Sound Project Concepts

Concept One: Subconscious Memory (Habits)

I would really like to explore what are the memories and things we've learned that we don't even think about, such as breathing, walking, brushing our teeth, morning routines, etc. This piece would be three minutes of the performer (myself) doing all these things, but the main point of it is I would like to tell the story without any dialogue at all, just sounds.

Concept Two: Subconscious Memory (Music)

This concept, while the first focuses on storytelling without dialogue, focuses on improvisation. Music is something that we all learn, internalize, and remember, so I'd like record up to ten minutes of a performer (also just myself) going through a listing of random songs, and trying to recall them as accurately as possible before moving onto the next. The most interesting sections would go into the final 3 minute piece, and the rest would be edited out.

>> Spin-off concept!

Instead of going through several songs by myself, I can also pick just one classic song, and get several people to recall the song to see how much they remember.

UbuWeb Sound Comparison

Ant Farm, "CarMen"

A three act, 15-minute opera. The piece begins with dialogue stating, "Gentlemen, start your wipers" and then proceeds into the musical intro featuring car horns. There is a harmonic quality, but sounds almost chaotic, and certainly isn't soothing. Act 2 begins with "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines" and this section of the opera features the sounds of engines starting and revving. This more rhythmic section contrasts with the previous section of harmonic horns. Act 3 features the much softer sounds of doors closing. This too, I believe, is the most clearly rhythmic part of the opera. It finally ends with on brief crescendo of horns to complete the piece.

There is no specifically clear narrative, as this piece is obviously more focused on music, but the progression of instruments is very interesting to me. It starts with the chaotic sounds of car horns, followed by more rhythmic engine revving, and finally wraps up with the sounds of doors closing which is the most clearly rhythmic. Throughout the opera, there is a sense of anarchy which is steadily tamed into a unified rhythm, almost like there is a story of creation being told. Raw power (or sound) is brought together into one unified song.

John Lennon (and Yoko Ono) "No Bed for Beatle John" [found lyrics]

The message may be clearer (the song is about the trials and tribulations of John and Yoko putting out a particular album) and the song is written more traditionally with clear lyrics and with backup lyrics and instruments, but this song is almost stranger than the previous "CarMen."

The sound of Yoko's voice is almost unsettling as she sings, and it is even more difficult to follow her timing and use of pitch than the cars'. There is the faint sound of white noise from the recording equipment or speakers in the background, and John softly sings another song in the background, assumably that it's related but it is difficult to make out what he's saying throughout most of the song.

Both songs tell a story, one very literal while the other is more conceptual, but in reverse, the more literal song is harder to listen to in a way due to it's almost sounding unnatural, while the first song is unnatural considering all the musical sounds come from cars. In a lot of ways, these songs are each other's opposites.

Audio Reactions

"The American Life: Notes on Camp", Adam Davidson and Julie Snyder August 28, 1998

Notes on Camp is an hour long presentation that consists of a collection of accounts from children and adults alike who participated in summer camp. It is split up into six sections (or chapters, if you'd like) that consist of an introduction, notes about David, Fear, You, Ritual, War, and Color Days. Overall, it's a beautiful recollection about how camp is a beautiful thing that changes people's lives. It's a place children and counselors alike can return to every summer to simply be with people and be a part of each other's lives. It's a place where going home means going to a different world-- a place where going home means waking up from a dream.

In order of to tell the story, the artists used a collection of narrations, interviews, and recorded accounts from campgoers, as well as recordings of camp songs and cheers. This only aided to building up what camplife seemed to be all about and really made it authentic, thus providing a way for listeners to connect with what the artists are trying to tell. With these things, the artists were able to paint the picture of this dreamworld from everyone's childhood, and share that with any listener of this piece.

"Her Long Black Hair", Janet Cardiff 2007

I think I would like to define Her Long Black Hair as participant-reliant performance art, in a way. It relies on a participant, who is also the viewer, to wear headphones and listen to a narration that leads them around the sidewalks of Manhattan. During this surreal journey, the viewer will hear a narrator describe a world from the past, and this is accompanied by related ambient sound effects, such as the sound of traffic or passing by people.

I love how this piece really becomes 3dimensional, because while if you close your eyes, it remains a simple audio piece, but if you take the journey through the streets, you find yourself in a surreal, dream-like experience. It's as if, while looking at images of the present, you are hearing shadows of the past and another world or hearing of something secret.

"She Was a Visitor", Robert Ashley 1996

She Was a Visitor was a hard piece for me to fully wrap my my around. It's a ~5 minute long song in which the phrase 'she was a visitor' is repeated over and over, and during which there are passing by sounds and tones, but no other real noticeable sounds. I found it even more frightening upon finding this video online.

There is no literal story that is being told, but instead Ashley is trying to convey something more conceptual -- a feeling. To me, I read a feeling of dread, or horror, or apprehension, and upon further reading I discovered that Ashley wrote this piece to express his thoughts and feelings on the suicides of his three friends, and his feelings on suicide in general. While this isn't a song I would listen to everyday, Ashely did a great job conveying this sense of anxiety and fear that might accompany the subject of suicide.

"Excerpt from Silence", John Cage 1939-1961

Silence is a collection of lectures that Cage collected over the course of 20 years from his teachings. They are calm, collected, and quiet, save for the soft sound of his voice as he describes his thoughts and quite literally tells his own story. While speaking, he will take pauses before adjusting his thoughts, then will abruptly launch into new topics before bringing everything around full circle to prove his point.

This particular excerpt describes at first the differences between Americans and the rest of the world (ex. "if Americans were born pigs instead of men, there would be no difference") but then discuss the fact that art is a necessary part of our lives and nature. At first this shift is confusing, but Cage comes back around to explain that art is what makes our world endurable [as Americans].

"The War of the Worlds", Orson Welles (originally H.G. Wells) October 30, 1938

The War of the Worlds to me is the epitome of excellent storytelling, and possibly so good that I would also like to classify it as the world's greatest prank. The day before halloween in 1938, the Mercury Theatre on Air did an hour long performance that was an adaption of H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, a story (though originally it took place in England) of a man surviving through an attempted alien invasion. Orson Welles, the director and narrator of the broadcast, changed the setting of the story to New Jersey (then the rest of America), and told it as if it were a live broadcast and aliens were actually attacking Earth. The use of sound effects and other voice actors were able to make a convincing performance, but I think the most powerful parts of the broadcast were the sudden bouts of silence, as if the speaker were suddenly disconnected from the air.

Welles' storytelling was so good that it had convinced hundreds of thousands of listeners that the events in the broadcast were actually happening, and thus mass panic ensued. People began to abandon their homes and run for safety, and some even insisted that they could smell the poison gas mentioned in the performance, or see lightning in the distance. With such a strong reaction, I'd have to say Welles' couldn't have been more convincing.