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Final Project - Hit A Wall

"Hit A Wall" is a split-screen sound art video project. The balls collide and bounce around the room unorganized, creating a suitable cage, with the collisions bouncing around the room repeatedly. This sound is trapped in the room as well as in the screen. At the same time, on the same screen, the audience feels the superposition of countless collision sounds, which is an experiment in sound and an experiment on the net. The sound drives the screen's content, following the trajectory of the ball's movement, and the screen is constantly extended, reorganized, and dispersed with the sound.

The ball touches the wall repeatedly, just like a person's difficulties on the way forward. Initially, the ball is thrown far away under the action of human external force, and when it meets the wall, it bounces violently. Man can control the initial point, size, and direction, but when the ball makes contact with the wall for the first time, it is caught in this cage that floors the final destination of these balls. In the next basket, the ball always wants to enter the frame, but the reality is entirely different from the ideal idea; many of the balls, in the end, can only be in the outside world to watch what is inside the wall.

In the choice of ball, I compared table tennis and tennis; they have different characteristics. A ping-pong ball is small but has a strong elasticity; a tennis ball is the opposite, and on a wooden floor, the elasticity of a tennis ball is further weakened, which was a little disappointing for me. Tiny ping-pong balls are only suitable for overly large spaces if there are many of them, and for the room I chose, it would take at least a couple of hundred ping-pong balls to achieve the desired effect. The tennis ball became my choice; it was more subdued in tone, which is very much like a human character, steady, rather than the frivolity of a ping pong ball.

The power of one tennis ball is not enough, but when two, three, four, eight, or even eighty tennis balls are working at the same time, the power of the sound it produces is immense, a sensation that the images on the screen cannot give, like rain.

The video uses a split screen format, with the appearance of the screen driven by the sound and the trajectory of the ball, which I hope will focus the viewer's attention even more on the sound and give the viewer a sense of this trapped sound, where the ball and its sound are confined within a cut-off screen, like a human being trapped in a cut-off space of reality.

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Final Project Pre-Thinking

I like the irregular sounds, the bouncing, the reflections, the rolling, and the friction.

Under external force, it will only move according to the human consciousness when the person disengages; the object will collide in space according to its shape, eventually losing all kinetic energy and coming to a silent rest on the ground.

In the presence of sound, a person will judge the shape of the sound object based on experience. Proper philosopher Don Ihde philosophically reflects on the body of sound in "Listening and Voice." While the human eye permanently clearly recognizes the contours and boundaries of spatial forms, the sense of hearing recognizes shapes and images differently. If we listen to a sphere that hits the ground once, it is difficult for us to grasp its form and make a judgment, but after bouncing many times, we can hear its "edge shape" accurately.

In my previous research, I have been exploring those irregular but orderly sounds in nature, and the sound of rain is the majority of them, representing disorder. Extending this disorder, it seems trapped in a space (room) belonging to nature, in which it bounces and dances irregularly, like countless balls colliding in the room.

Continuing Jeppe Hein's idea, he extends the idea of the human from the sound of the ball to a broader sound space. I want to focus all of one's senses on the disorganized sound produced by the balls, superimposing the chaotic sound of the balls to create a sense of power towards the rain coming together.

The project expects to show some ideas related to human beings, such as hope, endeavor, helplessness, calmness, and regaining the original point through the irregular collision and bouncing of the ball in space.

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Sound Inspiration#3

The sound gradually takes one's mind to faraway places.

I viewed Danish artist Jeppe Hein's large-scale interactive installation, Distance.

A white bouncing ball is launched when one enters the steel track maze. The ball then travels over a hundred meters into the steel labyrinth, gliding along the track, lifting, lowering, circling, free-falling… At this point, the viewer's attention shifts from the ball to the broader dynamic space.

It is unpredictable, even as it moves along a set track, but makes a sound that cannot be controlled. It's a lot like the sound of rain. It's a set course, but the sound always has slight variations.

This inspired me, but I preferred to keep the viewer's eyes confined to a frame, using the screen to guide the viewer's eyes, contrary to Jeppe Hein's idea.

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Sound Inspiration#2

Rain also sings; this is my new perception of rain.

Before, my shallow understanding of rain was that singularly, it is too small, and gathered, it is enormous, and between these two forms, it is gentle, like the sound of rain on a calm night.

