They say that Radio is great for pictures, and so I thought it would be good to test that theory out by making a whole radio show exploring the concept of Sonic Wallpaper. This show will air on the following radio stations at the following times as part of the excellent and always inspiring framework:afield series, curated for framework:radio by Patrick McGinley.
- Tuesday, 11th Sept, 12:30pm, South Devon, UK on Soundartradio 102.5fm
- Wednesday, 12th Sept, 3am, Lisbon, Portugal on radio zero
- Thursday, 13th Sept, 7pm, Lisbon, Portugal on radio zero
- Thursday, 13th Sept, 11pm, Maribor, Slovenia on radio marš 95.9fm
- Friday, 14th Sept, 1am, Brussels, Belgium on radio campus 92.1fm
- Saturday, 15th Sept, 11am, New York State, US on wgxc 90.7fm
use this converter for local broadcast times
Additionally, the Sonic Wallpaper radio show will be available as one of the podcasts in the framework:radio series and will be available to hear online here very soon!
Here are the shownotes for the radio show; keep reading to learn of new developments in the Sonic Wallpaper project!
I've been working on Sonic Wallpaper with the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture for a year, and the project is designed to expand on how we normally think about wallpaper, bringing the act of listening into a context which has historically been purely about looking. Although wallpaper is designed visually, we experience wallpapered rooms with all of our senses, and our memories are stimulated as much by sounds and smells as by sights; a cheery 1960s design might instantly remind someone of a coffee pot gurgling away on their granny’s stove, while the flowers in another design might instantly remind someone of sea-creatures or a relative who loved to garden.
Personal associations which link place, memory and sound are the basis for Sonic Wallpaper; they are what allow us to move our imaginations between what we see, and what we hear. To make Sonic Wallpaper, I interviewed several people in November 2011, showing them various designs held in the collection of the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture. I then listened through to the interviews and collected field-recordings in response to what had been said about the different designs. I wanted to celebrate the specific way that people discuss their DIY plans, and to extend the fantasies of home-creativity using the medium of sound. When someone said “that reminds me of church” I wanted to introduce the sound of that church, so that a third party – a listener like you – can hear and imagine the space.
Think of the project as being like a sampler of sonic textures… a playful exploration of the question “what would it be like, if we could decorate our homes with sounds?”
For this framework:afield radio show, I have collaged the interviews and the sounds into a continuous stream of sound, and I hope that listening to the results will be a bit like flicking through a book of wallpaper designs with your ears, imagining where you might put them.
I am curious to know how Sonic Wallpaper translates to radio… I hope that browsing through these Sonic Wallpapers will give you a thoroughly new set of rooms to imagine – rooms designed somewhere in the space between remembering, imagining, and listening.
If you like this radio collage you can hear the individual sound pieces created in response to MoDA wallpapers on Soundcloud at http://soundcloud.com/modamuseum/.
Note: the numbers beside the wallpapers listed here in the tracklist are the accession numbers of the wallpapers held in MoDA's collection.
