works inspired by 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

The Assignment: Do a sonic version of Matt Madden's Exercises in Style

More on the project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/04/05/disquiet0014-oumupo/

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/ http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto Project 0014: Sonic Narrative

This was a final project for my sound design course... six separate renditions of the same minute's worth of dialogue. 

My project was inspired by my dear friend Matt Madden's 2005 comic "99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises In Style" and before that Raymond Queneau's 1947 book "Exercices de Style". Check them out!!!

The dialogue is a mash-up of multiple, random eavesdropped conversation fragments overheard while making my way around NYC. So no... it is NOT necessarily a linear narrative!!! (Disclaimer: I am still editing several sections, so this is a work-in-progress)

Thanks to everyone for all the help!!!!!

So you can follow the bouncing ball:

- Oh. You.
- Yeah.
- I’ll take it that you’re not real hot on this.
- It’s just sand and a coral seahorse sticker.
- I was like “I’ve got nothing to lose, so…”
- It’s too loud. It’s too colorful.
- But it means so much to me.
- Wait, did you see that?
- See what?
- Oh my god, oh my god. I can prove it. It's really happening.
- You’re lying, right?
- You know, can you please just be quiet?
- Why can't I....why. Why? Why can't I bring it up?
- Because you would lose that argument.
- Apparently, I cannot share my opinion without being looked down upon.
- I just pull the trigger when they tell me to.
- I’m outta here.
- Well, this isn’t about you. I make the toys man! 

Exercises in Style (as a radio drama)

Some source material taken from a radio show that is in the public domain,  "My Favorite Husband":

http://archive.org/details/MyFavoriteHusband

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: 

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

Lost in static / lost in time [disquiet0014-oumupo]

My track submission for disquiet #14.

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

"Timelapse" - [disquiet0014-oumupo]

This is a track for the Disquiet Junto. 

All sounds, samples, beats and rhythms were cutup and programmed by hand. Full details below.

The first minute is a straightforward sonic re-telling of the comic strip mentioned below, and the rest of the track is a kind of journey into the mind of the character in the comic strip, before, during and after he opens the fridge.

If that sounds confusing, read on to make some sense of it...

The assignment for this week was as follows:

"You will re-tell a very short and simple story utilizing sound. It will take the form of a single audio file uploaded to your Soundcloud account. You will construct this track in any manner you choose: with field recordings, music, effects, dialog, or a mix thereof. The story you will be re-telling is this single-page comic strip by Matt Madden:

http://www.artbabe.com/exercises/images/exercises/01-template.gif

"(Matt Madden's single-page comic is the template for a book he created titled 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. In the book, Madden told that same story 99 different ways, each in a different comic-book style.)

"In the process of re-telling the story through sound, you may interpret it in any way you choose. You can do it as straight narrative, or do an abstract rendition, or retell it from another point of view, or contribute a score as if it were a movie, or a record series of foley cues. The choice is yours."

--

I decided to create, as close as possible, a sonic version of the comic strip, and then to adapt and morph the sounds into something musical, as a way of exploring the sounds and the comic strip itself (along with some of its 99 variations).

I already had a few recent field recordings that could be used - contact mic recordings of door handles, a wooden bed, and a chair being scraped. I recorded a few more pieces with contact mics: my fridge door opening and closing, bottles in the fridge, and my laptop being turned on and off, as well as some typing with the keys. I also recorded my two daughters drawing, using the onboard mic on my Zoom H4n. I recorded the sound of their pencils and pens fairly closely.

However, these recordings were not enough, so I also used elements from all of the following samples on Freesound:

Shoe Slide and Scuffle.aif by ftpalad -- http://www.freesound.org/people/ftpalad/sounds/119931/
shuffling_in_tennis_shoes_on_carpet.wav by daboy291 -- http://www.freesound.org/people/daboy291/sounds/138063/
watch_alarm.aif by Corsica_S -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Corsica_S/sounds/18632/
Tschenuhr.mp3 by Bidone -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Bidone/sounds/66376/
Uhr.wav by Bidone -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Bidone/sounds/65796/
Geology Pinecone and Bars.wav by Razzvio -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Razzvio/sounds/78995/
HorrorStaircase.wav by treyc -- http://www.freesound.org/people/treyc/sounds/123915/
congélateur craquements.wav by darkunst -- http://www.freesound.org/people/darkunst/sounds/84350/
8_fridge_eggbox.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8888/
11_fridge_margtub_3.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8856/
3_fridge_search.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8883/
fridge01.wav by bigD -- http://www.freesound.org/people/bigD/sounds/49540/
4_fridge_beer.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8884/
fridge_back.wav by Cambra -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Cambra/sounds/102690/
1_fridge_open.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8865/
opening_fridge.aiff by KlankOntwerp -- http://www.freesound.org/people/KlankOntwerp/sounds/106489/
FridgeHum.wav by timdrussell -- http://www.freesound.org/people/timdrussell/sounds/51836/
old fridge.wav by Marec -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Marec/sounds/22683/
opening_fridge_door.wav by tschapajew -- http://www.freesound.org/people/tschapajew/sounds/103544/
generator_room.wav by j1987 -- http://www.freesound.org/people/j1987/sounds/73025/
R09_0005B.wav by andysm -- http://www.freesound.org/people/andysm/sounds/76580/
fridge open and close with hum.WAV by uwesoundboiz -- http://www.freesound.org/people/uwesoundboiz/sounds/60393/
refrigerator01.wav by fonogeno -- http://www.freesound.org/people/fonogeno/sounds/17638/


