Walkabout

June 27 I've previewed Walkabout, an Australian feature film by Nicolas Roeg (1971). It makes very effective use of visual imagery. The film was recommended by K who noticed a close connection with the visuals I created for my skins prototype installation. The film was visually exquisite, sensual and haunting, showing the juxtaposition of bare tree trunks and the human body, subtly capturing and revealing the sexual tensions that exist between two young characters, their environments and cultures: a white middle class adolescent girl from the city and an young aboriginal boy on a lone tribal initiation journey into manhood.

The arbutus tree

July 3 Though I had photographed tree elements for my initial iterations of the skins installation, kine[s]kins and [s]kinaesthesia, I have decided to continue exploring the symbolism of trees, bark and other natural elements for the next version of my skins installation. Having long been interested in the sensual qualities of the arbutus (also known as the madrone or Pacific madrone - Arbutus menziesii), an eclectic broadleaf evergreen tree that grows naturally in the Vancouver area, I will be locating and photographing the arbutus with its peeling bark that reveals a denuded pinkish trunk, evoking the sensual qualities of the human body. These digital images would then form the basis of a future photo shoot involving the human body in poses echoing those of the trees. Image transitions of the denuded trees and humans would then be projected onto the fabric skins of the installations.

Here are a few images of the arbutus found on the Internet, clearly showing its sensual qualities and relation to the human body:

http://www.jadecoast.ca/Arbutus-Fiddlers%20Cove-1.JPG	http://www.hornbyisland.net/link-parsons/Album/images/arbutus.jpg
http://www.mayneisland.com/photos/arbutus.jpg	http://www.epiphyte.ca/photos/victoria_nature/1998-12-06_015_Secret_Hill_-_arbutus_trunk.jpg
http://www.johnharveyphoto.com/Kayaking/ArbutusTreeLg.jpg	Emily Carr (1922) http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/art/art-carr-arbutustree.htm
http://kara.trashfish.net/photos03/v/arbutus.jpg

Touch and spider webs

July 7 A spider has built its web on my balcony and I watch it as it spins the silk strands, weaving for hours until the fantastic structure is finished. Then, it rests, awaiting its prey, sensing the delicate filaments until it detects vibrations, indicating its victim is struggling, attempting to free itself from the sticky web. This simple, yet complex mechanism relies on vibrations. I've tried to photograph the web, but without success since the nest is so small. I've only succeeded in producting an out of focus, yet glimmering, image.

When participants touch the skins of the skins installation, a bell will ring.

Outputs

July 10 The skins of the installation will respond to the touch of the interactor. A small bell and perhaps a chime will be fastened to a transparent nylon line attached to the surface of each skin panel. A small lapel microphone will be mounted close to each bell and will be wired to a computer running MSP/Max/Jitter software. Output will consist of bell sounds which will be enhanced and amplified. When participants touch the skins, this action will trigger random multimedia events, including human vocalizations and utterances; spoken words related to types of touch; touch qualifiers, object/subject words; consequence words related to touch, space and the body, as well as sounds of touch. These will be output in a random sequence, evoking word associations not unlike free verse.

*from Schiphorst, Thecla et al. (unpublished paper). The Meaning of Touch: a tactile gestural interface taxonomy, based on Laban Effort/Shape Analysis.

A series of photo transitions depicting the trunks and bark of arbutus trees as well as the human body, with and without projections of trees, will also be triggered by the participant touch actions.

Skin... à fleur de peau

July 11 For the skins installations, skin is the main target of the touch action. It resides between the subject (the toucher) and the object (what is being touched). It acts as a boundary, a resting place for the the act of touching. Only when the hand, lips or other part of the toucher's body actually touches the skin does touch occur or, when proximity is replaced by contact, touch occurs. Full touch occurs when the barriers are removed, such as clothing, exposing the skin. In this iteration of the installation, touch presence will be the main focus, that is to say, detecting the presence of touch, without defining its qualities (pressure, direction, time).

Second skins

July 15 I've set up the skins installation in the eLINC production studio for the summer. I will be sharing the space with two eLINC colleagues who have moved their workstations there until September, when eLINc moves to the 15th floor of the new tower. As well, other people may be using the space to do sound recording and video shoots against the green screen. I chose this space because it is relatively quiet and inaccessible to anyone without a key. A ceiling grid is installed in the room, which will allow easy hanging of the piece. Moreover, black curtains on a track and movable flood lamps provide some of the features I will be using.

