Month: May 2024

I have made many pieces that are intended to loop. I have often found finding a piece in a gallery that is halfway through incredibly annoying. Getting half the story without the context and then watching the resolution without the proper build-up.

I wanted to try and create a perfect loop for this piece, so I was looking for ways to do that without having too much of a glitch.

so I was thinking of mechanised things

• bicycle
• blender
• sewing machine
• escalator

I ended up choosing sewing machines as it is one of my favourite hobbies.

I also wanted to reference invisible labour and how that has changed through mass industrialisation. When a mother used to make most of the clothes for a household, now unseen hands in far-off lands do. Most people believe (and I did at one stage) that most clothes are made with automatic sewing machines where people are not involved.

That is not true,

Every item of clothing is made by hand, and many people have touched it before you.

I was also inspired by this artist

Femnet e.V. x HUMAN TOUCH

at Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum Cologne

It is a performance piece in which the artist applies black ink to their hands and starts making garments. The end products are completely marked up, showing how much time and humanity is put into each garment of the billions the world uses and throws away.

I set it up with a tripod, a desk lamp and then the sewing machine on my desk.

I cut a long strip of folded-over black fabric to try and hide as many artifacts as possible that would ruin the loop. I ducked under the table, held the fabric, and pressed the foot.

I couldn’t perfectly match it up, which was quite a pain as the black fabric slipped around a bit. Because I was ducking to get out of the shot, I did not have that much control.

When I think of a soundtrack for a piece that continues into infinity, I think of arps. I am a vintage synthesizer fiend, which has altered how I understand the construction of sound and music. I have been lucky enough to make lots of music with this synthesizer: the Moog Model D. It is like a language I have learned (so you will see me making lots of music with this)

For this specific project, I used a different synthesizer: King of FM., a type of synthesizer that plays two synthesizers simultaneously. Whilst still being able to alter settings for both synthesizers.

So, I combined a Marimba with a synthesizer called Metamonics and then adjusted the release and decay of both to make it sound snappy and plongy.

I then altered the sequencer.

Each number indicates a variation in semitone from the original note hit (on the keyboard). So, it plays its song/sequence by holding each note, which is fun to play chords with as the notes harmonise and jump from location to location as my fingers do.

Also note that it is 10 steps long.

I wanted the arps to get chaotic, so after two bars, I decreased the number of steps by 1, so it feels like it is getting quicker. After going down to just one step, I tried lots of different steps to keep them sounding in time, so I didn’t choose many odd steps.

The number on the sides indicates how many steps it is.

I also wanted a quick and snappy feel that relates to the snappiness of the sewing machine.

I think I could develop this concept, as I find it interesting. However, I don’t feel inspired by making this kind of art; it feels too methodical and obvious (even if I didn’t do as good of a job as I would like).