. choose a 30-60 seconds of text
.create a narrative sound piece to it
.all sounds must be recorded from scratch
.48khz, 24 bit, stereo wav
. use voice over
from this brief i started thinking about audio being used without visual. breaking the partnership of sight and sound.
i then started thinking about the idea in a literal extent of being blind and just hearing and wondering what view of the world would you get with this lack of visual stimulus.
my mind then went to philosophy, something i studied at a level. and to a particular theory of epistemology called the knowledge argument, with the example of mary's room.
first i looked at the wikipedia page about the knowledge argument
The thought experiment was originally proposed by Frank Jackson as follows:
Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. [...] What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not? [4]
i plan to rewrite this phrase for a blind man who has never seen the world.
i will place sections in the paragraph with pieces of famous poems and stories trying to describe the world to the blind man.
to break down the argument "mary" would know everything that she would need to know about the qualities of vision and the sciences of the brain states it would invoke but would she learn anything new when she say the world. this something new is called quailia and it the unqualifiable aspect of experience which is the main claim against the argument from materialists.
the philosophical position this argument is defuting is physicalism.
I then decided to take a more practical approach and before finalizing my text go to the sound booth to get some inspiration
I recorded some normal sounds then tried something different
i put a metronome inside two metal pots and let the sound resonate through the materials. it made me start thinking of the idea of resonance so i tried finding something else in the foley equipment which had the property. i was successful
this metal hat stand would resonate with a pitch when i struck it with another metal object. it created a almost cosmic feel. i like the idea of resonance to connect to the natural structures of sound and nature. this is something id love to explore in both my sound projects in pro tools and maps and journeys. Sadly i couldn't pick up the sound with the microphone so on monday i will ask James how best to do this.
my idea is to use a background of nature harmonics and resonance and then have more distriptive sounds over that. I am now going to do some research into nature harmonics.
The term harmonic in its strictest sense describes any member of the harmonic series. It is typically applied to repeating signals, such as sinusoidal waves. A harmonic of such a wave is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the frequency of the original wave, known as the fundamental frequency. The original wave is also called 1st harmonic, the following harmonics are known as higher harmonics. As all harmonics are periodic at the fundamental frequency, the sum of harmonics is also periodic at that frequency.
An overtone is any partial higher than the lowest partial in a compound tone. The relative strengths and frequency relationships of the component partials determine the timbre of an instrument. . In the special case of instrumental timbres whose component partials closely match a harmonic series (such as with most strings and winds) rather than being inharmonic partials (such as with most pitched percussion instruments), it is also convenient to call the component partials "harmonics" but not strictly correct (because harmonics are numbered the same even when missing, while partials and overtones are only counted when present). This chart demonstrates how the three types of names (partial, overtone, and harmonic) are counted (assuming that the harmonics are present):
Acoustic resonance is a phenomenon that consists of a given acoustic system amplifying a sound whose frequency matches one of its own natural frequencies of vibration (its resonance frequencies).
The term "acoustic resonance" is sometimes used to narrow mechanical resonance to the frequency range of human hearing, but since acoustics is defined in general terms concerning vibrational waves in matter [1] acoustic resonance can occur at frequencies outside the range of human hearing.
An acoustically resonant object usually has more than one resonance frequency, especially at harmonics of the strongest resonance. It will easily vibrate at those frequencies, and vibrate less strongly at other frequencies. It will "pick out" its resonance frequency from a complex excitation, such as an impulse or a wideband noise excitation. In effect, it is filtering out all frequencies other than its resonance.
(all information taken from wikipedia)
now the question was how to find these resonance in none instruments
Question
How do you find an objects resonant frequency? Asked by: Tim Pope
Answer
An object exposed to its resonant frequency will vibrate in sympathy with the sound. The wavefronts pushing on the object will arrive at just the right time to nudge the object with greater and greater amplitude each cycle. A good analogy is pushing a friend on a swing. If you push at random times, you will not be able to get your friend moving very well; if you push at a specific time in each swing, the swings will get higher and higher.
