For our last day we decided to get up before the sun, hike in, and record dance and flute alone without the projections and sound manipulations. It was a beautiful way to end our wonderful time in a magical place.

We also captured some “singing sand” sounds by causing small avalanches to happen while walking down a soft steep dune. This is an interesting effect that happens in this desert where sand particles rub against each other and resonate at audible frequencies producing trombone like sounds:

Starting out:

Kiori hiking up with the setting moon (that’s not the sun!):

Pre, during, and post-recording, the sun is up!

Sunrise and moonset at the same time:

Dune texture:

The wind was still going, but much less than yesterday. Projecting down onto a dune was a good strategy, the results were much better.

Setup: We used some wood to angle the projector down. We’re up on a cliff adjacent to another dune across a small valley. Part of the dune we were projecting onto was above us, but because the projector was an ultra-short throw, it could cover the entire dune.

Far shot:

Results: We were very excited. We’re starting to move towards something we like, though it is hard to capture good video in such low light with the cameras we have (it’s also hard to play the flute in strong wind!). We tried Kiori dancing with the live code environment projected, as well as in water footage. The water footage was much dimmer, even with a 5000 lumen projector.

Code:

Water:

Video:

Details:

Lat/Lon: 23°00’36.5″N 53°45’39.6″E

Wind speed: ~19 kph