorithm to produce spikes, holes and glitches in the mesh and textures of the 3D objects produced. The research tests the limits of photogrammetry in an effort toward new image-making methods. It builds upon the research of Hito Steyerl’s Ripping Reality: Blind spots and wrecked data in 3D in which she outlines the errors of 3D scanning media in her work and contextualises amongst thought surrounding the objectivity of photographic media. This research explores the potential gaps in Steyerl’s approach, building upon investigations into 3D scanning’s ‘constructed imagery’ through methods which explore ‘fractional space’ more thoroughly through glitches caused by capturing of optical phenomena. Through practice, the research investigates the possibilities of conducting a ‘media archaeological’ investigation of cloud-based technology using methods akin to ‘Thinkering’(Huhtamo) and ‘Zombie Media’ (Hertz & Parikka). These investigations sought to ‘hack’ technologies through focused technical adjustments or adaptations, centred on media that were ‘local’ or accessible to the artist - artists that have been able to open the machine’s hardware to change circuitry or to access and change the software code. With cloud-based media’s materiality being inaccessible, the investigation utilised techniques which actively disrupt and confuse the image-making process; a form of ‘digital détournement’ which develops techniques which reference Guy Debord’s approach to disrupt the powers of image-making culture. The research is discussed with regards to similar approaches in contemporary glitch practices and aesthetics. Prior (2013) posits that glitch practices form a ‘paralogy’ of the Lyotardian notion of ‘performativity’ of the contemporary techno-economic conditions; acknowledging that paralogy is a method that contributes important critical discourses to culture and research. Previously, ‘local’ glitch practices focused on the internal affordances and functionality of the machine, whereas this research demonstrates practice which is focused externally – through the optical nature of images selected to disrupt the algorithm in photogrammetry rather than through ‘hacking’ the algorithm directly. Through these investigations and a discussion of their methodology, the research encourages a critical reflexivity of the artist/user through use of a dynamic methodology. This is to reflect the issues of technological flux which sees imaging algorithms being updated and refined, forcing techniques and practices into obsolescence.
One Motorbike, One Arm, Two Cameras
(2015)
author(s): Ainara Elgoibar
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
The idea of creating a video work exploring the question of how an industrial robotic arm would see a handmade product is used as a pretext to generate a meeting point for different local agents in the framework of the production of an art project titled 'Rodar y Rodear' ('To Shoot and to Surround') (2013).
The heirs of a post-civil war motorbike manufacturer (MYMSA) and the Barcelona Fab-Lab found it interesting to take part in the production of this artistic project, which is a film event built on the idea of dislocation in the common uses of its leading actors: a motorbike restored as a museum piece and an industrial robotic arm programmed to produce the image of something that was fabricated with a pre-robotic sensitivity.
This exposition explores the connections that arise between production processes in commercial cinema and the automotive industry, and the capacity that artistic research has to create a singular and significant space for mutual exploration.
Orchestrating Space by Icosahedral Loudspeaker (OSIL)
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Gerriet K. Sharma
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
The project "Orchestrating Space by Icosahedral Loudspeaker" (OSIL) aimed at increasing the practical and theoretical understanding of electroacoustic sound phenomena that are defined by their sculptural-choreographic nature, i.e., exhibiting localization, motion, and extent. Such auditory objects are new means of expression and as such they have already been subject of artistic research in the project "The Choreography of Sounds" (CoS), PEEK AR 41.
In particular, the project focused on the icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO) constructed at IEM in order to project auditory objects into rooms, a feature that has already been successfully employed in various sonic art works that have been performed in concerts and installations in different halls and listening situations.
Within OSIL artists and scientists were working closely together trying to understand the field of 3D audio better with an multi-perspective approach to foster and extend aesthetical practices in this field.