The purpose of our sound sculpture is to capture the moment between life and death. Our sculpture starts off with a man in the hospital bed tracing back the events of the day. In the unconscious state, he is taken on a journey through hell and heaven, while trying to keep a grip into the world.
The heart rate monitor throughout the sculpture signifies his ability to cling onto life while the demons and angels of the afterlife attempt to pull him in. The two combined create the limbo between life and death, where sounds of both sides merge together all during an unconscious state.
The metronome throughout signifies that dreamy and cloudy state of mind to add to his state of confusion. We decided to end our sculpture with silence to signify the unknown, because the battle between life and death is always unclear.
By Michael Mamiye, Marc Saadia, And Samantha Chiu
Emergency Siren – German Ambulance Siren, Steady, No Engine, 1985 (Acoustic Horn Type) Sounddogs. MP3
The sound transformation we created is a combination of 5 different songs that encompass different phases of sleep. We began with a cover of “Sweet Dreams” that was done by Emily Browning and transitioned into a song from the Great Gatsby soundtrack called “Into the Past” by Nero. The next song used was “Murcof” by Mir, followed by a dubstep remix of Sia’s “Breathe Me”, and ended with “Wake Me Up” by Avicii. This compilation of songs includes both vocals and instrumental music that provide a setting for our concept that captures the variety of moods one experiences during a night of dreams and nightmares. Our sound sculpture tells the story of a girl sleeping, whose ‘sweet dream’ transforms into a nightmare.
The soft and relaxing melody of “Sweet Dreams” along with the lyrics portrays the tranquility someone feels while dreaming. We chose to end the song with the line, “Everybody’s looking for something” because it foreshadows the uncertainty of nightmares.
The fast pace and heavy background breathing of “Into the Past” introduces the anxiety someone feels when stuck in a nightmare, a different phase of sleep. The line, “I’ll follow you” conveys the desperation and longing one feels searching for something they can’t find in a nightmare.
The instrumental music from 0:40 to 0:49 gives off a hopeless vibe and slowly transitions into “Murcof”, which continues the never-ending nightmare. “Murcof” creates a somewhat creepy mood to show the different turns a nightmare can take. The nightmare starts out as a means of longing for something and slowly leads into a scary ending.
The lyrics in the next song, “Breathe Me”, emphasizes the vulnerability a nightmare brings. The line, “Help, I have done it again” also shows that the nightmares are a normal occurrence. Finally, Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” puts the nightmare to an end.
In my animation I attempted to relay the emotions and motifs of life/death, shadow, and mystery. I used a red plate as my backdrop throughout the entire animation, which to me acts as the archetype of mystery. If you look closely at the red plate you will see my reflection, which relates to shadowing. Also red is the obvious color of death, so I thought that worked nicely. I used the Flatiron building to highlight shadow imagery. I also think a tall buildings is an excellent way of stressing our current state of “life”, where we are contently trying to achieve greatness and superiority. My last image was candles, which draped them all over the animation. To me candles are the most obvious forms of life/death, shadow and mystery. Candles don’t last forever which relates to death, but during their lives they shine brightness on all of us, something we all strive to do. Candles also bring about shadows no matter where they are placed. Lastly, there is a certain mystery to candles and flames; their size is always changing as is their impact. Throughout my animation everything starts off very simplistic but as the animation continues things become more and more convoluted, only in the end to end-up black with just one spec of light left. This evolution of sorts symbolizes ones life span starting off simple but getting more convoluted as it goes on, in the end to black out.
They say that in great times of failure, success arises from the ashes. After forgetting to have a basic outline for class, our group was asked to leave the room. Completely distraught and ashamed, we started to brainstorm ideas. After a series of ideas, we decided to showcase what just happened to us: getting kicked out of class.
Our sound clip focuses on the variety of emotions throughout this incredibly embarrassing transition. We begin with jovial music as students enter the classroom. There is an upbeat feeling of content. The music transitions to tense and dramatic when the teacher enters the classroom and reaches a moment of silence when the teacher asks for a status on the project. It then transitions to more angry music as the teacher discovers our error. This also applies to a broader context of the truth about errors, misjudgement, and/or mistakes coming to light. Whether publicly or privately, an angry response is expected.
We ourselves are also angry with ourselves for our lack of attention. After that, the music becomes more repentant as we realize our huge error. Beethoven’s Fur Elise is perfect to demonstrate a feeling of sadness or melancholy. The voices of famous falls from grace are heard including Anthony Weiner, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods and 50 Cent’s unpublished Ghetto Quran. The clip ends with inspirational music with as a glimmer of hope or positive outlook on our future. We feel that our transition was very relatable to our audience as its a struggle that many face (also, we all fell from grace on that noble day). We hope you enjoy our creation.
Nabil Ahmed Khatri, Kevin Parakattu, Evans Charles Augustin
Works Cited
Antagonist. FreePlayMusic, n.d. MP3.
With the Black Hole. FreePlayMusic, n.d. MP3.
Cent, 50. Ghetto Quran. 50 Cent. N.d. MP3.
Detz. Eminem “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” (Acoustic Cover). Online Video Clip. Youtube. Youtube. 20 Feb. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
President Bill Clinton – Response to Lewinsky Allegations. University of Virginia: Miller Center of Public Affairs. 26 Jan. 1998. Television.
Tiger Woods’ Full Apology Speech. CNN. 19 Feb. 2010. Television.
Weiner: ‘Don’t Know What I Was Thinking’ CNN. 6 June 2011. Television.
Youtube Audio Library, orch. Für Elise. By Ludwig Van Beethoven. 1810. MP3.
