Noise Camp
From BluWiki
[edit] To Do!
This is just a generic list. If this is your project please tailor it to your needs ~macri
- Volunteer to help out this project
- Request or Donate Materials!
- Put together a Budget
- Register
- Plan your clean-up
- Do you need Staging and Construction Space?
- Document your energy needs so the Con Ed Man can help you out
- Are you planning any events? Let the Event Coordinator help you
- Does your camp have any Fashion Needs? Let our Fashion Consultant haberdash you
- what are your space needs? Let the urban planner know so s/he can feng your shui
- Are you going to need grunt labor or someone to attend to certain daily chores? Let our task-master know and s/he will be happy to assign you solitary slave or a whole a chain gang
[edit] Concept
Noise is fun. Any toddler that's ever played with the pots and pans knows this. People lucky enough to be percussionists get to bang on shit constantly- and people seem to enjoy it! However, most people don't get a chance to enjoy making noise in a constructive fashion. Much like Oobleck, people forget how much fun doing something simple and childlike (playing with gook with your hands, making lots of noise) can be. The most surprising thing is that noise can be wonderful and musical- or just noisy (and still awesome) The whole thing depends on how it's all put together.
For our noise camp, I propose to use a large quantity of the simplest instruments- percussion. I already have a lot of actual percussion instruments, and I'm sure more can be obtained rather simply. But it doesn't have to stop there (or cost money). Busking while beating on some plastic buckets is a time-honored tradition, and would incorporate well into a playa noise orchestra (noise-chestra?) Mary loves the air raid siren- sure! Let's take non-traditional sounds and see if we can slot them into our sound in an interesting way. Piezo mics are going to feature prominently in the installation- I don't know much about using them in the context that Alex is proposing, but I know them fairly well as drum triggers. Cheapo drums + triggers + a sampling device = drums that sound like a cow mooing. Or a plane crashing. Or whatever the hell we want.
So, here's what I'm proposing. Like I said, I have plenty of percussion gear (some tuned, some not) and am willing to beg/borrow/steal/somehow acquire more. There are really inexpensive alternatives to "real instruments," as well as non-traditional items that can be musical (or simply interesting) in the right contexts. Burning Man is full of a community of people who bring their own instruments, and who would be interested in something like this. So what can we do with this? People can drop by and try their hand at playing a five-gallon-bucket drumset. Or our random crazy noises drums. I envision free-forming jams involving a spectrum of percussion and other things- or maybe a larger, organized and facilitated event- not a drum circle, but a noise-chestra, arranged for air raid siren and orchestral gong.
Not everyone can play a concert snare, but everyone can bang a gong every now and again (and really enjoy it)
Concept part 2: Coincidentally enough, the David Byrne project emailed to the list has the same goals as mine- changing music from something that is passively consumed to something that is participatory, and something anyone can do. In another wonderful coincidence, Audrey and I went to the "Dance Parade" last weekend- unfortunately, as we arrived, the main stage and all of the sound equipment had to be turned off due to threats of rain. However, there were half a dozen people blasting away on some drums, tambourines, shakers, etc, and three or four times as many people dancing like mad. That's my whole concept, in a nutshell. Take people walking by, and turn them from passerby into a musician, even if - or especially if- they have no idea what they're doing. I remember what people looked like the first time they played with Oobleck. I hope people have the same looks on their faces when they find themselves playing an 'instrument'- and loving it- and seeing people having a dance party to the art they've spontaneously created.
What's required: I will be bringing easy-to-transport equipment- cowbells, wood blocks, claves, and maybe even some larger equipment (assuming both that it's necessary and I can get it up to NYC for transportation) However, I want to maximize the amount of improvised equipment we use, both because a: it reinforces the 'everyday music' thing I'm going for, and b: it's cheap. This stuff can hopefully be procured in SF (or anywhere else people will be driving from). What I'm thinking about are some 5-gallon buckets, a trash can (metal or plastic- or both!), some pots and pans. Shakers made from rice and soda cans. Whatever- stuff that can be gotten for free or next to nothing on craigslist. If we can get 5-10 people involved (and something like this is easily scalable) nothing has to be complicated or difficult- you can kick a wicked groove with that many simple parts going at once.
Perhaps a jam-along to some Tasty Noodles-provided music? Or an accompaniment to Oobleck on a subwoofer? Perhaps going a bit far afield, there could even be an exploration of noise, and arrhythmia in contrast to the groove and rhythm- noise and dissonance are as integral to music as harmony and consonance. But for the time being, let's stick to getting some booty-shaking going on.
What I need from you: Ideas! Input! Am I a loon? Does this sound awesome? Want to help? You can start with Materials!
[edit] Instrument building
What if we helped people to build music instruments? This could take a few different forms:
1) The basic: shakers-- things they could fill with rice, then seal & decorate. 2) The more complex: guitar-esque things-- made with boxes and rubber bands? 3) Preliminary googling turned up this: http://www.childlearningsupport.com/homemade-musical-instruments.htm 4) I'm sure there are zillions more things we could think of.
We could run daily workshops and encourage everybody who makes an instrument to come back with it on the last day for a big old homemade jam session extravaganza.
Yours in noise, Erin
