Dream A Little Dream of Me Stars shining bright above you Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you" Birds singing in the sycamore trees Dream a little dream of me Say "nighty night" and kiss me Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me While I'm alone and blue as can be Dream a little dream of me Stars fading but I linger on, dear Still craving your kiss I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear Just saying this Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you But in your dreams, whatever they be Dream a little dream of me.
Learning to record ma voice with new Microphone and interface what do all these buttons actually do?!
My first ideas for Group Radio Broadcasting sound piece were communicated to my first group. We each chose a role, and I was designated the Voice role. My ideas were to do a radio conversational interview on the broad subject of Diversity; LGBTQI; Changing notions of Femininity/ Masculinity; Race and Diversity: OR Neurodiversity...
This sound piece was intended to be submitted for assessment and played on resonance FM. I thought this would have been a pretty transgressive option, given Resonance FM seems to evade anything feminist Or inclusive related to diversity; and it seems to prioritise field recording over Voice. Since I'm very interested in Radio Broadcasting and Voice and Diversity I was excited about this prospect. However, this was short lived. My younger peer group decided against choosing a topic of diversity; stating they were not interested in politics; diversity or difference; transgressing Radio station sound with feminism; diversity just was not fun; too heavy, not anything they could personality related to. My inner reaction to this best visualised as:
Not one for holding onto resentment and anger, I sucked this up and instead channelled my inner emotions into this Sound Piece:
Shared with Dropbox
I informed the group I wouldn't be contributing any further and I formed another group. The second group began as two students including myself. I presented the same ideas and added some ideas for conversational interview on topics involving: psychological and therapeutic content and mindfulness. The other student suggested an ASMR broadcast, which I thought great sounds good. In the interim period between this meeting and the next the tutor gave some advice on an ASMR Broadcast to be played on Resonance FM and handed in as an assignment. This advice was pretty much that this type of sound was lame, not really transgressive, not relatable to Radio Broadcasting theory.
Voice samples for group Radio Project
In our group zoom call the group decided they didn't want the narration to have any specific meaning. 😱😱😱😱.
After picking myself up off the floor I thought to myself 'no meaning - no politic - no knowledge production', no acknowledgement of standpoint and positioning I think not. How can I take personal accountability for not reproducing radio broadcasting misogyny and diversity neglect? How can I engage with my creativity without any meaning or sonic feminist representation of diversity. The short simple answer is I can't. As the designated Voice of the group I came up with a couple of voice samples...
Lumbung Radio is an inter-local online community radio part of documenta fifteen. It’s an open online broadcast that comprises of an inter-local network of distinct radios and audio practices. It operates in no specific time zones, and streams multiple languages, music, and art. Each participating radio station depends on its own means of production, way of thinking, learning, and sharing. lumbung Radio operates as a decentralized network of nodes that uses internet without its hegemonic agency. The intention is producing an audiophonic common space built on the multiplication of the existing practices of its contributors.
A simple 'how-to' guide for all. Listen with your loop antenna to data packets, commercial stations or atmospheric disturbances.
In case you’d like to make a Very Low Frequency Radio Reciever, I’ve made a lil guide. Please let me know if you make one, I’d be excited to see / hear. :)
Listening and applying meaning to sound is socially constructed within inequitable hierarchical systems of power, knowledge production, technological mediation. Where, certain 'norms' are privileged, prioritised and reproduced. Listening is a relational concept. Therefore, in order to understand this relational action we must demonstrate a critical self-awareness to our unique standpoint related to the soundscape. This could be our mental health, mood or self-talk, affecting our propensity to engage; our identity, be this class, sexuality, disability, sex, gender, race or age. Additionally, we can apply this critical awareness to the production method we engage with in the recording of the soundscape material.
Reflections on my original sound composition responding to the theme of identity and space.
A sense of place is dependent upon one’s unique standpoint (Anderson, 2020). In sound art it is used to describe the relationship between a person and their external sound space. What would it look like if we included the therapeutic concept of inner voice as a perceived sound space? Oliveros work emphasises the importance of the equality of sound spaces, where voice, instruments and performance are given equitable value. Including all dynamics of space helps to unveil hidden power dynamics that are socially ascribed onto our embodied space. As individuals we create and bring meaning to our social space based upon our unique identities and differences. Discourses not language influence our sense of place by an ever-shifting internalisation of social, political, and historical systems of knowledge and power (Foucault, 1980).
This sound art piece uses field recording, sound effects and composes of several contrasting voices. One voice element consists of a more serious psychoeducational sounding and attempts to situate the listener as a participant for new information. It engages the listeners’ spatial and visual mental imagery and embodiment (Forcucci, 2018), with a new sound space of inner voice. The other voice elements are composed in a playful repetition, establishing the therapeutic concept of self-talk and inner voice. Demonstrating its intrusiveness, its omnipresence, its unavoidable contribution to sound spaces. The human inner voice is an unacknowledged powerful influence on sense of identity and sonic space and an important site of diversity space. Our inner voices are the influences from the deeper parts to us, the judgements, the identity differences, the mental health fluctuations, and differences in emotional processes. I played with the method of contrapuntal melody, repetition, and rhyme, where multiple voices independent of each other were composed into a new harmonic sound. The methodology was fun and interactive.
In practical terms I invited people to record themselves saying, “I think I need therapy” and “I think I might do”. Some participant’s reinterpreted this, brought humour and used different words and some sang these words. I added these voices to the two educational voice recordings I had written and directed about inner voice. I then added field recordings sounds to change the pace, add humour, narrate a scene, add time element and to set the tone. I used binaural beats alpha rhythm 7 hz a natural brain rhythm is the subconscious creative state. I wanted to add a hypnotic and relaxed element. The sound of an antique film projector was used for material simplicity a sound that was known and relatable. I used it as a way of telling a story and of inspiring visual imagery, memory to engage the listeners perception and senses. I drew from Oliveros idea that human listening, perception, memory is affected by time delays. In Garage band, I gestured to this by applying, rewind, reversed reflections and reverb using long vibrational springs and distortion sound effects. I switched compressor off, used reverb and ambience on full and equalled out frequency and cut. These techniques were used to provide an inescapable always present never ending quality to one’s inner voice. I kept in several gaps and deliberately had quick change of volume and tone in parts to emphasise we are not always in control of what we say to ourselves.
In therapy, one learns that our minds and belief systems are already socially constructed by our cultural place in the world, especially influenced by the early perception of our environment. For example our inner world is affected initially by our parents-caregivers. The first part of our inner world consists of our internalising our parents' inner voices. Then as we grow up the inner battle begins; between our own emerging culturally shaped individual thoughts-beliefs snd identities and our internalised parents. We go through, an internal deconstruction process, a reexamination of our internalised parental beliefs. I’m interested in this process, which of course can be extended to outer societal influences. Our voices, sounds and the words we speak to ourselves have an important role and a natural healing potential. My exploration into sound arts involves finding new ways to help people heal themselves.
Anderson, E, (2020) "Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/feminism-epistemology/>. Accessed on 5/10/22
Forcucci, L. (2018). Music for Brainwaves: Embodiment of Sound, Space and EEG Data. Body, Space & Technology 17(1): p76–94).
Foucault, M., (1980) Power and Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. Brington: Harvester.
Oliveros, P., (1974) Sonic meditations (Vol. 7). Baltimore, MD: Smith publications.
Oliveros, P., (2005) Deep listening: A composer's sound practice. IUniverse.
Oliveros, P., (2002) Quantum listening: From practice to theory (to practice
practice). Culture and Humanity in the New Millennium: The Future of Human Values, pp.27-41.
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