Week Review (Nov. 22nd)

Progressing on my specialization project, my direction has taken a bit of a shift this week. Previously, I was focusing on emphasizing texture throughout the multi-channel piece, which I still am but now I am focusing a bit more on dialogue. In class with Ingrid this week, we got to see examples of other spatialized pieces, including how they are structured in a DAW. This is where it dawned on me how I need to structure my piece exactly, so I started again with the same sound bytes and restructured my whole piece. (I will add the original draft which is much more of an ambient-texture-based piece, the audio is still quite blunt which I am fixing in my current draft). At the moment, I am in the process of mixing my stereo recording into a four-channel layout to give the feeling of being at the center of this conversation I captured. With the two to four channels remaining, this will be the space where I can play with texture and aid in the visualization of the miracles from my concept. Once I have touched up what I have so far, I have booked out the synth table and the performance studio so I can begin my final mixing.

For my audio paper, I have found a direction I am going to try to push forward. Thinking about my practice and workflow, one issue I always have to work with is my dyslexia (specifically my working memory index). With this, I am currently working with the question “How does my neurodiversity specifically affect me and my work in sound?” Off the top of my head, I can answer this question by talking about how areas like music theory feel next to impossible for me to memorize, though I have been involved with it for the majority of my life. From my own experience, I can provide detail about how I work with and around this in my practice. I can extend this question to people with ADHD, ADD, and autism in an interview form as well and use these recordings in my audio paper, as well as provide research as to how exactly this occurs and affects people.

Aside from this, I have also signed up to provide sound for the LCF MA runway show, I am very excited about this. Excitement aside, I am also very intimidated by the brief, we must have one to two hours worth of audio prepared for the full show. I have never created a piece longer than five minutes. (lol) After helping out with the LCF show earlier this year, I have literally no excuse not to participate or think that “I can’t do it”, so when I received the email for sign-ups, I knew I wanted to help out. For this project, I am going to try to step outside my comfort zone of working and start looking into some new areas. I checked two books at the library that I think will help me diversify and aestheticize my path for this project, “The Ashgate Companion to Minimalist and Posminimalist Music” by Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll Ap Sion, which I hope will help me pare down my sound pallets a bit and also give room for fashion. (sound will not be the star of this project) As well as “Composing Interactive Music: Techniques and Ideas Using Max” by Todd Winker. Max has been an area of Ableton I have wanted to get into, but I have not quite figured out how I can fit it into my practice. So with this book, I hope to gain knowledge of how I can elevate my work to an interactive, generative level.