Birdsong recordings (seminar supplement)

This post supplements a seminar that outlines my doctoral thesis work. The main theme is the research process itself, including setbacks encountered along the way. The secondary topic is the material itself, particularly bird song and our relationship to audio taken from nature.

The following are some useful media links.

Ludwig Koch made the first ever animal recording when still a child, a captured bird of species White-rumped Shama (1889). Listen.

Koch later released the compendium Songs of Wild Birds in 1936. Listen.

An early commercial release was Karl Reich's "Song of a Nightingale" (1910). Listen.

Walter Tilgner has made thousands of field recordings, and was noted for his early compact disk releases in very high quality. Listen to "Woodland Stream" from Waldkonzert (1985)

We have shaped birdsong through extreme environmental changes. Those birds who remain in the city have altered their calls to be heard through traffic and other noises. This piece models this process. "Caged Birds (Augmentation)" was created in 2013 for the John Cage centenary, hence the punning title. Listen.

My installation "In that place, the air was very different" was documented in 2017 for the video that heads this post.

“The Carthaginians” by Jacknife Lee for Telefís (2022)

Telefís was the final musical project of songwriter and vocalist Cathal Coughlan, in partnership with producer Jacknife Lee. Lee also created a series of music videos, all of which use found footage from Irish television... as the group's name implies.

“The Carthaginians” is a catchy song which has a strange premise. Near as I can make out, Irish bands are being associated with Carthage, the nation state that lost the Punic Wars. I guess that makes England the Rome Empire. 

There’s also a game you can play. Try to name as many bands as you can. Here’s a hint: U2 show up twice.

"Vera Molnár" (1991, dir. Emmanuel Riche)

Though in French, this short documentary on the work of Vera Molnár is useful for demonstrating some of the methods and technologies employed by early computer artists. In particular, output was largely limited to what could be produced by a plotter, a type of line printer optimised for architectural drawings. 

Visual Coding 2021 student showreel

Visual Coding is a module offered in Music, Media and Performance Technology BSc., offered at the University of Limerick. For this project, students used the Processing development environment to create animations, using algorithmic methods. 

Includes works by:
Brian Collins
Sorcha Hassett
Louise Durkan
Cailean Finn
Davide Simonetti
Ian Walsh
Amy Higgins
Cliona Smith

"Cubic Limit" (1974) by Manfred Mohr

During my one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 1971, I met the CEO of C.G.M (La Companie Generale de Micromatique), a data storage and preservation company, which specialized in micro films. He invited me to experiment on their brand new machine DATAGRAPHIX 4460 to make computer animations. I gladly accepted and during the next 4 years I made several short computer films. It was a very painful experience since the process was very slow and the turnover dragged out over many months.
Article citing Manfred Mohr's use of the Datagraphix machine, 1973

For the film, each frame was drawn with a light beam on a small high resolution screen with an attached camera which automatically photographed each frame onto celluloid film. This film was then transfered through a contact copy onto 16mm film to create the animations.

Artist website.

Artificiata I (1969) by Manfred Mohr

Artificiata I was my first artist book. The drawings for the book made in 1968/1969 were my last drawings before I started using the computer in my work in 1969. I called the book Artificiata I because I saw it as an artificial visual sonata and felt I would make a second book Artificiata II when I started using the computer. I actually didn't make this second book Artificiata II until I returned to some of these ideas in 2012.

Published by Agentzia, Paris with a preface by composer Pierre Barbaud.

artist website

Generated Space (2020-21) by Kjetil Golid

Kjetil Golid is a generative artist and system developer from Norway, with a keen interest in algorithms and data structures.

It was this interest that kickstarted his endeavours within generative art, originally using visualization as a tool for understanding various algorithms. These visualization exercises gradually shifted their focus from being pure, "correct" implementations of well-known algorithms, into a more esoteric realm where the underlying structures mostly serve the purpose of making intricate and aesthetic visuals.

Today, Kjetil's projects are often initiated by the question "What would it look like if ..."; an unfinished idea of a home-grown algorithm together with a visual translation, where it is unclear how the end result will look.

Generated Space is the result of a year-long endeavour to make computers do unexpected things. It presents a wide range of different generative algorithms; from organic flow fields and particle systems to rigid fractals and grammar-based shapes. Some more serious than others.

website

Matrix Cam (2018) by Emily Xie

Hello from inside the Matrix.

This project livestreams from your webcam to put you in the Matrix, mapping each raining katakana character to a corresponding pixel brightness / color value.

This builds on top of a previous project I'd done, which was a simple reproduction of the digital rain animation in 2D.

Made with p5.js. Emily Xie is a generative artist, engineer, and educator living in NYC. 

Project page. 

Oscillation Sandbox (website)

The oscillation sandbox is an interactive website for testing various equations that create cyclical patterns. The code is for p5.js, but can readily be adapted from Javascript to the Java version of Processing.

Circular (2019) by Páraic McGloughlin, for Max Cooper

I've had the idea to make some type of version of this video for about ten years, for whatever reason I haven't had the chance to get it done until now. When I heard 'Circular' for the first time and read the statement about it, as well as the combined ideas for 'Yearning for the infinite', I immediately thought that this is a place where this video idea could work. After some discussion with Max we got going on it.

The idea for the video initially came from a thought about Obsession (the vicious cycle.)

I think we often find ourselves getting caught up in routines, letting small problems become unnecessarily overwhelming and consuming so much of our time.It seems so easy to let this happen. At the same time I think it is often some form of obsession that drives people to do what they love, find people they love etc, it's quite a strange old thing...

Using the Circle as a symbol of an inescapable and never ending notion, I tried to evoke a feeling of the infinite, and the idea of a reoccurring and self made predicament...

I used circles as the main subject matter as circles have an infinite symmetry, they can be rotated by any amount and always look the same, they’re the only 2D shape with infinite symmetry. It's amazing how a simple circle can be so complicated! I suppose there is a reason why the circle is one of the classic representations of infinity. Also I really love the shape :)

McGloughlin is based in Sligo. Vimeo link. 

"Two Space Emulator" (2017) by Agustin Ramos Anzorena

This tribute to Larry Cuba was created in Processing.

While researching about the pioneers in computer motion graphics, I was lucky to watch Larry Cuba’s piece “Two-Space” at the Buenos Aires Planetarium, as a fullDome experience. The animation explores the 17 symmetry groups, very present in Islamic Art patterns. The breath-taking result is a sample of the beauty that computer generated graphics could create, along with pieces like “Calculated Movements” and “Arabesque” (in collaboration with John Whitney).

This is a small tribute to Larry Cuba. A simple system of reflections with some controls to play around and create charming and elegant symmetries. A fresh canvas to maneuvers organic movements in a sort of hypnotic way.

artist website

EPOCH (2019) by Kevin McGloughlin

Epoch is a visual representation of our connection to earth and it's vulnerable glory. Our time here is esoteric, limited and intangible. The fragility which exists in all aspects of life is one thing that is certain. We are brittle, and so is Mother Earth.

Film and sound design by Kevin McGloughlin
Selected images : Google Earth
Audio samples : Nasa

artist website