FINAL 

Rotation: |

Introduction

Bells, historically, represent a call to action, a necessity for movement
biking on the street, riding horseback through colonial massachusetts
When thinking of a bell and when I was taking my photos I thought of the idea of movement and motion. The bell needs to move in order to make a sound. When the sound is made it causes motion to certain dormant thing. For instance when I was taking photos with my kitten it wouldn’t move unless the bell made a sound. A bell is a tool that activates the biological and innate alertness of the surrounding beings. Since I will be making my bells out of the plastic composite in the 3d printer it will produce a non functional representation of the bell form. When taking my photos they all had to be still without looking blurry . The importance of the sound of the bell and the different tones and pitches it makes is highly important, but when taking photos it had to be the exact opposite to get the picture that I wanted. I loved exploring with the different lighting and the colors surrounding the bells. Along with trying different angles to get the dome shape of the bell and the two parts of it. Without both parts, the bell would not make a sound and it would just be more of a static form. Without humans or nature physically moving the bell a large function of the bell is completely lost.

Blue Rabbit Iteration #2:In Writing

When thinking further on my idea I wanted to know more about culture  and the different uses of bells within each culture and . Not only what they symbolize , but also how they generated from each culture, how bells started within these cultures and how  they were  made.What do we illuminate from the sound of a bell?What importance does sound bring to everything and everyone around us?What meaning would bells bring without making a sound? How has the consciousness of sound changed over time.  There are many shapes of bells, sounds bells and the tones they make, and what each sound can mean. In my previous post I wrote a lot about how bells were symbolic to me because they have been in my presence at random and important times and have had meaning to me without knowing the history. I have always loved the sound and feeling I got from a bell. although I didn’t know how far the bell rooted from I knew it was important to me from the feeling I got from an early age. The bell dome is supposed to represent the vault of heaven  above and its flat circular bottom represents the flat, circular horizon of the earth . The empty space within represents all that is between heaven and earth. This makes me think that one needs the other to be complete. The sound the bell makes when the inner part hits the outer part sends a message. Depending on the bell and how hard you use it the tone varies.

In 2000 BC is when the fist bells first started up. They were started in the Chinese culture as a religion and way of life. The meaning of them was used for royalty,nobility,wealth,and power. Bells were used for ceremonies, traditions, and are still used today that were created by people. Larger bells were made as the centuries passed. I wonder if this was because people needed a louder sound made or because they needed to be recognized more. The sound was known to reach across far distances and to have meanings for many things such as ending your work shift or starting your day. Bells started to become very popular around the world. Because of this people started to make many different styles of designs where the higher class viewed this as a sign of power. The number of bells that were placed in certain places meant something to everyone around them. The emperor had four bells on each side of where he was living, the prince had 3 bells,  the minister had 2, and the government officials had one. The value of bells seems that it was way more apparent and important to people when they first started being made. Bells are known to be the largest and loudest instruments in the world. They are made from copper and tin with a  range of the lowest to the highest tone on the musical scale.I still feel that bells have importance to certain people today.Myself being one of them, but knowledge about why they are important or their symbolic meaning wasn’t present to me until recently. The way they were made was harder to make beforehand along with a lot of other objects we use and have today. It started off by a metal worker binding together pairs of tiles,creased enclosed chamber with an opened door that can amplify the sound. Sound keeps coming up with a lot that i’m reading and it makes me think about how there are more and more sounds that have further increased throughout time with using objects and instruments and now  technology.Sound is so important to me because it brings certain thoughts and feelings that can be taken out of something else. The sound of silence is very strong and powerful. I think it would be interesting knowing how important the sound of the bell makes to make a bell that wouldn’t make any sound at all.I don’t think it would have as much meaning or any meaning at all. It might even be a nik nak. This was a consideration knowing that making bells 3D printed  out of the material we have here wouldn’t end up making any sound anyway. Sound lies at the very center of speech communication. “A sound wave is both the end product of the speech production mechanism and the primary source of raw material used by the listener to recover the speaker’s message.” Without sound our communication would be very different then it is today, not only for humans, but for other  animals as well. Sound is so much more than just a noise it makes meaning of certain things. You can express yourself so much from playing something that sound is produced from and you can release a lot from making sound yourself.

The consciousness of sound has changed dramatically over time . Now we can listen to sound  threw a small earbud that is from a device such as an Ipod or phone.

