Peal Session

This page hosts documentation for Peal Session, my MFA thesis project at University at Buffalo. My research focused on artists who use techniques from electronic music to create environmentally-controlled sound installations and kinetic sculpture. Inspiration for this project came from thinking about Aeolian Harps as early examples of sound installations.

The thesis exhibition involved a durational installation in Dorsheimer Laboratory Greenhouse that featured solar powered electronic circuits whose sonic and kinetic behaviors evolved in response to changing patterns of sun and shade over a period of three weeks.

I developed a series of small custom Printed Circuit Boards that served as templates or jigs for building various pieces in this show. These were also intended as teaching tools for workshops, academic courses and for anyone interested in tinkering with transducers, motors and solar panels. Eventually this page will feature documentation for these PCBs as well.

For those interested, my thesis paper can be read here

Video and images below were shot by myself, Gabby Pascuzzi and Bello Bello.

When I started this project I was thinking a lot about Aeolian Harps (or Box Zithers). It seemed important to make one, so I did using scraps of baltic birch plywood and poplar. Instead of relying on wind to stimulate this Aeolian Harp, I used three Micro Power Solar Engines with fishing line connected to motor shafts to tickle the strings in response to sunlight.

Prototyping Bodega Bay - a solar-powered bird simulator circuit

Kinetic sculptures made with Micro Power Solar Engines spinning bent copper wire attached to motor shafts. Here is an example of activity on a partially sunny day.

The same sculptures on a sunnier day

One of a few different feedback instruments using piezos, scrap metal, amplifiers and speakers. This one is provoked by a Micro Power Solar Engine that tugs on the sculpture, creating variations in feedback behaviors.

A solar-powered sound circuit called Hunger Artist. It uses a bank of oscillators that intermittently power another bank of oscillators as a means of creating unstable changing patterns of chirps and squeals. It is most active in lower light conditions instead of in direct sunlight. This Hunger Artist uses 6 piezos on a piece of poplar as an experimental multi-channel transducer array.

Mimics are solar-powered anti-field recording devices that forget what they've recorded after playback. They have a microphone, an automated sample record/playback buffer and a speaker. A group of Mimics in close proximity can create a simulation of oral tradition. In Peal Session, a group of Mimics imitated sounds of other circuits as well as sounds made by visitors.



There were a few Solar Jerks in the show as well.

Michael Rosenstein stopped by to experiment with recording the installation using a variety of oddball transducers including contact microphones, hydrophones, inductive coils and a geophone. The results were astounding and quite different from how things sounded when mixed acoustically in the space.

Peal Session on a rainy day

More rainy day Peal activity