Bread and Protests (in-progress)

Summary:

Visitors can linger around a large vat of fermenting bread as it generates a composition that is a mix of organic human and nonhuman sounds (bubbling, clapping, vocalizing) and protests recordings sampled from all over the world, eating bread (with oil for dipping), reading zines, and conversing.

More about this proposed version Bread and Protest:

Inspired by Ashley Jane Lewis’s Fermenting a Revolution, Jeremy Woodruff’s work with protest sounds, Ultra-Red’s sound objects for cultural analysis and action, and Pauline Oliveros’ collective vocal Deep Listening exercises, we’re proposing a Bread and Protests version of Bread Symphony that generates (offsets and recombines based on fermentation sensor data) permutations of protests recordings sampled from all over the world, including, the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, the Women Life Freedom youth-led protests in Iran, and the protests against the the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The emitted sounds will vary throughout the day in amplitude, pitch scale, time-stretch, and number of samples/voices depending on which phase of the fermentation cycle our nonhuman comrades - bacteria and yeast - are in. 

The protest recordings will be combined with Bead Symphony’s base generated sounds of human humming, clapping, and bacterial nonhuman gurgling, thus remaining both a meditation on collaboration within the human species and on human-nonhuman collaboration.

In this way, voice is given to nonhuman comrades and arranged next to human sounds of collective action like protesting, clapping, and vocalizing together. A way to make audible the vision of what “after the end" of humans practicing atomized, hierarchical ways of relating to one another and other species” may feel like. Can such a project encourage conversation about moving towards post-anthropocentric, post-extractivist futures where people move together in collective power, acknowledging their interdependence with one another as well as other species? A hope of “hope after the end”, of earthly and pan-species survival and even thriving.

What is Bread Symphony?

Bread Symphony, started in 2020, is an ongoing generative sound installation experiment that uses the collaborative efforts of nonhuman organisms to produce sonic compositions. We make audible the symbiosis of living organisms in the literal and figurative fermentation vat and use these explorations to re-frame notions of human centrality, acknowledge nonhuman collaborators, and encourage inner species collaboration.

Prototype:

Rough audio sketch here based on existing Bread Symphony generated sounds https://vimeo.com/723129219 - at MOCO 2022:

Bread Symphony for Protest - submission to After the End at Sound Scene 2023

Bread Symphony: Bread and Protest

Cross-species and inner-species collaboration for social, spiritual, and material nourishment.

Submission for After the End at Sound Scene 2023

Summary:

Visitors can linger around a large vat of fermenting bread as it generates a composition that is a mix of organic human and nonhuman sounds (bubbling, clapping, vocalizing) and protests recordings sampled from all over the world, eating bread (with oil for dipping), reading zines, and conversing.

Prototype:

Rough audio sketch here based on existing Bread Symphony generated sounds https://vimeo.com/723129219 - at MOCO 2022:

What is Bread Symphony?

Bread Symphony, started in 2020, is an ongoing generative sound installation experiment that uses the collaborative efforts of nonhuman organisms to produce sonic compositions. We make audible the symbiosis of living organisms in the literal and figurative fermentation vat and use these explorations to re-frame notions of human centrality, acknowledge nonhuman collaborators, and encourage inner species collaboration.

About this proposed version Bread and Protest:

Inspired by Ashley Jane Lewis’s Fermenting a Revolution, Jeremy Woodruff’s work with protest sounds, Ultra-Red’s sound objects for cultural analysis and action, and Pauline Oliveros’ collective vocal Deep Listening exercises, we’re proposing a Bread and Protests version of Bread Symphony that generates (offsets and recombines based on fermentation sensor data) permutations of protests recordings sampled from all over the world, including, the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, the Women Life Freedom youth-led protests in Iran, and the protests against the the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The emitted sounds will vary throughout the day in amplitude, pitch scale, time-stretch, and number of samples/voices depending on which phase of the fermentation cycle our nonhuman comrades - bacteria and yeast - are in. 

The protest recordings will be combined with Bead Symphony’s base generated sounds of human humming, clapping, and bacterial nonhuman gurgling, thus remaining both a meditation on collaboration within the human species and on human-nonhuman collaboration.

In this way, voice is given to nonhuman comrades and arranged next to human sounds of collective action like protesting, clapping, and vocalizing together. A way to make audible the vision of what “after the end" of humans practicing atomized, hierarchical ways of relating to one another and other species” may feel like. Can such a project encourage conversation about moving towards post-anthropocentric, post-extractivist futures where people move together in collective power, acknowledging their interdependence with one another as well as other species? A hope of “hope after the end”, of earthly and pan-species survival and even thriving.

Installation details

Large vat of fermenting starter with a clear lid, sensors, Arduino, headphones. Circular table with plates and bread, local political zines to discuss. (Bread possibly baked by Ashley Jane Lewis or Bread on Earth.). Possibly chairs to encourage lingering and discussion. Optionally a projection of a video on a wall as back(see below)

Optionally:

There can be a video of alternating footage of protests and macro footage of live fermentation. The protest footage would be sped up and slowed down using Jitter in accordance to the pace of the fermentation, much like the sound component. Visualization of protest activity juxtaposed and in tandem with the yeast-bacteria activity would help underscore the collaborative nature of revolutionary social and political action, symbiotic relationships found in both cross-species collaborations such as bread-fermentation and inner-species collaboration in cultural movements.

