Peter Lam

Passion Project – May 7, 2019

Working in ProTools, I did a rough mix of the song. I did some EQing, compression, and added some reverb and delays to the vocals. I also did some leveling to have the vocals a bit more balanced with the instrumentals.
EQ
Reverb
Compression

Passion Project – April 30, 2019

Recently I had the chance to play some beats for people at the studio I am interning at. One of the people there liked a beat I played, which happened to be the one I made for the first post of the semester. I formatted the beat and recorded his session, and am working on a rough mix.
Year : 2080; clean water is limited and treated as valuable as gold; must find natural sources of water to filter in order to drink
– Filtration system w/ security system so other people cannot steal it
*add sediments/chemicals to filter out harmful bacteria, pesticides, herbicides, etc.
*pH monitor to measure acidity
*fingerprint scanner to detect who is adding/removing water
Prototype 2 Concept: Machine that collects rain water. There’s a drawer filled with sediments to naturally filter out minerals in the water. There are meters on the machine which monitor the acidity level and chemical levels for lead, chlorine, etc. so the owner will know what other chemicals need to be added to make the water drinkable.
* Does not have to be rain water, could be water that is found and poured into the machine

Dystopia Project Notes

  • No lead or galvanized pipes
  • Include monitor for chlorine, lead, etc.
  • Sedimentation tank/layer to remove suspended matter: dirt, sand, silt, etc.
  • Chemical testing – remove pesticides, herbicides, etc.
  • Surface water (rivers and lakes) vs Ground water (borewell) – ground water supplied by tankers have a higher levels of dissolved impurities, altering the taste, and may affect long-term health
  • Year : 2080; clean water is limited and treated as valuable as gold; make a filtration system and security system so other people cannot steal it after it is filtered
  • *add sediments/chemicals to filter out harmful chemicals
  • *pH monitor to measure acidity
  • *fingerprint scanner to detect if it is a member of the household adding/removing water

Lo-Fi Prototype

Combining methods from ancient times and today to filter minerals and toxic chemicals out of water, this system will filter rain water to make it pure enough to transfer to a hydroponic system where fish can swim and plants will receive the necessary nutrients to grow

Question:
How to filter water so it is clean enough to drink and to grow crops
How to maximize the use of the water that is filtered

References

Dystopian Water Societies

Passion Project – April 23, 2019

I recently bought new sounds, so for this beat, I went back to an old project to change out the sounds to something that fit better with the project. The foundation and melody of it was the same, but the sound selection made it better.
I also got new mixing/mastering plugins, so I’ve been learning more about compression, EQing, sidechaining, reverb, delay, and other mixing/mastering techniques.

Dystopia Project

Litmus Paper used to test acidity of water

4000 B.C. – Ancient times, used sunlight and charcoal to boil water
312 B.C. – Roman aqueducts built to transfer water ~57 miles to transfer water into the city
1914 – Water quality drinking standards established in the U.S.
1972 – The Clean Water Act passed to establish a program to control pollution in the waters of the United States
2020 – Levels of pollution continue to increase annually
2040 – Water in the United States is deemed undrinkable due to chemicals in water, research begins into successfully filtering the chemicals out of the water
2050 – Filtration method discovered to remove harmful chemicals out of contaminated water
2070 – Water filtration systems scaled to a larger size to provide clean water for crops
2080 – Water filtration systems and aquaponic systems added in all cities to provide food/clean water to residents

Reading Response – Ira Glass

I think Ira Glass’ explanation of how to tell a story in broadcasting was very interesting. Although he says it isn’t the same as the way we are taught in school with an intro, body, conclusion, Glass’ method is similar to how I approach writing an essay. Usually I would start with the body because I already know what I’m going to be writing about and the research behind it. After doing the body I’d go back and do the introduction and conclusion, then revise the entire paper one more time. To me this is an easier way of writing than the traditional way because the body is the majority of your paper/story and contains the majority of the information you researched so you can get that out of the way first and then go back and see what is the best way to setup the story for the reader to draw them in.

