Mobile Percussive Experiment

 

 

Project Summary:

 

This project will utilize various public spaces around the campus by creating a public sound collage to which anyone can add to.  The Mobile Percussive Experiment will be a touring student drum circle / musical performance stage.  This project intends to create a social space that allows students to experiment with sound, collaborate with others, and create music.  The ultimate goal is to make the event self-sustaining.

 

Primary Areas of Intervention:

 

 

 

In terms of approval; well, approval is not quite necessary for this experience.

In fact, approval may detriment the informality of the event. We want to push

buttons and see exactly who would stop an event which is causing relatively no

harm to campus assets. Participants should not feel a need to follow guidelines in

this setting, as long as their intentions are to create an inviting atmosphere.

 

 

The Sun God lawn would be a homebase for the mobile concert arena. 

This is an area of high traffic and we expect lots of participation.  We believe it will activate the open space in front of the Sun God Statue.

 

 

 

The grass adjacent to Library Walk is also another possibility.  This will be another high opportunity area. Library

Walk is a high traffic area, and students are always looking to get involved in new activities. This grass area is generally

unused by activities or events on Library Walk. Our project could perhaps initiate usage of this area.

 

Effect of Intervention: People will be either inspired to let loose, or they might also be irritated by the sound produced.

 

Possible variations to stimulate social interaction:

1.    Stripping off clothes: We are interested in seeing the response to taking off shirts, pants, shoes, etc. This stimulus

will have to be gradual and intuitive; there will be a right moment to remove articles of clothing. The point of this is

to strip down our media and become equal in terms of our relations to each other.

2.  Tribal Chanting: adding a verbal element to the experiment will create variations in participation and encourage people to use a different form of creativity.

 

 

 

Positives:

-    Provide social activity for undergraduates and graduates

-    Activate unused campus space

-    Provoke dialogue

-    Provoke creative collaboration with other students

-    Provoke dialogue from observers

 

Negatives:

-    Produce unwanted “noise” for studying students

 

Schedule of Actions Needed:

1.    Gather already owned materials

2.    Buy more materials for instruments

3.    Document space before intervention

4.    Assemble portable concert arena

5.    Document space (video with sound) during intervention (PCA not to be left in public for longer than 5-6 hours per day)

 

Duration:

This project will take place on random dates and times throughout week 9 and 10 of the 07' school year.  We will utilize differences between weekend and weekday traffic and compare.  We will also move the concert to different locations throughout the experiment.

 

Tools:

Both participants have trucks for transportation purposes.  The Portable Concert Arena can be moved and assembled by hand.  Participants will not need electricity or help moving the arena.

 

Participants:

Justin A. Gutierrez, second year ERC student.  Alexis Gabrielson, first year ERC student.  Assisting will be other members of the class if possible (for documentation). Also, select students from each college will be utilized to either bring their own instruments or use the ones provided to begin using the PCA, in order to set an example for the other students to follow.

 

This project is meant to inspire creative participation from students at UCSD who would normally just walk through the empty space we are utilizing.  It will spark conversation and hopefully more social networks will be created from this project.  This project was meant to provide a space for students to interract creatively and without fear.  We believe that a "drum circle" style music setting will provide the perfect atmosphere for social interraction and the free-exchange of creative energy.

 

The benefits of an Active Acoustic Environment / Observations

    Sound is an envelope. It is constantly around us, sheeting us when we think that we are not sheeted. Whatever our daily routine will be, it is constantly shaped by the audio environment in which it takes place. Sound helps us identify where exactly we are at in relation to the action surrounding us.

 

    On Thursday, May 24th and Tuesday May 29, I and my class partner Alexis Gabrielson created a sound experiment on the Sun God Lawn of the University of California, San Diego. We knew that you could change a social environment by the way something appears; introducing lawn chairs in a chair-less environment for example provides a recreational benefit to bystanders. However, the addition sound to a generally tranquil environment could have either good or bad consequences. Allow me to introduce you to some of the things that we discovered.

 

    First off, I began the experiment alone with six to seven plastic buckets and short lengths of PVC pipe. I sat for a long time hitting the buckets by myself, as I watched countless people walk past with no more than a glimpse at what I was doing. What I realized was that it was not that the activity was uninviting; the activity just did not look amusing with only one person performing. What was needed was a group percussive effort so that any prospective participants would not feel uncomfortable if they chose to participate.

 

    What was noticed after the first brave soul decided to take part in the event was that the overall feeling of awkwardness was washed away. The event had manifested into what it was supposed to be, and therefore it became inviting to everyone else. Those passing by began to ask if we do that every weekend, or they just became more interested in general.  So, as soon as more peole got involved, more people WANTED to get involved.  We soon found ourselves lacking drums and drum sticks.