Helen, Colleen and Joceline discuss wallpaper SW 1029
ink pen writing on parchment in Dr Johnson's attic, London
Italian stove-top espresso-maker gurgling on the stove
hydrophones inside the aquariums at the Horniman Museum, London
hydrophones inside the aquariums at the The Aquatic Design Centre, London
Joceline discusses wallpaper BADDA 4856
organ at St James & St William of York church, Reading
wet brush on wallpaper
radio in the room next door
loom at The Handweaver's Studio, London
Colleen, Annie, Jo and Mel discuss wallpaper BADDA 4384
public swimming baths on King's Road, Reading
electric kettle boiling
cutlery drawer
rhubarb jam bubbling
1700s clock mechanism, The Clockmaker's Museum, London
clownfish tank at the Aquatic Design Centre, London
matchbox cars on wooden floorboards
Helen and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4377
matchbox cars on carpet
matchbox cars on concrete and grass
outdoor cafe areas and coffee shops
Joceline, Tom, Anthony, Colleen, Annie and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4380
super8 projector
fireworks
sparklers
popcorn popping
Jo, Mel, Helen, Tom, Anthony and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 2301
Indian restaurant
mustard seeds popping
onions frying
an open fire
1720 clock mechanism, The Clockmaker's Museum, London
1750 clock mechanism, The Clockmaker's Museum, London
Colleen, Annie and others discuss BADDA 4770
Wendy Morris's loom, London
looms at the Handweaver's Studio, London
clock mechanisms, The Clockmaker's Museum, London
electric kettle boiling
Colleen, Joceline, Tom, Anthony, Mel, Jo and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4855
vintage porcelain chinaware clinking
tea-drinking
dawn chorus birdsong, Ipsden, Oxfordshire
cattle lowing, Oxfordshire
Anthony, Tom, Colleen, Annie, Mel, Jo and others discuss wallpaper SW2097
cows shuffling about and mooing, Dippenhall
wax crayons on paper
woodblocks and wet paint printing
screenprinting at Cole & Sons Wallpaper Factory, London
Anthony, Tom, Colleen and Annie discuss wallpaper BADDA 4857
rain on the thin, plastic garage roof
ascending the creaky old staircase at Dr Johnson's House, London
a window closing at Dr Johnson's House, London
the gas cooker
sausages frying
Munchies cafe, Reading
Joceline, Jo, Mel, Tom, Anthony and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4774
Rachael's till
sausages frying
Italian, stove-top espresso maker
egg frying
Dr Johnson's old, creaky hallway
Colleen, Annie, Anthony, Tom and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4854
wet paint and roller
music and pint-pulling down the local
Helen, Jo, Mel and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4385
jazz in the foyer of The National Hotel, Miami
shaking ice in a cocktail shaker
ice cubes going into a glass
pebbles on the beach
shaking sheets of silver foil
Joceline, Tom, Anthony, Helen, Colleen, Annie and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 4782
walking in the forest, Marros Mountain, Wales
walking in the snow
ice melting
organ at St James & St William of York church, Reading
public swimming baths on King's Road, Reading
Colleen, Annie and others discuss wallpaper BADDA 2298
seagulls, Amroth Beach, Wales
leafing through a facsimile of Dr Johnson's Dictionary, Dr Johnson's House, London
ink pen writing on parchment in Dr Johnson's attic, London
Jasper purring, Wales
dawn chorus, Llanteg, Wales
Links:
http://www.thedomesticsoundscape.com/wordpress
http://modamuseum.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.moda.mdx.ac.uk/home
Showing posts with label process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label process. Show all posts
Monday, 10 September 2012
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Learning Resources
I am developing a worksheet for our Learning Resources page. This page will hold a continually expanding archive of sounds and worksheets so that students can extend the Sonic Wallpaper project in your own way, and bring some of the ideas held here into your own practices.
The first worksheet is called "Textured Wallpaper" and deals with the audio generated by interviewing people about this wallpaper:
Wallpaper © Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Middlesex University – photographed by Felicity Ford
One person commented that - as a child - looking at paper like this would often inspire a fantasy of travelling through it. The idea of tracing a journey through the interweaving lines was inspired by the surface and the pattern, which become a bewildering maze as soon as one tries to traverse it in this way.
Another person described this wallpaper as being "serviceable" echoing the perspective of another interviewee, who commented that this sort of textured design "lasts forever".
There was much conversation regarding the kinds of environment - Edwardian house; Pub; Corridor - where such a design may be seen.
One person even spoke of wishing to colour it in, though - naturally - the rules surrounding the conservation of historic wallpaper samples at MoDA prevented anyone from acting on this!
The paper also inspired much speculation on the appeal of papers like this to children. Everyone who remembered such a paper from their childhood fondly recalled their obsession with picking at its embossed surface.
In terms of how I might develop these bits of conversation into Sonic Wallpaper, there are many options including recording the sounds of all things mentioned in the interviews:
painting wallpaper - the sound of a roller going over and over a piece of wallpaper, to make sure it gets into all the cracks
walking down a long, Edwardian corridor, possibly lined with tiles
chatter in an old pub somewhere in the South East end of London
colouring pencils colouring
the secretive sound of peeling bits of wallpaper off a wall
...then there is the somewhat more complex task of trying to create a sonic equivalent of this paper; i.e. a sound which would act as this paper acts, as a durable, lasting bit of texture which makes a room slightly less plain than a painted wall, and which inspires fantasies of travelling on paper, or the fear of overfussing things.
