KNITSONIK investigates “making” sounds

On Wednesday 3rd August 2011, KNITSONIK^TM PROJEKT DIREKTOR Dr Felicity Ford travelled to the University of Ulster in Belfast to conduct further investigations into the sounds of making. This KNITSONIK^TM venture took THE PROJEKT beyond the sounds of knitting alone and out into the related sonic worlds beyond of woodwork; metalwork; creative recycling; textiles; silversmithing; printing and clay via a sounds of making workshop/drop-in session. This workshop was initiated by Craft NI as part of August Craft Month – an annual celebration of craft in Northern Ireland – and featured an array of microphones, a drop-in space in the University of Ulster art faculty, and an open invitation to all makers in the region to bring forth their tools and processes and consider the SONIK DIMENSIONS of making.

Stationed in a research lab and roving around the campus to talk to various makers and craftspeople in the University Buildings, Ford was interested in discovering the role of sound in how we understand different machines and materials. For instance, how does sound let us know when a thread or a saw blade might be on the verge of breaking?

What kind of rhythms are created through repetitive gestures, such as the physical movements inherent in the act of shaping clay?

What might we learn about surfaces and processes by applying contact microphones to objects which are being used for making, such as plastic bottles being filled with sequins and torn up rubbish, to make bunting and to turn waste and rubbish into party decorations?

…And how do such recordings differ from recordings made using directional stereo microphones, instead, where the information is carried through the airwaves and not through the densities of tissue paper, plastic, etc.?

Finally, what can be done with the sounds of making once they have been collected, recorded, labelled, stored, listened-to and considered? Some experiments in this direction have commenced following Ford’s return from Belfast and they include so far the construction of sonic collages – like this example* – which explores the soundworld of Gail’s ceramics practice.

Other creative outputs emerging from the sounds of making workshop include the addition of many such sounds to the Tweave map** so that the sounds collected in Belfast can be mixed and threaded together with other craft sounds already represented there.

These images are just screenshots, so you can’t do anything except look at them, but if you visit the Tweave website you can zoom right in on the map to play the sounds from Belfast only (like this)

Or you can zoom right out and see the weave of sounds that is slowly being made on this ingenious map, through the collection of many craft/making sounds into a single map and an endlessly layered warp and weft of MAKERLY SONIKS.

(Of course you can also add your own recordings to the map too).

Other future creative uses of the sounds of making recordings gathered at the workshop of the same name will include the creation of the KNITSONIK^TM 02 audio piece, following on from KNITSONIK^TM 01 which was produced earlier this year. Other snippets of audio featuring the sounds of making will also inevitably make it into Dr Felicity Ford’s own podcast/radio show projekt throughout coming weeks.

In summary, for the rest of August Craft Month, the KNITSONIK^TM PRODUKTION SUITE will be filled with the sounds of making, and the sounds of making will provide much inspiration as they whir, drum, pulse, beat, scratch, slide, thud and boom in the background, signifying industry and KONSTRUKTION.

*all sounds recorded by DR FELICITY FORD except for the Drum’n'Bass loop created by Dahovv and two klinky ceramic sounds recorded by Marcus Horndt, which were all licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 license

**Tweave is an interactive web project by Amy Houghton and Ed Holroyd which maps the sounds of making and Ford is honoured to be able to contribute to it