No, really, I actually used something from ALL of the above sounds. I downloaded a few more that I ended up not using...

I then recorded myself speaking the text from the comic strip. 

I also liked two of the other pages that are viewable on the website:
http://www.artbabe.com/exercises/images/exercise/85-difftext.gif
http://www.artbabe.com/exercises/images/exercises/20-thirtypanels.gif

So I also recorded the dialogue from the first one (difftext.gif), and was inspired by elements of the second one (thirtypanels.gif).

I cut up all the samples in Audacity, and passed the vocals to a Roland SP555 sampler, and the foley-type noises to a Korg Electribe SX1. I modified my voice using the effects on the SP555, and resampled the vocal snippets on the Electribe. 

On the Electribe, I arranged all the sounds into a one minute direct interpretation of the comic strip, and then followed that with a kind of percussive meltdown of all the noises and sounds.

Once the track was assembled, I played it back in full, twice, through a Korg KP3 Kaoss pad, using a 'tape delay' effect, which I played live. I recorded a 'dry' track direct from the Electribe, and combined the 3 tracks in Ardour (digital audio workstation).

Ugh. Then I wrote all this up for reference and went to bed. Probably spent too much time on this - I reckon it took up a full day from beginning to end (about 20 hours). AND it wasn't what I intended to do - I wanted a much slower piece that evolved more over time. Might re-work it one day, in some fashion...

The image for this track I adapted in GIMP from Matt Madden's original image, as linked to above. The morphed thumbs in the middle remind me, happily, of a Foetus (JG Thirlwell) album cover.

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

Oumupo [disquiet0014-oumupo]

My interpretation of Matt's work is one of the juxtoposition of the sense of time being both escaped and in escapement. 

By not using my own field recordings, I feel like a bit of a cheat with this week's Junto. Using Freesound.org was the only way I was going to be able to participate.
My trusty ZoomH4n was not to hand :(

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

Samples used...

http://www.freesound.org/people/WIM/sounds/18037/
http://www.freesound.org/people/digifishmusic/sounds/32937/
http://www.freesound.org/people/acclivity/sounds/30608/
http://www.freesound.org/people/andriala/sounds/16651/
http://www.freesound.org/people/fabe/sounds/3128/
http://www.freesound.org/people/Tomlija/sounds/75372/
http://www.freesound.org/people/avventura2046/sounds/147387/
http://www.freesound.org/people/alp1254/sounds/52622/

Thanks to the providers of the above recordings and snippets.


escapement-disquiet0014-oumupo

My first contribution to the Disquiet project, all done in one single day (busy Bank Holiday weekend).

Maybe a bit too repetetive. Should have given myself more time, but there we go.

Lazy Day (disquiet0014-oumupo)

This is something I created for the latest Disquiet Junto project. The assignment involves creating a sonic narrative for a comic created by Matt Madden. We had a lot of freedom to do whatever we wanted – straight narrative or abstract rendition.
 
The piece 1:15 am is constructed of a coil recording of my laptop, drones and tones, and a field recording of my refridgerator at the end. I also used the mac speech feature to record the dialog, but ended up granulating and delaying the sound, which you will hear midway through. My goal was to express the strange feeling of 1:15 am, especially when you’ve lost track of time.
 
More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:
http://mattmadden.com
http://exercisesinstyle.com
 
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

1:15 am [disquiet0014-oumupo]

Dowsabel is a musical/sound art project without many boundaries and a lot of exploration. I have started issuing limited edition physical releases of Dowsabel under my micropress/mail art project, Faint Press (faintpress.tumblr.com).

For high-quality downloads of complete albums, please visit dowsabel.bandcamp.com.