What on earth would such a sound sound like?
If you want to explore these ideas yourself, you can download all the sounds and the worksheet to help you through the process here! Happy Sonic Wallpapering!
The first worksheet is called "Textured Wallpaper" and deals with the audio generated by interviewing people about this wallpaper:
Wallpaper © Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Middlesex University – photographed by Felicity Ford
One person commented that - as a child - looking at paper like this would often inspire a fantasy of travelling through it. The idea of tracing a journey through the interweaving lines was inspired by the surface and the pattern, which become a bewildering maze as soon as one tries to traverse it in this way.
Another person described this wallpaper as being "serviceable" echoing the perspective of another interviewee, who commented that this sort of textured design "lasts forever".
There was much conversation regarding the kinds of environment - Edwardian house; Pub; Corridor - where such a design may be seen.
One person even spoke of wishing to colour it in, though - naturally - the rules surrounding the conservation of historic wallpaper samples at MoDA prevented anyone from acting on this!
The paper also inspired much speculation on the appeal of papers like this to children. Everyone who remembered such a paper from their childhood fondly recalled their obsession with picking at its embossed surface.
In terms of how I might develop these bits of conversation into Sonic Wallpaper, there are many options including recording the sounds of all things mentioned in the interviews:
painting wallpaper - the sound of a roller going over and over a piece of wallpaper, to make sure it gets into all the cracks
walking down a long, Edwardian corridor, possibly lined with tiles
chatter in an old pub somewhere in the South East end of London
colouring pencils colouring
the secretive sound of peeling bits of wallpaper off a wall
...then there is the somewhat more complex task of trying to create a sonic equivalent of this paper; i.e. a sound which would act as this paper acts, as a durable, lasting bit of texture which makes a room slightly less plain than a painted wall, and which inspires fantasies of travelling on paper, or the fear of overfussing things.
What on earth would such a sound sound like?
If you want to explore these ideas yourself, you can download all the sounds and the worksheet to help you through the process here! Happy Sonic Wallpapering!
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Sound:Site and lists
The relationship between place and sound is an important one; just think of how different Geography lessons would be if - in learning about a new country - we heard its soundscape before looking at a paper map or a floorplan of the terrain. Sounds speak of places in a very specific kind of way; you can tell at once when listening to a sound recording whether it was made in a furnished or unfurnished space; whether or not there was electrical equipment in the space at the time; and whether the space was big or small.
I am therefore excited that we have provisionally agreed that the wallpaper samples used in the Sonic Wallpaper project will not be presented all together as a static, touring exhibition, but rather dispersed around the city of London in a list of discrete locations, as framed exhibits to be displayed in places bearing some relationship to the sounds I am recording in response to them.
We hope to present the wallpapers in buildings which are linked somehow with the wallpaper interviews. Ideally, places where wallpapers will be framed and exhibited will also be the recording locations for collecting the sounds associated with this project, so that the relationships between sounds and sites will be maintained and considered from the outset.
To give an example of what I mean... in one interview, a particular wallpaper sample inspires a lovely fantasy about a dreamed-for "Writing Room". The interviewee then goes on to explore the soundworld of this room, describing a window opening to a nearby tree (where birds sing); a scratchy old inkwell and inkpen; and adventurous cats who disturb piles of parchment to dramatic, sonic effect. The interview is full of nostalgia for pre-computer times and for analogue tools; a nostalgia bought about, in part, by the faded and old-timey appearance of the wallpaper sample itself. There is also a monastic quality to the daydream inspired by this paper and the objects named in the course of the interview are simple; pens and paper, and a view to the outdoors.
In thinking about recording the sounds for this piece, I am interested in finding an environment (if it even exists today, anywhere in London) where bare floorboards, a dearth of furnishings, some creaky wood, and perhaps a clunky old casement window might be found. The sounds of an inkwell and a pen would make infinitely more sense in such a space, rather than if I recorded them in an office with thick carpets, double-glazing, and the inevitable whirring of modems, computer fans and fax machines underlying their solemn, scratchy quietness. If I could find such a place, wouldn't it be good if you could see where it was, go to that place, see the wallpaper sample which lead me - ultimately - to it, and hear the conversations and wallpaper dreams which provoked that journey?
