Our sound sculpture represents the main sections of Gregor’s life throughout the story: his initial monotonous life, transformation, the aftermath as well as death, and Grete’s new beginning. As his family’s financial supporter, Gregor is solely focused on his work and constantly fights against time. The opening music, the beginning of Electronic by DParker, was repeated multiple times to reflect Gregor’s routine. The sound of the alarm clock shows the distinction between his life before and after the metamorphosis. To represent the actual transformation, a crinkling and crunching sound was used to mimic the uncomfortable crawling of Gregor as a cockroach. The screaming symbolizes the horrified response of his family to Gregor’s transformation. Similarly, the lyrics “Don’t get too close. It’s dark inside. It’s where my demons hide. It’s where my demons hide.” from Imagine Dragons’ Demons portray the family’s isolation from Gregor and Gregor’s internal conflict. As time passes, the family adapts to Gregor’s change. By choosing three slow piano instrumentals, we showed the readjustment of the Samsa’s life. Although chaos still exists, they partially accept the inevitable truth. The mixture of the three dramatic piano samples embodies that peaceful chaos experienced by the three other family members. Finally, “I watched it begin again” from Taylor Swift’s Begin Again demonstrates Gregor’s family moving on after his death and their new focus on Grete’s future.
Gregor from Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, served to be our primary inspiration for the sound sculpture. Although more extreme, his life reminds us of our own – pressed for time and following rituals with little to no change. All individuals experience some sort of transformation that may or may not have a large impact upon them; in their lifetime, they will eventually face hardships and obstacles that will modify their character. By reflecting upon this theme, we as the audience can connect to Gregor’s internal struggles. In order to create a relatable sound sculpture and make the personal connection more clear, we implemented songs by popular artist such as Imagine Dragons and Taylor Swift who listeners can easily identify. Even if the listener cannot specifically pinpoint the actual song title or artist, they will be familiar with the music and recognize that they have heard it before. Having heard the songs, the audience will feel a personal relationship to the sound sculpture and therefore, Gregor’s story.
By. Karen Choi, Katie Wang, Ariel Yuan
Works Cited:
Adele. “Turning Tables.” 21. XL Recordings, 19 Jan. 2011. mp3.
Adele. “Someone Like You.” 21. XL Recordings, 19 Jan. 2011. mp3.
DParker. “electronic.” Al Natural. 20 Feb 2012. mp3.
Imagine Dragons. “Demons.” Night Vision. Interscope, 28 Jan. 2013. mp3.
Röyksopp & Sundfør, Susanne. “Running to the Sea.” 2013. mp3.
The Smiths. “Asleep.” The World Won’t Listen. Rough Trade, 23 Feb. 1987. mp3.
Swift, Taylor. “Begin Again.” Red. Big Machine. 22 Oct. 2012. mp3.
The first thing that stood out to me as I listened to your sound sculpture was the difference between how it started and how it ended. The contrast between the monotonous clocks and Taylor Swift’s voice represents the changes Gregor undergoes in “Metamorphosis” from beginning to end; I appreciated that it’s much more noticeable in this musical interpretation than in the novel. I also liked how you choose to repeat certain lyrics, such as “I watched it begin again.” I hadn’t thought of Gregor’s death as a spiritual rebirth, but your choice in music definitely brought that idea to mind.
My group did the same as well with transforming Metamorphosis into a sound sculpture. I liked that you did this as well because it proves that art is so interpretable. My group interpreted it almost the same way as yours did, except with different sounds. I found this interesting because even if people are doing the same piece, there is no way that they can use the same sounds to describe it. It’s really interesting that even though we had the same concept in mind, we both used different sounds. Sound is relatable to everyone except the deaf. We feel through sound. I totally agree with that and I liked that your group made it so easy to fit a novella into 90 seconds, except differently than my group did.
Janice Fong
Professor Wollman once said, “When I think of Grete, I think of Taylor Swift.” I haven’t thought about it that way before but I definitely do now because like Taylor, Grete seems to be a gentle, sensitive darling. They are both incredibly emotional people and because of this, I think Taylor’s “Begin Again” is a great match for The Metamorphosis’s storyline.
I also liked the seemingly natural transition from Imagine Dragons’ “Demons” into the piano piece. I think this perfectly exemplifies how there was an instantaneous natural transition from unleashing his inner “demons” to fighting his inner struggles.
Oh by the way, being a hardcore Taylor Swift fan, I know quite a few songs that can be related to almost any topic. So I also think her song “Haunted” is a pretty good representation of Gregor’s emotions when he feels betrayed/neglected by his family.
You did an amazing job portraying Gregor’s life story through a sound sculpture. I liked your choice of music because it captured the various emotions of the story and managed to create different moods throughout the sound clip. I especially enjoyed the transition to the soft piano because it relaxes the building tension. You also added a distinct touch to the story by adding the sound of wind. Wind can symbolize countless things, but here, I thought it represented the lapse of time. Lastly, your sound sculpture effectively conveyed your discomfort with the family’s indifference after Gregor’s death. Instead of ending the sound sculpture with “Asleep” by The Smiths, you added Taylor Swift’s cheerful and almost upbeat song, “Begin Again”. This created a dissonance in the musical piece that underlines the very idea that makes Kafka’s story rather unsettling.
The usage of words in various places describe the story and certain scenarios well. The words “don’t get too close” can reference the scenes, when Gregor’s mother and father would avoid him because of his form. Another example is the phrase “sing me to sleep”, this can represent Gregor’s refusal to continue his life any longer and forfeits it himself by refusing to eat. When I listen to your sound sculpture I can easily picture your description and the progression of Kafka’s story.
I agree with your point concerning Gregor’s internal struggle. We all face internal struggles at some point in our life, but it may not be as life-changing as Gregor’s. Gregor’s story is removed from us because we don’t turn into cockroaches over night, but we do understand the meaning behind it. Your sound sculpture helped me relate to his case a bit more. Your usage of music that takes into account of your audience is interesting and served its purpose.
I like your in depth description of the sound sculpture. As someone pointed out, even if people do their projects on the same topic, they still come up with radically different ideas. I liked how your sound sculpture progressed from simple to more complex and alive. At first it was quiet and repetitive but a the end it was almost lively, reflecting the how the family finally managed to get some peace after that awful turn of events. I also liked your smooth transitions between songs and use of repetition. This had a lot meaning behind it and was put together well.