Strange Sounds

My name is Nadav Goldenberg, a 4th year student of industrial design at Shenkar college of engineering and design in Israel. This is my graduation project, an exploration through sound, culture and design.

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So there you have it, the completed model of the trumpet!

This project was about design and the culture of music and where the two meet. I've designed a trumpet, inspired by manufacturing methods and contemporary music.

Photos by Achikam Ben Yosef

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Some images from the model fabrication process - 3d print -> electroforming with copper -> sanding and polishing -> gold plating

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After a long design process I can finally say I'm done. The last few weeks have been intense but these rendering show what I meant to say with my design.

I wanted this instrument to be composed out of several languages - culture, industry and noise, and I've taken my time to find the right balance for me and how to express it right.

My trumpet is made from two materials: brass and plastic. While most tubing is brass to contain the familiarity of the instrument, I used plastic for the rest of the tuning slides, finger rings and connectors which makes this trumpet effectively modular. Each part can be replaced for customization and in case of damage.

What do you think this trumpet sounds like?

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In the 1990s, Harry Bertoia's son Val found some recordings of his father's sculptures and sold them as collector's items. Soon after, the Japanese label P.S.F. Records which specializes in avant-garde and experimental music issued an album called Unfolding, made from a few of these recordings.

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You might know Harry Bertoia from the iconic Diamond Chair but he was initially a sculptor, working with sound sculpture.

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Plastic parts!

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a few of my sketch pages for various parts of the trumpet, I'm paying close attention to every single part.

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Trying a new shape for the bell pipe, making a paper mockup for a real size scale.

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Apart from sketching out like a madman to try out everything in 2d, I also 3d printed out some parts to play around with and check sizes.

I also used these parts to test an electroforming process for the model I will make, as we don't have any trumpet makers in Israel I want to fabricate a model that looks real enough to pass on my ideas.

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Renderings from my mid semester presentation, I feel like I'm getting closer to the form I want. I've kept the plastic tuning slide and made some plastic connectors to everything else. Still a long way to go, something feels missing. I need to balance everything and test sizes in real life.

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When I was a kid I used to watch a lot of Looney Tunes Cartoons and one of my favorites was Duck Amuck (1953).

Apart from having a totally different narrative than other cartoons at the time, the genius in this in my opinion was the manipulation of what we understand and what we experience, as Daffy Duck recieves a guitar at one point he (and the audience) expects it to sound normal but soon finds out he is wrong.

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Some CAD tests based on my sketches and how a trumpet actaully works, feels like the shape is getting there.

The black plastic part is the main tuning slide, I wanted to add another material to see how it comunicates with the brass.

[pianoscanada-blog]

Schimmel Pegasus

This is the incredible Schimmel Pegasus.  Prince has a custom made purple version of this piano that he has used on tour before, it’s super cool, just like Prince!

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A grand piano designed by Luigi Colani, and made by Schimmel. You need a crazy designer in order to change people's perspective. So elegant in it's weirdness.

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After scrapping my previous ideas the next step for me was to lay out everything I've done and learned and see how I can create a new identity for the trumpet based around a simple change, I wanted to start with something basic and move on from there.

With this the bell pipe became a large tube and instantly changed what I felt about this instrument. For a while I messed around with proportion and feel of the trumpet.

[themusicpoint]

Musicians around the world visualize notation in wonderfully unusual ways to celebrate John Cage, who would’ve been 101 today.

[Source]

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Images from the Notations 21 project by Theresa Sauer, inspiried by composer John Cage's original project of visualizing musical notations in different ways. What is language? What is art? What is music?

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Interesting video and commentary by artist Euan Macdonald about the testing process of a piano keyboard.

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Next week is my final presentation for this project, I've been very busy at work and I'll share my progress with the final design and modelling process.

Meanwhile, here's an updated logo! Out with the old, in with the new!