Soundworks Weblog
From Farrimond
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| Thursday, 17 May 2012
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April
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Weblog for the Artists' Soundworks elective project to organise links, comments etc.
Contents |
2nd April 2007
Mixed some more variations on the Embrace Failure idea, including splicing in one or two bits from another mixed piece. Also experimented with effects including echoes and reverb on different variations of the piece. Reviewed some previous research to get inspiration for this and took a second look at 'Hate People Like You', downloading and listening to the full album version.
Got together a preliminary version of the collection of pieces I would like to present as well as a number of more developed versions for the possible final piece. I will continue to develop ideas for the final piece this Wednesday and perhaps look a little bit more into editing technique. In addition I will take another look at my artist/biographical statement and revise/reword as appropriate.
4th April 2007
People Like Us revisited
Thought it would be a good idea to refresh my memory of this as now I am more into the editing process I might be able to pick up some tips.
People Like Us is the stage name of Sussex DJ and Multimedia Artist Vicki Bennet. Hate People Like Us was released in 1999 and is in fact a remix of People Like Us pieces created by a number of collaborative artists.
- Dead Radio employs radio effects as well as what sound like horn blasts. A strange siren in the background creates an unsettling atmosphere and one can imagine a radio emitting this strange feedback. This is followed by a radio DJ explaining the technical difficulties. There are also some excerpts from the radio show mixed in an unusual way to create a humorous effect.
- In Ursula Fahrt Ski one can hear utterances that resemble breaks from a persons speech duplicated and/or reversed. This is kind of the effect I have been experimenting with today.
From listening to these I tested out combinations of the conversation breaks and the radio effects I have been looking at recently. The result, which I have named Strange Warblings is a bizarre atmosphere consisting of 'stabs' of noise and regular breaks and gaps filled with strange computer like noises. This was created by utilising the noise removal function in Audacity.
- The Sacred Erm is kind of the piece that inspired me to go along the path of concentrating on breaks in conversation. More Plunderblunders carries on this idea with a selection of mixed and overdubbed DJ samples to create a humorous ambience.
In summary, although an awful lot of the album is musically driven there are many spoken elements that permeate and punctuate the piece, a selection of DJs narrating and introducing records. They also often engage in conversation with callers and make announcements, and there seems to be a selection of consistent excerpts from an advert/program hence the frequent references to lycra. It leaves the listener wondering where that little blip or snatch of conversation came from, a soap opera, a fashion narrative?
Sources
- http://www.lastsigh.com/reviews99/peoplelikeus.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Like_Us_(musician)
- http://www.ubu.com/sound/plu_hate.html - Complete album
Text Drafts
Piece
- Embrace Failure is a 60 second sonic collage that takes a piece (may change to pieces depending on particular mix selected) of discourse and condenses it down to a focus on breaks in speech. Taking the form of utterances used in conversation to allow time for consideration of what they are about to say, these are presented one after the other in a quick fire manner to create an atmosphere of hesitancy and of confusion in a humorous fashion. The piece closes with the comment that "it is important to embrace failure" aptly summing up the previous 55 seconds of constant buying of time through uncertain and unsuccessful attempts to remember what it is they meant to say.
- 105 Words
Bio
- Dan Farrimond
- Wigan, Lancashire
- Dan Farrimond is a Multimedia designer and web artist who has studied at Liverpool John Moores University and has exhibited at Wigan College. Currently researching the new media, the web and its collaborative capabilities, he is primarily interested in how the Internet opens up possibilities for both new and existing communities to collaborate and interact. His work, mainly Internet-based and presented, is often conceptually driven and takes the form of websites, written and digitally illustrated essays but also more traditional hand-drawn pieces.
- 80 words
Editing
A quite productive day with regards to producing audio mixes. Recorded some radio static to incorporate in today's editing and worked into some existing and some newer files. Fed some of the effects and already recorded pieces through different audio software experimenting with visual layout as well as audio, and also setting music to a (semi) beat/rhythm. Also cropped down a number of mixes to one minute to see what these sound like. Essentially worked on the same piece trying to work it up into variations. I will select the most successful with the aid of tutors to put forward for my final one-minute piece.
Next week I will continue to mix and experiment with the pieces as I have for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I will be able to produce some more interesting outcomes - it is hoped the more variations I produce the better my final piece will be.