Rough audio with optional placeholder video sketch (using my videos of BLM and found footage of other protests):

Previous Bread Symphony samples:

https://vimeo.com/723129219 - at MOCO 2022

https://vimeo.com/602942760 - at SloMoCo 2020

a rift! sound sculpture

Granular synthesis of cello, cooing, and hippo recording samples from cello.org and freesound.org. 

The sound sculpture is tactile and out is meant to emit more sound if the object is moved and more light is let in, or vice versa. (motion and light sensors).

This work is part of a larger project - a Sound Playground. 

Rift composition 1. Cello.

Proximity sensor prototype

Rift composition 2. Cello and cooing. 

Uploaded by Katya Rozanova on 2018-07-24.

Rift composition 3. Cello and cooing. 

Uploaded by Katya Rozanova on 2018-07-24.

No title needed (Great Again) (Golden boy in front of a Cattelan)

More info to come. These were a series of Cinema 4D worlds, which I am still building. I also feel like this one doesn’t require an explanation or a title.

Inspired by Mauricio Cattalan's Gilded toilet. Cinema 4d.

Inspired by Mauricio Cattalan’s gilded toilet at the Guggenheim.

Copy of Pattern and Sound Series - P5js and Tone.js

Composition 1: Ode to Leon's OCD

In the editor.

Minimalist pattern and sound composition 1 (of 6) using p5 js and Tone.js Mono synth

Composition 2: Allison's Use of Vim Editor

Mouseover version for testing on the computer.

In the editor using Kinect.

Composition 3: Isobel

In the p5js editor.

Isobel is the name of my ICM professor's computer, which she named after a Bjork song.

After using mouseOver for prototyping, I switched over to Kinect and placed the composition on a big screen to have the user control the pattern with the movement of the right hand instead of the mouse. 

Uploaded by Fishkatya on 2017-12-10.

Some future iterations may be these:

 

Visuals

Using P5Js I am planning to create a series of interactive designs. The visual elements will create patterns on rollover and also generate synth sounds that are modulated by the position of the mouse.  

Originally this idea was meant for an interactive sculpture, called the Gaze Project (with Dan Oved and Barak Chamo), that morphs into different states, creating patterns in response to the length and location of gaze. The more people look at the piece, the more pronounced the patterns - or waves of patterns -  become. 

Inspiration

The simple grid-like designs I am creating are inspired by Agnes Martin's paintings. 

Minimalist and sometimes intricate but always geometric and symmetrical, her work has been described as serene and meditative. She believed that abstract designs can illicit abstract emotions from the viewer, like happiness, love, freedom. 

Sound

I'm uising Tone.js, written by Yotam Man.

Code

Composition 1: "Ode to Leon's OCD" using mouseover code.

Composition 2: "Allison's Use of Vim Editor" with Kinectron code, using Lisa Jamhoury and Shawn Van Every's Kinectron app and adapting code from one of Aaron Montoya Moraga's workshops.

Composition 2 with mouseover for testing on computer.

Composition 3: "Isobel" with mouseover.

Veggies

A series of vegetables. Comissioned project.

For the banana version I used the following photo exploration.

Inspired by Paul O'Connor's work. 

LIVING PLAYGROUND (GARDEN-PLAYGROUND Sound Sculpture in progress)

3d scanning in order to print hollow sculptures and fill them with sensors, accelerometer, battery, and speaker.

sculpture prototypes

These are miniature clay  prototypes of larger scale sculptures that will be made with be 3d printed or cast in foam resin and covered with a soft, probably and colorful, texture to look playful and invite touch. The version that require seating will be likely plush or large foam resin mold. When the sculptures are touched and moved, the heat sensors and accelerometer will send a signal to a speaker via Arduino. The sounds played will vary in intensity in reaction to the frequency of vibrations that result from moving the sculptures or weight changes of the body. These sounds will range from unidentifiable to familiar, triggering associations and serving to help people contemplate and observe their relationship to their environment and to other beings. 

Behavior: These objects behave as somewhat living by reacting to touch and making sound that are man-made (theremin and other unplaceable, ambient sounds from soothing to upbeat to event somewhat jarring or violent), sounds that are sometimes found in nature (gurgling, flowing liquid, stomach sounds, a storm) but other times the objects will act as inanimate playback machines that bellow familiar noise from our collective past (the sound of a classroom, artillery, fragments of old songs and popular film audio etc).

Appearance: Abstract and ambiguous in appearance, the shapes will not be reminiscent of existing life that falls into the flora or fauna camps. Ideally no one will say "that one looks like a frog." Instead, the people interacting with the objects will focus on the emitted sound and make associations based on that.

The playground, garden is meant to be meditative and exploratory for the users. I hope it will be enjoyed by people of all ages. 

See sketches below that show how Arduino, speaker, etc will be positioned inside these 3-d printed shapes and plush seats.