I have purchased more lycra/spandex fabric so that I can easily add an additional 2 or 3 panels to the piece. Other materials to obtain include 2 pairs of pantyhose, rice, malleable gel substance and nylon fishing line on which i'll attach the miniature bells.

Shooting trees

July 16 My search for arbutus trees has not been fruitful, so I have enlisted the help of participants in the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden discussion forums. They pointed me to the following locations which I will drive to on the weekend. Hopefully, I will be able to locate and photograph large specimens in the process of shedding their bark and exposing their twisted, salmon-coloured trunks:

• McCleary at Marine Crescent and 49th Avenue
• SE corner of 57th and Maple Street
• N side of 57th Avenue between Mcdonald Street and Bayswater Street
• North side of Chancellor Boulevard east of NW Marine Drive
• S side of of 4th Avenue between Blanca Street and Tolmie Street
• W side of Arbutus Street between 33rd & 34th Avenue
• UBC campus south of MacMillan Building

As well, I have consulted Trees in Vancouver by Gerald B. Straley (UBC Press, Vancouver. 1992) and, in addition to the above, he mentions on page 102 that a large wild population can be seen along the Upper Level Highway on the rocky slopes between West Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay.

Hopefully, I will be able to photograph them at night, using a flash. If I am superimposing human body visuals assuming similar positions, it will be important to have black backgrounds for both so that the body/trunk transitions are effective and more dramatic.

Bare trunks and twisted limbs

July 18 I went out to locate arbutus trees and found three large lone specimens that were shedding their skin-like bark. I took photos and collected samples of leaves and dried strips of bark. I was impressed at how the colour of the exposed bark as well as the twisted shapes of the branches resembled human shapes, colours and forms. Curves, bumps, crevices accentuated this The trees seemed to be assuming poses for the camera, frozen in dance-like motions. The bark is very smooth to the touch.

Samples of the bark and leaves:

This weekend, I will be visiting the grove of wild arbutus trees along the Upper Levels Highway in West Vancouver.

Small trunks on steep cliffs

July 24 I located the wild arbutus tress growing along the craggy cliffs along Upper Levels Highway between West Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay. They were too small and inaccessible on the steep, rocky escarpments, but I managed to take photos of one specimen. The bark was shed in a different pattern compared to the large trees I photographed previously. It looked like old paint peeling in small patches rather than in long strips. I will return to two of the previous large specimens in Vancouver for a final shoot (Marine Crescent/W. 49th Ave. & Arbutus/W. 33rd-34th Ave.).

Please touch the artwork!

July 25 In a recent exhibition at a Simon Fraser University art gallery, Miles Lowry, a British Columbia artist, exhibited life-size fibre cast body sculptures. Though the works, because of their raw texture, seemed to innately invite a touch experience by the viewers, a cautionary note posted at the entrance to the gallery stated the following:

"Why Works of Art Should Not be Touched

Works of art are unique and fragile.
Touching even lightly, a painting, object or sculpture causes damage,
Especially when this gesture is repeated hundreds of times."

Unlike the above caution, I will invite visitors to "Please touch the artworks."

Five and the pentatonic scale

July 27 I've been thinking about the number 5 and how it seems to be introducing itself into the second skins piece. There will be 5 fabric panels (perhaps corresponding to five divisions of the body; there are five senses (three of which I am consciously making use of).

I would like to incorporate the sound of a Japanese shakuhachi flute in the dormant state of the skins piece. The bamboo flute has a haunting, lamenting, sensual, human-like quality which is ideal to breathe life into the skins piece. I have discovered that Japanese music is based on the pentatonic scale (5 notes per octave), which is neither a major or minor scale, but referred to as an 'exotic' scale. Japanese music theory was derived from Chinese musical theory (5th Century BC) and the five tones corresponded to the five material agents: wood, fire, earth, metal, water. These five material agents or elements were part of a larger notion of yin (female or completion) and yang (male or creation) principles of change. As well, the pentatonic scale was divided into a male scale (ryo) and female scale (ritsu).