The easiest way to find the resonant frequencies is to place the object next to a speaker and also place a microphone attached to an oscilloscope next to the object. Have the speaker play a tone at a given volume, and then without changing the volume slowly change the pitch (or frequency). If you watch the oscilloscope you will notice that at certain frequencies the amplitude of the wave, which is proportional to the volume of the sound being picked up by the microphone, will be greater than at surrounding frequencies. These are the resonant frequencies, and are detectable as the sound energy absorbed by the object is re-emitted more efficiently at these pitches.
Note that you can perform the same procedure, albeit less precisely, in a low-tech way: try holding a large bowl, or coffee can, or some other object that you are hoping to make resonate, in front of your face. Slowly sing a tone with increasing pitch. If there is a resonant frequency in the audible range, you should be able to hear the tone emitted back to your ears at that pitch. Or if you have a piano available to you, try singing into the piano and you'll see the strings vibrate when you sing their resonant frequencies. Answered by: Rob Landolfi, Science Teacher, Washington, DC
it was clear that i was going to need to find certain objects that resonated and have a separate recording session recording them.
i will use natural harmonics of the string instruments i own but also want to get some other none instrument object to use. i will have to see if the university has a oscilloscope.
text writing and rewriting
As the the my text is a philosophical argument involving the idea of being blind my piece will have to start with an interactive phrase to allow the audience to fully open themselves to the piece.
I want the audience to close their eyes for the duration of the piece so the can get the 30 sec experience of being blind.
the first phrase will be either
"close your eyes"
"please close your eyes"
"now please close your eyes"
"to begin, close your eyes"
(i will record several versions of this start to make sure its perfect)
The thought experiment was originally proposed by Frank Jackson as follows:
Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. [...] What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not? [4]
I will need to firstly make this focused on a blind person not just without colour. and secondly make it 2nd person directive towards the listener.
Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor.She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. [...] What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not? [4]
this is first draft rewrite
you are a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason. forced to investigate the world from a completely dark room. you specialize in the neurophysiology of vision and acquire, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like red, blue and son on. you discover, for example just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence, the sky is blue. what will happen when you are released from your dark room. will you learn anything or not ?
this first draft is alright but i think some bits needs to be snipped out. there needs to be a bit about how you have spend your life in this dark room
i don't think we need the bit about the vocal speech
"you are a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason. forced to investigate the world from a completely dark room, you have never had the experience of vision. you specialize in the neurophysiology of vision and acquire, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like red, blue and so on. you discover for example just which wavelength combinations for the sky stimulate the retina and exactly how this produces via the brain the image of the sky. what will happen when you are released from your dark room. will you learn anything or not ?"
i think this is pretty good for the basis of the writing. now all i need to think about is the examples. if i want to add new examples which might stimulate more thought. (and be easily represented by sound)
ripe tomatoes :
the sky:
maybe i should use one example. like a tree in a field or the sea ?
i want to use poetry to describe the situation
initial sound ideas.
scientist : sounds of books. put together
dark room: deep rumble
all physical information: ticking, metronome
examples :
red: red colored objects
blue: blue colored objects
wavelengths : different frequencies
brain : electrical sounds
released : locks opening
learn : birarge of different sounds
next step is to think of poem phrases or literature phrases to add to describe the situations
first poem/quote : about darkness of being blind
first example (ripe tomatos) :
second example (sky) :
im going to find examples of little poems and parts of litature which i enjoy
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. -bible
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves. - a farewell to arms ernist heminway
The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. - a picture of dorian grey oscar wilde
Dark spruce forest frowned on either side of the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in the fading light. A vast silence reigned over the land. The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness. There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness — a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the Sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild. - white fang jack london
Slowly the hall filled, and Frodo looked with delight upon the many fair faces that were gathered together; the golden firelight played upon them and shimmered in their hair.
The others cast themselves down upon the fragrant grass, but Frodo stood awhile still lost in wonder. It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. -tolkain
Im not 100% about the quotes being in the argument as it may distract from the meaning of the argument. i may write my own disriptive sentances. i think to expand more i could include this thought experiment
3. The Beetle in the Box
This one’s also known as the Private Language Argument and it’s somewhat similar to Mary the Neuroscientist. In Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, he proposed a thought experiment that challenged the way we look at introspection and how it informs the language we use to describe sensations.
