Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 491
August 9, 2012
Disquiet Junto Project 0032: Sonified Election Data
Each Thursday evening at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership to the Junto is open: just join and participate.
The assignment was made late in the day, California time, on Thursday, August 9, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, August 13, as the deadline. View a search return for all the entries as they are posted: disquiet0032-sonicvote.
Below are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto). The graphic score mentioned in the post is shown above. The instructions appear below translated into two additional languages: Croatian and Japanese, courtesy of Darko Macan and Naoyuki Sasanami, respectively.
Disquiet Junto Project 0032: Sonified Election Data
This week’s project revisits the concept of the graphic score, something we explored with earlier in project 0019. You will treat the provided image as if it were a musical score. The image can be found at this link:
http://disquiet.com/wp-content/upload...
You can use any instrumentation you choose. (You may employ the human voice, but no comprehensible words should be used, just sounds.) The goal is for you to “read” the image as if it were presented as a piece of notated music. You might do this by assigning note values across the page horizontally, or by interpreting it holistically, or by running the image through a piece of software — or by any other systematic approach.
Background: The image shows the poll averages for the two major candidates for the upcoming presidential election in the United States. At the far left hand side of the image is October 2010, and at the far right hand side is July 2012. The blue data represents Barack Obama, the red data Mitt Romney. The image is a screenshot taken from the TalkingPointsMemo.com website on August 8.
Deadline: Monday, August 13, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0032-sonicvote” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: As always, you don’t have to set your track for download, but it would be preferable.
Linking: When posting the track please include this information:
More on the 32nd Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/08/09/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
. . . . .
Project in Croatian:
Disquiet Junto projekt 0032: Ozvučene izborne statistike
Ovotjedni projekt vraća se konceptu vizualnih nota, što smo već istraživali u projektu 0019. Priloženoj slici trebate pristupiti kao da je riječ o notnome zapisu. Slika se nalazi na sljedećem linku:
http://disquiet.com/wp-content/upload...
Instrumentarij upotrijebite po vlastitoj želji. (Možete koristiti i ljudski glas, ali ne i razumljive riječi, samo zvuke.) Cilj je da “pročitate” sliku kao da je riječ o zapisu na notnome crtovlju. Možete to učiniti tako da notne vrijednosti rasporedite vodoravno uzduž stranice, interpretirajući sliku holistički ili provlačeći je kroz kakav softver – ili bilo kojim drugim sistematskim pristupom.
Pozadina: Slika prikazuje statističke odnose dvojice glavnih kandidata za predsjedničke izbore Sjedinjenih Američkih Država. Krajnje lijevo nalaze se podatci iz listopada 2010., a krajnje desno iz srpnja 2012. Plavi podatci predstavljaju Baracka Obamu, a crveni Mitta Romneyja. Slika je kopirana sa zaslona websitea TalkingPointsMemo.com 8. kolovoza.
Rok: Ponedjeljak, 13. kolovoza, minutu do ponoći po lokalnom vremenu.
Trajanje: Neka vam snimci traju između 2 i 4 minute.
Informacije: Kad stavljate svoj snimak na SoundCloud, molim vas dodajte i opis procesa planiranja, komponiranja i snimanja. Taj opis je ključan element komunikacijskog procesa koji je u srži Disquiet Junta.
Naslov/Tag: Kad stavljate svoj snimak na Disquiet Junto grupu na Soundcloud.com, molim vas da uključite “disquiet0032-sonicvote” u naslov snimka te u njegov tag.
Downloadiranje: Kao i uvijek, ne morate omogućiti download vašega snimka, ali mi je draže ako to učinite.
Linkanje: Kad stavljate konačni snimak, molim vas da dodate sljedeću obavijest:
Više o 32. Disquiet Junto projektu na:
http://disquiet.com/2012/08/09/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at/Više o Disquiet Juntu na:
. . . . .
Project in Japanese:
Disquiet Junto Project 0032: 音響化された選挙データ
今週のプロジェクトは 以前、プロジェクト019でも探求した図形譜に立ち返ってみます。与えられた画像をあたかもそれが楽譜であるかのように扱ってみましょう。その画像は以下のリンクです
：
http://disquiet.com/wp-content/upload...