Reading Response – How to Use Design to Tell a Story

I think that when designing, creating a design that captures people’s emotions is very important. In the future dystopia world for my project, I envision a world where people there is little food/resources so they will have to learn how to make the most out of what they have. I’m leaning towards focusing on aquaponic systems, which would have an effect beyond just the intention of growing vegetables. Aquaponics systems would create an ecosystem for plants and aquatic animals such as crayfish, salmon, catfish, etc., so in a world where resources are limited, fish and plants can be grown to eat and sell/trade for other goods.

MindMap – How to make the most out of a limited resource (water)

Passion Project – April 16, 2019

April 11, 2019 – In-Class Exercise


Future Dystopia Project Idea

Water Filtration: There’s already become apparent today that finding clean water to drink is becoming a big issue. Flint, Michigan has not had clean water since 2014 and lacks the media coverage it deserves. I also wanted to look more into aquaponics which combines aquatic animals with hydroponics (growing plants without soil) and maximizing the use of the clean water available. (edited)

Urban Intervention Project – Claudia Shao & Peter Lam

For our Urban Intervention Project, Claudia and I wanted to find a way to make the sidewalk sheds often seen around New York City more appealing. They’re usually there long after construction is done, or even when no construction is happening at all, so we came up with a few ideas to make them more appealing. The prototypes for our designs are shown in the Google Drive as well as the documentation of implementing our final design which was a real-life Snapchat Filter.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1oJ_CZXbzK2FCLBpQOJzSaffFYX2w9gqU

Passion Project – April 1, 2019

I recently bought Pro Tools, a software mostly used for recording and mixing songs in the music industry. I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with it more and started bringing over tracks that I originally made in FL Studio to mix in Pro Tools.

Passion Project – March 26, 2019

Over the spring break I’ve been going through a lot of older beats I’ve worked on and sorting through unfinished beats. I was fixing up one of them that I really liked which contained a sample from Shiloh Dynasty.

Passion Project – March 17, 2019

Instead of making a beat to mimic the style of my favorite artists, I tried making one similar to one of my favorite producers. TM88 is a producer who works primarily with hip-hop artists. His most successful song is XO Tour Llife.

Public Interventions Examples

Image result for nyc rhinos
Art installation at Astor Place and Downtown Brooklyn of three rhinos to raise awareness about the extinction of the northern white rhinoceros

Subway Therapy is an art intervention I originally found at Union Square. Originally it began with just tables and chairs and people were invited to talk about whatever they wanted. In 2016, they added sticky notes so participants could express their thoughts
Located in Brooklyn Bridge Park
Image result for nyc union square public art
Clock located at Union Square
Read from left to right, the seven numbers on the left count the hours and minutes that passed since midnight.

Read from right to left, the seven numbers count the hours and minutes remaining until midnight.

The middle number is a hundredth of a second
Image result for posterboy
Posterboy

Public Intervention Locations

There are a few spots on the Manhattan Bridge where a lot of photographers take photos so part of the fence was cut open just big enough to fit a camera lens.

Image result for brooklyn bridge locks

The Brooklyn Bridge, at the area where couples put love locks on the bridge

Image result for union square train station

Union Square is a popular train station and would be a good spot to attract a lot of attention and get a lot of viewers

Related image

Subway turnstiles would be a good location to put up any artwork. People use the subways every day and have to swipe and pass the turnstiles in order to get onto the train, so the artwork will easily be spotted.

Image result for washington square park

The fountain and arch at Washington Square Park would be a good spot to attract a lot of attention from people, primarily NYU students.

Passion Project – March 10, 2019

I’ve also been organizing my file sessions more. Normally when I make a beat, I would make it in only a few patterns which contained the different sounds together, but lately I’ve been separating each sound onto a separate track, color coding, and labeling the Hook, Verse, Bridge, etc. of the song.

How I normally start the beat, making a 4 bar loop

Adding/Taking away sounds to create different versions of the first 4 bars so it begins to look like a song

Separating each sound onto an individual track, color coding, and labeling the song.