The black key pentatonic scale is transposable, that is to say that it can be moved an entire scale up or down. I would like to have the skins piece utter shakuhachi sounds by choosing one of 3 octaves (perhaps half-steps) randomly, then choosing within that octave 5 notes (also randomly) and playing them. Each octave would contain 20 variations of shakuhachi flute notes: 5 notes of short duration with attack or sustain; 5 notes of longer duration with attack or sustain.

I have been using the Easy Beat shareware to see if I can create the shakuhachi notes. Easy beat is a music authoring program for the Macintosh. It uses the built-in software synthesizer of CoreAudio (Mac OS X) to play songs. This is a sample note I have generated using the shakuhachi instrument. At this point, it sounds more like a ship's fog horn than a lamenting bamboo flute. If I don;t succeed in generating the appropriate sounds, I may need to locate a flutist who owns a shakuhachi flute.

Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media

August 1 I'm reading the Introduction to Laura Marks' latest book and am quite excited that she discusses concepts such as haptic touch, haptic imagery, haptics and erotics, the subject/object and the gaze, concepts I have been thinking about. Luckily, Laura is in SFU's Contemporary Arts. I have contacted her by email and have asked her if it would be possible for us to meet and further discuss some of these concepts. She has replied, saying she would be happy to do so and would provide resources on touch. Great! I'm looking forward to meeting with her at the end of the month.

In the studio

August 5 Kenneth showed me how to record the sounds for the project: the microphone hookup in the sound recording booth, the settings for the audio mixing console as well as the recording levels. After several tests, we decided to record using CTRec (Creative Recorder), a basic sound recording application that displays audio levels. Kenneth suggested I record 10 or more sets of all the sounds so that a listener would never hear the exact recording twice during the course of a session. The Shure stereo microphone borrowed from the research lab was not the one we required to record the delicate touches of hands over skin, for example. I have asked Robb if I could borrow the AKG omnidirectional microphone that Kenneth pointed out to him earlier to record these sounds later. The microphone we used had an XLR (Canon) 3-pin audio connector

Once the 10 or so takes were recorded, there was a problem trying to move the sound files from the PC in the sound editing room to the Macintosh Powerbook: I couldn't access the network since the machine was not mapped to ADSFU, there was no CD or DVD burner. I later transferred the files successfully using my USB memory stick.

Sound editing room	Shure stereo mic
Sound mixing console	Sound booth in eLINC Production Studio

Sound editing

August 15 I just finished editing the sound files using Audacity, a freeware application that is very easy to use. I like it because it is very simple and intuitive. It took about 15 hours to edit 10 recorded files, reducing them to about 380 .wav sound clips categorized as touch sounds (13), touch vocals (119), body words (81), effects words (94) and qualifier words (65). I still need to record additional touch sounds using the AKG omnidirectional mic.

A 0.5 second silence was added at the beginning and end of each sound clip.

This week, Kenneth and I will be programming a MAX/MSP patch that will select randomly and output 5 clips which will form a poem. The combination possibilities seem endless...

Example: (sigh_03) + (hands_reaching_12) + (playful_shadows_01) + (bark_touch_08) + (softly_15)

Living skins

August 16 It seems that the direction I have taken with the skins installation has shifted the intent towards the skin panels as body. Originally, the skins structure was intended to provide a semi-closed space which the viewers could enter and interact with the panels through touch. In an earlier conceptualization of the project, I intended to include, deeper within the skin panel structure, a touchable representation of a human form. However, by introducing five groups of words and sounds that will be played back in response to the skin panels being touched, I seem to have made this installation more reactive, giving it the ability to respond. Interactors will breathe life into the piece through their touch. Therefore, the skins themselves become alive through touch; this is different from the original intent. The fact that the structure does not appear human-like may be less intimidating and entice viewers to initiate a touch experience.

Code comes to life

August 19 I met with Kenneth and described the interaction I was seeking in the responsive environment.

Over the course of 4 or more hours, Kenneth created 3 MAX objects: one for the speech (sound) component, one for the Graphics components and the beginning of an Interaction component (default state). It is quite an experience to work with someone who has a thorough understanding of the programming possibilities of MAX/MSP/Jitter and can make the interaction real, breathing life into the installation... a major tour de force which I am not at this time capable of doing. It was dazzling to see the objects being joined by patch cords, number values and code inserted. I have an even greater understanding of computational poetics and a respect for the fine artistry required to realize such living code. There seemed to be a slight problem with either the number of sounds being loaded at one time or the total memory requirements, since MAX choked at some points. Kenneth suspects the former and suggested I write a message to the MAX/MSP/Jitter user list to present the problem to the experts who frequent the community.

