Andrew Benson

I just finished building, or rather stitching together my first complete wearable device, the Whisper audio wristband. I have researched and experimented with soft electronics, interactivity, sensor technologies, and conductive fibers for some time now, but this is the first standalone device that I have created that incorporates all of these concepts. Whisper was conceived as a simple wearable audio device that would be lightweight, comfortable, and provide an engaging and simple interface that was capable of producing interesting noises. I had recently been working on AVR code for sound synthesis for my Whispering Islands installation, and saw this as a good opportunity to try and create an interactive and wearable unit. The synthesis is done using an AVR ATTiny45 chip programmed to run a simple FM routine using a 256-point sine wave table. Carrier frequency is controlled by the brown button-knob, and the FM modulator frequency and amount are controlled by the pressure sensitive fabric pads. The tiny speaker will resonate with certain settings, creating some occasional loud squawks. Otherwise, the device creates some quiet, but subtly wonderful sounds.

I just recently started doing some field recordings again, after spending a long time in pure synthesis land. I needed a good pair of mics for doing stereo recordings, so I grabbed a couple of good quality Panasonic electret capsules and soldered them to a length of cable from a pair of broken headphones. To protect the wiring (and make them look a little more stealthy) I mounted the capsules inside 1″ pieces of a ballpoint pen barrel. A little hot glue and some tape, and I had some really good sounding stereo mics for doing field recording on the sly with my MiniDisc.

The spazkron control is a gestural, wearable performance instrument built around a hacked USB game controller and 2 piezo contact microphones, as well as a custom sound synthesis patch built in MaxMSP.

The most conspicuous aspect of the device is the pair of long wooden dowels that extend from the abdomen of the performer. These are attached to patches that contain the analog joystick elements from the game controller. The sticks function as long joysticks that protrude from the body. The 4 axes provide analog values that are mapped to various functions in the audio synthesis software.

The contact mics are embedded into felt wristbands that are worn by the performer. Sound is triggered by striking or scraping these contact mics against the sticks. The Max patch performs envelope following on the incoming signals. The resulting envelopes are used as parameters for various sound generation functions, in addition to volume control. This offers the performer a great deal of expressivity and subtlety.

In building this controller, I was interested in creating something that required a certain amount of physical engagement to make it function. I am primarily interested in performing complex, spazzy noise stuff, so I needed a controller that expressed that sort of physical movement. Because of the nature of the device and its relationship to the body, the performer must twitch, contort, and flail in order to really engage the full complexity of the system. I was specifically not interested in a controller that was polite, reserved, and cool. I wanted my device to force clumsiness and absurdity upon the situation, which is something that is often missing from experimental electronic music.

Jeff Kaiser has a brief blurb about a recent performance here