Sound Sculptures

I needed to change the membrane today because it had some dried paint marks that were coming up in the photos. When putting the new black one on it ripped and was unusable (I think they ripped a lot easier because it was so cold that day). I ended up ripping the two black balloons that I was saving so I resorted to the stretchier metallic coloured balloons and used a dark green that would be easy to turn to black in post production.

I cut all the balloons on an angle to maximize the diameter of the opening.  The problem with doing this is it was very easy to get a sharp corner on the edge of the folded balloon when cut.  The sharp corning is the place that rips the easiest, to minimize the stress on the corner I stretched that section over the speaker first.

I collected up all the paints I had and emptied them into some plastic cups where it would be easy to mix with water to create the right consistency.


I wanted to get more reflection off the membrane so I positioned a flash higher up and on an angle that would bounce the light off the subject and onto the membrane where the camera could see.

I also wanted to mininise the mess that was made from each paint sculpture so I got a 1.25L fizzy drink bottle, cut it in half and then cut two square arches out of the front and the back that the camera would be able too shoot through.  I placed it on the speaker and over the paint.  It would also act as a very weak light diffuser.

  These are some of the photos that I took with this setup.  The membrane has been blacked out an exposure brush in Adobe Lightroom.