For the thought experiment, Wittgenstein asks us to imagine a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a “beetle.” No one can see into anyone else’s box. Everyone is asked to describe their beetle — but each person only knows their own beetle. But each person can only talk about their own beetle, as there might be different things in each person’s box. Consequently, Wittgenstein says the subsequent descriptions cannot have a part in the “language game.” Over time, people will talk about what is in their boxes, but the word “beetle” simply ends up meaning “that thing that is in a person’s box.”
Why is this bizarre thought experiment disturbing? The mental experiment points out that the beetle is like our minds, and that we can’t know exactly what it is like in another individual’s mind. We can’t know exactly what other people are experiencing, or the uniqueness of their perspective. It’s an issue that’s very much related to the so-called hard problem of consciousness and the phenomenon of qualia.
what i want to do is combine both thought experiments. maybe using the beatle in a box as the example. thus combining the to levels of meaning of quailia and leaving the effect very powerful.
image your in a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a beetle. no one can see into anyone else's box. everyone is asked to describe their beetle. but each person only knows their own beetle. each person can only talk about their own beetle. does the beetle mean anything more than "that thing that is in a person's box" ?
"you are a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason. forced to investigate the world from a completely dark room, you have never had the experience of vision. you specialize in the neurophysiology of vision and acquire, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like red, blue or imaging your in a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a beetle. no one can see into anyone else's box. everyone is asked to describe their beetle. but each person only knows their own beetle. each person can only talk about their own beetle. does the beetle mean anything more than "that thing that is in a person's box" ? . you discover for example just which wavelength combinations for the sky stimulate the retina and exactly how this produces via the brain the image of the sky. what will happen when you are released from your dark room. will you learn anything or not ?"
i don't like this version as it is disjunctive.
please close your eyes
"you are a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason. forced to investigate the world from a completely dark room, you have never had the experience of vision. you specialize in the neurophysiology of vision and acquire, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like red, blue and so on. you discover for example just which wavelength combinations for the sky stimulate the retina and exactly how this produces via the brain the image of the sky. what will happen when you are released from your dark room. will you learn anything or not ?"
imaging your in a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a beetle. no one can see into anyone else's box. everyone is asked to describe their beetle. but each person only knows their own beetle. each person can only talk about their own beetle. does the beetle mean anything more than "that thing that is in a person's box" ?
(maybe split the text with a bit of poetry)
I am thinking about changing the idea
this idea follows on from my previous idea of mary's room.
the idea is to have different voice overs of from different inspirational people through out history. i will continue to have the harmonics and resonance from the other idea. but also contain sounds describing what the quotes is trying to say.
i may call the project inspirational.
the idea stems from the quotation nature of the other project, revolving around argument and messages people try and portray throughout their lives which resonate through us.
all the previous research leads up to this.
the voice over will be one actor but i will edit their voice in protools to sound different for each quote.
actually i don't want to do this i want to keep the feeling from mary's room
please close your eyes
"you are a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason. forced to investigate the world from a completely dark room, you have never had the experience of vision. you specialize in the neurophysiology of vision and acquire, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe apple, or the Sea, and use terms like red, blue and so on. you discover for example just which wavelength combinations for the sky stimulate the retina and exactly how this produces via the brain the image of the sea. what will happen when you are released from your dark room. will you learn anything or not ?" the only true wisdom is to know that you know nothing
now imaging your in a group of individuals, each of whom has a box containing something called a beetle. no one can see into anyone else's box. everyone is asked to describe their beetle. but each person only knows their own beetle. each person can only talk about their own beetle. does the beetle mean anything more than "that thing that is in a person's box" ?
