Curator of Communication Technologies @IngeniumCa // Adjunct Professor @Carleton_U // Sound, Museums, History // he/il
Ottawa, Ontario
Joined January 2011
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Calling all electronic music researchers 🎛️🎹: @Carleton_U's School for Studies in Art and Culture and @IngeniumCa just launched a new postdoctoral fellowship in Electronic Music History. Application details in link below:
ingeniumcanada.org/postdocto…
ALT Over-the-shoulder shot of curator and conservator peering under the hood of the Electronic Sackbut synthesizer. Internal wiring and circuitry behind keyboard is exposed.
Latest update on the Electronic Sackbut project can be found below, including photos of work in progress. Happy to answer any questions 👋
ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a…
A look under the hood of the Electronic Sackbut synth reconstruction-in-progress. Keyboard and surface controls wired up. Next steps: making connections to digital sound engine and adapting physical/electronic components to best match functionality of the original 1948 instrument
ALT Reconstruction of the Electronic Sackbut synthesizer with top control surface open revealing electronic components and circuitry underneath.
On December 17, 1972, Canadian scientists working in the Arctic descended into a plexiglass bubble anchored 40ft underwater and made a phone call to PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau. @IngeniumCa has the artifacts and curator @SEJaworski wrote a story about them:
ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a…
Big day for our Electronic Sackbut reconstruction project: the physical build is done! Just need to wire it up and start experimenting with the sound. Kudos to our fabricator Denis Larouche on such a brilliant job. Virtually indistinguishable from the original (1948) artifact. 🙌
ALT Full-scale reconstruction of the 1948 Electronic Sackbut synthesizer photographed against a neutral background.
A few years ago my team and I at @IngeniumCa reconstructed Alexander Graham Bell's macabre 1874 ear phonautograph. We're still trying to figure out what the original mouthpiece was made of. I just wrote a blog on it 👇 Any ideas? We'd love to hear them!
ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a…
ALT Ear phonautograph reconstruction photographed against a white background. Instrument is predominantly made of brass, with a cone-shaped black rubber mouthpiece.
James Mooney speaking at @nmc_canada on the tape recorder as electronic musical instrument. Note the instrument on centre stage: Hugh Le Caine's Special Purpose Tape Recorder (made in Ottawa, 1959). One of my fav artifacts at @IngeniumCa (on loan/exhibit at NMC). 🙌 – at Calgary, Alberta
Looking forward to presenting progress on the Electronic Sackbut reconstruction project at the 2022 American Musical Instrument Society Conference at @nmc_canada this am. If you're attending, please say hello! 🎹👋
Ever wonder what stethoscope artifacts can teach us about the history of sound culture in medicine? Aliisa Qureshi recently explored the question in her Ingenium Channel article below.
ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a… – at Ottawa, Ontario
This is such a cool project. Using AI to deliver therapeutic soundscapes "on demand," based on how the body is responding to stress. Read more in Corona Wang's blog post below.
ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a… – at Ottawa, Ontario
Milestone on the Electronic Sackbut (1948) reconstruction project today: custom "janky keyboard" is finished and looking 👌👌👌. Kudos to Denis Larouche, our fabricator, for his amazing work 🙌. [Image 1: 2022 reconstruction // Image 2: 1948 original]
ALT Reconstructed Electronic Sackbut keyboard on table in workshop.
ALT Original Electronic Sackbut keyboard photographed in studio.
If you're interested in electronic instrument heritage/conservation, join @AnnieKJamieson and I and friends for a conversation on just that tomorrow! Friday, 10am EST. Registration and programme here (free): mirn.org.uk/
More Sackbut: this orange mass was originally a sponge that made the lever kick back after you flicked it with your pinky finger (to adjust the attack of a note). Now it's crumbling to dust. We're measuring it to guess the original size and feel. The goal: "optimal flick."
Trying to determine the degree of action (up and down) on the Electronic Sackbut's keys, which have been affected by shifts in the wooden keyboard frame over time.
Sackbut surgery: investigating the design of the metal discs that would have allowed the player to adjust timbres.
ALT Testing electronic components in the Electronic Sackbut synthesizer.
I'll be spending a few hours with the Electronic Sackbut at the museum this afternoon, examining components with our design team. Will tweet photos. If there's anything in particular you want to see up close, just let me know! 📸🎹
ALT Front view of the 1948 Electronic Sackbut synthesizer.
One of my favourite genres of historical writing is the history of seemingly mundane objects: zippers, glass, pills, etc. Jean-Philip Mathieu just wrote a great short piece on the history of the nail (🔨not💅). 3 min read, link below.
ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a…
Congrats Samantha Moore on your excellent Ingenium Channel article on #accessibility and #multisensory learning in #museums. 🙌 "As a blind/low vision child, two things I loved always seemed to be just out of reach: history and art": ingeniumcanada.org/channel/a…