William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops

The Disintegration Loops is a series of albums that Basinski constructed from a number of tapes he had made twenty years prior. All the tracks are essentially ten to twenty minute loops of keyboard chords – all extremely ambient. The detail that makes these unique is the fact that as Basinski was re-recording these tapes that he had found again, they started to literally disintegrate, causing each tape to warp and crackle, changing the sound completely. The result is an eerie soundtrack to decadence.

In order to describe the auditory aesthetics of The Disintegration Loops, one must think of atmospheres. When I hear each album, I feel like I’m traveling, slowly, from earth up to space. Each track feels like different pressures upon my sinuses – endlessly looping. I also feel like I’m being showered by soft neon lights. As I near the end of each atmosphere, the air starts to change – it starts to become harder to breath. This is how each track sounds as the tapes begin to fall apart – like they are struggling to breathe, gasping for air until they finally fade into oblivion.

ouch!

Jay Dilla - The Shining (Instrumentals)

Jay Dilla’s masterpiece of beats entitled The Shining (namely the instrumental version) is in the truest sense hip-hop to its core. Released posthumously, The Shining serves as the pivotal moment in the short-lived career of Detroit-native Dilla in which beatsmithing became the composing of music. The original version of the album includes guest MC’s that include Common, Madlib, Guilty Simpson, Black Thought (from The Roots), Talib Kweli, along with others and boasts a silky blend of rhyming and soul stanzas – definitely a different beast on its own. However, I think that the instrumental version – the strictly Jay Dilla-ness of the album – is a consistently tight soundpiece that exhibits the producer at his peak. One may consider these beats to be too simple, too bare bones, as Dilla has, in fact, composed the collection of beats with very little. Yet, I feel that there is nothing left to add to any of these tracks; Dilla has crafted each piece with his keen (emphasis on ‘keen’) sense of loop selection as well as signature pounding drums to create a complete production of music unheard of in the likes of most facets of hip-hop. At times, it sounds like every element of the track was recorded straight from the source in a studio with a microphone, rather than from samples no doubt ripped from his extensive catalogue of vinyl. I can only describe this morsel of hip-hop mastery in one way – completely raw.

woops!

If you don't feel like breaking the law that much just listen to this and you'll be alright:

5/12/08 - Lecture 1

Outlines for first day:

Paper Due
Readings
Blog Entries

My three favorite Books, Music, and Films - a tough question...
For books:
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
Assault With A Deadly Weapon: The Autobiography of a Street Criminal - John Allen
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Music:
Jay Dilla - The Shining (Instrumentals)
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die (especially remastered version with extra tracks)
T. Rex - Electric Warrior
(Boards of Canada - Geogaddi & Twoism)
Film:
Toxic Avenger
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Gummo

death_of_painting

death of painting 4/16/08

About my final...

Well, as I've presented earlier, I have loaded all the clips I felt that I needed to my project. I've also added the ending/crash. The real big issues that I still have with it is the appropriate way to attach my sound files to the code and the ending, which to me still feels unresolved. I originally would have liked to attach sound in the same fashion that I've attached the movie clips - where the user would be able to go back and forth via the navigation bar, frame to frame. However, it seems there is no way to do this in flash. I've tried a handful of different other ways to attach the sound, but none of the solutions seemed to work for me. As it remains, the scenes are still soundless. The ending still has a very weak effect compared to what I originally imagined - I still really don't know how to remedy this. Also, I've shown this piece to a lot of different people, and I've found a couple of things to be consistent - everyone gets stuck at the start screen playing with the hexagon, and everyone sort of loses interest after about the 10th clip. I just would like to work on it more.

Final Project so far...

Well, I've just been steady adding more and more movie clips to my project. Right now, there are 12 that work, but I guess 14 in total (2 are not completely labeled). As it stands right now, I'm still planning to add music/sounds to each clip in order to complement the visual atmosphere with audio. The original plan was to try and add the music in the same way that I did for the movies, in that the user would be able to scrub back and forth through the movie and the audio clip at the same time and in the same fashion. However, there's probably no way to do this - or at least I haven't figured it out, so I'm still contemplating the way in which I'm going to add sound. So the project is just at a stage of more clips - steady building...

