Final Projects

This is my portrait of Brighton seafront, including sounds of the beach, the arcade and the rides on the pier.



My interview was conducted with a student from Sussex University about the bouldering society and keeping healthy.

Inspiration

I decided to watch some videos about bouldering and climbing to find out what kind of ambient sounds to include in my interview.



This video includes the sounds of distant chatter which connotes humanity. I can also hear metal clinking which is possibly the sound of the equipment they are using.




Many promotional videos for bouldering include very dramatic music which suggest that it is an intense sport. I will use similar music in my interview.

Mindfulness: Panacea or Fad?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xmqdd

I listened to this interview related to sport and well-being. The speaker interacts with the audience by asking questions such as "are you sitting confortably?". This helps to make the listener feel engaged. The interview includes basic facts about mindfulness including notable figures which is useful in giving the audience a complete insight to the activity. I think I will ask my interviewee similar questions in order to give the audience a greater understanding of bouldering.

Paralympic selection and indoor rock climbing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kjtfg

This podcast included the popular song The Only Way Is Up which is used as a pun to connote climbing upwards. The song is upbeat which emphasises the physicality of rock climbing as a sport.

Week 11

Today I recorded the final sounds for my soundscape. This included various sounds within the arcade such as people playing with the machines. I made sure to record the sound of humanity and people reacting to the games that they were playing. I also recorded sounds of the rides on the pier. I felt that most of these recordings were quite successful since they detected a lot of valuable noise. I think I will be able to layer the different recordings to make the arcade really busy and populated.



I also downloaded a sound of a door creaking to let the audience know that I was moving through different places.
http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Unclassifiable&page=1

Week 10

I recorded some more sounds in Brighton. These were much clearer than the last time I recorded.

Sound Inspiration

Part of my soundscape will be recorded in the arcade and of the rides on the pier. This will subsequently feature loud, artificial sounds.

Janet Cardiff is an artist from Candada who creates sound installations. Most of her work is done solo but she often works with her husband George Bures Miller



This piece beings very minimally with only a couple of noticeable sounds (an accordion melody and a simple beat of drums). Then an echoed sound of a rattle is introduced and then a layer of voices is added. After that, the original sounds almost completely change and start to sound more horrific; noises such as a baby crying and a man coughing can be heard. The accordion melody returns and then disappears shortly after, leaving just layers of different voices and the rattling sound. Finally a sneeze triggers the melody and a multitude of different sounds to come to together for the climatic end.

Altogether I am inspired by the way Cardiff and Miller have layer different and mainly ambiguous sounds in order to create a more artistic sound portrait. I think this is useful for my soundscape as I will be building up many layers to paint a portrait of the funfair. I could possibly even distort some of the sounds to represent my own perspective of the pier.




Cardiff's sound installation reminded me of the theme song for the television programme, 'American Horror Story: Freak Show'. It starts of with eerie noises, chimes and warping. The jewellery box kind of melody begins accompanied by the sound of drums, creaking, and heavy breathing. The sounds build up with chimes, screeching, and more voices.

Week 9

Today I went to Brighton to record some sounds for my soundscape. This included the sound of waves crashing. I had not used the correct settings on the marantz therefore some of the sounds were distorted. I also recorded some sounds within the arcade which were picked up quite clearly.

Sound Inspiration - Beach

For my soundscape I've chosen Brighton seafront as a location. Part of it will be recorded on the beach therefore I decided to research other soundscapes that are on the beach.



This begins very quietly with just the subtle sound of waves crashing. The only sound of life is from birds.
Music is faded in which I probably won't use in my soundscape unless I've recorded it in the space. As a whole the piece sounds very tranquil and relaxing.

BBC Radio

Reimagining the City: London
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03sr0wm

I listened to this radio show which was a description of Hampstead Heath in London. The presenter, Lavinia Greenlaw, spoke quite slowly and clearly which made it easy to follow what she was saying. It included the sound of the subject walking through a marshy area which subverts the typical representation that London is a busy city. This is then contrasted against the sound of traffic which suggests that the city is very diverse.
The presenter describes the weather to compensate for the fact that the viewer can not see or feel what it's like. This shows the importance of pertaining to see the senses within a podcast in order to make the listener feel fully engaged. The wind and sirens can be heard faintly in the background but are not too loud or overpowering. Moreover, piano music is used to create a sombre mood. I think that in my interview I will use a combination of ambient sounds and music.

Ramblings - East Sussex - South Downs Way: Brighton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sh0cm

I decided to listen to this podcast since it's near to the location I've chosen for my soundscape. I also thought I could gain some useful tips for my interview, in terms of the way the speaker delivered her information. In this podcast the presenter describes her opinions of the setting and what she can see. I didn't particularly like this podcast as she was 'rambling' and made it quite difficult to follow.

