Earlist Organ much older than I ever imagined.

I've just read in "The Art of Organ Building" by George Ashdown Audsley that the oldest known representation of a Pneumatic Organ is found on a very old sculpture. The sculpture shows two small organs with pipes fed by wind chests connected to bellow. The sculpture is dated A.D. 346-395. (!) Out standing! I'm shocked.

Mechanical Musical Instuments, the First Computers?

I came across this idea that mechanical musical instruments are the first computers. This philosophy really intrigued me. It really shows the sort of historical impact that these items had on people. I take Cd's, DVD's, mp3's completely for grantage. The concept that having a song on a disk as a new idea is completely alien to me. So the organ is the computer which can interpret a program and act accordingly, and the rolls/books of holed music are the Cd's which hold the program. This new angle on street organ technology is really fascinating.

Mechanical Musical Instuments, the First computers?

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact of interaction.

To further prove my point of the strong benifits of people meeting together and interacting, either through art, play, music, learning, here are some photos of such benifical events.

Photo's will follow! Having terrible blogger problems.

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact of interaction.

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact of interaction.

To further prove my point of the strong benifits of people meeting together and interacting, either through art, play, music, learning, here are some photos of such benifical events.

Photographic evidence of the personal and social impact

Personal creative development. A passion for Organs and community.

I'm strongly interested in the current British festival scene. I think its one of the few things the British really know how to do really well. (Other than the silly prices!) I think people will look back at this period of British history and remember the festivals. It is a very current forum for all sorts of artists to express them selves in. I want to explore different areas which bring people together. I don't want to create items which are static to be viewed in an art gallery or a museum. I want to make items which bring people together and make them smile. This is very strong in this current project. What could be more perfect for this aim than a street organ? Historically they are designed to be placed at fairs, public places, dances, and festivals of days gone past. I love the fact that I'm trying to recreate a musical instrument which in the past would have been completely wondrous; and today although obsolete holds the same wonder. People already flock to my instrument although it is currently just a set of whistles! It was new technology, were previously people would have to get a whole orchestra now they could allow the street organ to make the music. The wealthy could have versions of them in there home, the first time that they didn't need to have silence all the time (bar playing instruments themselves). I can't even imagine the magic of this step, I'm so surrounded my music and noise all the time at home. The difference of it not being electrical also makes a big difference. Speakers omit a noise from one direction in a very specific way. Organs play as if someone is there playing an instrument. Old organs play the very same music as played all that time ago. This fact gives my goose bumps; it’s almost a form of time travel. More so than a painting or an old worn chair, an Organ gives you the very atmosphere that was felt all that time ago. Pure magic.

All this considered my organ or any future musical, mechanical piece would be a perfect platform for re-kinderling this magic to the community. The Secret Garden Festival offers many opportunities for this sort of interaction.

http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2009/participation.php

Using these forms I plan to take my finished street organ to the secret garden party. I have a couple of options of how to present myself.

1) Using the magnificent fancy dress form.
The theme is Garden of Eden and Babylon. As the front of the organ is covered in peacocks this fits very well. I would then make myself a peacock costume. As they say they will give up to £400 I'm thinking of something very elaborate. This will need to be professionally costed and planed. I call it the music of Eden and walk around entertaining people. The form also states that I could do it in a group. This opens up possibilities of making several matching costumes and making a story to go with it. The eccentric peacock keeper and his swam of peacocks? The ancient peacock treasure of Babylon? Traditionally organ grinders would try to strike up more business by making a story to go with there organ.

2) Use the performing art form.
For this I would do a similar show but put more empathy on the story being told. For this I would get a free ticket, then £75 for all actors who want to come with me. I'm not really an actor and nor are the people I plan to take with me. But it’s more about in crowd story telling with props and I think every one has that in them somewhere. I also have a large steam punk kaleidoscope which I have already performed at festivals, it’s a great prop. You'll be surprised how many people haven’t seen a Kaleidoscope for over 10 years. Also it is useful in teaching children about how mirrors work.

3) Join the Kazoo Crew.
I know the leader of the Kazoo crew. This is an area of the festival where you can go to and play a whole number of simple instruments. You can even make your own instruments. This would be a good atmosphere to interact with other people playing instruments. Half the magic of musical instruments is the ability to play with other people. This is an area which I haven’t even considered yet; could the organ join a band?