Passion Project – March 10, 2019

The next artist I tried to make a beat for was Future. I was able to find an acapella version of one of his songs which was in sync with a beat I made, which came out like this:

The same verse starts at 1:57 in the original song

Christopher Nolan Creative Process Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d3WAVgZUYmXvbG5Df5eU6Ge_EwSZOVAWCWQIUiBicig/edit?usp=sharing

Passion Project – March 4. 2019

To better get in the mind of an artist, I started looking for acapellas to put over the beats I made. I managed to find a decent acapella for a Metro Boomin and Travis Scott song so I played it over a beat I made which came out like this:

Original Song by Metro Boomin & Travis Scott

Passion Project – Feb. 28, 2019

I was listening to some more samples from Crabtree Music Library, a popular sample library used by a lot of producers, and came across one that immediately reminded me of an old Kanye and J. Cole type sound. It’s a bit different from the type of sound I normally work with but this is what I was able to make out of it.

Passion Project – Feb. 27, 2019

The past couple weeks was a good way of working for me during a really busy time, but I want to focus more on making a beat that I can cater to an artist. Over the next few weeks I want to try to make something I could hear some of my favorite artists recording over. This is a list of some of the artists I’m going to be trying to make beats catered to:

– Kanye
– A$AP Rocky
– Travis Scott
– J. Cole

– Fabolous
– The Weeknd
– 6lack
– Future
– Kehlani

Passion Project – Feb. 19, 2019

Passion Project – Feb. 17, 2019

I’ve been trying to get more familiar with sampling other songs and records, but I’m usually too busy to sit down and go through old songs to find specific ones, so I usually look for music playlists on YouTube and play them in the background whenever I’m doing anything. I was listening to this one and came across a section in one of the songs that caught my attention so I tried to make something around it.

Documentation

I’ve been applying a lot of the things we’ve been learning in class when I began producing music the past couple years. I started college majoring in Electrical Engineering but changed to IDM my last year because I realized that engineering wasn’t something I could see myself doing as a career. I always wanted to work in music so in my junior year I bought Fruity Loops and began teaching myself how to produce. Since then I’ve been learning a lot about myself, my creative process, and the best work environment for me to be efficient.

Reading Responses – How Not to Destroy the World & Metal Gear Solid

After reading How Not to Destroy the World, I think it made me realize how someone’s work can affect people and those beyond the intended market. When creating something, the artist can get lost in what they’re making and not realize other meanings or harmful uses for their product so it may be a good idea to have someone with an outside perspective look at the work and see if they have a different view on it.

For MGS2 the creators were trying to make a game their fans would enjoy while being authentic. They reenacted scenarios of the game in the Konami building in order to see what actions/fighting sequences in the game were plausible. There were many small details which may have gone unnoticed to some, but it meant a lot to the creators that it was implemented in the game. For MGS4 the creators were transitioning to making the game for PS3 instead of PS2. They encountered some difficulty with polishing ideas within the game versus putting out something that is stable and on time for the release date.
I think that is something that often arises as a creative, especially for the artists whose work I follow. The artist is usually focused much more on being creative and making their vision come true, the business comes second to them. The technical/business people on the other hand are usually more focused on putting out a product that works and on time. Sometimes this can compromise the integrity of the project, but in MGS4’s case they were able to overcome the challenges they faced.

Artist Research – Christian Marclay

Christian Marclay is an American/Swedish visual artist and music composer. He began experimenting with combining fine art and music through performances with turntables. Unlike other turntablists who would seek valuable records, Marclay would purchase his from thrift shops for less than a $1. He would damage and manipulate the records for his performances to create different loops and skips. His method and techniques has made him one of the early pioneers of turntablism.

Ideal Wallet

These were my final designs for an ideal wallet for Claudia. When I was interviewing her, I found out about what she carries around and her interest in art and visiting museums. I designed a phone case cardholder with three different designs, but each of them do the same thing. They have a few slots to hold her credit card and ID, but the rest of the case is blank which is to allow her to have someplace to draw whenever she gets inspired. There’s also a small text that says “TAG ME” to remind her to go out and take in inspiration to draw because she said sometimes she’d be too lazy to visit some museums.

