A visiting practitioner on the course that inspired me recently was Johann Diedrick. Diedrick is a sound artist whose practice revolves around electronics and exploring their different uses within the medium. I was initially drawn to his work when looking at his website before the lecture. He had a project called ‘Sound Monsters’ from 2018, which was educational and used to teach people how to make circuits that produce sound and solder them together – much the same as what I am studying now. What I particularly enjoyed about this project is the fact that he encouraged participants to make the finished instruments look as strange and interesting as possible. Here’s an example from his website:
This looks very similar to the sorts of technology I want to make – playful, colourful and using a variety of materials to make it look unique.
In the lecture, Diedrick showed us a few examples of his work. One thing he said that resonated with me was that he much preferred working in the physical realm than on a computer. He said that he computer made him feel as though it reduced his creative process to being controlled by ‘office gestures’ and felt that it was ‘more akin to making an excel spreadsheet’. I can definitely empathise with this sentiment – I find physically making things much more enjoyable, and the less time I spend behind a screen, the better.
An instrument he’s made that I was impressed by is ‘The Harvester’:
It’s a handheld sampler and synthesiser that allows the user to record everyday sounds and upload them to the instrument, where they can then be played in a musical scale. It is also sensitive to movement – the user can tilt it and move it around and it will affect the sounds coming out. Diedrick showed us a video of him playing the Harvester, moving it around in a field and using his whole body to play this tiny instrument.
I particularly liked The Harvester because it seems like an accessible instrument that the user does not have to spend a long time trying to learn. It is simple once you have the samples uploaded and you don’t have to learn how to play it, you can let your instinctive body movements almost play the instrument for you. Why shouldn’t we able to control instruments with our impulsive movements rather than a predefined way of moving our body parts in a limited way (such as in a guitar or piano)? This kind of mentality (that is, producing instruments for anyone to use) is exactly what I want to bring into the instruments I make. I would love to have a bunch of instruments set up in an exhibition where viewers can interact with them and they are very simple to use – the lower the barrier to entry is, the more people can use it and feel inspired!
Bibliography
- Sound Monsters (2018) Johann Diedrick. Available at: http://www.johanndiedrick.com/# (Accessed: November 15, 2022).