Oramics
Drawn sound technique
Oramics is a drawn sound technique designed in 1957 by musician Daphne Oram. The machine was further developed in 1962 after receiving a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation. The technique involves drawing on 35mm film strips to control the sound produced. Oramics was also the name used by Oram to refer to her studio and business interests generally.
Oram's composition machine consisted of a large rectangular metal frame, providing a table-like surface traversed by ten synchronised strips of clear, sprocketed 35mm film. The musician drew shapes on the film to create a mask, which modulated the light received by photocells. Although the output from the machine was monophonic, the sounds could be added to multitrack tapes to provide more texture and create polyphony.
The original machine was exhibited at the Science Museum in London between 2011 and 2015.
01Related techniques
The Oramics machine, which creates music from graphic elements uses similar principles to the various methods of Graphical sound production appearing in the 1930s, e.g. Yevgeny Sholpo's "Variophone", which produces sound by reading shapes cut into and drawings on cardboard. Canadian filmmakers Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart have made films that feature sounds created by drawing or printing various patterns, such as triangles and circles, along the optical soundtrack area of the film.
In 2016 Tom Richards, a PhD Student at Goldsmiths, University of London, re-imagined and built a working Mini-Oramics machine.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Oramics”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Oramics Machine - details 2-2.jpg by Oramics Machine details 2.jpg: linearclassifier derived work: clusternote, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Oramics - Two waveform slides painted by Daphne Oram, 1965-80.jpg by tpholland, CC BY 2.0
- Oramics Machine - front right-.jpg by Matthew Harrigan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