Packaging design
Although the packaging for this project is not a necessity, I though it might aid my presentation to create some quick designs for CD packaging. These are exhibited below.
I have also created a similar cover for the printed version of this weblog.
8th April 2006
Been considering some possible variations for the Embrace Failure piece in terms of contextualisations. Some of the best of these include:
- Answering machine message. Eg. "Please leave your message after the beep." "Erm, er...."
- TV News broadcast, maybe introduced by a presenter. Incl. cheesy jingle - BBC News theme?
- Other TV programmes - cookery, sports broadcast (commentator)
- 50's radio broadcast. Wartime - Churchill end of war speech.
- Musician at a concert. Feedback. Applauding crowd. Theatre.
I will act on these maybe tomorrow but certainly within the next week.
11th April 2007
Editing
Spent today mixing and recontextualising the pieces I have already edited. Got at least four decent quality mixes together, all taking inspiration from television programmes and news reports. Been scouting YouTube and archive.org for old television continuity clips and ripped the more interesting ones to mp3. This is pretty much a direct influence of the People Like Us pieces. Incorporated these clips into the following one minute tracks:
- BBC News: Opens with "And now, the 5 o clock news". Four of the tracks I have mixed gradually come into the piece, layering on top of each other as it goes along. Finishes on "Thank you very much" by the interviewer.
- BBC Weather, a test which ages one of the 'interviews' by applying a tone filter and adds the introduction "and now the weather".
- Crowd, similar to the BBC News one in that it primarily layers samples, only in this case the same sample is duplicated four times and the pitch changed on each. One of them also adds an echo. Closes on chipmunk voice "It's important to embrace failure".
- The programme you can bank on takes one of the tracks and adds a fake 'technical failure' and a break complete with piano Muzak. Piece closes on a reminder that 'this is BBC television'.
Some of the videos ripped from
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3-euNTw0RM
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTgowotRNnk
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5MBTFNwlug
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkFWOEBLbFs
Text Drafts
Piece
- Embrace Failure is a 60 second sonic collage that condenses a piece of discourse down to a focus on breaks in speech. Discourse markers, filler words, interjections and other such uncertain utterances are presented one after the other in a quick fire manner to create an atmosphere of hesitancy and confusion in an almost humorous fashion. The piece closes with the comment that "it is important to embrace failure" aptly summing up the previous 55 seconds of constant buying of time through uncertain and unsuccessful attempts to remember what it is they meant to say.
- 100 Words
Bio
- Dan Farrimond
- Wigan, Lancashire
- Dan Farrimond is a Multimedia designer and web artist who has studied at Liverpool John Moores University and has exhibited at Wigan College. Currently researching new media, the web and its wide ranging potential for collaboration, he is primarily interested in how the Internet opens up possibilities for both new and existing communities to collaborate and interact. His work, mainly digitally created and presented, is often conceptually driven and takes the form of websites and other interactive digital content, written and digitally illustrated. He has also worked with more traditional materials and has produced a number of hand-drawn and created pieces.
- 100 words
17th April 2007
After consultation with tutors, came up with the following texts for presentation.
Final texts
Embrace Failure
Embrace Failure is a 60 second sonic collage that condenses a piece of discourse down to focus on breaks in speech. Discourse markers, filler words, interjections and other such uncertain utterances are presented in rapid succession to create an atmosphere of hesitancy and confusion. The piece closes with the comment "it is important to embrace failure" aptly summing up all the previously uncertain and unsuccessful attempts to recall what it is they meant to say.
Artist Biography
Dan Farrimond
Wigan, Lancashire
Dan Farrimond is a Multimedia designer and web artist who has studied at Liverpool John Moores University and has exhibited at Wigan College. Currently researching new media, the web and its wide ranging potential for collaboration, he is primarily interested in how the Internet opens up possibilities for both new and existing communities to collaborate and interact. His work, mainly digitally created and presented, is often conceptually driven and takes the form of websites and other digital media.
Selection of work
Chose a final mix from the variations I have produced, with some help from tutors. It is the one with the radio effects edited in between snippets of two pieces of discourse. Edited this down from 1 minute 12 seconds to 1 minute in preparation for submission.
I have pretty much selected the works to go onto the CD. I will finalise these 20 tracks later when it comes to organising and burning them to disc. I have yet to decide whether I will include some of the influences on the disc - if they fit onto the remaining space on the disc then this is likely.