Musicians started using small and specialized made bells as an important instrument. Before Christianity bells had been used as a musical instrument of the gods across the land to provide peace, clear peoples minds, bring happiness, and blow away the bad spirits. The bell is one of the oldest percussion instrument. By the 3rd century BC a bell was made that could produce two pitches of sounds. When I think of a bell I think of something smaller being trapped inside something bigger  , when is shaken it is forced to make a sound because it cannot escape. Before the inner part of the bell the only part that was present was the outer part , and made sound by someone  using a mallet to hit against it and make a sound.  The struck handbell vibrates in many different ways which are called modes. Only a few of these carry out enough vibration to make sound. The most basic tone which is called the fundamental lifts up the lowest vibration and causes the lowest pitch to be made.Because there is a fixed amount of metal in the bell, the sides must move outward. The bottom of the bell is pushed inward.

Religions such as Buddhism,Hindu,Shinto and Egyptian religions used bells for spreading information and during religious practices. Buddhism and Hinduism accepted bells as part of their religious ceremonies . It is said that a temple can not be considered a temple without a bell in inside of it. Full acceptance of bells came in the 15th century and by the 17th century is when people started to realize it could be used as a musical instrument.

What different symbolic meanings and significance do Bells have to different people?

Bells have always had a meaning to me during my life, I just never thought too deeply about them. Just knew they appeared frequently. Weather it was during christmas time of “santa” leaving a bell from his slay on my porch or simply finding a bell in a bathroom stall or at my sisters soccer game . They have always popped into my surroundings. When I was younger I never thought twice about it just really loved the sound it made and the feeling it had in my hand.

When I came to Evergreen last year it was so magical to me and I had several spiritual awakenings. Not understanding my life at all growing up or why certain things had occurred. Questioning of why things were  happening and why to me. I just went with it and did what I needed to do.Feeling out all the different emotions and feelings as they came. I didn’t understand why I did certain things either. Coming here I felt comfortable, loved , and happy . I looked at myself one day in the mirror in my dorm and something inside me was telling me to take the makeup off my face , and to just be. Just be was a reoccurring thought threw my head over and over again. The make up came off my face and I saw myself differently then I had ever seen myself before. Not only myself but everything around me, I saw colors, symbols, numbers, and signs. I was laying in my bed and thoughts were rushing to me so fast . I felt that I understood my life at such a deep level , I could feel that I was surrounded by love, support and guidance. Being up for almost the whole night tears were rushing down my face. Around four in the morning when thoughts were clicking for me I heard the most beautiful sound outside , realizing it was the sound of bells. It was a sign to me that I got it and it was okay. Everything that had happened in the past was okay and had happened for a reason. I saw myself how it had been before. Connecting everything together .

The feeling of only sharing this with a few close friends last year to now sharing it with this whole class makes me feel a little weird but good at the same time. It was something that was very memorable, important , and intense for me. I wasn’t to sure of what I wanted to make, I had thoughts of making a beehive also being very symbolic to me, until Bells started coming up a lot for me again. Popping into my head , and hearing a lot about them during our retreat and seeing a few of them as well. I realized I would be very interested to make one big bell or a collection of eight bells with different thicknesses and colors.

Not growing up in a religious home, but defiantly believing in something of a higher power. when I started researching bells, there was a lot about religious value, but also about many other things. Bells and chimes are used in ceremonies, celebrations, and announcements by numerous cultures across the world. The bell dome is supposed to represent the vault of heaven  above and its flat circular bottom represents the flat, circular horizon of the earth . The empty space within represents all that is between heaven and earth. When the clapper hits the inner side of the bell, it symbolizes a message being resonated and created within the vault, or dome, of heaven delivered to the earth below. Bells are also used for many different reasons such as being certain peoples wake up calls to push us forth into our daily routines. Schools use Bells for the beginning and ending of classes to notify that a certain time period is over and boats use the sound when sailing through thick fog in order to announce their presence. The different tones of bells have different meanings. The higher tones are supposed to lift peoples spirits, represent happiness , and symbolize a closeness to a spirit. Lower tones can supposedly dampen peoples spirits. Chimes and high pitched bells can announce the presence of the higher spirits. Many people can associate bells with religious activity, but also can be used as magical enchantments. Bells are used as luck or to ward off evil spirits. Some believe and some doubt, but I was just very interested in researching the different symbolic reasoning due to my own personal experience with bells. Bells have a beginning and ending to what they symbolize and can also be used for the ringing of a door bell. When looking into the Chinese culture it is said that they are used for prospering and protection. And when looking at the bell and the sound symbols of Dharma , the bells sound symbolizes the proclamation of the masses of Dharma. The empty interior means voidness . The center of the bell is the reality of full knowledge of awareness .I believe that bells speak their own language through a variety of tones.

Sitting here…

Welcome to blogs.evergreen.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!