This music conveys a story of love. It illustrates the typical bad boy who forgets his ways once he encounters the love of his life. The music starts off aggressively, the way the boy comes off to the world. It then intensifies and becomes harsh, portraying the rough journey of the boy’s life and the chaos he stirs. Then it quiets down and you can hear the sound of passing cars in the street. He examines his life but in seeing no hope continues his ways. However, there is an instant shift once he runs into the girl who will change his ways forever.
We wanted to convey the transformation within a difficult character as they struggle to identify with their complex nature when they are faced with an exalting emotion. The spy music demonstrates his willingness to keep searching for the girl, even if his typical bad boy type personality doesn’t suggest he would be so intent on looking for her. The sudden “Hi” dialogue represents that ordinary first encounter, which shows this transformation the boy has undergone throughout his quest to find the love of his life. We wanted to broaden this definition of transformation and allow listeners to create their own meaning of how an unexpected event or situation can alter a person’s personality.
I still get very excited when Poland makes it into the news, especially when it is the New York Times Arts section. Located in general proximity to Russia and its ballet, Italy and its renaissance-era treasures, and France and its fashion week, people often forget that Poland, as well as other smaller European countries, celebrate the arts, too. However, even the smallest mention of my home country brings me joy, because it shows that people are still being reminded of Poland’s great art and rich history.
This fall, a famous Polish director, Andrzej Wajda, released his latest film, Walesa: Man of Hope. The film follows the story of the leader of Poland’s solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, and the work he did to bring the country out of the grips of communism. Wajda also depicts other moments of glory in Poland’s history, such as Karol Wojtila’s return to Poland as Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Walesa’s Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
The film’s leading actor, Robert Wieckiewicz, comments that in Polish history “there are very few moments that one can really be proud of.” He also adds that Wajda as a director hopes his film “reminds the world that this huge revolution” — the toppling of communism throughout the Soviet bloc — “started in Poland, that Poland was first, before the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
However, this is not an original storyline; rather, Poles retell the story of communism and how they broke free all of the time. Interrogation is a 1982 film directed by Ryszard Bugajski with such anticommunist themes, it was banned by the country’s communist regime until 1989. Regardless, the film was passed around in illegal VHS form throughout the 1980s, garnering a huge fanbase and promoting anticommunism. Finally, in 1990, it was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, where its leading actress, Krystyna Janda, won Best Actress.
All this makes me wonder if Poland is living in the past and retelling the same stories, rather than cherishing its history. Perhaps if we let go of our story of escape and focused on having freedom at last, we would produce more revolutionary art. Maybe we’d be in the New York Times more often.
Whether it is the mutation of a man to a horrifying rodent, or the decomposition of a vampire to a cloud of dust, the characters we have read about in The Nose, The Metamorphosis, and Nosferatu, all underwent a type of transformation. For our sound sculpture, we wanted to give the listener a taste of the transformation of the sounds of music.
Music, at its core, is an auditory display of emotion. To fully capture the history of sounds, and the emotions it can bring out of us, we chose many different versions of the same song, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. We chose the song because its many versions allowed us to explore the transformation of sound. Very few songs manage to capture the imaginations of artists across so many different genres, however this song managed to appeal to virtually all musical disciplines. As well, its lyrics are particularly poignant and relevant to our thematic goal. They tell a story about a revolution- an overwhelming and irreversible emotional and physical change. Our sound sculpture’s central idea too, addresses the technological revolution and the irreversible change it has done to our ability to hear sound.
We began our sculpture with the most primal symphony in the World, the rain forest. Next, we go from very human-made sounds, such as instrumental and folk, to the computerized dub step and techno that is so popular today. While we enjoy every version of the song, we wanted the listener to get a taste of all the different sounds. We wanted to convey a transformative, emotional journey.
Lindsey Stirling “Radioactive – Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix (Imagine Dragons Cover).” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 12 Mar. 2013. 15 Nov 2013.
MusicTewns. “RADIOACTIVE” [PIANO INSTRUMENTAL/KARAOKE] BY IMAGINE DRAGONS.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 28 May 2013. 15 Now 2013.
OurLastNightBand. “Imagine Dragons – “Radioactive” Cover by Our Last Night.” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 13 Aug. 2013. 15 Nov. 2013.
RossWell98. “William Joseph – Radioactive [Audio Visualizer].” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 15 Oct. 2013. 15 Nov. 2013.
Subscribe if You Love the Violin. “Radioactive Vitamin String Quartet (Imagine Dragons).” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 9 Mar. 2013. 15 Nov. 2013.
For our piece we concentrated on the theme of Domestic Violence. A major component of the piece is its transitions from the soft, innocent and pure, into something darker and conflicted. We wanted to focus on some common thoughts that we associate with domestic violence and abuse- from chaos, silence, and conflict. Also, we wanted to stay away from using tracks with lyrics. Though you can make out Florence + the Machine’s Florence Welch’s voice towards the end of the track, her cry becomes distorted and fades into the dial tone and eventually into silence. The silence and lack of vocals in the piece add to the theme of silence in the piece.
The incorporation of common telephone sounds into the music adds another layer of story telling in the piece. The transition of the types and genres of music is aided by the added sound effects. The addition of these familiar sounds (dial tone, busy signal, and no connection tone,) add a visual component to the story telling. While these sounds are easily identifiable, they add to the overall mood of the piece, adding an ominous layer to it.
We hope you enjoy our piece and can see our vision for it.
Joeleen Moy, Erika Paulson, Christine Zhou
Works Cited:
Florence + The Machine. “Leave My Body.” Ceremonials. Abbey Road Recording, 2011. MP3
Schubert, Franz. “Serenade D 957.” ARTSomerville. Jamendo. 2008. MP3.
Two Steps From Hell. “Symbols in the Sand.” Jamendo. 2001. MP3.
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