Judith's First Assignment

Hi All,

Those of your starting off in Judith's group will be getting this assignment today. Of course, you'll all get it sooner or later, so feel free to read the details here!

ASSIGNMENT : ONLINE MUSICAL/AUDIO INSTRUMENT: Part One

“The sounds that we notice are merely bubbles on the surface of silence that burst.” John Cage

In a soundproof, sound-absorbing chamber at Harvard University, John Cage was shocked to hear two tones – one low, one high. The technician explained these were the sounds of blood circulation. From this, Cage made his famous observation - “There is no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound.” His compositions challenged the very idea of music, often by drawing attention to ambient sound. (John Cage was a friend and chess partner of Marcel Duchamp's - who challenged visual art conventions in similar ways).

This assignment is inspired by Cage’s interest in ambient sound and chance compositional elements. You will begin with a listening exercise. “Be silent” in various indoor and outdoor locations. From this process, you will find a selection of sounds – a sound vocabulary or “octave” - for your online instrument. The sounds are yours to discover, but might include -

• traffic, cityscape, low drones
• clocks, devices, computers, alarms, ring tones, doorbells
• body sounds – typing, cooking, chopping, showering
• snippits of television, radio, music, ads and other samples
• environmental sounds – wind, birds, animals, tree creaks
• motor noises from inside the subway, car, POV sounds (as on a bike)
• fragments of conversation, poetry, selected words, commands, cookbooks

Record at least 2 of these sounds, and as many as eight or more. You may select them using chance methods, or through your own selection processes. Meanwhile, consider - what kind of images, photographs, colours, shapes, motion graphics, patterns or abstractions will be used to create the visual interface for your audio/musical elements, what users will “roll over” to explore and play with your sounds? And remember - for our purposes, "Simple electronic musical instruments are sometimes called sound effects; the border between sound effects and actual musical instruments is often hazy." From Wikipedia,

TO DO : Upload a sample visual image and a link to an MP3 format sound file to the class BLOG. Include a brief written report on your development process.

IMPORTANT : your title should begin with “JD 1” (so I’ll know it’s your 1st assignment for me!) . Include your real name.

Due Date : Monday, January 23, 2006