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The Scratch Studies are a series of new works that explore the
rhythmic sounds of scratching. These pieces make use of piano wire and
other metallic elements that are connected to digitally controlled motors
which then scratch steel and aluminum plates in various ways. These
"scratchers" in this series are of different scales, ranging from 4'
x 4' square floor pieces to smaller 6"x18" pieces which are hung. Documentation
here is from an installation of this work at the Block Museum,at Northwestern
University, in Evanston (just outside Chicago) from Sep. to Dec., 2000.
This installation used two of the larger Scratch Study #3: Mitosis
pieces in the center of the gallery, and eight of the smaller Scratch
Study #1: Moths piece sdistributed around the walls.
These pieces explore rhythmic patterns that are derived from various
natural processes that are simulated within a microcontroller controlling
the motors' movements (and thus the scratching activity). These computer
algorithms investigate various patterns found in nature ranging from
highly ordered patterns to sporadic and disorganized patterns. The patterns
themselves are based on natural processes as diverse as Brownian motion
(the movement of particles in fluids), bird song rhythms and bird migratory
patterns, and statistical studies of large populations.
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In "Scratch Study #1", a piece which uses two 6" X 18" piano-wire
"scratchers", these patterns range from rhythms which are reminiscent
of two tabla players playing a duet (at their most organized)
to rhythms more akin to furtive animal noises, or a dried leaf
vibrating in a stiff breeze (at their least organized).
However, in this in the series, the issue of the simulation
of nature by machines is even more directly explored by utilizing
rhythmic relationships between multiple "scratchers" which ranges
from machine-like synchronization to complete independence. The
works electronically listen to each other, imitating the scratching
rhythmns in various ways. The entire network of individuals begins
to take on group "emergent" behaviours which are impossible
to predict, and which simulate the way a natural system might
work.
Within the group rhythmic dynamic, exact synchronizations between
one or more scratchers will occur. When extremely complex and
subtle rhythms are duplicated exactly in various parts of the
room, these patterns contrast drastically with the other more
natural rhythms, instead seeming mechanical and "industrial.",
In this way then, this series of work is ultimately primarioly
concerned with the relationship between multiple independent activities
(and rhythms), as they are with the individual patterns that each
work plays and our varied perception to these simulations as natural
vs. mechanical or robotic.
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Obviously, in addition to the sounds they produce, each of these works
also has strong kinetic and visual elements as well. For instance, in
Scratch Study #3, one of the works exhibited at the Block gallery,,
two large 4' x 4' plates sit on the floor side-by side, each with a
stepper motor in the center of the plate attached to a long gangly wire
snaking up and then back down to the plate. As the motor jumps forward
and backward, the wire skitters across the plate, gradually scratching
a circular mark into the steel plate through time.
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