あなたが選んだどんな楽器を使ってもかまいません（声を使用してもいいですが、理解できる単語としてではなく、サウンドとして扱ってください）。目指すものは、画像をあたかも記譜された作品であるかのように「読み取る」ことです。例えばページを水平方向に読み取って音を割り当てたり、全体的に解釈したり、ある種のソフトウェアで読み取ったり、その他のシステマティックなアプローチでもかまいません。
背景：この画像は、来るアメリカ合衆国大統領選挙への２人の主な候補者への投票平均を示しています。画像の左手側は2010年10月、そして右側は2012年7月を表します。青で示されるデータはバラック・オバマ、赤で示されるデータはミット・ロムニー、TalkingPointsMemo.comからとられたスクリーンショットです。
〆切：8月13日月曜日11:59pm あなたがどこに住んでいるかかわらず
長さ：2〜５分の長さにしてください
情報：作品をサウンドクラウドのグループに投稿する際には、あなたの採用した構想、作曲、録音の過程についての説明をつけてください。この記述がこのグループの本来の目的であるコミュニケーションに大事なものとなります
タイトル／タグ：Disquiet Juntoグループに作品を投稿する際には“disquiet0032-sonicvote” という言葉をタグとしてタイトルに追加してください
ダウンロード：いつものように必ずしもダウンロード可能にする必要はありませんが、望ましい
リンク：投稿する際には以下の情報を追加してください
More on the 32nd Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2012/08/09/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
Whispers from the “Wilhelm Scream”
The “Wilhelm Scream” is one of the most extraordinary examples of cinematic afterlife in the sound library. The recording, made by Sheb Wooley (aka the man behind the novelty hit “The Purple People Eater”), has been used hundreds of times, including in Them! and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Jeff Kolar, the man behind the Chicago avant-sound broadcast Radius, often featured here, has used various transformative effects to explore the scream as a sonic artifact. The result is a study in gaping-maw static. There’s an ecstatic element at work, as something so closely associated with fear is itself put under the knife. The piece, simply titled “The Wilhelm Scream,” was created as part of an exhibit, And Then She’s Like, and He Goes, curated by Chris Campe, which opens today, August 9, at Columbia College Chicago’s Averill and Bernard Leviton A+D Gallery; it runs through September 6.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/jeffkolar. More on the exhibit at colum.edu. More on the piece and Kolar at jeffkolar.us. There are numerous collations of appearances of the “Wilhelm Scream,” including this one at youtube.com.
August 8, 2012
New Matmos Single (MP3)
The Matmos duo, long of San Francisco but now based in Baltimore, is helping Thrill Jockey celebrate its 20th anniversary by signing with the label, a move from Matador. The Ganzfeld EP is due out in the autumn. An album, The Marriage of True Minds, is due out in “early 2012.” They’ve posted a version of a song from the EP, “Very Large Green Triangles (Edit),” for free download. It’s a varied beast of a piece, less a song than a suite, with orchestral segments, the duo’s trademark emphasis on brittle percussion, and vast swaths of chanting; it features vocals by Ed Schrader. The scope might to some extent be influenced by Matmos’ recent theatrical endeavor, participating in Robert Wilson’s “multimedia colossus,” The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/thrilljockey. More on what’s up with Matmos, aka Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, at vague-terrain.com and thrilljockey.com.
A Drone of Bees
This afternoon, at around 2:50pm California time, I was in the backyard with my 23-month-old. She was just starting to use some chalk we’d gotten her yesterday when I heard this unfamiliar sound: a drone, a kind of buzzing. I looked around and slowly what came into view over the north fence was something that resembled a small dust storm, and that revealed itself soon as a lot of bees. A whole lot of bees. I grabbed my kid and pulled her into our house, one stick of chalk still in her little hand. Closed the windows. Ran to the back bedroom and looked out. Our backyard was engulfed with bees, just filled with them, like a side-loading clothes dryer filled with marbles and running at full speed. I shot 45 seconds or so of video on my phone, though I’m not sure there’s much to see. I post it here for environmental posterity. It makes more sense in still frames, though there are moments when the swarming becomes apparent. The sound was muffled by glass, but the droning was quite clear — frighteningly out of control, and yet eerily suggesting some sense of control. There is no chaos to a swam of bees. It feels directed, agreed upon, consensual. Within a couple minutes the bees had moved west to another neighbor’s yard. As I type this there are still a lot more bees than usual in our backyard. And the ones in the neighbor’s yard (to the north, where this originated) are moving around weirdly fast. Usually they just go from bush to bush, but they are zooming left then right then back then forth, zigzagging like crazy.
