Sound Surveillance Project
CAPTURING LIFE MOMENTS IN SOUND ALONE
BRIEF: In an article discussing art therapy, Elena and Andra Nedelcu state that “We can discover ourselves in pictures… when the pictures are created and not consumed” (Nedelcu. 2012. P. 1842). I believe that this idea can be applied to sound as well as image. While the consumption of media often helps us form ideas about the world and ourselves, it is difficult to really discover all of yourself in monologue. By creating, I explore the depths of who I am and how I know.
I try to answer the question “who am I and how do I know?” by attempting to look at and be looked at in a way that aligns with aspects of my identity I deem most important. This also means putting myself in an environment where I am shaped into the kind of person I want to be. Surrounding myself with people who I value and admire is important because I am not simply an autonomous individual, but I am part of, influenced, and am shaped by a network of people.
DESIGN STATEMENT: The video starts by introducing audio visualization as a way to see moments recorded in sound. I decided to use very simple design (mostly black and white, sans serif font) to let the audio and it’s visualization to speak for itself. I visualized my audio using the look of digital spectrum displays that are common to most mobile audio recorders (I recorded many of my clips on my phone), which many people (if they do something similar to me) will find familiar. Besides light tweaking of volume, none of my audio clips have any processing done on them. I wanted to keep all of the authentic artifacts and imperfections. This is what I love about those recordings. For example, I kept the parts of my girlfriend’s voicemail (“This is what DISTANCE looks like”) where her voice cuts out because I think it displays a long distance relationship in a very real and intimate way. The only color I use in the video is during the “This is what a FAILURE looks like” section. This is because it is the only audio where the subject (me) passes judgement on itself from within the clip. I deem the recording bad according to my perception of what is bad and good, what aligns with my artistic goals and what does not. By making these mistakes I slowly get closer to my artistic voice, “…what I’m trying to say.” The color red fades away as self-critique allows me to say something more authentically me. I used a masked clip of the final audio visualization (“This is what I look like”) to overlay when “Created by Luke Greenwood” fades in to emphasize these sounds as part of my identity.