Sound Sick

I got caught unawares this morning. I tumbled out of bed and went to my Electronic Music tutorial and for the first half an hour we listened and critiqued a few people's pieces that were played out to the tute. Then, for the next half an hour, our lecturer got us to play around on an interactive sound website. At first I wasn't really very interested but in my hungover state was quite happy to just faff about on a computer for a while. The piece is by a woman called Katharine Norman and is an interactive sound essay called 'Window'. This is what she has to say about it:

" Window is part of a new series I hope to make about place, and about how listening contributes to our sense of place. Making Place (2013) is a companion musical work for live interactive sound and image/text with piano(s). Made with Processing and puredata software, it was commissioned by duoDort and composed in 2012 with funds from Arts Council England and the Britten-Pears Foundation, and premiered at Sonoritis, Belfast in April 2013 (one piano version) and Falmouth University, May 2013 (two piano version). "

Here's a link to the piece. Have a play around if you fancy, it takes some time to get into it and you kind of have to understand about the logistics of sound editing, but it's interesting anyway. Obviously it's a sound piece, so listen with headphones for the best effect. Her whole project is about experimenting with sound and how it can define and make a place. For this piece, she recorded out of her bedroom window at different times of day to capture the soundscape she heard, and then collaged all the sounds together. You can move through the different times of day and play with EQing the different frequencies of the sound and in effect, make your own soundscape out of the one she has recorded. There's also some accompanying text to read as you move through the piece. I know this sounds all very artsy and kind of a load of BS, and that's how I felt at first, but then suddenly I really understood her piece. Katharine lives in Cambridge back home in the UK and so the sounds she hears, in particular the birdsong, is very weirdly familiar. There was one point in the piece where I managed to get it to sound exactly like our garden at home, by lowering the volume of the traffic and turning up the sounds of the birds, in particular that pigeon noise, and I cannot even tell you how weird it was to be sat in a lecture in Sydney, Australia, and suddenly be utterly convinced that I was back at home. It kinda freaked me out a bit and I just sat there listening to that one bit for ages. SO strange.

We all talked about it afterwards, and all the Australia's said that they enjoyed exploring the work, but that it didn't really do anything for them. Then the lecturer asked me how I felt and I told her about how nostalgic it made me feel and how I couldn't believe how much it reminded me of being at home. Suddenly everyone was looking at me and I felt all weird and sad and I nearly started to cry! Must be something to do with being hungover, you know that weird depressed feeling you sometimes get the next day? Yeah, well, that. I didn't think I was homesick at all but it's funny what can trigger it.

When she let us go I ran off pretty quick and am now snuggled back in bed with strawberries and listening to John Mayer, pretending to be in Skiathos/my kitchen and missing home a bit. I'll be fine later, we're all heading off to the beach this afternoon as the weather's nice and the surf's good, but right now I miss you, fam.

B

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