This was an idea that I recently fell out of love with.
In a nutshell, I wanted to contribute to a program that delivers podcasts to your smartphone via GPS, as to which podcast it delivers will depend on where you are in the world.
Even if the assignment constraints mean that the idea will never come to fruition, it would still be a good thing to research and exhibit.
https://www.google.com/patents/US20110319098
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/energy-grids/6463052
Presented by Miyuki Jokiranta, Energy Grids for Nadio National’s Soundproof explores Chris Abrahams and Sherre DeLys’ pilgrimage to American land art sculpture Walter De Maria.
The sculpture spans out across the New Mexico Desert consisting of 400 stainless steel poles installed in a grid pattern, each cell measuring one mile by one kilometre. The music score in this piece is intended to geometrically imitate Walter De Maria’s grid, the sonic interludes frame many of the visual explanations, like the colour of the sky, the light reflecting from the poles and the setting sun.
We enter the scene through a short car ride where much of the conversation is off mic, like we’re eavesdropping. As we stubble out of the vehicle, the pace slows as our narrator meditatively describes the landscape. For something so visual, it captures space nicely.
An intimate narrator’s voice sitting somewhere between diegetic and non-diegetic contrasts the wide and open calling over an exterior space. There were several repetitions of specific phrases however I wasn’t sure what sort of impact this was supposed to have on the overall affect of the piece.
Actors were used to carry the story, most notably, the male voice over, his warm, jovial and slightly jocucular performance accompanied by a crisp recording made for a superb coupling of elements.
This gave me some ideas for the delivery of my next project.
TITLE
HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON? OR 13 EASY PIECESPRODUCEDKAYE MORTLEY
PRESENTED
THE LISTENING ROOM, ABC, AUSTRALIA, 2006COLLECTIONLIBRARY SPOTLIGHT TAGSINTERNATIONAL, NOSTALGIA, YOUTH
Les Cris de Mexico – Prix Pierre-Schaeffer 2015 – Félix Blum
THE SCREAMS OF MEXICO
…Certainly caught my attention on the drop. Chaos to silence, then a controlled studio separation of the each noise. Split, huge! So wide, left and right, then right became closer when the woman screamed as if walking up to me, however, the police sirens remained at a distance. My thunder sound is better, this did not translate the 80Hz rumble felt with thunder. Distance, distance, rain, yell, sing strike a minor 2nd harmony. The condo, a natural abstraction of the pacific gull’s squeal.
Nice.
http://www.abc.net.au/…/soundp…/los-gritos-de-mexico/6743988
To add weight to my final project, I thought I could investigate the folder in the drive that sits somewhat outside of our weekly reading criteria, it’s called Brettle_more stuff and it holds some pearlers from Kyla’s professional work.
Speaking of Music – Is Music a Universal Language? Is a piece produced for Radio National’s All in the Mind and it is hosted by Natasha Mitchell.
It begins with a montage of sounds and guests that will eventually play key sonic artefacts throughout the piece. The first time we hear the producer’s voice, it is delivered with an 8 bit low-fi sound quality, it is scratchy and purposefully dissonant when compared to the rest of the production. A reflexive and intriguing opener.
As the overarching topic is centred on sound and music, it would seem obvious that some cool glitchy zaps and buzzes would be employed so to gain our attention to say, “Hey! Listen people, I’m not from fucking Tron but I take this shit seriously!” The techno-hypno high is nicely juxtaposed with an aural parallel, a single flute overlaid with the switching of guest voices. You could argue that this whole sequence is counterpoint.
The array of esteemed guests was impressive, those included; neuroscientist Arnie Patel, psychologist Laura-Lee Balkwill, ethnomusicology Catherine Falk… but the biggest standout guest for me was Steven Pinker who wrote one of my favourite audio books entitled, The Stuff of Thought. Pinker, artfully addressed semantic fails and misfortunes of such as George Bush’s proclamation that Sadam was stashing those elusive weapons of mass destruction, the twin towers carnality debate AND, he got me thinking about the word sidereal which is one day (one rotation of the Earth) pertaining to a star other than our own.
Why I find this interesting is beyond me but, before I digress into geeked-ness, I just have to say that the audio piece Speaking of Music – Is Music a Universal Language? is an essential listen for anyone interested in aural cognition.
My deadly colleagues from semester one, you have kindly allowed me to hijack our former group’s site for my latest assignment without bloodshed or spite. For this, I offer my humble thanks and solemn gratitude.
I have since produced my own, it is entitled, Audio Organica.
We were The Llamas… well, Yield’s Tin Llama was the official name (an anagram of all of our names put together), we hailed McLuhan and Lulmann like they were mates, we established the true meaning of what a medium is to us, we chronologically mapped our media evolution whilst shedding digital tears with zen like poise. And to you I say Baahhhhhh… or whatever noise a Llama makes.
Llamas, if you can hear me, let’s all catch up for a bev! I miss our talk of highly inappropriate emojis!!
The Yield’s Tin Llama mascot
Sharon’s use of foley didn’t bring attention to itself, in fact, it felt seamless.
In her piece, When Time Stood Still, she looked at the psychological impacts of war and the invisible injuries that it inflicts on survivors.
The voiceovers began in a controlled studio environment, actors were then introduced to dramatically re-enact the action. To assist in relaying a sense of the era, period music was layered underneath a scratchy wireless announcement. More voice over actors were introduced albeit delivering performances that were somewhat contrived, “Declared fit of active service” [STAMP], declared the administrator in an officious tone.
The one moment that resonated most with me was the blending of the sound of the project and the steam train, it created a pleasing aural parallel that I hope to use in my own work at some stage.
But as a sound engineer for WNYC’s RadioLab, how much would you be laughing when you have to produce some of their sonic acrobatics?
After laughing on the inside with the piece Contagious Laughter, I felt as though I was on location with that hideous laughing push button thingy which resembled Satin’s Pokemon. The participant was laughing at that crazy demonic maniacal toy and we the listener were laughing at the participant.
The use of the phonograph temporarily placed us into a period, the footsteps segued us to the next scene. The timpani served as both, a representation of the closing of the school (in the narrative) as well as, a sharp metaphoric allow in our side to wake us up. And just to be absolutely goddamn sure that you were awake, they repeated the timpani explosion again!
The reading of the journal was recorded in a sonically clean studio setting and allowed the score to permeate deliciously.
As an avid podcaster, I am always sure that I am listening to RadioLab when the pseudo scripted narration pingpongs from one reader to the next, bouncing from left to right in the sound field and I just wonder, how much time and effort do they put into these gimmicky titbits… and how much is the chief sound engineer really laughing?