4) Join the science area.
The science area of secret garden aims to teach people science at a festival. Crazy you say? No. People do indeed turn up in the middle of the festival to listen to lectures. I could explain to people how whistles work and all the principles behind the workings of a street organ. Currently people have no idea how it works, I know it took me a long time to understand it. I could also show people how to make there own whistles. I could talk about bellows, air pressure, and sound vibration. I know the Woman who does lectures about the science of sound so I could work together with her. I also like the idea of using it as a teaching aid as I think that when people learn it really strengthens there experience. This is also why I like sculpture more than paintings. You can't hear, smell, or touch a painting really. With an organ it’s a whole sensory experience, you’re not going to forget it!

So why would I want to do this? Other than complete self indulgence as I will certainly enjoy it, its also great publicity for my work. I will be meeting people, making friends, and showing people what I'm about in a very memorable way. All the while my work will be on display. People will remember it and talk about it. If I'm lucky I might meet someone who likes it so much they might offer me some sort of future creative project. I will make sure that I have business cards on me for this possibility.

I want to promote craft. I want to promote the idea of simply gathering round a musical instrument. I want to tell people about street organs, and how they themselves could make one to. I want to entertain people in a powerful interactive way, far away from stale snooty art exhibitions.

There are also several other festivals that certainly fit the bill. Sunrise celebration festival, Antic Banquet, Shambala to name a few.

I think that’s enough of a passionate rant for now! That’s 1108 words in one entry!

Wood Carving.

The small traditional street organs often looked like little wooden cabinets with decorative inlays and occasionally wooden carvings. I know that the bigger ones also used painted wood carvings. I wonder weather plaster was ever used as well? Although this would make them less tough.

I've started looking into wood carving. I would have liked to carve my street organ in the traditional way but it would have taken far too long. Especially as this is not a historical reproduction this seamed unnecessary.

This site was a useful starting point.

http://www.carvingpatterns.com/

Contextual Research

I've started to dwelve into what the professional applications of street organ building are.
On a very straight forward link there are a multitude of Organ builders and kit sellers. (Links to which you can find on the righthand side) Everything from the very prosesional crafts man to the novice who is following the same plans which I am, seam to be making a bussines from selling organs. There are also lazer cut kits and parts for sale.

This site I found of parlitular interest:

http://www.teanola.com/teanola-wood-carvings.htm

So you can even buy hand carved wooden minitures for the front of your hand made organ. This leads me on to start an investigation into how the front of traditional organs are made.

This site sells Organs using the same plans as I am using for $3750. So there is a market for this item!

http://www.floraco.com/organs/organs/page2.html

Musical Box Society International.

The Musical Box Society have a great series of short documentaries on the history of mechanical musical instruments on U Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTUNxC0KWg
Its similar information as at the musical mechanical museum in Holland, but much more convenient! Well worth a good look, there are some fascinating characters. In this first documentary I particularly like the statement made that before the industrial revolution craftsmen polished even the very inside of the machines, even parts which no one would see. I can only hope to reach that level of good craftsman ship!

Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre

I heard allot of good things about this centre from Organ builders and enthusiasts. The website is under construction but you can find out about Dingles from other sources:


http://www.culture24.org.uk/am29111

They have a large steam powered fair ground section and many of the larger street/dance organs at the Dorset Steam fair are owned by them.

I phoned them up for imformation on what organs they had on show at they're centre and discovered that I'd seen most of there display at the steam fair. So no need to make the trip to Devon.

Finding the plans and the organ society.

There is a strong group of avid street organ lovers on the Internet. There is allot of information available on how to make your own street organ of the sort and size which I am interested in making. The one which is most recommended is John Smith's 20 note street organ. Discovering this over the summer at the Dorset steam fair I went about purchasing the plans and DVD written by John Smith.

http://www.melright.com/busker/jsmith.htm

From the plans I could see that this was designed for people with little experience of building and making. Also clear was that John Smith certainly knew what he was doing, but was not always very good at explaining this to other people. So on one hand I found that I could make the plans allot better. On the other hand I was completely out of my depth in decoding how to engineer this mechanical musical instrument. I have no previous knowledge of making mechanical objects or musical instruments so there was allot to learn and experiment with. I found this very exciting and daughting.