Over the weekend, I experienced my first glitches: I couldn't get the program to work properly. Kenneth reminded me to clear the sound objects, load new sounds files and click on dump so that it would keep them in memory and save them later. I will also need to reduce the number of sound files in each category to a maximum of 40, attempt to continue with the programming for the Graphics object to load, display and transition the images (similar to Speech object 2-3) and prepare a physical interaction flowchart to show all elements of the interaction; this will help Kenneth better understand what I will need in order to finalize the programming.

Searching for red pantyhose

August 27 I have been trying to locate a source of red pantyhose since I want two of the skins hanging pod appendages to be red. I tried Zellers, Sears, the One Dollar shop, among others, without success. I'm sure I've seen young girls wearing these, but I think that red pantyhose may now be out of style. So, I purchased the lightest pair of pantyhose, snipped off the legs and dyed them "pagoda red" (obtained from Fabricana) using a hot water process: a small tin of red powder fabric dye is diluted in about 300 mL of boiling salted water, into which the pantyhose legs are immersed for twenty minutes, stirring constantly. Very much like making Jell-O. I was amazed at the quantity of brands, sizes, styles and colours of pantyhose available, from light to natural to black, from sheer to opaque to silky, from small to one sits fits all to queen.

Touch sounds

August 28

Body becomes tree becomes body

August 29 Tonight, I took photos of J against a black backdrop. I projected images of the arbutus trees on the dark wall and, fo each, asked him to assume a similar position to the tree, with arms and limbs stretched or curved. I used simple lighting, since I knew that I would be enhancing the photos afterwards in Photoshop. Here are a few examples of a quick test in Photo shop:

The first image is of an arbutus; the second is of J; the third and fourth show filters applied to the body image and revealing traces of the underlying tree texture. I will need to explore the imagery further to best show the transition between tree and body. The imprinting of the tree texture onto the human body is of particular interest to me since it evokes some of my previous work involving skin embellishments and body tattoos. For me, writing or imagery appearing on the human body is sensuous. It also evokes memory, impressions (not unlike photographic paper), transformations, and shows graphically the reciprocal relationship between the tree and the human body.

Keeping in touch

August 30 I met with Dr. Laura Marks, a professor of Art and Culture in the School of Contemporary Arts at SFU Burnaby. Laura is an experimental media theorist and her research interests include experimental and electronic media, non-Western approaches to media technologies and, among others, the representation of the senses. She has written two books: The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema (Duke University Press) and Touch: Sensory Theory and Multisensory Media (University of Minnesota Press). This month, I read the latter, a collection of essays grouped under the following chapters: The Haptic Subject, Haptics and Erotics, Olfactory Haptics and Haptics and Electronics. We looked at and discussed my visual work over the past twenty years; we drew analogies between past and current works related to the representation of the body and the other-worldy (or 'fantastic') nature of my 2D and 2D works; we discussed the reasons for my progression from the plastic arts to the digital, the direction of my graduate project, as well as themes I was interested in pursuing and incorporating into my graduate studies. Laura said she was interested in doing a directed studies with me in the Spring term and asked me to make a wish list of subjects I'd be interested in exploring. Some might include the gaze of power, haptic visuality, multimodal perception (synesthesia), the subject/object, gender-based erotic looking, desire and erotics. As well, I could explore ways to create rhythm and tension in the installation (mutuality vs resistance). I'm looking forward to the readings she will propose as well as our discussions on these and other topics.

Haptic bodymaps

September 3 One of the components of the skins installation I have been pondering is how to display the touch data that is collected by MAX. Though skins is an expressive, lyrical piece, I would like to represent visually and dynamically the numerical touch data that has been collected by MAX during each day of the exhibition and display a body map showing the number of hits the skins have received. This collective data could be displayed progressively with body images which would change from a simple white mesh body (showing no touch) to a fully skinned body (showing maximum touches). Therefore, by touching the skins, one adds to the buildiong of layers of skins.

Below is a progression of images that could be displayed to represent the touches. The image displayed would change, based on the number of touch hits (e.g., 100).

Alternatively, each of the more colourful images below could form the basis of a transition:

If I decide to go ahead with the touch/bodymap for thge second skins installation for the New Forms Festival in October, I will definitely need Kenneth's expertise to program yet another MAX object to perform this sequence.