The experience reinforced for me how central the drone is to natural sound, how it is primordial, in contrast with song, which speaks of civilization. And yet this drone was the sound of a civilization, a swarm of bees acting as one, a nomad hive. As readers of this site know, I spend a lot of time listening to drones — to the natural environment, to the built environment, and to music built from drones. This bee drone, felt and heard firsthand, was entirely unfamiliar.
The experience also emphasized the value of sound in one sense of one’s environment. The only reason I so quickly recognized the nearing bees was because of my awareness of the various drones and related sounds that are normal to our neighborhood. The bees stood out before they were too close because I heard one particularly odd drone among many — a bad note, as it were.
Video posted at vimeo.com/disquiet.
August 7, 2012
Sketch for 99¢ Xylophone
When this website’s Downstream section expanded from five days a week to seven, one of the main reasons was to allow for more frequent repeat appearances by individual musicians. And part of that inspiration was the recognition that much online music is of the “sketch” variety — not “sketch” in the slang sense of “dubious character” but in the more general sense of a draft that proceeds what might be considered even a rough draft. This is the case, for example, with the website of Analogue01, whose music for abacus got some attention here back in mid-July, and who has now committed an elegant and noteworthy miniature for muted xylophone. In his brief post at analogue01.com he describes the source material for “Sketch for 99¢ Xylophone” as “Maybe the worst sounding instrument I’ll ever play” and then adds a clarification: “But for 99 cents it sounds great, especially if I forget about playing notes.” The result is a piece that ekes out modest variations between what were intended to be notes, and in the process pays close attention to — and often transforms digitally for further inspection and enjoyment — unintended percussive possibilities.
Track originally posted for download at analogue01.com (where the above image first appeared) and soundcloud.com/analogue01.
August 6, 2012
Requiem for a Tablehooter (MP3)
There is a tick tock, artificial wooden block metronome sound that is the telltale heart of a certain era of synthesizers — an era that some have come to call “tablehooters” and that are celebrated on the compilation album Cheap and Plastic, put together by Hal McGee as part of an open call. The project’s instructions (e.g., “Yes, you CAN use circuit bent keyboards”) are viewable at its facebook.com page, where the 36 contributors are listed. Among them is K.r. Seward, whose entry takes the tick tock as its central, part goofy, part maudlin compositional tenet. It plays like the theme song to a Saturday morning cartoon about vampire shut-ins and the mummies who love them. His instruments included two Casios, what he described as a Radio Shack rebranding of a Casio, and two Yamahas.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/krseward. More on the compilation at facebook.com. More on Kevin R. Seward at audiokayness.blogspot.com.
August 5, 2012
Disquiet Junto at At Water’s Edge (MP3)
Rebekkah Hilgraves hosts the weekly “At Water’s Edge” show on the ambient Internet radio station stillstream.com, and its August 4 episode focused on the 30th Disquiet Junto project. In her studio was Junto member and participant Joe McMahon, who did a great job explaining not only the hows and whys of the Disquiet Junto, but also the specifics of his particular entry in the 30th project (MP3). In the process, Hilgraves played about two hours of tracks from the 30th project, which was an exploration of themes of sounds within perceived silence, in honor of John Cage, who would have turned 100 this year.