the unexamined life is not worth living
sound list
harmonics & resonance (backing track)
bass guitar
acoustic guitar
double bass
piano
metal objects
glass objects
plastic objects i.e. ruler
blowing on bottle
wine glass
descriptive sounds
scientist : book sounds
dark room : deep low creepy sounds
all physical information : ticking, metronome
ripe apple: tree sounds and cutting apple and eating sounds
sea: sound of waves
red: red objects (hot)
blue: blue objects (sad)
wavelengths : different frequencies
brain: electrical sounds
released : door sounds
learn: briage of different sounds
now for beetle
group of individuals : heart beats build up with footsteps (maybe voices)
sounds of voices but muffled and inaudible
i like the simplicity of the beetle sound track. might have to do a similar thing for the mary's room example.
recording i knew that resonance was going to be a big part of my piece so before my first sound booth day i went round all the charity shops in farnham taping of things to check if the resonated. i only really found 3 glasses which had this property. i then went home and did the same thing. a huge problem i found was objects often do have this audio resonace propery so i decided i would have to buy objects i knew did. the objects i decided on buying was a singing bowl and a tunning fork. sadly these didnt arrive for my first recording session so i had to try and get the sounds i could in this one session.
this is my simplified sound scape. from this i decided what sounds i needed to get in my first session
these are the sounds i got for my first sound booth session
these are all the objects i recorded that day. a guitar amp and bass amp for creating electrical feedback and crackle. the stylophone for creating electrical buzz to as well as the two razor. im going to use all the electrical sounds to sybolise thought and synapses. the keyboard is there for office/ learning sounds. metal objects for resonanse. which i also used 3 small wine glasses for. knocking them together to create a ringing sound same with the hat stand. the hair brush was used to create a creppy ripping sound. and the apple is a purely descriptive sound
with the apple i put it close to the mic and expermineted with diffrent speeds of chopping and slicing. also the sound of bitting.
the razors i experimented with the parolax effect moving them pass the mic
this is a practice mix of the resonace sounds created via harmonics on my bass guitar and wine glasses. ive practiced putting diffrent harmonics on top of each other and pitch shifting. this is what im going to to for the backing track.
i then went back and reviewed my sounds. i knew i needed another sound room day to get the final sounds that i can capture inside.
these were the sounds i felt i needed to capture.
sining bowl and tunning fork for resonance. books for education sounds. door sound for leaving. and heart beat and a practice voice over just in case i didnt get a voice actor.
with the singing bowl i tried diffrent speeds and intensities of hitting. the first sound would often clip but that was okay as i was searching for that lower resonating sound when circling the bowl same thing happened with the tunning fork.
to create the sound of a heart beat i pulled and losened fabric from my clothes. i did this at varouis speeds and intensities/
I thought both sound booth days went pretty well. now i only needed a few more sounds which i can recorded outside.
firstly the sea
i need lots of general river and tap sounds
the sound of a bath sloshing back and forward
peas being dropped. or other grains like salt of rice
ships horn - record car horn and change it
sea gulls- my own voice
door slamming
footsteps
voices - go to busy place
maybe another voice over
to get the sounds of voice. i did some undercover sound recording of groups in the student union. i placed the recorder in different locations so i got a good wide sound i could edit together and layer later
for the sea sounds i recorded in my bath. i put the bath in different location and directions to catch the best swish of the waves. i put my hand in diffrent levels of water and pushed it back and forward. i had to do diffrent speeds.
for walking i did lots of different floors to capture the best material for the sound to pass through. i practiced walking directly next to the microphone and walking past it.
for the door slaming this was a learning curve. diffrent doors had very diffrent sound levels. also positioning of the mic was important as opening and closing the door created wind which effected the mic. i had to record to levels. one to capture the door opening, one to capture the slam.
to create the sound of sea stones i used pasta and rice poured between two containers. it created a fairly high sound but i was going to eq it later as it had the qualities of the sound i wanted.
for the voice over i made a post on the music society page as i feel musicans have a good idea of tones of voices to create a feel. i managed to get garath fro dfsa 1 year. for the recordings i did 3 main full voice overs. after each i would tell him where to change things. after these i asked him to do certain phrases i felt needed repeating. and finally one slow take where he took each phrase very slowly.
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