The colour of touch

September 4

In a future iteration of the skins project, I would like a more complex representation of the data, based on the touches received individually by each of the five skin panels which would represent body systems or regions related to each of the five Chinese elements: earth or soil (digestive), water (excretory or reproductive), metal (respiratory), fire (circulatory) and wood (nervous). These systems and elements would provide a basis for the subdivision of the human body and facilitate the display of the touch data for each of the five areas, similar to the collective haptic bodymaps shown previously. To the left is an preliminary conceptual representation of the numerical haptic data collected by MAX and mapped onto those body areas. Each body area corresponds to one of the five chinese elements as well as to one panel in the 5-panel skins installation. Each area shows the number of touches per body region collected at that moment in time (see the legend below the body), indicating which body areas have received the least or most touches. Interactors would not be told which panel represents which body region. They would have to deduce that on their own by viewing the haptic bodymap during the session. Since data is the fabric of a responsive time-based system, representing this information in a visual form is not meant to serve a scientific purpose; it merely serves to add interest to the experience and show the dynamic collective results of the touch experiences over time. In addition to the collective haptic bodymap, it would be interesting if it were possible to collect and represent the following: a personal bodymap showing an individual's touch experience during a single session; twin collective bodymaps showing the touch data collected from male and female participants.

Bodies transforming

September 6 I have further developed the transitions showing the progressive transformation of the tree and body, from tree to body and back to tree, not unlike the metamorphosis of a butterfly. By applying selected blending modes to the two superimposed layered images, such as lighten, pin light, hard light, colour burn, linear burn, overlay, soft light, I have created eight transformation sequences, each consisting of 9 images progressing from tree to human, followed by a black screen. These image sequences will be projected onto the skins panels during the generative poetry sequence. All images are masked to display inside a circle (similar to a tree's perimeter, a magnifying glass or the view from inside a woodpecker's nest. This format makes optimal use of the skins projection surface.

Expanded version of second skins inputs and outputs

September 9 After thinking more about the second skins installation over the past few weeks, I have developed an expanded version of the inputs and outputs:

Dormant state

• Skin membranes in dormant (default) state (no chime sound detected)

  • MAX projects pulsing red heart-like pulsing throb video loop onto skin panel
  • MAX plays lone shakuhachi flute sounds (Japanese pentatonic scale) by choosing randomly from a directory of sounds
  • MAX loops throb video and repeats flute sounds until a chime sound is detected by the microphone

Responsive state

• Interactor touches skin panel
  • chimes connected to skin panels by monofilament line produce a sound
• Microphone suspended over chimes detects sound and alerts MAX
  • MAX stops pulsing throb video and flute sounds
• MAX chooses 1 sound file randomly from each of the following 5 directories: touch sounds, touch vocals, body words, effects words, qualifier words
• At the same time, MAX chooses from one of five directories a sequence of 9-10 images transformations (tree to body)
• MAX plays the sequence of 5 sounds in random order and pauses (2 seconds)
• At the same time, MAX projects the 9-10 images in order onto a skin panel, ensuring a fade and pauses (2 seconds)
• MAX records one touch sequence*
• MAX verifies status of chime sounds
• If no chimes sounds are detected
  • MAX displays image showing the haptic data (number of touch sequences) collected during this touch series*, and pauses (5 seconds)
  • MAX displays image showing all the haptic data (total number of touch sequences) collected in a single day (or exhibition), and pauses (5 seconds)
  • MAX returns to default (dormant) state
• If chimes sounds are detected
  • MAX starts another touch sequence

-------

* touch sequence = a sequence of 5 sounds (phrase) + a sequence of ~9 image transformations, which can occur consecutively without returning to the dormant state
** touch series = a series of sound + image sequences, ending in a return to the dormant state and the display of the data

A sense of smell

September 10 I purchased a small and rather expensive 15 mL vial of 100% pure essential cedar oil with the intention of adding smell to my arborial skins installation. Perhaps I could rub it onto the fabric or dilute it in a bowl of warm water. For me, the particular scent of cedar brings back childhood memories when I used to spend the whole summer at our cottage, exploring the woods and lakeside. It emanates freedom and exploration. When a friend took a small whiff of the oil, he recoiled in disgust. Another acquaintance recalled that the scent of cedar reminded her of her childhood and of death; more specifically, it brought back memories of a sad episode where her pet animal had died. The smell of her pet's cedar chip bedding lingered for many years in her memory and is still powerful enough today to evoke strong negative feelings.

