I thought it might be interesting for people who create art (be it visual, audio, word, etc) to post about it here.
I’ll start:
Other than riding bicycles I enjoy drawing with cheap mechanical 0.5mm pencils and making sounds with guitars and DIY electronic noise devices (both scratch built and modified consumer items).
Please ignore the frames and green backgrounds. They appear this way to match my website.
I’m not very good at “art” per se, but I have played in two bands (My Sister The Cop and SWORDS) that people seemed to enjoy.
I do enjoy the work of my friend Rowan Tedge (he also used to drum in My Sister The Cop), and when I remember, I like looking at the Grain Edit blog which focuses on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period.
I enjoy “Bending” keyboards, drum-machines and children’s toys. Basically it involves opening them up and soldering in switches, potentiometers, capacitors, resistors, diodes, ICs and the like and possibly cutting a few trace lines. This can result in some pretty crazy sounds.
Also, I am building some analog 10 step sequencers and a few lofi noise synths (square wave stuff with LFOs) at the moment.A little stalled right now though as I am waiting on getting some components through customs… I really want heat up my soldering iron and get to work!!
cool, i bent a keyboard a couple of years ago. put in about 9 connections but nothing really fancy. I’ve been meaning to do some more, maybe with light sensors etc, but buying all the switches always ended up so expensive. i’ve got an alesis hr 16 drum machine that has some potential, but i’m nervous i’ll break it.
I know what you mean. All the components really can add up… Best to buy in the largest quantities you can afford. I tired to work out most of my future projects for next year or so and bought most of the parts at once. Steer clean of Jay Car and DSE as you will end up spending a fortune.
HR16s are great but known for being quite fragile. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one or two to play with… There is a ton of detailed information about them on the net. Seen the kids over at burnkit2600 and their DIY sound ROMs? Very interesting stuff!!
Definitely art Ross. The first one is my favorite!
Are you familiar with the artist Alexandre Orion? One of my favorite pieces of his was the cleaning of pollution from the tunnel walls of a motor-way. He was harassed my police countless times but as he was just cleaning they couldn’t actually stop him. He drew a few thousand skulls over a couple of nights and then used the pollution covered rags to make paint for some works on paper back at his studio. I seem to recall him being featured on an episode of SBS’s Dateline.
He also did a series of photos where he would put stencils up in the street and then hide for hours and hours with his camera until he captured someone unawares interacting with his pieces.
Haven’t tattooed anyone. Don’t feel compelled to work with others peoples skin, a little too personal for me. Plus I m a very private worker, I need to draw in solitary.