Our method of display is still the subject of debate. We are wondering how visitors will access the sound-pieces. It is not practical to install players in each location, and so we are considering whether or not to use QR codes. If we put QR codes into the picture frames near the wallpaper samples, folks might use a smart-phone with installed bar-code-scanning-software to download the sound-pieces in situ, and hear them on their own headphones or phone speakers. We are also wondering whether or not to include a list of sounds - typed, as in the mock-up example shown above - so that some sense of the sound piece can be conveyed even if visitors have no mobile phone and software to play with. Our other idea is to create an online gallery containing all the sound pieces, so that they may be heard in advance of making a visit, or downloaded and burned onto a CD.
QR codes: what do you think? What I like is that they mean a visitor can go to see one of the wallpaper samples and download the audio piece which goes with it right there, right then. Yet there are some real disadvantages such as loading times, the expense of downloading data using a mobile network, and the fact that not everybody is familiar with this technology.
Of course, there are a lot of additional issues to work out with this mode of presentation. What if an environment which has the perfect sounds for one of the pieces has wallpaper which would clash dreadfully with the one we want to present there?
These are issues to consider as we go along, and are part and parcel of working in a site-specific way.
For now, what this approach means is that as I am going through all the interviews, I am thinking about what the relationship will be between the sounds I might record to bring the ideas discussed in the interviews alive, and about related, suitable sites where the wallpaper pieces might eventually be displayed.
I am therefore paying very close attention to the specific words which are spoken in the interviews, and am starting to make a lot of lists like this:
Yellow and white paper with spool/vase design
soundlist:
white pattern - slight crackle of newspaper pages turning
wicker chair - creaking
living room - old gas fire, like very 1960s or 1970s
"stands the test of time" - an old clock ticking... repetition
spools of cotton - winding and reeling - very close-mic'd
loom?
notes: the most important sound to record is going to be the clock sound; it needs to be precisely the right clock sound...
Also, I need some thread sounds and preferably to work with an accomplished weaver who can keep time and weave on a hand-loom.
This piece is all about repitition and detail and everyone notices the mathematical nature of the pattern; its rhythm, but also the fact that it is soothing; sound sources need to reflect this, and also the vintage quality of the paper... vintage technology like old clocks and old gas fires will be useful for doing this.
The tiny, detailed nature of the patterning brings to mind the specific quality of recording items from a very closeup vantage point; in sonic detail, so to speak.
sites: http://www.clockmakers.org/ and http://www.handweavers.co.uk/
As I make these notes and lists about what sounds to record in relation to what wallpapers, I try to envision what might happen if, for example, someone is visiting the Clockmakers' Museum or the Handweavers' studio, and sees a curious piece of framed wallpaper on the wall that doesn't quite look in place. Will they ask themselves if they like the design or find it hideous? Will they notice the QR code? Will it be inviting? What will it be like to suddenly experience a little bubble of thought and sound relating to what previously looked like, well, a framed piece of wallpaper?
I also wonder if people might use an online map - in a manner a bit akin to Geocaching - to treat these wallpaper samples and the soundfiles which attend them as a kind of treasurehunt. Either way, I hope some people will get a surprise, and that little bursts of wallpaper dreams can fill dusty corners of London with the same humour and warmth and nostalgia and home-making visions which fill the interviews themselves, and which MoDA's amazing wallpaper collection inspires.
I am therefore excited that we have provisionally agreed that the wallpaper samples used in the Sonic Wallpaper project will not be presented all together as a static, touring exhibition, but rather dispersed around the city of London in a list of discrete locations, as framed exhibits to be displayed in places bearing some relationship to the sounds I am recording in response to them.
We hope to present the wallpapers in buildings which are linked somehow with the wallpaper interviews. Ideally, places where wallpapers will be framed and exhibited will also be the recording locations for collecting the sounds associated with this project, so that the relationships between sounds and sites will be maintained and considered from the outset.
To give an example of what I mean... in one interview, a particular wallpaper sample inspires a lovely fantasy about a dreamed-for "Writing Room". The interviewee then goes on to explore the soundworld of this room, describing a window opening to a nearby tree (where birds sing); a scratchy old inkwell and inkpen; and adventurous cats who disturb piles of parchment to dramatic, sonic effect. The interview is full of nostalgia for pre-computer times and for analogue tools; a nostalgia bought about, in part, by the faded and old-timey appearance of the wallpaper sample itself. There is also a monastic quality to the daydream inspired by this paper and the objects named in the course of the interview are simple; pens and paper, and a view to the outdoors.
