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ALUMINUM, FLICKED AND BENT

As a percussionist, I have always been interested in testing materials and gauging their percussive usefullness. A 2' x 3' piece of aluminum, available at any local hardware store, is as versatile an instrument as any. For this piece, I made several recordings of the aluminum sheet by attaching a contact microphone to one corner. I edited five of the recordings so that each of them was around one minute long. I then used the amplitude level of each recording, most resembling percussive attacks, to modulate a sine tone. An random algorithm changes the rate of each files' playback, master volume, and the frequence of the sine tone.

For the installation of this piece, I hung the original sheet of aluminum up from a door jam and had the signal from the contact microphone modulating an additional sine tone. When anyone at the installation touched the aluminum their contact was made audible.

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