The Impossible Project is a massive project done at the end of the semester for my Art Theory 2372 class. In this project, you create the impossible using any materials used and learned within previous lessons. For my project, I am using Scratch, a coding playground made simple and easy for any age to understand. I enjoyed using Scratch in previous projects because anything could be made possible within the website, and it is also free to use. The aspect of Scratch being free is why I decided to work with it for my Impossible Project.
For this project, I wanted to make a music maker, a creation that would be interactive and fun to mess with. However, the impossible aspect was that I don't know Scratch too well. I wasn't the best at coding, and it seemed incredibly difficult to make. However, I knew once I would start working with it that it would eventually come together to create an excellent product. So, once my proposal for the project was approved, I began to think and learn about the coding. Notably, the best way the coding could be simplified to get my envisioned product.
I have been working on this project for almost a month. This week I focused on recording notes from a kalimba, also known as a thumb piano, on making the ghost choir sing. Previously I used pre-recorded Scratch sounds to create a musical tune for each ghost; however, it sounded out of tune and unnatural. I tried messing with the pitch coding for a smoother sound, but it wouldn't work. So I decided to use an instrument I had to make the ghost sing. I tried different methods of recording; however, any mic I would place in my laptop was not working for recording. My computer would instead use its own mic that was low quality. This upset me as I tried for an hour to make my laptop use a different mic. Eventually, I gave up and tried finding another method to record but with good quality. So finally, I recorded the notes from my iPhone instead. The quality came out better. It seemed to have a lingering background noise at the end. I attempted to make the room as quiet as possible, but there was still noise in the background. I decided to continue to use the recording anyway because I knew that was the best I could get at the moment.
So I had taken the notes from the recording and had to piece them out. However, I used Scratch to do the editing. Surprisingly, Scratch seemed to offer what I needed to edit the notes. I could cut the audio and create new separate sounds with ease, and I could also make the sound louder and softer as I pleased. It made the editing process easier for me, which I was relieved to figure out, especially how I had been frustrated by trying to record the sounds.
After a few hours of getting the sound clippings and editing, I finally assigned them to the ghost. The number "1" being the lowest, and the character "m" being the highest. So slowly the sound will climb from "1", "2", "3" all the way to "0"; then it continues at the character "z" and goes in the order "z", "x", "c", "v", "b", "n", and lastly "m". Although it may present as a difficult order when the user gets to explore the creation, it should begin to make sense. I chose these because on a standard keyboard, the numbers are located on the top, then on the bottom the characters "z", "x", etc. So when it comes to playing these notes, the hands don't have to bump into each other when attempting to play a song.
When it comes to learning a song, most tablature for kalimbas can be used. I chose a 17 note kalimba to mimic, and so these ghosts have 17 notes distributed to them. The only downside is attempting to translate the musical notes to the program. The notes 1-7 are easy to understand and translate; however, as the notes progress on the kalimba, they become slightly tricky to translate. Translating the tablature was extremely time-consuming from referencing my own instrument and interpreting it to Scratch. It frustrated me, so I copied the tablature to note a found the using "find and replace" made this task extremely easy. Using this method, I felt relieved to some degree, it made the task easier, but I still was having to translate to some level.
Understanding your audience is essential when creating most works of art. It is especially crucial if the artwork is meant to cause a reaction. Learning how to understand an audience is necessary to learn, especially in art classrooms. For my project, if the user wants to create a project on Scratch, they have to think critically. The user must understand how to work with the code, but also see it from their audience point of view. The user should break down their project and make it as simple as possible for the audience and learn how the audience thinks.
This project can be accessed with this link: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/383982891/