Prikaz objav z oznako primož oberžan. Pokaži vse objave
Prikaz objav z oznako primož oberžan. Pokaži vse objave

torek, 26. marec 2019

35. Wind harph


Nobody knows who was the first inventor of wind harph, but we can be quite sure they were already known in ancient times in Greece and East. The first exact description of the "modern" aeolian harp was made by the Jesuit and scientist Athanasius Kircher born in 1602 near Fulda in Germany. Although the instrument is 'officially' known for almost four centuries, it's still very rare and not many people know how it sounds.

After several years of research and many useless prototypes I finally managed to make the first fully functional wind harph. As the basic design of a harph is quite simple, the secret of its sound lies in proper tuning and orientation regarding general direction of the wind. During the process I often felt like a sailor learning about the wind on an unknown sea.





It's hard to explain overwhelming feelings when I put the harph outside on a windy day for the first time and it started to play immediately. I felt like I create a rare living being, finally awake to life. Its mysterious and harmonically rich sound unexpectedly comes and goes with the wind, varying in pitch and loudness. There's no way to force wind harph to sing. One should be patient waiting for the right wind to excite its strings with proper frequency and wake up the harph like a sleeping beauty. So its song is always a kind of a gift, caused by nature in accordance with skillful hands.


četrtek, 7. februar 2019

34. Sonic laboratory

I like to work with kids. I found it very challenging , especially keeping their attention focused when I want to explain them something they never heard and see before. One should use a lot of imagination and theatrical skills to hold their interest, otherwise they won't give a damn to your efforts.

This time I was invited to prepare an educational performance for elementary school in Laško with some additional students from other schools in our community. About 1000 pupils between 7 and 14 years filled up the main hall of local cultural center for 4 times.




I asked my nephew Franko to help me with performance and add some of his jokes into the scenario. We also prepared a rap song with his lyrics to make things more exciting.



I took a role of mad professor and Franko was himself, accidentally lost in my 'Sonic laboratory'. I've explained him my method of work and showed him what sound does with powder and liquid.


I also told him about neanderthal flute from Divje babe cave, the oldest instrument found so far, dating more than 40.000 years back. As an instrument builder using mostly discarded materials, I feel closely related to our ancestors which used to make music out of anything appropriate they could find.






After final song we invited most curious pupils to join us on stage and take a look on my sound devices like efektor, theremin and cymatic machines for sound visualization. Their enthusiasm exceeded my expectations and gave me a great reward for all the efforts.





ponedeljek, 6. november 2017

26. Kymatikon in Museum of Senses in Prague



Few months ago I was invited to design two sound installations for Museum of Senses in Prague. So I got the chance for further development of my recent Kymatikon prototypes. I built two devices: Chladni plate with frequency generator and three cymatic loudspeakers connected to the electronic drum pads and a theremin. While kids and their parents are turning knobs and hitting the drums to make some music, they can also observe exciting, non-linear dance of quartz sand under two plexi glass domes.

Beside Kymatikon there are other interesting things like vortex tunnel, bed of nails and different illusions regarding our sight and perception of space. So if you are visiting Prague I recommend you to take a look of the Museum as well.







sreda, 1. februar 2017

21. DIY E-drums


 During past ten years I have worked quite a lot with different self made electronic pads in addition to basic The Stroj percussive arsenal which includes rough percussions like plastic oil drums, assorted cymbals, coils and metals, kick and coil drums. So I decided to make some prototypes of heavy duty electronic pads connected to drum module (recently I'm working with 2Box DrumIt Five). Car tires already proven their durability so I used them for pads. Their response and dynamic work well enough for our purpose as we tested them as oil drums the crew is usually playing.








I was quite lucky to find a small trampoline in a junkyard not far away from my house. Except the pink plastic, It seemed to be the perfect head for E - Kick.


And it was. Heavy duty, very responsive, hi-tech and with retro futuristic appeal I really like.

To hear them in action, stay tuned for my further projects....

četrtek, 15. december 2016

20. Kymaticon on Vienna Art Week



It's been almost 20 years since I work with sculptor Boštjan Drinovec on different sound and kinetic sculptures. Our collaboration started in the early days of Metelkova in Ljubljana, squated military complex with most vital artistic scene in 90's.
This year we were invited to exhibit two instruments/sound installations at Denise Parizek's gallery Schleifmuhlgasse 12-14 during Wienna Art Week. I've performed a short piece of music on efektor on the opening before leaving the machines to the audence. I think they had a lot of fun and for most of them it was the first time to see cymatics.






ponedeljek, 13. avgust 2012

4. Profession: Metamechanic


'Profession: Metamechanic' is a short movie about my recent metamechanical research and experiments. Movie was filmed and edited by Jaka Žilavec from The School Of Arts of University of Nova Gorica as a part of the project Researcher's Night 2011 in Nova Gorica.

You can watch me explaining some basic metamechanical concepts, already explained in the first three posts of this blog. This time unfortunately without english subtitles.

Link:
http://vimeo.com/30849998