Download audio file (AtWatersEdge_20120804_SoundsFromSilence.mp3)
More on the episode at rebekkahhilgraves.com. More on McMahon at soundcloud.com/joe-mcmahon
August 4, 2012
Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet
Track the progress of the @yokoono-themed 31st Disquiet Junto project: http://t.co/cBXdemcX #
31st weekly @djunto project is based on incendiary 1955 Fluxus work by @yokoono. Instructions at http://t.co/XpNlSeEX + http://t.co/XdREURGZ #
Oddly, the "most popular posts" menu item in my @wordpress dashboard has disappeared, so I may not be posting that info today. #
The next @djunto project, the 31st weekly, is inspired by a Fluxus work by @yokoono. Details Thursday afternoon Pacific time. #
Numerical mirroring of Chris Marker's life seems fitting for director of La jetée: born 29 July 1921; deceased 30 July 2012. #
RIP, Bill Doss (b. 1968?), of the Elephant 6 and Olivia Tremor Control. #
Thumper thumper. MT @qDot: Got a Zoom H4N recorder. @subgirl's 1st recording target: bunny snores. The wait for @disquiet snore junto begins #
Man, I could have used a doula's assistance to get that doll out of a box for my 22-month-old. #
Wanna fall for KSR's 2312 but references early on to movies & to cloud data have me longing for Mieville's murkily defined neologisms. #
Tuesday noon siren in San Francisco, way up on Webster after doctor visit. #
Thanks, @SoundCloud, for blocking the guy who's been following/unfollowing/following hundreds if not thousands of accounts. #
And with a piece by @dizzybanjo there are 20 pieces in the "sounds from silence" Disquiet Junto project: http://t.co/KuEalsHX #
The two best labs on television are run by Walters. #
Impure thoughts about wool. http://t.co/1MXCaZ8v #
artisanal dystopia #
August 3, 2012
Touch, Live at Oto (MP3)
The latest Touch Editions download, from its wonderful touchradio.org.uk side project, is a live set recorded as the first in a series — Touch Invites — being held at Cafe Oto in London. The 81st in the download series, it includes performances by Jiyeon Kim, Maia Urstad, and Dawn Scarfe with “interventions” from Sandra Jasper. The works are arguably took abstract and diverse to be done justice in this compressed space, but suffice to say they range from elegant, minimalist sine waves to broken field recordings, to understated rhythmic convulsions (MP3). All the works play with noise as their primary source material, their primary object of investigation.
Download audio file (Radio81.mp3)
More on the event series at cafeoto.co.uk. More on the specific event at touchradio.org.uk. The concert took place July 17, 2012.
August 2, 2012
Disquiet Junto Project 0031: Ono’s Match
Each Thursday evening at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership to the Junto is open: just join and participate.
The assignment was made late in the day, California time, on Thursday, July 26, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, August 2, as the deadline. View a search return for all the entries as they are posted: disquiet0031-onomatch.
Below are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto). They appear below translated into three additional languages: German, Japanese, and Turkish, courtesy of Allan Brugg, Naoyuki Sasanami, and M. Emre Meydan, respectively.
Disquiet Junto Project 0031: Ono’s Match
This week’s project takes the opportunity to focus on the art movement known as Fluxus. We’ll use as the starting point a 1955 composition by Yoko Ono. Her work is titled “Lighting Piece” and it consists of a single, simple sentence: “Light a match and watch till it goes out.” It is one of a number of pieces that Ono produced as part of Fluxus. For this week’s Disquiet Junto project, please interpret her instruction as closely or as loosely as you choose.
Deadline: Monday, August 6, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be as long or short as you wish to make it, though longer than a five minutes seems unlikely.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0031-onomatch” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: As always, you don’t have to set your track for download, but it would be preferable.
Linking: When posting the track please include this information:
More on the 30th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/08/02/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
. . . . .
Project in Japanese:
Disquiet Junto Project 0031: オノ・ヨーコのマッチ
今週のプロジェクトは芸術運動として知られるフルクサスに焦点を当てます。1955年にオノ・ヨーコ（小野洋子）によってよって作られた作品を使ってみましょう。『Lighting Piece』と題名が付けられた彼女の作品は、“マッチを点け、それが消えるまで見守る”というシンプルな文章から成る、彼女がフルクサスの一員として制作した作品の１つです。今週のプロジェクトでは、彼女の指示を解釈して制作してみましょう。その解釈の方法は厳密であれ曖昧にであれ、あなた次第です。
〆切：8月6日月曜日11:59pm あなたがどこに住んでいるかかわらず
長さ：完成品は長かれ短かれあなたが望んだ長さであるべきですが、５分以上の長さであることはなさそうです
情報：作品をサウンドクラウドのグループに投稿する際には、あなたの採用した構想、作曲、録音の過程についての説明をつけてください。この記述がこのグループの本来の目的であるコミュニケーションに大事なものとなります
タイトル／タグ：Disquiet Juntoグループに作品を投稿する際には“disquiet0031-onomatch” という言葉をタグとしてタイトルに追加してください
ダウンロード：いつものように必ずしもダウンロード可能にする必要はありませんが、望ましい
リンク：投稿する際には以下の情報を追加してください
More on the 31th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/08/02/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
. . . . .
