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M I K E R O B E R T S
Introductory Webinar (8mins)
W O V E N S O U N D knitted community
The 'Woven Sound, Knitted Community' project is made possible through a commission from Essex Cultural Diversity Project and the National Trust, funded by the Arts Council England and the National Trust.
The project revolves around the historical use of Grange Barn as a combined place of industry (wool) and community gathering, and the musical connection between Paycocke’s House and the composers Gustav & Imogen Holst.
I've been using accessible musical activity and creation as the focus for culturally diverse collaboration - working with the local community to create patterns that can be captured both in wool (through knitted and woven patterns) and sound, to ‘compose’ a collection of rhythmic woollen pictures, culminating in a unique sonic and visual installation in Grange Barn.
This online resource page has been set up to allow community involvement to continue during the Coronvirus pandemic now that the project timeline has been extended. Please watch the introductory video above and take advantage of the resources below to participate in this project.
latest
Videos
"Lockdown Grooves"
"Fragmented Harmony" - test weave
P A T T E R N and sound
"PhonoPaper" is a fantastic free APP available for iOS and Android devices. Designed to record and playback sound as a visual 'spectrogram', you can also use a template sheet to 'draw' sound directly onto paper. Please do send me a drawn pattern that you've found to make an interesting sound with this app - I'd love to include it in the installation.
Click here to go to PhonoPaper's website where you can be directed to the app and also download free template sheets to print off and design sound with. Also, you can send me your NHS Rainbows and I'll turn them into sound and include them in a mass woven collage...
P A T T E R N and rhythm
Drum machines provide an very intuitive way to turn pattern into musical compositions. There are a variety of free drum machine apps that you can use - and below are a few online versions that work directly in your web browser. Once you've created an interesting 'groove' do send me either a picture, sound recording or file (depending on what machine you use) and I'll include it in the installation.
Click here to go to drumbit's website
Click here to go to patternsketch's website
Click here to go to dreampipe's website
Or create your own "Lockdown Groove" with whoever you're in isolation with:
P A T T E R N and melody
Punch-card music boxes are great for creating musical patterns and melodies and they are not too expensive to get hold of. There are a few online resources that work in the same way:
Click here to buy a kit from amazon (I am not an amazon affiliate and will not receive a commission for this). Alternatively you can create a free online music-box pattern here:
Click here to go to musicboxmaniac's website
P A T T E R N weave
Finally, all the above activities effectively 'weave' visual patterns into sound/music is someway - weaving sound across time. If the idea of fabric weaving interests you, it's quite easy to to get started. If you'd like to have your weaving displayed in Grange Barn as part of the installation, please try to keep your colour scheme as close yarns shown in the picture one below (you don't have to use them all), and ideally use real wool where you can:
Click here to buy a simple frame loom from 'Handweavers' (again, I am not a handweaver affiliate and will not receive a commission for this.
Here's some examples of some hanging created by local school children for the projetc and the colour scheme:
Click here for a link to the loom we used above (although, unfortunately they seem to have hiked the price since we purchased a set for schools!
P A R T I C I P A T E submit
I would love to incorporate lots of creative work from the community into the Grange Barn installation (whenever that happens). If you get inspired by any or all of the above and what to contribute the results of your work for use within the project, please send me pictures, sounds, files and emails.
For younger participants, I can turn pretty much any pattern into music / fabric weave - so please make use of the grid below to colour as takes your fancy - or just send me a freestyle pattern made in anyway you like!
I'll do my best to give weave all your work into the final outcome.
Contact me at: mike [at] stilltimemusic [dot] co [dot] uk
Happy 'weaving'!!
Click to enlarge and download/print
example from picklebums.com
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