It's just an object, a mass of molded plastic and metal, nothing more.
Many words in the English language have flexible meanings; it all depends on the context of the statement in which they are used. This flexibility is often taken advantage of in every day conversations and used to create new meanings or slang terms. However, the same flexibility does not apply to many objects and they continue to be used in a conventional manner. When the boundaries are crossed and the object's potential for unconventional uses are realized, the results can be astounding. Take, for example, the 
Vegetable Orchestra: By unlocking the musical potential of vegetables through modification and experimentation, they have managed to create extremely unique visual and aural experiences for their audiences. The Modified Toy Orchestra has also accomplished this, except with children's toys.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to perceive such potential in some objects, especially those which have been stigmatised. These objects include, but are not limited to, those that are associated with pornography such as sex toys. Oftentimes, it is difficult for people to see past the context in which these sex toys are used, and some even see the objects themselves as obscenities.
Releasing objects from their conventional uses is vital to the art of innovation, but this requires people to ignore their preconceptions which bind the objects to their functions and sometimes put aside their attitudes towards them.
This project will edeavor to release pornographic objects and materials from their conventional uses and deconstruct the stigma commonly attached to them in an artistic audio/visual installation via digital processing as well as electronic modification. This will hopefully motivate others to release objects from the bounds of perception and reinvent them.
The intended audience is anyone who identifies with, or considers themselves to be, an artist, musician, performer, or inventor. The installation aims to inspire the audience members to view all objects with an objective view, thus broadening the choices of potential compositional elements in their works.
I want to encourage people to experiment with all kinds of objects and media that already exist regardless of the content and connotations associated with them.
Existing approaches include circuit bending and VJing.
The Vegetable Orchestra has greatly influenced me. They decided to see vegetables as musical instruments, rather than just as food, and have successfully created unique musical compositions and live performances. Similarly, the Modified Toy Orchestra has succeeded in creating musical compositions and captivating live performances, but with children's toys.
Design constraints: Presenting sex toys and pornographic material in a way that will not alienate audience members or appear to be sexual in any way.
Design Process & Key Features:
Non-interactive components
- Randomly controlled sex toys (possibly suspended in air) interacting with different musical surfaces such as sheets of metal, strings, and drum skins
- Digitally processed pornographic images, videos and sounds to create an ever-changing ambient atmosphere
- Interactive components
Sex toys transformed into instruments
- Respond to direct interaction
- Respond according to data received from different kinds of mechanical sensors such as motion and temperature sensors
Sex toys transformed into lighting instruments
- Respond according to data received from mechanical sensors
Audience members will be noticing an ever-changing musical composition and abstract video images. They will also be able to interact with some of the "instruments" directly which will emit sound or light.
Total time needed: 2 years
Number of people needed: ???
Instruments as well as Max/MSP patches for audio/visual manipulation can all be developed concurrently.
Sex Toys: $?? (have not yet decided how many or which kinds to use) Pornographic images including video and still: $?? Speakers: $?? Projector: $?? Projection Screen: $?? (have not yet decided on size) Electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc: $?? Staging elements (i.e. what the toys will be resting on or held up with): $?? Labor - for development, installation/presentation, strike Transportation / Shipping (including crate purchase or construction) Space rental (office, studio, and/or rehearsal space) Administration(postage, phone, printing) Publicity Documentation (video, still image, sound) Salary - your time Contingency - safety amount if actual costs exceed estimates, usually 10%
Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999. 9-38.
Barthes, Roland. The Semiotic Challenge. Berkeley: University of California P, 1988. 1-293.
Baudrillard, Jean. The System of Objects. London: Verso, 2005.
Boulanger, Richard. The Csound Book: Perspectives in Software Synthesis, Sound Design, Signal Processing,and Programming. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001.
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: an Introduction. New York: Random House, 1990.
Ghazala, Reed. Circuit Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments. Indianapolis: Wiley Inc., 2005. xiii-25.
Heartney, Eleanor. Postmodernism (Movements in Modern Art). Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 2001.
Roads, Curtis. Microsound. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004.
The Modified Toy Orchestra. 30 Sept. 2007 <http://www.warmcircuit.com/web/>.
Roads, Curtis. Microsound. Massachusetts: MIT P, 2004.
Rosenthal, Mark. Understanding Installation Art: From Duchamp to Holzer. New York: Prestel, 2003.
The Vegetable Orchestra. 30 Sept. 2007 <http://www.gemueseorchester.org/>.
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