23 November
The penultimate day of my residency and it was the busient one yet! Over the four hours in the Maker Space I met several large groups visiting from The Norfolk & Norwich Association for The Blind (NNAB) and 3rd year Illustration students from the Norwich University of the Arts. Every visitor really engaged and interacted with the pieces out in the Maker Space; the NNAB members particularly enjoyed the sound making properties of the works which was fantastic. Visitors commented on how easy it was to use the instruments; several students compared the Springrack very favourably to an Industrial Horror movie soundtrack!
It was great to explain and demonstrate how everything worked, the photos below capture a glimpse of the hustle and bustle:
Museum Tape Loop #5
The sound source for the fifth residency tape loop was the BOCA ticket and receipt printer located at the front desk of the museum. It’s simple and pleasing mechanical sound is one I am quite familiar with being part of the Front of House team at the Castle Museum.
This 57 second tape loop has a single guide roller constructed from rolled up admission tickets (created from the tickets printed), giving it a nice self-referential slant.
Atari Punk Console
The Atari Punk Console (APC) is a simple and fun circuit that utilises either two 555 timer ICs or a single 556 dual timer IC. The name APC derives from the lo-fi sound which resembles classic Atari console games from the 1980s. It’s an astable square wave oscillator driving a monostable oscillator that creates a single (square) pulse. There are two controls, one for the frequency of the oscillator and one to control the width of the pulse.
My APC has the circuit mounted onto the exterior of a small wooden box whilst the speaker and battery were housed inside. The simplicity of this instrument (operated by turning both knobs) proved a hit with visitors, with all ages having a try!
Also on display were works from previous days which included: The Springrack, Ball and Chain / Squeaky Floorboards lathe cut record, The Crank wax cylinder and Electromagnetic Field Box:
Before leaving I briefly bowed a couple of springs mounted onto the desktop lamps of Rachel Rayns’ Neurotic Machines…
….such fun!
Michael Ridge 