4D II Project 2: Soundscape

ARTIST STATEMENT

The clip is supposed to represent a metaphorical death, death of a person’s senses. My soundtrack is not narrative based but more of an emotional transition. The first part has indiscrete chattering, coffee-making machinery, and laughter. These represent the daily emotive way of living. However, along the way, the emotive sounds turned more and more odd and rather disconcerting. This is followed by a form of destruction, a shattering of one’s beliefs, a snap in the persona’s head, and the persona is plunged into a state of emptiness. There is a struggle to fight against the waves, but the persona eventually gives in to the calm stillness of the water.

 

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT/ RESEARCH/ CHALLENGES

I developed the concept purely based on interest. I was more interested in trying to create sounds that conveyed a certain idea rather than ambient sounds. However, I needed to create sounds that had emotions. So I started recording some of the places I go to, and some conversations I had, my laughter, to evoke the sound of happiness. Then, I proceeded to record generator sounds for an empty alienating effect, and dunked the recorder into the pool to create underwater sounds. These were the sounds I felt represented a lack of emotion.

Throughout the entire clip, there was a consistent rhythm of my breathing, initially extremely calm and slow, after the plunge, became faster as the persona struggles to hold on to life. Finally, the persona gave up and embraced the silence.

An artist that has inspired me would probably be AquaSonic, a band that produces underwater music. Check out their music video:

The main challenge I had for this project is that I couldn’t imagine the soundscape in my head, unlike being able to visualise a design before completing it. Therefore, even when I had the concept, I had trouble trying to create a clip for the concept. I also had trouble manipulating the different clips as I was unfamiliar with the program used.

Another thing is how I love music and use it as both inspiration and an outlet of emotions, but we cannot use music to represent our emotions, which is one of the hardest thing I was faced with.

To conclude, I think I tried my best to create the soundtrack for such a concept. I had fun doing this project and I look forward to the last one.

Credit for royalty free music:https://www.freesound.org/people/13FPanska_Cerny_Jan/sounds/379008/
https://www.freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/344265/