The Sonic Body is part of the Brighton Digital Festival 2007, a month-long celebration of creative talent in the digital media sector. The festival, which runs throughout November, offers new and exciting opportunities for artists, designers and technologists to collaborate, share and showcase their talent.

Now in its 3rd year, the festival includes events from three distinct sectors – arts, business and the community – to establish itself as the most inclusive festival of its kind within the UK. From ubergeeks to animaters, film producers to web designers, its got something for everyone in digital media.

Brighton Digital Festival is owned and organized by Wired Sussex

We just finished the main structure, looks very cool!

Structure finished!

Various recording techniques and different types of microphones have been used for the Sonicbody project. From initial investigations with a standard stethoscope to the actual insertion of a microphone into the human body. It has been a journey of learning and discovery both into the sonic world our inner anatomy but also the techniques required to capture this.

( all samples are looped, except the ultrasonic )

Stethoscope

We used the Stethoscope to record the sound of the heart, lungs, stomach and joints. Essentially this is very much like pressing ones ear against a persons body and listening to their heart etc. We found that the results were not too unusual and so our recording techniques had to be developed further.

[soundcloud id=’1165452′ artwork=’true’ format=’set’]

Hydrophone

This waterproof contact microphone enabled us to venture inside the human body. By actually inserting the microphone into the various orifices of the human body a sonic world unfamiliar to the human ear could be recorded.

[soundcloud id=’1165444′ artwork=’true’ format=’set’]

Anechoic Chamber

We hired an Anechoic chamber to record the most subtle external sounds emitted by the human body. An Anechoic chamber is a highly sound proofed sonic space with absolutely no reverb which allows microscopic sonic activity to be recorded.

[soundcloud id=’1165436′ artwork=’true’ format=’set’]

Ultrasonic Sound

Frequencies which are above the human hearing range are referred to as ultrasound. With specialised recording equipment one can actually capture ultrasonic frequencies and detune them to the human hearing range. Here are some examples of ultrasound emitted by humans.

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I’ve started making the first shapes. I’ve used mainly furnishing fabrics concentrating on  creating contrasts ( size / shapes / textures).  The aim is to suggest the inside of the body and to make the sculpture interesting to feel and to look at.

Balls

This is the first time that we can see how it’s really going to look like. Even if it’s just the “bones” of the installation, it gives us a pretty good feeling about it.

Inside

Harry and I started to build the structure. The structure has a huge base so we had to project the plan at scale 1 directly on the two boards. We made a plan on illustrator with the outside shape, inside shape and the uprights placement. That plan also helped us to know how much wood, uprights and mdf we needed.

Projecting main shape

Harry made a model of the installation so we are sure that we won’t get anything wrong with the budget and the construction of the installation.

This is the first version of sonicbody.co.uk. We had to be quick as we wanted to start the online documentation ( blog ). The Sonic Body project takes lots of time so we had to prioritise the construction of the installation as well as the experimentation. Anyway our website doesn’t look that bad.

Blank Gallery, Brighton, 1 – 8 November 2007. The Sonic Body is part of the Brighton Digital Festival 2007.