Week 7 - Interviews

This week we were introduced to the sound booths and conducted a mock interview. I asked questions about having a fear of travelling. The interviewee gave quite personal answers which would be more engaging for the audience. I edited the interview so that only his voice could be heard and not mine. In addition, I added some sound effects from the BBC Sound Fx such as a bus engine at the beginning and end. I also decided to add some background noise so that it would sound a bit more natural. I think it would have been better if this noise was a bit quieter.

Ideas

Soundscape:

• Portrait of Brighton - This could include sounds of the beach, such as walking on the pebbles and the waves. Also it could include the pier with sounds of the machines in the arcade and the rides outside.
• Portrait of home - I could record various sounds that are within my home such as hoovering and washing machines. I could make this more personal by adding the sound trains in the background which run by my house.
• Portrait of London - For this portrait I would include the sound of busy, crowded streets and lots of traffic.

Interview:

• I could interview a Sussex student about how they've found their first year and the experiences of moving away from home.
• Alternatively I could interview a final year student about their experience as whole and how they feel about going in to the working world.
• Another idea is asking a yoga instructor about health and wellbeing and how to keep relaxed.

Week 5

Today I interviewed some people in Brighton. A lot of people were very shy and  subsequently did not want to be interviewed.

Week 4

In class we listened to a BBC radio soundscape of Portsmouth train station. I found it very relaxing as it paints a picture of the landscape. I thought it was interesting that it features interviews of what people thought of the station and not just direct sounds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c45hq

I also conducted interviews with students on campus and asked them questions about student life.

Hugo Zuccarelli

• Sound engineer from Argentina
• Created ‘Holophonics’ – Sound equivalent of visual Holography (3D).
• žIt was invented in 1980 while he was studying electrical engineering

Holophonics

The inner ear analyses sound in a holographic manner. With holophonics it uses technology to record sound exactly as it is. It uses the same multi exposure principle that is used to create holograms. Spatial dimension, ambience, emotion are all taken into consideration throughout the recording.

Notable Work

• Recognition by NASA, the music and film industry, the scientific community
• Disneyland and Disney World; on HBO, TV science programs and local news channels, on radio, in video games, and in motion pictures
• Has worked with Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson
• The Interplanetary Society
• “Aladdin,” Walt Disney. Holophonics™ used on trailer. (1992)

How it can be heard

Can be heard perfectly through nearly any stereo, set of headphones, or computer, whether inexpensive or of highest fidelity. For the first time, more complicated and expensive systems are not required for better sound (because in this case the sound is recreated in the listener’s brain). His discovery led him to invent a single-source, high-definition, low-distortion speaker

Criticisms

There is no evidence, nor studies conducted, to indicate that the holophonic technique is substantially different from or superior to other methods. His technique has not been published. Holophonic recording is similar to binaural recording – his study was done by using the same technique as patent binaural recording.

Week 3

In class today we experimented with creating sounds using various apparatus for example the hydrophone.



I edited some of the sounds in order to connote something. else in a similar way to Ben Burtt. For example the sound 'sawing' was created by scratching against a plastic surface.

Ben Burtt

Ben Burtt is a sound designer from America who has worked on many films such as on Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Wall-E.
He has won four Oscars including the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982.



I'm inspired by the way Burtt uses real life sounds and manipulates them to sound fictional, for example he created the light saber sound by using old film projector humming.

Acoustic Territories

• Auditory ontology - sounds disintegrate and reconfigure space
• Sound is generally in more than one place
• Ubiquity effect - difficulty to locate a sound source

Brighton Soundwalk 1

Today I went in to Brighton to record a sound walk of the seafront.




At the beginning there is clear sound of walking on the pebbles, however after that the sound of the waves is very quiet. Also there is feedback that can be heard which makes the recording sound unclear. I think this recording would have been better if I captured the sound much closer to the sea and if I took more care to avoid the sound of the wind.

Week 2

Today our task was to record sound walks of different places on campus.

 
For this sound walk I visited a couple of different locations. It starts with me entering the Eat Central canteen. The sound of chatter can be heard and also my own voice to describe my personal thoughts. I like that you can hear the transition between the different locations as it allows the listener to follow along. As a whole this sound walk would have been better if there wasn't the feedback sound.



This was a sound walk of going to East Slope bar. The sound walk begins with the sound of traffic and buses driving past to signify the subjects arriving outside the location. The sounds of people talking can then be heard which implies that the subjects are approaching the bar. Inside the sounds are a lot louder which suggests that it's a more busy place. There are sounds such as loud music and people cheering which create a pleasant atmosphere.

First workshop

In class today were introduced to the Adobe Audition software. Our task was to combine 10 different sounds from the BBC Sound FX library. I created a soundscape for a busy street on a rainy day. This was then uploaded to my Soundcloud account.