In thinking about recording the sounds for this piece, I am interested in finding an environment (if it even exists today, anywhere in London) where bare floorboards, a dearth of furnishings, some creaky wood, and perhaps a clunky old casement window might be found. The sounds of an inkwell and a pen would make infinitely more sense in such a space, rather than if I recorded them in an office with thick carpets, double-glazing, and the inevitable whirring of modems, computer fans and fax machines underlying their solemn, scratchy quietness. If I could find such a place, wouldn't it be good if you could see where it was, go to that place, see the wallpaper sample which lead me - ultimately - to it, and hear the conversations and wallpaper dreams which provoked that journey?
Our method of display is still the subject of debate. We are wondering how visitors will access the sound-pieces. It is not practical to install players in each location, and so we are considering whether or not to use QR codes. If we put QR codes into the picture frames near the wallpaper samples, folks might use a smart-phone with installed bar-code-scanning-software to download the sound-pieces in situ, and hear them on their own headphones or phone speakers. We are also wondering whether or not to include a list of sounds - typed, as in the mock-up example shown above - so that some sense of the sound piece can be conveyed even if visitors have no mobile phone and software to play with. Our other idea is to create an online gallery containing all the sound pieces, so that they may be heard in advance of making a visit, or downloaded and burned onto a CD.
QR codes: what do you think? What I like is that they mean a visitor can go to see one of the wallpaper samples and download the audio piece which goes with it right there, right then. Yet there are some real disadvantages such as loading times, the expense of downloading data using a mobile network, and the fact that not everybody is familiar with this technology.
Of course, there are a lot of additional issues to work out with this mode of presentation. What if an environment which has the perfect sounds for one of the pieces has wallpaper which would clash dreadfully with the one we want to present there?
These are issues to consider as we go along, and are part and parcel of working in a site-specific way.
For now, what this approach means is that as I am going through all the interviews, I am thinking about what the relationship will be between the sounds I might record to bring the ideas discussed in the interviews alive, and about related, suitable sites where the wallpaper pieces might eventually be displayed.
I am therefore paying very close attention to the specific words which are spoken in the interviews, and am starting to make a lot of lists like this:
Yellow and white paper with spool/vase design
soundlist:
white pattern - slight crackle of newspaper pages turning
wicker chair - creaking
living room - old gas fire, like very 1960s or 1970s
"stands the test of time" - an old clock ticking... repetition
spools of cotton - winding and reeling - very close-mic'd
loom?
notes: the most important sound to record is going to be the clock sound; it needs to be precisely the right clock sound...
Also, I need some thread sounds and preferably to work with an accomplished weaver who can keep time and weave on a hand-loom.
This piece is all about repitition and detail and everyone notices the mathematical nature of the pattern; its rhythm, but also the fact that it is soothing; sound sources need to reflect this, and also the vintage quality of the paper... vintage technology like old clocks and old gas fires will be useful for doing this.
The tiny, detailed nature of the patterning brings to mind the specific quality of recording items from a very closeup vantage point; in sonic detail, so to speak.
sites: http://www.clockmakers.org/ and http://www.handweavers.co.uk/
As I make these notes and lists about what sounds to record in relation to what wallpapers, I try to envision what might happen if, for example, someone is visiting the Clockmakers' Museum or the Handweavers' studio, and sees a curious piece of framed wallpaper on the wall that doesn't quite look in place. Will they ask themselves if they like the design or find it hideous? Will they notice the QR code? Will it be inviting? What will it be like to suddenly experience a little bubble of thought and sound relating to what previously looked like, well, a framed piece of wallpaper?
I also wonder if people might use an online map - in a manner a bit akin to Geocaching - to treat these wallpaper samples and the soundfiles which attend them as a kind of treasurehunt. Either way, I hope some people will get a surprise, and that little bursts of wallpaper dreams can fill dusty corners of London with the same humour and warmth and nostalgia and home-making visions which fill the interviews themselves, and which MoDA's amazing wallpaper collection inspires.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Organising and Editing the Sonic Wallpaper interviews
I thought I would try to describe here the process of sorting and editing the Sonic Wallpaper interviews. I hope this will provide insights as to how the discussions about the wallpaper samples at MoDA will eventually become sound pieces.
