harrietadams-imageandnarrative - Tumblr blog

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER + FINISHING TOUCHES

Combining the synth element and the environmental recording element needed a bridge that would ease listeners into the transition. I added more environmental recordings such as footsteps, a chair dragging along carpet and small pieces of dialogue to make the story more robust. Using snippets from the synth score, I lured the character out of their chair, and deeper into the library. As they follow this sound, the conversation dies down, the nondescript hum of the aircon gets louder, and the hints of synth score pulls them in. The audience is then fully immersed in this new world, now overlaid with birdsong that I sampled online. 

The final track is as follows:

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

SYNTH AND SAMPLING

Combining synth with a narrative loosely based around a Shakespearean play seemed to be a bit of a reach when it came to really expressing the story. I was a bit apprehensive about combining such a contemporary sound with an Elizabethan text. Yet, as I brainstormed ways in which I could synchronise these two ideas, I remembered Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaption of Romeo and Juliet. Although Luhrmann and the films composers (Nellee Cooper et al) didn’t exactly use synth, yet they used contemporary music to convey a classical text. 

Instead of sampling particular tracks from the film and putting them straight into my piece to manipulate, I decided to take the musical score, play it on my keyboard and work a synth version straight into the track. 

The original version of the score is below: 

I took on this task systematically. I took the intro to the track and split it into three parts: the melody, the bass and the final phrase. I then played each of these on my keyboard in different voices, tweaking the Cut-Off, Chorus and Reverb levels on my keyboard as I went. I then imported the files into Adobe Audition and constructed them as one would in a musical score. 

This piece would act as the shift into the alternate universe, creating a whole different environment not with sounds of the space, but sounds of nostalgia. 

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

BUILDING THE PIECE

Building from an experimentation from Week 2, I have constructed the beginning of my narrative, and the bed of my audio piece in the ambience of the library. 

Using recordings of aircons, conversation, and general hustle and bustle, my track looked a little something like this:

To expand the narrative, I experimented with distorting the lower droning sounds from Week 1, applying a few filters, and using crossfades and binaural sound to create movement. 

To create this binaural movement, from left to right, took some troubleshooting and a McGuyver kind of fix to it. Placing two tracks underneath each other, one producing sound only in the left, and the other only in the right, and overlapping them to create sound in both ears. 

I also applied filters and tweaked the EQ on the droning track, transforming it from a rather piercing sound to a shinier, more dynamic sound. Shifting the pitch down and adding an FTT filter of a C-Major Triad along with a 10 voice chorus gave the droning sound a mystical and light quality. 

I integrated the droning sound in between the ambient and action sounds of the library, almost interrupting the flow of the character’s action. I also tweaked the panning a little to make it more fluid.

I left my field recordings momentarily to develop and work on the synth piece.

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

IN CREATING THE FINAL PIECE

How do I construct a narrative just through sound? How can I build a world that an audience can listen to? How can I paint a picture sonically?

I’ve had so many questions and ideas since the commencement of this workshop. As I hoard snippets of sound here and there, droning, field recordings, samples from popular culture, I only strive to combine all three of these elements in some way. Through a selection of sounds from each of these fields, I want to focus on building a narrative, from start to finish. 

I have a substantial library of recordings from the UOW Library, ambient noise, printers, hushed conversations, pages being flipped, and the hum of the air conditioner. Finding a sonic narrative in a place best known for its silence is a challenge, but it only inspires me further. But how can I combine the atmosphere of the library with synth and droning? 

The narrative I wish to create builds a bridge between fiction and non fiction. By using field recordings I collected in the library, and pieces I’ve been experimenting with on my synth keyboard has given me opportunity to create a story inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream-esque experience: in which you find an alternate universe within the shelves of the library, an outside world inside the quiet study. I only wish to create wonderment, confusion, and excitement through the power of synth, the craft of field recording, the sometimes controversial art of sampling, and to season it all with droning experimentations harking back to the first week of this workshop.

