Making Sound Art in the Shower(makey Makey)

This is one of an infinite amount of ways to make a work of sound art. I hope you make a version of your own and have as much fun as I did making mine!

It's important to note that sound art can be made in an infinite amount of ways. In this particular instructable, I used the retractable clothesline in a hotel shower in Orlando,Fl to create a diddley bow where the shower itself was the resonator. You can choose any way you want to make a noise or noises that you would like to record.

This step really happens simultaneously with step 1.

Sound art can like some types of performance art be meant to be temporary and not be recorded. In this case, it wasn't a public performance in real-time and was the video was taken for the purpose of creating this instructable. You could still argue that the video is a performance/sound art piece in and of itself. Thank you if you decide to argue on my behalf and touche if you do not!

Either way, I recorded myself making noise in the shower-diddley-bow. I used Audacity which is a free recording program that can be downloaded on virtually any computer. It is translated into 80+ languages so if like me you often work with students you can feel pretty good that a student is likely to have access to the same program you are teaching them on if(a big if in Title 1 schools I know)they have access to a computer outside of school.

Once you have captured your sound/noise(s) of choice into audacity you can now manipulate said sound.

You can follow your gut by choosing sections to delete or manipulate. Sometimes I just started playing around with paulstretch(stretching), echo, reverb, distortion, wah-wah or reversing parts of the track. If I don't have something in mind I use and Audicety( a game I invented to make sound art with kids) dice to roll and see where I should start with my manipulations.

Have fun! Export your file as an MP3 or file of your choice.

Now that you have edited your file you can now exhibit your sound art. This can be done in a gallery(with or without permission), on the street, via email(mp3) on instagram, twitter, youtube etc.

I simply recorded the audacity file playing and uploaded the file to youtube for one way to exhibit this particular sound artwork that I have titled "diddley shower"

Note to educators-

The best way to learn to teach sound art in your class is by teaching sound art in your class. Simply start recording, listening to and manipulating sounds with your students. Have them think about, write about, talk about, cringe and laugh about what they create. You'll teach each other a lot and probably start to unveil at least a little about what sound art can mean to you and your students.