For editing the interviews, I am using Adobe Audition. I like how I can non-destructively edit the interviews (I'll explain what I mean by that later) and create a rough edit using its Multitrack mode. I find the system very flexible for moving things around, and I appreciate the way that this programme allows you to do rough edits and extremely detailed fine-tuning, as each stage of your project requires. Now I am rough-editing; the fine-tuning of the interviews will come later.
At this stage what I want is to have all of the clips relating to each wallpaper sample organised into groups, so that I can quickly and easily determine which of the samples have yielded the richest and best quality audio. This will help me to decide which wallpaper samples will go on to be framed and exhibited, along with their accompanying sound piece. At this stage my editing process has 2 purposes;
1. Group all the clips relating to each wallpaper together
2. Begin forming ideas about where the papers might best be shown, and what kinds of sounds I will need to record during the final phase of this project
How will I do this?
Today I began by opening my project file, a session which I have titled "All-interviews."
At the moment it looks like this:
What you see are several tracks of audio. The top 2 tracks are from one interview; the third and fourth layers down are from another; and the fifth line down is from the interview which I edited earlier on today. I have colour-coded all of the clips for the wallpaper samples, assigning one specific shade per wallpaper design, so that I have some way of visually arranging and grouping clips together.
To have reached this stage, I first of all imported individual interviews into the Multitrack view, (1 interview per 2 Audio tracks). I then named each track after the person/people speaking in that particular interview. At a glance I can see whose interviews I have processed, and which ones are still waiting to be done, and by keeping different voices on different tracks, it is easy to see who is speaking at any one time.
You'll notice that when an interview is first brought into the Multitrack view, it is all one colour and just looks like a giant waveform. In that state, it is very difficult to use; there is no way of telling - at a glance - which section of that long, rambling conversation relates to which piece of wallpaper. In order to begin clarifying what's what, I begin by muting all the tracks above, so that I am just listening to a single track, containing the new, imported audio.
As I listen, a very precise white cursor travels over the soundwave, and I can zoom in or zoom out to get a closer look at the sound signal. With this particular example, at this point in listening, I realise that everything to the left of the cursor is just me introducing the project, chattering away at Colleen and Annie, and rustling about as I begin taking wallpapers out to show them. I do not need any of this audio of me just banging on about the project; what I want to keep is people's natural responses to the wallpapers. So as my bit of introductory guff is coming to a close, I stop the cursor and press Ctrl+K, which splits the clip. I can then just delete the unwanted audio of me talking and banging around with the wallpapers from the Multitrack view. What is great, however, is that if I decide in the future that actually I want some of my rambling or wallpaper-rustling back in, then I haven't deleted it from the original file, just from this Multitrack mix. Does that make sense? I have excised the unnecessary audio from the track without actually destroying it, and that is the beauty of non-destructive editing.
I continue listening, and realise that the next section relates to a particular wallpaper design. I listen through to that, and I split the clip at the end, so that it is now a discrete little snippet of sound. I'm not going to do a precision-edit on it at this stage, but I will assign it a specific colour, so that it can be put with other people's discussions of that design. To do this, I check my private notes about the wallpaper designs to find the right colour.
You'll notice that I have given all the papers descriptive terms which I can remember, and which do not necessarily relate to the formal names of any of the papers! The naming of the papers - although it might not be best-practice from a traditional conservation point of view - is an important stage in terms of developing the sound pieces which will go with the samples.
The names reflect the character that different designs have taken on through the interview process; "blue/white starburst", "nervous system" and "sea-creature-purple-ness" are names derived from things people have said, from ideas and flights of fancy inspired by looking at wallpapers. Consulting the list, I see that the clip-colour I have assigned to the wallpaper design currently being discussed in the audio is 154, and so - having neatly isolated this segment of conversation from the rest of the audio using the Ctrl+K command - I now colour that clip with 154.
When I have gone through the entire interview, splitting and colouring every section in this way and cutting out anything which is unusable, I will have something resembling the fourth layer down; a long stretch of audio, cut up and coloured into different shades. Next, I shall match up the different sections with the sections above, putting like with like, so that all the audio relating to each wallpaper sample gets grouped together.
