Our final assignment for FACS2930 was certainly an interesting one. A group dynamic was both exciting and challenging, but in the end produced (in my opinion) excellent results.
The sounds I used in my editing process that the group and I did not make ourselves were the hospital sounds towards the end of the piece. They can be found in the folder "hospital sounds" in the data folder we submitted. They were collected from the website: http://www.hark.com/collections/njtpqxxdms-emergency. They are entitled,
"Defibrillator paddles being rubbed"
"Defibrillator"
"Electrocardiograph" and
"Flatline"
Artist Statement
We wanted to create a piece that was a surreal experience, where the listener could come up with multiple interpretations of what was going on, until it becoming more clear at the end.
We started with the idea of trying to imagine a person who was schizophrenic, and what they would hear/experience as they were walking through campus. Eventually the setting of the piece got changed to an asylum/compound, which as you can imagine from a student's point of view, draws many parallels with university life.
The beginning of the piece starts off with what seems to be a chase; it seems someone has broken out and is escaping from their confines, but the truth of the matter is that they were dying and the sounds the listener is hearing is people attempting to revive the patient, though this is not revealed until the end when their heartbeat ultimately flat-lines.
While the protagonist/patient in the piece seemed to be experiencing escape/freedom, it was intended to be an out of body experience just before they died.
Reflection
Overall, I think the class did a great job on their sound walks and was pleased we got to experience at least some of them. Listening to others from home is interesting, but certainly would have been nice to experience them in the contexts/setting that they were intended to be in.
I really enjoyed the RPG/video game feel of the Wizard adventure (Pavel's group) and thought the voices and effects were very well done.
While other pieces led to interesting places and were well-composed, I found I did not enjoy them so much because I found the content to be a bit sexist. Particularly I am referring to the "war" piece done by Evan's group; while they may have tried to stay true to the types of video games they play, I found myself getting very irritated at the constant shouting of "boys!" ("Lets go, boys!" "Come on, boys!" etc) - all I could think was, half of the class are girls, thank you very much. How about using phrases such as "Let's go, team!" or "move out, troops!"
In terms of reflecting on my own group's piece, it turned out both better and worse than I had expected.
In terms of the worse, I was sad the the timing did not work out as we had intended, due to the variable pace - some parts were intended to be quite fast, while others slow/still and contemplative. Evidently I am not the best leader and pace-keeper for this type of thing, because while the timing worked out fine when I did it on my own, at certain points during the group walk I would turn around and not everyone had kept up with my erratic pace.
On the plus side, towards the end of the walk, a certain participant absolutely made my day by taking the walk to a whole new level and getting through a locked door that we had never intended - hell, we weren't even sure it could open at all. This surpassed my expectations by about a million times, and kept me smiling all day. :)
I think this is a really great example of the walk taking on new depths and perceptions that no one - not the artists nor the participants - ever expected to come about. It really took our "open interpretation" concept to a different place (literally).
In terms of the impact that the experience can have on not just the participants but the people who encounter and observe us while we are having these experiences, I am absolutely sure that the effect my group's walk had crossed a threshold from people thinking, "Wow, look at that strange group of people running around together with headphones on," to "why is there a large group of headphone-wearing people assaulting our office door?!"
Conclusion: awesome.
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