Reading Response – Everything is a Remix/Exit Through the Gift Shop

After watching Everything is a Remix and Exit Through the Gift Shop, I think the points from the videos supported how I feel about art and being a creative. There’s a saying, “Good artists copy; great artists steal,” which I agree with and I’ve seen studying the work of people who I look up to and am inspired from. The line that’s drawn between copying/stealing and being innovative, however, is taking credit for other people’s work and taking other people’s work and manipulating it and turning it into your own creation.

For example, in the music industry there are a lot of big producers who have a distinct sound who you can immediately tell it’s their song. A great artist would take the elements from their favorite artists and put them together and then put their own twist to it as well. That’s how an artist creates their own style which becomes distinct and could be recognized by.

I also found the graffiti/street art from Exit Through the Gift Shop very interesting because I feel like art from the streets is what creates the culture for the youth. There are traditional ways of doing things, but for me methods that broke rules always interested me and I think it’s something I could incorporate in my work. I could try to stray away from contemporary work and to explore other methods and make something different.

Passion Project – Feb. 10, 2019

I listened back to what I had done yesterday and realized it was a bit too slow, so I sped up the song and added a couple more variations:

Passion Project – Feb. 9, 2019

Having a melody/chord progression helped me a lot with starting the beat. After hearing it I quickly had an idea of what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to take out, so I adjusted the notes and added a few other sounds to make this:

Passion Project – Feb. 9, 2019

Lately I’ve been having a difficult time creating melodies beats. I normally create them myself instead of sampling, but I came across a MIDI file that I liked and started adjusting it to make a beat. MIDI is basically the language that synthesizers/samplers/computers use to translate a sound from one instrument to another. The notes are played and can be translated to any instrument. This is the MIDI file I was using, being played through a piano:

Reading Response – 10 Faces of Innovation

Based on The Ten Faces of Innovation, I think I am a mixture of the cross-pollinator, set designer, and story-teller innovator, with some traits from the experimenter, and caregiver innovator. I think my creative process and ideas stem from trying to bring a certain emotion and understanding to my audience. I also believe my influences intertwine with one another despite coming from different places. On my input map, I had a variety of influences from music, to clothing, architecture, and sports, but I’d like to combine these influences in my work and I want my audience to see how it affected my work. I also am a strong believer in setting up an environment to be creative. For me, I believe my best work is done in an environment where I am surrounded by other creatives and inspirations, have limited distractions, and am able to get messy with my work.

Input Map

https://www.mindmeister.com/1210010297#

Reading Response

The article that resonated with me most was Sketching: the Visual Thinking Power Tool. Although it isn’t sketching related, I can relate to the process of immediately putting down an idea with music so that it can exist and then going then coming back at a later time to modify it. My mind tends to wander and there are always melodies and chord progressions that come to my head, so trying to remember everything is very difficult. Just putting down the idea for the melody, regardless of the sound and instruments used is what’s important because the sounds can always be switched out later, the same way having the idea for a design is more important to have down first then alterations and color can be added later.

Personal Inventory – Jan. 31, 2019


The three items I chose for my Personal Inventory are my MIDI Keyboard, a pair of sneakers, and a vinyl record. My keyboard is something I use whenever producing music and since I do it digitally it helps me put ideas out onto my computer software. Growing up, I was always a big fan of sneakers and in high school I started collecting them. I used to collect CDs, but then moved on to collecting vinyl records. I feel like owning a physical copy of someone’s work versus a digital copy means so much more and you get to see how much effort was put into creating the art and visual concept for the album.

Entry #1 – Jan. 31, 2019

What I hope to get out of this course is a better understanding of my creative process and how to put my ideas together. I feel like I have a lot of ideas for different concepts but I don’t know how to tie them in together or properly explain them to others. Also, I have a bad habit of throwing away ideas I don’t like rather than documenting them to look back on in the future.