For this project you will be working in pairs.
The brief for your second pair's project is to create a 3-MINUTE, AUDIO, 'SENSE OF SPACE'
Your space may be an actual physical space or an imagined space. Consider how you might use audio to represent or recreate the physical dimensions or atmosphere of your chosen space. You might perceive your given space as one of high activity, or of marked quietness. The space might have a predominantly human quality, or be devoid of the evidence of people and instead be marked by the presence of machines or nature. How do these differences manifest themselves?
Some words that might help you formulate your idea;
Movement Stillness Unnatural Natural
Time of day Weather Mood Tone
Quiet Crowd Crowd Solitude
Past/Present/Future Otherness Speed Tension
Relaxed Togetherness Leisure Work
No space is silent. Sound always exists.
In your room at night, it may be quiet, but not silent.
A computer or TV left on stand-by will make a buzz or hum. You then may hear someone outside your door. Then some wind blows against your window, and you start to think about outside. A car passes which breaks up the quiet night, then as things fall quiet again, you can hear some paper, and leaves blowing around outside. A couple then walk by chattering excitedly after a night out, followed by the quiet buzz of the city at night which takes over until morning when you hear birdsong and the bustle of people starting to wake up - car engines and a cat meowing to let you know he needs some milk.
All these observations tell you that sound triggers journeys and pictures in your mind, and can give a fully rounded sense of space. A busy place may be full of traffic but what else? Each car has its own sound; there are motorbikes, bicycles, trams and buses in the traffic. Each surface they travel over creates a different sound. The city is packed with building sites, filling the 'soundscape' with the presence of machinery. People make noise all the time, whether they are chatting loudly, walking across different surfaces, or eating a sandwich and turning the next page in their book. There are quiet sanctuaries in the city like libraries, parks and gardens, as well as the obvious loud environments. The nature of a particular space will also change around the clock and the sound in that environment will rise and fall.
Project Research and preparation
Consider your chosen space before you start any work. It is vital to take time and listen in different locations –
What do you hear? What sounds start to appear the longer you listen? Make notes about your responses to various physical environments and possible recordings that you may use in your final piece. Consider the unique qualities of this space. Decide what YOUR 'SENSE' of the space is, thinking about your individual overall impression. What moods, atmospheres, weather or emotions are evoked by this space – how can you convey these to a listener?
If it is a physical space that you wish to recreate, you should spend as much time as possible in that space.
If you choose to create an imagined space ensure you spend time developing and planning the details of what sounds you think may exist in that imagined space.
Think about how you can create or build the world you want to portray through sound, by starting at the bottom and then working upwards.
Break your 'soundscape' down into component parts;
What ambient or 'atmos' tracks will you use?
How will dynamic sound be used in creating your space?
What feature or narrative elements could you include in your piece?
Think carefully about the structure and content of your work - ‘less is often more’.
Other points to think about:
- What is it exactly that gives you the sense of a particular space?
- What are the sounds that make up that environment?
- How does the space change during the day and then into night and back to morning?
- What do you want to say about your space?
- Is this space new to you, or is it a space that is very familiar to you?
- Is the space full of the sounds of nature?
- Can you hear many people within this space?
- Is the space full of machinery or computers?
- Is the space an imaginary one - a strange island, a galaxy or a distant planet with several alien species?
No approach is restricted as long as it is well thought through and researched. However, each project must include original recordings even if they are subsequently processed in the edit suite.