This reality was made even clearer to me when I read Laura Marks' book this summer, Touch: Sensory Theory and Multisensory Media (2002: University of Minnesota Press). In an article entitled "The Logic of Smell" from the Chapter "Olfactory Haptics", she states that there's "little doubt that smell is the communication medium most intimately associated with memory". She gives examples of the primal nature of smell, stating that "we will continue to have individual and contextual responses and, sometimes, individualized memories of when we first smelled that odor".

Because of the unpredictable and sometiomes negative responses to smells, I have decided that it would be preferable not to introduce it at this time.

Of bells and shakuhachi flutes

September 11

I have decided to make use of a simple Japanese iron temple bell instead of chimes as the sound element that will awaken the skins installation from its dormant state, triggering a series of sound and graphic events. I have attached to the bell a strip of arbutus bark to anchor its clapper, but also to echo the overall theme of the skins installation. The bell will be suspended on the ceiling grid, above the installation, near its centre. To the bell's suspension string (or to a ring or web of monofilament cords which will surround the bell's suspension string) will be attached the monofilament cords coming from each of the five skins panels. Touching a skin panel will activate the bell, which will be detected by the microphone installed close to the bell. From the start of the project, I have been thinking of using the shakuhachi flute to represent the sound of the dormant state of the installation. This Japanese flute, crafted from the root of the bamboo, provides the haunting, lamenting sound I require to embody the tree. Centuries ago, it was created by a zen monk and, to this day,is used by a sect of buddhist monks during their zen meditations. It remains one of the most difficult wind instruments to master I have a few albums of the shakuhachi flute, ranging from traditional to more contemporary pieces. One of the CDs, Heart of Zen: Simplicity (GAIAM Inc.) by Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin from New York, contains solo performances on the traditional shakuhachi. In 1980, Nyogetsu received the title of Dai Shi-Han (Grand Master). He was also given the name Reishin ( Heart/Mind of the Bell) and is the first non-Japanese to receive this high distinction. His personal website, containing a wealth of information on the shakuhachi flute, his teaching, performances, interviews, links and a discography, can be found at http://www.nyogetsu.com/index.html. Flutes for sale can be seen at http://www.nyogetsu.com/flutes.html. Source: http://www.nyogetsu.com/flutes.html Original photo by Bob Wine (background and size modified by author) I have emailed Nyogetsu-san to ask permission to use sound clips from this album for my graduate project and the public viewing obf my second skins installation at the New Forms Festival in October. I have also just found out about Kofu Yamamoto from Vancouver, a shakuhachi master and wood carver who resides in the Vancouver area. I will try to contact him to see if it would be possible, at some time, to record him playing a series of notes from the shakuhachi flute which I would use in a future incarnation of the skins installation. Addendum, September 13: I received an email from Nyogetsu-san granting me permission to make use of the sound clips from his album. I am waiting to hear from GAIAM Inc., the producer of the CD, regarding any required formalities.

Touch nervous system

September 12 This is a representation of the touch nervous system, comprised of a series of transparent monofilaments hung as a web canopy over the installation:

Interaction flow

September 18 I've prepared a finalized diagram in Inspiration showing the inputs and outputs for skins installation. I'm meeting with Kenneth on Monday and, hopefully, we'll be able to finalize the MAX objects for the various components: speech, transormation graphics, data visualization and physical interaction.

Getting nervous about the bell apparatus

September 19 I assembled the installation's nervous system, using plastic ties to secure small plastic rings to the overhead metal piping that forms the ceiling grid. Monofilament line (connected to the top of the skin panels) passes through the ring on its way to the bell mechanism. Hoever, in spite of ensuring that the skin panels and the monofilament line are taut, it seems to take a lot of heavy touching before the bell is activated. I believe the problem may lie with the central plastic ring to which each of the 5 monofilament lines are tied and which surrounds the cotton string to which the bell is suspended. I will need to try connecting each of the 5 monofilament lines directly to the bell's suspension string, hoping that this will provide less play and, I hope, a more direct connection, resulting in a more sensitive bell mechanism.