Organic Noise (In Process)
Painting, Noise
December 22, 2015
Background
Taking part in Makino Takashi's '3D handmade organic noise' workshop, I became extremely interested in playing with 16mm positive film. Drawing on films reminded me of Stan Braghage's 'Mothlight'. Expect for recording moving images, I felt that the films have endless possibilities depending how we treat them. By drawing, scratching, spraying, etc, I started to think about how can we play with the old analog films in this digital era. That's how I came up with the idea of making a playful interactive film projector.
Handmade 3D Organic Noise Screening Anna Li Wanqi
Concept
In Takashi Makino's workshop, we were made to scrawl on a shot 16mm positive film and experienced the Pulfrich effects and the Norman Mclaren’s pen point percussion.
Both the scrawling and the hand-drawn sounds amazed me and encouraged me to go further with this project. Drawing on film is totally a different experience compared to drawing on a piece of paper. Even though coherent lines and shapes were drawn onto the film, through rolling the film in the projector, we never know what we gonna see on the big screen, the frames cut everything apart. At the same time, due to the randomness of the drawing on the bottom part , random sounds were also created as what Norman McLaren had done in his hand-drawn sounds. Smaller marks made quieter sound, while larger marks made the sounds louder.In addition, sounds also alters with the shapes, and the shorter the distances of the shapes, the higher the pitch is.
I enjoyed the process of creating the images and the sounds. Nevertheless, since the length of the film has limitation, I started to think about making this piece into a continuous interactive process. I came up with the idea of making a handmade playful film projector, an interface which allows the viewers to 'hurt' the film, therefore, bringing changes to the images as well as the sounds.
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Process
1. Prototype expected outcome
For the first stage, I just want to make a simple triangle shape box, within one DC motor to transmit the whole film system. As for the projection part, I use the magnifying lens and a LED spotlight to create a simplest system.
2. Behavior design
Participants will be made able to blow the films. The stronger they blow, the quicker the spinning of the films will be. A little windmill will be made to naturally instruct the viewers to blow it.
3. Deconstruction
To realize the idea of ‘hurt' the films, sandpapers are placed in the links. As the film spinning, the sand papers start to damage the images on the paper. Gradually, the content will be totally different from the beginning.
4. Hardwares
Sound sensor, H bridge connector (L298n), 12V DC motor, Wheels(to fit the film holes) and driving band, LED spotlight, Magnifying lens, 16mm positive films, wood​
5. Technology
Arduino and Max Msp