Project 1: Soundfields

Due date: Mon, February 6.  Be prepared to present your piece to the class for critique.  You will have a maximum of 10 minutes for set-up, so rehearse your presentation in advance. For our first project 1 you will create a multi-channel sound collage based on field recordings that may be processed in any way.  Your piece may create a narrative or emotional journey, or it may evoke a sense of space – the artistic direction is entirely up to you. The only requirement is that the sounds you use are actual field recordings – they should come from a real acoustic space.  Recordings of nature, human activities, and machines are all great starting places. You may also use traditional music sounds – the performance of instruments, synthesized sounds, existing music recordings, etc. – but these musical sounds must be recorded, by you, in a real acoustic space.  For example, if you want to use a drum machine you should connect it a speaker and set the speaker up in an interesting acoustic situation – in a nice sounding room, or out on the sidewalk with traffic passing by.  Or if you want to use a sample from a pop song, you should play the music through speakers in a situation that transforms the sound – i.e. a reverberant parking garage or stairwell so the sound is transformed by existing in the acoustic world.  All the sounds we use should create a sense of place.