It takes time, and a lot of shuffling around... and at times it feels a bit like doing one of those impossible jigsaw puzzles. Some of the shades are very close together, so clips must sometimes be heard through a couple of times to make sure they are in the right place, with other clips relating to the same design...
...but these segments - these snippets of sound being heard and re-heard as they get moved around - are giving me ideas.
"it reminds me of my Grandmother's House" "it makes me feel sick" "it reminds me of my brother's matchbox car" "that one says 1970s carpet to me" "that one reminds me of a jewellery box and the sounds of the pearls sliding through your fingers" "I would have that on the end wall of an indoor swimming pool"
In this way, the editing process has an important, imaginative role in the development of the project. It is not only a process of clinically organising the interviews into manageable chunks, but also a process of fantasising and extrapolating; of "auralising", if that can be a word. As I listen and shuffle, I am quietly compiling a list of the sounds which might be recorded for this project, to contextualise and augment interviewees' comments on MoDA's wallpaper collection.
Things I could record: Aquariums, swimming pools, heavy costume jewellery, fuzzy felt and velcro, the ambience in an Indian Restaurant, the sounds of creaky old stairs, an owl in a tree; a very old set of stairs; jellyfish in the London Aquarium (would that even make a sound?)
People's words in my ears give rise to sonic pictures, and so although the process of organising the interviews is visually a little monotonous (even with the colours) putting them in order is essential to the thinking process that accompanies the creation of Sonic Wallpapers.
Practically speaking, once the sections are organised into groups so that all the clips relating to one design are together, I can export one giant wav-file of the whole project, and then cut this up into even tinier pieces, so that at the end, all the chaff is gone, and we are left with the kernels - the good wheat - of the interviews. I will then take these words, and record sounds with which to contextualise them, so that some of the richness of what is imagined when we consult old wallpapers - memories, associations, dreams of home and domestic creativity - might be transmitted to you in sound.
...At least that is the theory.
I would love to hear the experiences of other artists working with sound; how do you find the editing process? How important is editing to the development of an idea? How do you work with sounds/ideas when you are sorting through a whole load of audio?
For editing the interviews, I am using Adobe Audition. I like how I can non-destructively edit the interviews (I'll explain what I mean by that later) and create a rough edit using its Multitrack mode. I find the system very flexible for moving things around, and I appreciate the way that this programme allows you to do rough edits and extremely detailed fine-tuning, as each stage of your project requires. Now I am rough-editing; the fine-tuning of the interviews will come later.
At this stage what I want is to have all of the clips relating to each wallpaper sample organised into groups, so that I can quickly and easily determine which of the samples have yielded the richest and best quality audio. This will help me to decide which wallpaper samples will go on to be framed and exhibited, along with their accompanying sound piece. At this stage my editing process has 2 purposes;
1. Group all the clips relating to each wallpaper together
2. Begin forming ideas about where the papers might best be shown, and what kinds of sounds I will need to record during the final phase of this project
How will I do this?
Today I began by opening my project file, a session which I have titled "All-interviews."
At the moment it looks like this:
What you see are several tracks of audio. The top 2 tracks are from one interview; the third and fourth layers down are from another; and the fifth line down is from the interview which I edited earlier on today. I have colour-coded all of the clips for the wallpaper samples, assigning one specific shade per wallpaper design, so that I have some way of visually arranging and grouping clips together.
To have reached this stage, I first of all imported individual interviews into the Multitrack view, (1 interview per 2 Audio tracks). I then named each track after the person/people speaking in that particular interview. At a glance I can see whose interviews I have processed, and which ones are still waiting to be done, and by keeping different voices on different tracks, it is easy to see who is speaking at any one time.
You'll notice that when an interview is first brought into the Multitrack view, it is all one colour and just looks like a giant waveform. In that state, it is very difficult to use; there is no way of telling - at a glance - which section of that long, rambling conversation relates to which piece of wallpaper. In order to begin clarifying what's what, I begin by muting all the tracks above, so that I am just listening to a single track, containing the new, imported audio.
