PIFcamp

Another local participant on PIFcamp will be Tilen Sepič, a multidisciplinary designer, new media artist and promoter of open source culture. His experience with light is manifesting in light-design objects, product photography and light installations.

His project will explore generative patterns and shapes made with overlapping frequencies of light, exactly synchronized with frequencies of sound in context of nature.

Light setup will be controlled with multiple voltage-based analog inputs including CV, PWM and sound, so that can be interconnected with many other projects.

Because the setup will be created from fundamental high-power LED parts only, it will be 5-10 times cheaper than common led show-lights.

Tilen will be building, exploring and testing scalable LED installation for lighting trees, with analog drone-based control over the frequencies and colors.

You are welcome to join him!

Another project on PIFcamp comes from our own Ljubljana-based intermedia artist Robertina Šebjanič, who in her art practise places her interest to the fields such as the humanist and natural sciences, bio-art, noise/sound art and much more, and Monika Pocrnjič, a visual art education student with interest in art, esthetics, biology, technology, anthropology and pedagogy.

Oscillatorium – Living systems oscillation

The sonification of environment, or sonification of processes, is communication; a step towards understanding inter-species’ communication and inter-species co-existence. Analogue oscillators do not exist only in the field of electronic circuits, but also in nature, which is why this project attempts to deepen and continue the research and development of natural electronic synthesizers – sound objects.

In the field of natural sciences, predominantly biology, the use of natural oscillators is dedicated to the study of the ways of functioning of the natural world within its temporal structure. A simple example of this is the functioning of the heart and circadian rhythms, which represent the information flow from the working processes in our brains. Circadian rhythm enables us to understand and monitor time and helps us to maintain our everyday rhythm on the basis of electro-chemical oscillation of the cells. Within this project we would like to concentrate on the study of various living systems (animal and plant species) and through them establish a specific oscillation for each of the species, which we would then assemble into a sonic-visual experience.

Theoretically we would be referring to work of botanist Jakob Johann von Uexküll, more specifically to his A Foray Into the Worlds of Animals and Humans, with a Theory of Meaning. Von Uexküll introduced biosemiotics as a research field and defined the term umwelt (milieu, situation, embedding – lit. German for environment). The expression usually refers to the so-called “self-in-world” subjective reference frame. The biological basis at the heart of his studies originates from a reflection on the communication and discerning of the meaning of what is human and what is animalistic. The fundamental thought of Uexküll’s theory is that organisms can have different umwelten, even when they share the same environment.

The project Oscillatorium is in its development phase and will debut at Kiblix festival 2015 (produced by Kibla). The collaboration at PIFcamp will be in the form of debates, experimentation and research.

Key words:
bio-sonification, natural oscillation, vibration, analogue, bio-analogue

How to hack your holiday

Michael Page is an artist/inventor who has been refining an electro-mechanical music sequencing machine for the past few years. After confronting the fact he enjoys performance but not studio recording with his machines, he started thinking about documentation, and how a happening or recording of an event can be the outcome of a project. He believes an event or a recording of an event is something with realness about it and appreciates the real incidental aspects – it all happens in a real place and time and is rich with “free data”, such as room / PA acoustics, performance errors, background noises, birdsong etc.

His project on PIFcamp will tranfer his outlook on documentation to the happening on the camp. Do you know how people’s holiday photos pretty much just show the good stuff? Or when people make their kids catch a Frisbee for a photo, but don’t actually play a proper game with them? Do they do this to conjure some sort of hyper-real hyper-idyllic family scene or something?

Michael’s project will try to remove as much of this bias as possible, by having photos, audio and video taken at arbitrary intervals. A starting point for exploration will be camera set to time lapse mode taking documentation every half hour or so, with the resulting material compiled into a very honest holiday slideshow. The project will investigate the physical process of hacking an audio/video device to record at arbitrary intervals and hopefully start discussion around the subjects of documentation and the consumption of media and experience.

Peter Edwards: Soča Synthesis
The analog synthesizer in the wild

Because of the analog synthesizer’s dependence on electricity it has evolved in a way that is strongly related to the locations where a reliable flow of electricity is available. Namely inside buildings. In keeping with this they have developed predominately for desk top use in clean, controlled environments. This project will question the conventional format of the synthesizer and investigate the impact and inspiration of the outside world (in all of its dirty, rainy, windy and endlessly moving glory) on the format, use and experience of the audio synthesizer.

Each team member will build a simple but powerful “classic” analog modular synthesizer containing 2 VCOs (voltage controlled oscillators), 1 VCF (VC filter), 1 VCA (VC amplifier) and a special sensor interface. This interface allows any of the synthesizers many parameters to be controlled using a wide range of signals from the outside world.

The first goal will be to build a powerful and flexible synthesizer circuit that can be used during PIFcamp and long after. Through this process we will learn about how voltage controlled synthesizers work (and why they are awesome!) and then investigate how our physical engagement with the circuit (knobs, buttons etc.) shapes its functionality. Following that we will use these device throughout the wild, with other PIFcampers, with a cooperative squirrel, with no one at all. Through this we will explore how the activities and life of the forest, river etc. can impact how we create and experience sound….music will be made, unruly fun will be had, synthesizers will get dirty.

The Home Team is growing! Joining us at PIFcamp is Dario Cortese, a herbalist and a wild plants expert, so be prepared to utterly hack your everyday existence on long walks and nutritious talks. Cortese will also be joining forces with Marc Dusseiller and empirically satisfy all who wonder how nurturing these wild plants really are.

We are also excited that one of the participants in the camp is Marko Peljhan, who will collaborate, instruct, help and perhaps even take you fishing.