10 polaroids

1. take polaroids of things
2. video the development of the polaroids with a video camera
3. compose music to the videos.
4. attach the music to the video and burn dvds
5. include the original photos in the packaging

remix: play the video backwards

projected completion date: 15 july 08

*completed: 10 copies for sale, including original polaroids at: http://www.barkandhiss.com

Abandoned Idea #1

This mostly applied to group music where at least one hand is free. The idea is that rather that plugging in to amps; everyone in the group wears a glove that has the "hot" signal from their instrument attached to it. The "ground" is run straight from the instrument to some shared ground. The amps would have large metal plates on them, the "hot" wire from the amp would run to this plate and the ground would run also to the master ground. Maybe there would be cool effects between the amp and the plate. So the idea is that rather than plugging into an amp, you could just touch the plate and have instant connection/disconnection with the amp, and therefore, it would be easy to switch the amp that your sound is running into. It also means that it would be possible to share amps between anyone in the group. The shared ground would eliminate any buzzing that would result from a broken signal. Maybe the members of the group could shake hands and something awesome would happen. Also, if any of the amps were ungrounded, the possibility of getting shocked would increase. I think that this fear/risk of getting seriously hurt would greatly improve many musical projects.

Mixing with light

1. buy some photo resistors at radioshaq.
2. cut open your guitar cords and solder resistor to ground wire.
3. gather as many guitar amps as you can and place them all over a room.
4. send sounds to all of them.
5. turn out the lights. all of the sound should stop.
6. as you shine a flashlight on each photoresistor, the sound should escape the amp that it corresponds to. Brighter light will produce louder tones.
7. compose pieces based one the movement of the light. compose using geometry rather than normal notation.

variation: get a strand of christmas-tree-lights for each amp (the kind that blink). attach one light from each strand directly to a photoresistor and drape that strand over the corresponding amp. plug all the lights in and enjoy the random composition that the dimmers produce together.

Google Maps Blast

Print musical scales on transparent paper.
Tape paper to computer screen over Google Maps
or the map search web location of your choice.
Then type in your address, or make one up!
When the highway or road changes direction, mark
that note on the transparent paper.
Then play your new composition on your keytar or recorder.
Or you could just assign different notes to the sounds
that your roommates make when they do it....
whatever.
Also, now that e-mail "blast" are popular, do people
confuse Map Blast with E-mail Blast and they think
they will be sending 100 maps virtually?

The Mystery of G Sharp

Empty 12oz beer bottles seem to be tuned to right around g#. I'll try to conduct research this weekend to see what tones 22 and 40 oz bottles can produce when blown over. I am as of yet unsure what notes a breaking glass bottle makes but i theorize that that they will be overtonal derivatives of G# as well. When a bottle meets another object with some force, the glass particles are suddenly forced to resonate and so theoretically, they will produce the resonant frequency of the bottle.

applications:
1. slam a beer during a song at the show and then blow over it right when the band plays a g#.
2. if your band sucks, write songs in G# so that when people throw bottles at you, it is in key.

Jellyfish Jam

Similar idea to the Precipitation Piece posted earlier.

Go to the Akron Zoo's new jellyfish exhibit (opening today) and videotape.

Pick a scale, mentally (or with tape on your tv screen) section off different parts to assign to different notes in the scale. Pick a jellyfish and as he/she (do they have different sexes? I don't know) moves around the screen change notes based on their location in different pre-marked sections. Do this for each jellyfish in the movie and you'll get a bunch of notes moving around in what seems random, but is not random to the jellyfish.

or something.

Can chord shapes affect the weather?

This idea is not fully confirmed but my recent experiments have led me to believe that the type of chord that i play on an instrument may have a direct and immediate correlation with the weather outside. The other day, i discovered what i have named a "minor" chord (named such because it's dark sound recalls the brooding music that someone younger than 18 might enjoy). I have found through 1 test that as I play such a chord on the guitar, the weather immediately becomes cloudy, and it begins to rain. I am currently searching for the "yang"-chord to the minor chord's "ying" and once i find i am certain that it will inspire inverse effects. (mt- 05, June 1885)

the U Haul Van as instrument/studio

The inside of a u haul van sounds like the inside of a giant warshing machine. We should invest more in renting u hauls for a day to pick up scrap metal and do sound projects inside of. the scrap could cover the rental costs. variation: rent a uhaul, tape 50 contact mics on all surfaces of the back, run them into a 50 input audio interface and record a day of throwing scrap metal into the back.