Project in German:
Disquiet Junto Project 0031: Onos Streichholz
Diese Woche ergreift das Project die Gelegenheit, sich auf eine als Fluxus bekannt gewordene Kunstrichtung zu konzentrieren. Als Ausgangspunkt werden wir eine Komposition von Yoko Ono von 1955 verwenden. Ihre Arbeit trägt den Titel “Lighting Piece” und besteht aus einem einzelnen, simplen Satz: “Entzünde ein Streichholz und beobachte es, bis es verlöscht.” Es gehört zu einer Reihe von Stücken, die Ono als Teil von Fluxus hervorgebracht hat. Für das dieswöchige Disquiet Junto Project interpretiert ihre Anweisung bitte so wörtlich oder so frei wie ihr möchtet.
Abgabefrist: Montag, 6. August, um 23:59 Uhr, wo immer ihr seid.
Länge: Eure fertige Arbeit kann so lang oder so kurz, wie ihr wollt sein, obwohl länger als fünf Minuten unwahrscheinlich scheint.
Information: Bitte fügt eurem Track, wenn ihr ihn auf Soundcloud hochladet, eine Beschreibung des Planungs-, Kompositions- und Aufnahmeprozesses hinzu. Diese Beschreibung ist essentieller Bestandteil des kommunikativen Austauschs, der Disquiet Junto eigen ist.
Titel/Tag: Wenn ihr euren Track der Disquiet Junto Gruppe auf Soundcloud.com hinzufügt, schließt bitte die Bezeichnung “disquiet0031-onomatch” im Titel und als Tag mit ein.
Download: Wie immer, ihr müsst eure Tracks nicht zum Download freigeben, es wäre aber wünschenswert.
Verlinkung: Wenn ihr euren Track postet, fügt bitte die folgende Information hinzu:
Mehr zu Disquiet Junto unter:
http://disquiet.com/2012/08/02/disqui...
Weitere Einzelheiten zu Disquiet Junto unter:
. . . . .
Project in Turkish:
Disquiet Junto Projesi 0031: Ono’s Match (Ono’nun Kibriti)
Bu haftanın projesi Fluxus adıyla bilinen sanat akımına odaklanıyor. Başlangıç noktası olarak Yoko Ono’nun 1955 tarihli bir bestesini kullanacağız. Bu çalışmanın adı “Lighting Piece” ve tek bir basit cümleden ibaret: “Light a match and watch till it goes out (Bir kibrit yak ve sönene dek izle).” Bu, Ono’nun Fluxus akımı dahilinde ürettiği bir çok işten birisi. Bu haftanın Disquiet Junto projesi için bu talimatları dilediğinizce sadık ya da serbest bir biçimde yorumlayın.
Son Teslim Tarihi: 6 ağustos pazartesi, 23:59 (bulunduğunuz ülkenin saatine göre)
Uzunluk: Besteniz istediğiniz kadar kısa ya da uzun olabilir, fakat 5 dakikadan uzun olması pek olası değil.
Bilgi: Yaptığınız parçayı paylaşırken, lütfen bu parçanın planlama, besteleme ve kayıt süreciyle ilgili bilgi de verin. Bu açıklama, Disquiet Junto’ya içkin iletişim sürecinin önemli bir parçasıdır.
İsim/Etiket: Parçanızı Soundcloud.com’daki Disquiet Junto grubuna eklerken, lütfen “disquiet0031-onomatch” kelimesini hem parçanın isminde, hem de etiket (tag) olarak kullanın.
Download: Her zamanki gibi; parçanızın indirilebilir olması gerekmiyor, ama öyle olması tercih edilir.
Linkler: Yaptığınız parçayı paylaşırken, lütfen şu satırları ekleyin:
More on the 31st Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/08/02/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
(Photo of Yoko Ono from imaginepeace.com.)
