This sound sculpture describes the relationship between our age and happiness. As we grow older, our ability to achieve happiness becomes increasingly complex. Our sculpture spans from infancy to elderly. Happiness comes to infants and children easily. At the beginning of our sculpture, we decided to include clapping sounds to indicate a simpler form of happiness. Children require the approval of their parents to achieve happiness and clapping is usually seen as a sign of approval. Children don’t have to work for this type of approval either. They can sit there and do nothing, but still receive positive reinforcement. After the clapping, we added more complex sounds. The addition of sounds are gradual, at one point there are three sounds playing at once. This period represents the development from the infant period to the teenage years.
Most people experience a time of confusion during their teenage years. Teenagers want to experience happiness, but at this point in life they require more to be happy. The simple approval of their parents is simply not enough anymore. They might want more material items or have a desire to fulfill their goals. Everyone’s happiness is different, but without a doubt, it will not remain the same as when they were children.
Around the 36 second mark, when the song becomes more upbeat and loud, it indicates adulthood. When people becomes adults, they gain more freedom than ever before. This freedom is directly related to the choices they can make to be happy. Adults enter this entirely new world, where they face decision more complex than ever to determine their happiness. We intentionally made the music seem like a mess of sounds to portray the complexities of happiness during adulthood. At 45 seconds we have a female voice that talks about love, which resembles the need for humans to have social contact or companions.
After the reference to love we enter the old age. Happiness is still confusing at an elderly age, but more understood than before. The slowing of sounds portray a closure to ones life. The childish laughter towards the end of the piece is an allusion to a new form of happiness taking the form of children or grandchildren. Most of the sound sculpture sounds upbeat and happy because as we age, we have more chances to be happy. Towards the end, it becomes more calm and the volume lowers. This is suppose to be a bittersweet moment, when old age limits happiness, but the elderly have the new generation to look forward to and bring them happiness. We made our interpretation of happiness and age as general as possible with the exception of love and children. Most people experience this change in complexity between happiness as they grow older.
Created by D.N.A.
Donald Fung, Nick Djamalidinov, Alan Chen
Work Citied:
Beethoven, Ludwig van. Moonlight Sonata. Crownstar, 2006. MP3.
Coldplay. Viva La Vida. Parlophone and Capital Records, 13 June. 2008. MP3.
Girl’s Generation. I Got a Boy. S.M. Entertainment, 1 Jan. 2013. MP3.
Imagine Dragon. It’s Time. Interscope Records, 18 Aug. 2012. MP3.
Jun, Maeda and Yanagi Nagi. Last Smile. Geneon Universal Entertainment, Feb. 2012. MP3.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Feat. Mary Lambert. Same Love. Macklemore LLC, 18 Jul. 2012. MP3.
Shinhwa. Venus. Shinhwa Company, 23 Mar. 2012. MP3.
System S.F. Feat. Anna. Look At the Sky. Konami, 29 Oct. 2002. MP3.
I love your insight of the notion that “our ability to achieve happiness becomes increasingly complex [as we grow older],” which I agree with entirely. I also like your selection of the song Same Love by Macklemore and Mary Lambert not only because of my personal preference but also because love between individuals can serve as a step closer to happiness. The overall upbeat rhythm and tone of your sound sculpture reflects the ultimate purpose of it: happiness. Your explanation for the piece helped me to better comprehend it, but I would have understood the flow without it too because your transformation is well crafted!
Great sound sculpture! I really liked how smoothly you transitioned the complexity of the music and then transitioned back to simplicity. I can really connect to how much harder it is over time to be excited by things because as we age we experience more and more things so we become inured to the daily rituals we are accustomed to. The more we have experienced the less things feel new, the fewer things seem interesting. Also really loved how you started with “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons!