Soundscape

Because of me needing to show how my work will be displayed for the ESP event next year in exactly the same way for Emily and David, I set myself my own deadline for finishing my audio piece; by the end of this weekend. I am pleased to say I have achieved this, with the piece ending at 4minutes and 30 seconds long. Then because I have completed the most important part of this project, I can now finish the art piece.

I have found this project more challenging than I ever thought it would be, this being, I think, because when creating soundscapes in the past I have never used recorded sounds that I have gone out to retrieve myself. It was always purely through plugins. Wanting to get recorded sounds was not only a means to give more meaning behind the piece, but also to challenge myself and take me out of my comfort zone; stating previously that field recordings is by no means my strongest skill and something not taken on by myself before. The meaning behind this project, both audio and visual, was to portray that urban life, with cars and new buildings being built every day, and everybody seeming to live on fast-forward, are not the most important things in life. It is important to take a step back and remember to slow down; to just observe our planet and understand there is more out there – this being what inspired the space, futuristic vibe you will get when listening to the piece, and also viewing it. I also think it is important to bring together audio and visual in art because “images that one can view and admire now demand involvement of all of the senses, most especially the sense of hearing. A soundscape does just that.” (Orford, 2014) – being in an exhibition viewing a piece of art, it can not be easy to fight against distractions, especially from sounds. So instead of fighting it, why not join together both the senses, whether that be a piece of art created to join audio, or vice versa.

The soundscape starts quite eerie, and does gradually build up, with layering, more sound effects and bringing in the recordings from around the city, but there is never any big ‘drop’ to hear, this being to reiterate my point behind the entire project; urban life is gradually starting to take over the serenity of this planet, but it by no means if gone, there are still many places around the world you can go where you hear nothing but the natural environment. This I represented in the audio piece with the synths because the sounds I recorded are very industrial – cars, trains and construction. This message is made even more clear by the art piece, the large side being that of a painting of a scenic view focusing on the nigh sky, and then it looks as though the that has been ripped apart and the sketch underneath is that of a city – trying to breakthrough. It is important to state that of all the recordings I did, some I have barely touched, one or two not touched at all, and some I have manipulated to the point where some may not even take a thought of them being recordings from around a city they hear nearly every day; all of this again reiterating the message and aim. It was important to me to not put too much compression on the audio when mastering, because I wanted it to sound as authentic as possible, both the synths and the recordings.

One of my most important objectives for this project, to me personally, was the field recording. Not having a lot of confidence, and at times imagination was a worry for me before I went out and did it, but as I got started I lost all worry and as I heard sounds while walking around Lincoln ideas began to come to mind; I could hear in my head where said sound would fit, and not only that but how I could manipulate said sound through plugins, with EQ, distortion, compression etc. Overall I am proud of myself for completing an important objective in this project (field recording) and also the aim to become comfortable with logic again, by the end becoming more and more confident with what I was doing and actually looking forward to opening up the project and working on it

References: Olford, E.J. (2014) Decoded Arts. [online] WordPress. Available from http://decodedarts.com/music-as-a-part-of-visual-arts-art-sound-and-atmosphere/1369 [Accessed 10 December 2016].