Automatic Overtone Environment

David Stanford and Dave Knott have been experimenting with bristlebots/hexbugs (little vibrating motor driven toy bugs) inside cast aluminum kitchen pan lids. The result is a sustained ringing created by the perpetual circular motion of the hexbugs inside the lids, with periodic contrasting “pings” and all manner of subtle changes in overtones based on the action of each individual bug/lid combination as well as the interaction across multiple lids.  

An array of these automated overtone generators will be situated around the room. The sunset through the Chapel’s west-facing stained glass windows will complement and integrate with the lighting below each of the lids. Movement between and among the array will allow ample space for observing the environment while the sun is going down.

David Stanford is a musician and sound artist living and working in Seattle. He currently plays with graphic score group Eye Music, silent movie soundtrack creators Aono Jikken Ensemble, feedback-based electronics trio Gyre, and for the past several years has been focused on staging sound events at outdoor locations such as beaches, backyards, and forests in collaboration with Michael Shannon and Joan Laage. 

Dave Knott gathers, plays with sounds; nurtures change with music; enjoys dialogue with movement, listening and dreaming with particular interests in timbre, listening practice, the tension between utility and aesthetics of music & the forms exposed through exercises in instability. Eye Music, Animist Orchestra, Yes, well…, Greasy, Major Knott, Anomalous Records Thursday Nights above the Artificial Limb Company, Messenger Girls Trio, Metaphonic Orchestra, Omake & Johnson, Ready Made Ensemble…