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

ANGELO BADALEMENTI AND THE NOSTALGIA OF SYNTH

As a Grammy winner and king of 90s synth nostalgia, Badalementi is most famous for his collaboration with director David Lynch. Composing a multitude of themes and scores for Lynch’s films and TV series such as Blue Velvet (1989) and Twin Peaks (1990) respectively, Badalementi is able to construct intricate and multifaceted narratives through his keyboard alone. Personally, I see Badalementi’s pieces as an extension of the field recording, despite their seemingly ‘classical’ roots. He takes phrases, tones, and colours and combines them into a score that takes audiences through a forest of sound. It is the ways in which Badalementi is able to create a narrative through an rudimentary 8 tone scale alone truly inspires my final piece.

In a special feature for the Twin Peaks series, Badalementi speaks of his creative process and collaboration with David Lynch, and the experience of creating Laura Palmer’s theme.

The contemporary revival of the 1980s and 1990s, especially in music, speaks multitudes of Badalementi’s timeless works and practices. His music has taken on a new form, still hauntingly beautiful and expertly crafted, yet now nostalgic in the modern age. 

Throughout my works, I only wish to emulate Badalementi. The ways in which he constructs a narrative through sound provides major motivation in constructing my final piece. Using a keyboard of my own, I want to play around and experiment with synth, and combine this with actual field recordings. 

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

VANESSA ROSSETTO AND ‘THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL’

Rossetto uses the microphone as an extension of herself and her own interactions with the world. Leaving the track running and the receiver on, Rossetto walked the streets and rode the subways of New York city to compose what is now The way you make me feel (2016). It was the uninterrupted and the unabashed field recordings that provided the foundation for this metaphor of urban alienation, and the healing through hearing (Allen, 2016). What drew me to Rossetto’s field recordings is not only their natural and immerse field recordings, but attention to musical composition, in something that many would not regard as ‘music’ at all.

The sounds of the subway, idle conversation, pigeons, traffic, and indistinguishable noise poetically combine into a piece that delves into this ‘uncontrolled sonorous world’ (Héraud, 2016). Rossetto uses the bustling world around her and somehow condenses it into a highly evocative and immersive atmosphere, clouded by her own personal struggles. Yet, within this darkly veiled sonic portrait, Rossetto beautifully illuminates passages and fragments that lie deep within the soil of this work.

What ultimately sparks my interest in The way you make me feel is not the reference to Michael Jackson’s 1987 song of the same name, but the ways in which Rossetto gives credit and power to the sounds in between. It is not the momentous and iconic New York that our ears have come to know so well through popular culture, it is a dark and honest portrayal of the sounds that rest between subway cars and in amongst the dust and grime of the city.

References: 

Allen, R. (2016). The Unfathomless Series: Flavien Gillié and Vanessa Rosetto. Available: https://acloserlisten.com/2016/07/08/the-unfathomless-series-flavien-gillie-and-vanessa-rosetto/. Last accessed April 2017.

Héraud, J. (2016). Vanessa Rossetto - "The way you make me feel" & "Adult Contemporary". Available: http://improv-sphere.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/vanessa-rossetto-way-you-make-me-feel.html. Last accessed April 2017.

[harrietadams-imageandnarrative]

COPYRIGHT OR COPYWRONG?

Within contemporary arts, copyright tends to be a contentious issue. The ownership of intellectual property in the digital age tends to agitate a handful of issues, ranging from the agency of one’s property to its profits and commercial uses. To combat these issues, copyright places boundaries (according to the creator/owner of the work) to allow for creators to share their work within their own means. The many tiers of copyright law allow for individuals to choose how they want their work protected, if at all. Within Creative Commons, there are many iterations of copyright protection that range from works in the public domain (available to anyone, anywhere), to all rights reserved.

As both an artist and an audience member in the digital age, working around copyright sometimes slips one’s mind. More often than not, we are used to the internet being a platform to share, transform and discuss. Yet as I begin to branch into more serious artmaking I tend to feel quite protective over my works (much like anyone else). But in investigating ‘remix cultures’ I am now more open to the idea of collaboration and cooperation. In Gaylor’s ‘RiP: A Remix Manifesto’, a certain point of view was shared that truly struck my interest. At the crux, if we are able to cite authors in an essay, using their ideas, works, and experiences to build our own works, why can we not do the same in the arts? I am completely open to sharing my work to be built on, as long as the credit and acknowledgement is there.