Workshop Log – Day 4

Artist Talk - Dawn Scarfe

Bivvy Broadcasts:
https://www.dawnscarfe.co.uk/project_broadcast
A project with forestry commission England
Hiking with minimal equipment
Started from experiences of camping in total darkness and listening to sounds of forest
Increased sensitivity to small sounds
Publication / guide to project: https://issuu.com/dawnscarfe/docs/bivvy_broadcast
Stream would run from 11pm to 8am close to sleeping bag / Bivouac
No fixed site - streaming was a way to share work and connect with people remotely
Timelapse sound example: https://dawnsitestatic.s3.amazonaws.com/audio/broadcast/condensed_wendover.mp3
Group bivvy: https://soundcloud.com/south-london-gallery/the-art-assassins-bivvy-broadcast

Natalia - Link between listening and writing?
Dawn - Short notes during the stream - developed later when re-listening to streams and recordings

writing in responce of darkness
listening imagination
connection to tha landscape which is not exist in reality
alone with the weather
listening removes preconceptions of how landscape looks

you and night - and nothing in between

collective bivvy

like being in a coffin, claustrophobic feeling

are people feel comfortable or not being in the forest

things that are listening to me

listening through recording devise

how far my sounds are going

--- STREAM TROUBLESHOOTING ---

Q. Natalia - Setting volume / gain levels to make more consistent across the different streams
Q. Ivan - Handling noise - moving boxes in a bag
A. Grant
- When communicating with the streambox, you need to make sure that you are on the same network (streambox)
- Connect to network and go to streambox.local
- To set gain/volume - go to 'settings'
- Scroll down to IQ audio set up area
- Make sure mono/stereo mic input is selected
- Look at 'Mic input gain L and R'
- You can reduce these to bring the volume / level of your stream down
- Open a new tab to check - locus.creacast.com:9001 and select your stream to test / hear
- If you expect loud noises on your stream, you can test this at home and set levels accordingly
- Or you can adjust the levels (eg on a phone) whilst streaming / performing
- And listen back on phone with earphones to test

Mort: Ivan's stream levels sounded good yesterday - only the handling noise from the bag to work on
Grant: you could use a cloth bag and cut holes for the mics to avoid this

Q. Ivan - stream works well but sometimes stops for no reason and needs restarting - not sure why?
Sometimes restarting is unavoidable - part of the process
Can be unplugged if resetting through network is too slow / difficult
If happening regularly - check there aren't too many devices on the network
Can be good to close other things down to allow bandwith
Also check how much data is left on your sim before an important stream (unless it is unlimited)

Q. To change audio format (eg from ogg to mp3):
A. go to https://locusonus.org/soundmap/dev/admin/login/
Login with details from manual
Go to stream settings to make changes
Go to 'Save' at top of page
Restart streambox
Stream URL then needs to be updated on the map

Kseniia S:
Q. Made some recordings yesterday - these were a bit unpredictable - lots of gaps / breaks
Also some problems with stream -
A. Stream working now after a reset.

Maksym:
Q. Levels were fairly loud on yesterday's stream, some interruptions happening today - internet signal may be a bit unreliable
A. Moving the wi-fi dongle out of the box can improve the connection considerably
You can put it in a waterproof bag and cable tie it to a balcony higher up to improve the signal
OR
The bit rate can be reduced in the settings to send less data through the connection and make the stream more stable