Hunter Ewen, an instructor in听the Department of Critical Media Practices,听has received听grants to fund two new projects that explore new technologies in sound collection and LED art.听
"Both of these grants come back to a central theme of my research and creative work鈥攅xploring new ways of visualizing sound.听Though drones and long-exposure photography may seem like disparate projects, I see them as critically important to the advancement of visualization and sound-art in the 21st century." 鈥擧unter Ewen
First Project: Using Drones as Sound Collection Tools听
Ewen received a $4,000 grant from the 听(滨搁滨厂厂)'蝉听听to pursue research and creative work focused on using drones as sound collection tools. His project will involve designing and testing recording rigs that minimize audio interference in collaboration with students from IRISS and DCMP, creating a workflow for soundscape artists and acoustic ecologists to integrate drones into their own work听and creating original sound-art using drone-captured recordings. The project should be听completed in听spring 2017.
IRISS听is a new multidisciplinary team at CU-Boulder, created in support of the听 initiative. Part of IRISS鈥檚 mission is to "lead the design, development and deployment of novel remote and in-situ sensing systems to exploit mobility enabled by aerospace systems."
Second Project: LEDpaint
Ewen also听received a $3,000 grant from the 听to pursue his most recent project, LEDpaint鈥攁 sonic and visual art installation that explores the relationship between sound and visualization. This project combines e-textile design, photography, sound technology, music composition听and dance in a series of still images, paired with their associated sounds. LEDpaint听represents an exciting new opportunity for CMCI to collaborate with faculty, students听and staff from the听, the 听and the .
The images are long-exposure, single-subject photographs, shot in the dark and lit only by the LED lights worn and used by performers. The subjects of these shoots are dancers, musicians听and movement-artists. With his team, Ewen is developing light-up gloves, leggings, dresses, shirts听and shoes that will allow the subjects to perform听unencumbered by the LEDs. The works will be largely dominated by abstract trails of LED lights, which trace the movements of a performer during an exposure. As performers pluck, strike, spin, jump听and play, the sounds of their actions are recorded鈥攖o be played alongside the photographs in the installation.
This听project is also expected to be finished in spring 2017.