The artist from Sweden shows another form of rain.

Vallbo used 25 pieces of stainless steel with different structures to assemble a unique "rain drum."

When raindrops fall on the drum, different drum surfaces and sizes of water droplets produce unique sounds, as if nature is playing beside them. He hoped the installation could reawaken people's senses and rethink the relationship between people and rain.

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Sound Inspiration#1

In an old building, rain dripped from the roof.

Yes, it was a leaky building, and the forces of time were eating away at him constantly and slowly.

The rain smashed a groove in the stone floor. So, what I thought was that perhaps a tiny drop of rain could contain a majestic force.

In fact, it's so tiny that one can't see or feel it. But when they gather together, he will become a river, ocean, flood, and tsunami that engulfs people and land.

I want to express this tiny feeling in the form of sound so that the listener can feel its power.

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Vibration of sound/horror atmosphere

When watching a horror film, the visual stimulation brought about by the visuals can make one feel sick, nauseous, and excited. Still, adding sound takes the inspiration from the screen up a few stages.

Imagine entering a suburban house; the empty and dusty room will make you feel depressed, but the sound produced by aging some of its objects will always make people feel more scared.

The water organ mainly produces sound effects for horror films. These sounds are not made by nature, but after processing, the strings vibrate with the sound, and the eerie and harsh sound triggers endless associations.

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Sounds from tens of thousands of years ago

Ice is created when water freezes at low temperatures, and when the ice cracks, the air inside creates a loud rattling sound underwater, and those countless bubbles that exist in it create an art that transcends time.

No one knows how long these bubbles have existed in the glacier, perhaps years, decades, or more. These bubbles have spanned centuries to create a unique sound. It might be like a tapping pan or a pouring soda.

Trapped in ice, the bubble eventually erupts into an earth-shattering clang. But what it announces is that it representing the demise of a glacier.

While butterflies flutter their wings to create storms on the other side of the world, the demise of tiny bubbles may allow for a gradual rise in global sea levels.

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The Magic of ASMR

When it's time to fall asleep at night, some people habitually put on their earphones and turn on their video players.

With eyes closed, one's visual senses are stripped away by the darkness, but the ears still feel everything around them.

Yes, whether it's the natural white noise from rain, wind, burning firewood, or the triggering sounds from artificial cuts, knocks, and friction. They all become comforting and accelerate one into the world of dreams.

This is not a visual stimulation but a spiritual massage through headphones and audio.

Its name is ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response).

Fingers gently cross the microphone. Airflow blows through the ears. Sounds that usually cannot be heard are amplified in a split second to attract people's attention and gain an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

Youtubers, on the other hand, put a lot of effort into the show's visual and auditory aspects. Movie-quality lighting, scene setting, and professional recording equipment make the listeners feel that the sounds surround their ears, both psychologically and physically.

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Between the City and the Forest

What is the most representative sound of a city?

Bustling lights, never-ending traffic, or noisy crowds?

What is the sound of the forest?

The fluttering leaves on the branches, the flowing streams, or the birdsong in the sunshine?

When the city replaces the forest, a high-rise building rises, and the steel concrete made of concrete replaces the vitality and tranquility of nature.

The traffic on the left and the trees on the right illustrate this feeling on a sidewalk.

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Eaves in the Rain

On a rainy day, people may be able to prevent the rain from wetting their bodies through shelter and escape consciously.

But the unconscious things, the leaves, the bricks and mortar, the eaves, can only stay where they are and wait for the downpour to wash them away.

Rain is lapped against the eaves, and the sound from the collision bounces into one's ears, creating a pleasant white noise.

These lonely, immobile foods form the natural symphony of a rainy day.

People can shelter from the rain under the roof, but what about everything else?

Along with them, there is artificial garbage. This garbage appears in its natural form and is processed and used by man. After its mission is accomplished, it is left on the side of the road, alone, waiting to be washed away by the heavy rain, to dry, to be washed away again, to dry, and so on, for all eternity.

In the bathroom setting, water falling from the shower simulates the sound of rain, and objects of different materials are used to simulate eaves, such as kitchen paper, aluminum foil, and cans, as media to create sound reflections of water on other surfaces.