FMP Archaeoacoustics

In my project one of the things I want to research is if there is sound captured in the image. I already did some experiments with exporting every line of the image and import it into sound software that way converting it into sound. This week Titus van Lierop wrote a script for me for Photoshop to increase the speed for this proces. Last time it took me 3 weeks, now just 1 hour.

A small part of the script by Titus van Lierop

Through a tip of a colleague that people try to reveal hidden sounds in ancient pottery I came on a site about archaeoacoustics.

This is an exploration of acoustic phenomena encoded in ancient artifacts. The international organisation studies sound in ancient rituals, ceremonials, ​and performance spaces ​and the human experience thereof.   

Fake news

It was not hard to find all kind of news on people who said to have recovered sound out of pottery that was said to be played at the moment the pottery was made. The vibration of the tools caused by the music was supposed to be in the pottery and therefor it became possible to subtract it.

An example of this: 2014.

Petrachus Incadio Rosenberg: Violin recorded in clay on a potter's wheel in approximately 1552, recovered using laser interference technology at the University of Hilversum, 2014, by Prof. Loekasia Von Strabo.

What I like is the visual resemblance to vinyl records. Together with the image of the first phonograph from 1877 by Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison. 1877. First phonograph.

In 2015 this youtube video is told that two Belgium archaeoacoustic scientists have discovered a way to play minute scratches in ancient pottery, much like vinyl records in Greek pottery from the Mycenaean period (c. 1600-1100 BCE). They say to have used computer scans of the microscopic grooves in the thousands-of-years-old pottery to extract sounds. By expanding and clarifying the soundwaves on computer programs, they were able to produce clear, audible sounds from a potter’s kiln during the Bronze Age. Several recordings contain clear vocal samples from what sounds like both men and women, including discernible dialogue and laughter.

The clue is in the text: when translated to English, he says “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.” (the Rick Astley song).

ARTIST and sound pottery projects

In this video you here the sound of pottery by artist Jannova Frisby. The project with the name archaeoacoustics. Where she explores the possibility of playing sound encoded in artifacts.

Lewis Dawson turns the idea around by producing 3D printed clay pottery while playing sound to see if it can be captured. (His pdf on how to 3D print pottery is amazing and absolutely worth studying more close for my project).

Liat Segal and Roy Maayan made an installation where they let people sing and the sound was transformed in lines on a plate that was turned around. It looks very interesting but not replay-able.

Software to study sound visually

I saw this open source software that makes sound visual. Might be good to try it.

https://sonicvisualiser.org/download.html

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References:

• International society for the study of archaeoacoustics. Available at: http://www.archaeoacoustics.org [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• FRISBY, Jannova. 2015. Archaeoacoustics 2.0. Available at: https://www.iannanovafrisby.com/archeoacoustics

• ROSEN, Rebecca, J. 2012. Scientists Recover the Sounds of 19th-Century Music and Laughter From the Oldest Playable American Recording. Available at:

• https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/scientists-recover-the-sounds-of-19th-century-music-and-laughter-from-the-oldest-playable-american-recording/264147/ [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• PAQUETTE-STRUGER, Sierra. 2015. Ancient sounds from the past say “hello from the other side” [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• SEGAL, Liat & Roy MAAYAN. 2017. Plate recorder. Available at: http://www.liatsegal.com/2018/07/plate-recorder.html [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• SEGAL, Liat & Roy MAAYAN. 2017. Plate Recorder | Liat Segal & Roy Maayan | Cluj Ceramics Biennale 2017 | Muzeul de Arta Cluj-Napoca. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qkU7UEGWwY&feature=youtu.be [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• MUSEUM OF HOAXES. 2006. Ancient Pottery Recorded Audio. Status: Hoax. Available at: http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/ancient_pottery_recorded_audio [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• STRABO, Loekasia Von. 2014. Petrachus Pot (sound recovered from urn). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzd4AVXBP9k [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• VICTOR, Emile. 2006. The Vinyl Vase. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM7uU64YWbs [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• LIEROP, Titus van. 2020. Script.

• DAWSON, Lewis. 2016. Sounds in Ceramics. Available at: https://youtu.be/8mziLQF08ZE [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• DAWSON, Lewis. 2014. Human Nest - S&1 XTD 108. Available at: https://soundcloud.com/lewwyd [accessed on July 4, 2020].

• DAWSON, Lewis. 2017. Sonic Silos, venues for sonic art. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/53964993/Portfolio-Lewis-Dawson [accessed on July 5, 2020].

• DAWSON, Lewis. 2017. The delicate sound of space. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/49368939/Dissertation-The-Delicate-Sound-of-Space [accessed on July 5, 2020].

• KEEP, Johnathan. Available at: http://www.keep-art.co.uk/ [accessed on July 5, 2020].

• KEEP, Johnathan. 2020. A guide to clay 3D printing. Available at: http://www.keep-art.co.uk/Journal/JK_Guide_to_Clay_3D_Printing.pdf [accessed on July 5, 2020].

• JENNY, Hans. Cynamatics. Available at: http://www.cymatics.co.uk/hans-jenny/ [accessed on July 5, 2020].

• BEARDSLEY, Beardsley & Daniel LEECH- WILKINSON. 2009. A Brief History of Recording to ca. 1950. CHARM. Available at: https://charm.rhul.ac.uk/history/p20_4_1.html [accessed on July 5, 2020].

• Sonic Visualiser. Visualisation, analysis, and annotation of music audio recordings Available at: https://sonicvisualiser.org [accessed on July 5, 2020].