As I listen, a very precise white cursor travels over the soundwave, and I can zoom in or zoom out to get a closer look at the sound signal. With this particular example, at this point in listening, I realise that everything to the left of the cursor is just me introducing the project, chattering away at Colleen and Annie, and rustling about as I begin taking wallpapers out to show them. I do not need any of this audio of me just banging on about the project; what I want to keep is people's natural responses to the wallpapers. So as my bit of introductory guff is coming to a close, I stop the cursor and press Ctrl+K, which splits the clip. I can then just delete the unwanted audio of me talking and banging around with the wallpapers from the Multitrack view. What is great, however, is that if I decide in the future that actually I want some of my rambling or wallpaper-rustling back in, then I haven't deleted it from the original file, just from this Multitrack mix. Does that make sense? I have excised the unnecessary audio from the track without actually destroying it, and that is the beauty of non-destructive editing.
I continue listening, and realise that the next section relates to a particular wallpaper design. I listen through to that, and I split the clip at the end, so that it is now a discrete little snippet of sound. I'm not going to do a precision-edit on it at this stage, but I will assign it a specific colour, so that it can be put with other people's discussions of that design. To do this, I check my private notes about the wallpaper designs to find the right colour.
You'll notice that I have given all the papers descriptive terms which I can remember, and which do not necessarily relate to the formal names of any of the papers! The naming of the papers - although it might not be best-practice from a traditional conservation point of view - is an important stage in terms of developing the sound pieces which will go with the samples.
The names reflect the character that different designs have taken on through the interview process; "blue/white starburst", "nervous system" and "sea-creature-purple-ness" are names derived from things people have said, from ideas and flights of fancy inspired by looking at wallpapers. Consulting the list, I see that the clip-colour I have assigned to the wallpaper design currently being discussed in the audio is 154, and so - having neatly isolated this segment of conversation from the rest of the audio using the Ctrl+K command - I now colour that clip with 154.
When I have gone through the entire interview, splitting and colouring every section in this way and cutting out anything which is unusable, I will have something resembling the fourth layer down; a long stretch of audio, cut up and coloured into different shades. Next, I shall match up the different sections with the sections above, putting like with like, so that all the audio relating to each wallpaper sample gets grouped together.
It takes time, and a lot of shuffling around... and at times it feels a bit like doing one of those impossible jigsaw puzzles. Some of the shades are very close together, so clips must sometimes be heard through a couple of times to make sure they are in the right place, with other clips relating to the same design...
...but these segments - these snippets of sound being heard and re-heard as they get moved around - are giving me ideas.
"it reminds me of my Grandmother's House" "it makes me feel sick" "it reminds me of my brother's matchbox car" "that one says 1970s carpet to me" "that one reminds me of a jewellery box and the sounds of the pearls sliding through your fingers" "I would have that on the end wall of an indoor swimming pool"
In this way, the editing process has an important, imaginative role in the development of the project. It is not only a process of clinically organising the interviews into manageable chunks, but also a process of fantasising and extrapolating; of "auralising", if that can be a word. As I listen and shuffle, I am quietly compiling a list of the sounds which might be recorded for this project, to contextualise and augment interviewees' comments on MoDA's wallpaper collection.
Things I could record: Aquariums, swimming pools, heavy costume jewellery, fuzzy felt and velcro, the ambience in an Indian Restaurant, the sounds of creaky old stairs, an owl in a tree; a very old set of stairs; jellyfish in the London Aquarium (would that even make a sound?)
People's words in my ears give rise to sonic pictures, and so although the process of organising the interviews is visually a little monotonous (even with the colours) putting them in order is essential to the thinking process that accompanies the creation of Sonic Wallpapers.
Practically speaking, once the sections are organised into groups so that all the clips relating to one design are together, I can export one giant wav-file of the whole project, and then cut this up into even tinier pieces, so that at the end, all the chaff is gone, and we are left with the kernels - the good wheat - of the interviews. I will then take these words, and record sounds with which to contextualise them, so that some of the richness of what is imagined when we consult old wallpapers - memories, associations, dreams of home and domestic creativity - might be transmitted to you in sound.
...At least that is the theory.
I would love to hear the experiences of other artists working with sound; how do you find the editing process? How important is editing to the development of an idea? How do you work with sounds/ideas when you are sorting through a whole load of audio?
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