New sound project - Radiohead-Nude(REMIX)

I essentially wanted to make a program that was a lot like my intro piece - where different shapes would react to mouse events and play audio while doing so. I wanted all of the audio clips to be able to form together to make a complete composition, but also one that would be (relatively) unique. As far as the audio clips, I chose to use the separate tracks that Radiohead released to the public for a remix contest for their song "Nude." I figured that users could "remix" the song by activating and deactivating the shapes. Four of the five samples take a minute before they start playing sound, just click the shape to start and roll over them to stop - just be patient. Oh, and I wanted the sound to be the raw AIFF files so that quality was not lost...but there's apparently not enough space for the school's network drive, and so these samples are now really poor quality.

(Note: When you click each shape, each of the individual "stems" begin to play...you have to wait to hear anything from some of them so be patient...Also when you roll the mouse over them, they stop...The trick is to be patient and keep the different elements playing for a while - that's when it really starts to feel like a "remix")

Zoundz TOY

Yeah, this thing basically represents the essence of interactivity - things change when you move different elements, and lights also flash according to different factors (all of which are more or less controlled by the user). This is the future of everything - minimal design and pure interactivity - I am convinced entirely. In this state, the Zoundz model is marketed as simply a toy - in essence it is. Here is a review from Amazon.com:

Zizzle Zoundz

Zoundz is a fantastic interactive digital audio sculpture that uses movable pawn-like pieces on a base to create an infinite variety of original musical compositions accompanied by pulsing light shows. There are seven pieces to place on different sound-and-light hot spots. Each piece has a distinctive shape and color: Six pieces play three different riffs, depending on the hot spot that triggers them; the seventh piece records and plays anything, even your voice. Move the pieces to generate rainbow colors and other-worldly music for a total sensory experience that you control! Touch-sensitive buttons on the base bend and blend the sounds, changing volume, tempo, echo and reverb.Other features include a jack for playing your iPod or MP3 through its built-in speakers, with light show entertainment. There also is an alarm clock; set it to wake up to your original composition! Base is 9" x 7". Runs on 4 AA batteries (order separately). 90-day warranty. Ages 5 years and up.

Amazon Price: $57.99 (as of 04/08/2008)

I also want to point out the iPod interactivity as well, as it too exemplifies a new standard thkat has been added again and again to American toys. Ever since the advent of the iPod media player, more and more products are being modeled around sound, as well as the integration of A/V feeds into mass-marketed products that now range from automobiles to remote-controlled robots. This toy caught my attention right at first because of the colors and lights - initially - and then the overall design and concept made me reconsider its design in a number of ways. Here is an advertisement for Zoundz:

Audio Intro

The flash assignment that I created with audio is essentially just the intro to my labyrinth final project. To go along with the project, I kept the design very minimal. The user is presented with just an anonymous orange shape - a hexagon. When the user mouses over the shape, it begins to spin slowly and play a loop from a song entitled "Corsair" from Boards of Canada's Geogaddi album (which is brilliant by the way). When the user mouses off the hex, it promptly stops motion as well as audio. When clicked, the hexagon spins out and fades away, as well as the sound (which took longer to figure out then it should've). Once this event occurs, the first clip of my labyrinth pops down. After making this intro, I feel that I have to add audio to the rest of my project in the future.

Web Cam Wackiness - C.R.E.A.M.

The assignment I've created using the video camera in flash is fairly simple. Basically, the user is presented with six 100 dollar bills - lined up like they're about to be cut down separately. However, instead of Benjamin Franklin's mug on the bill, the feed from the camera determines whose face will really end up on the c-note. I wanted to not only make a program that utilized the video camera function in flash, but also said something about money - which in my opinion is this ironic thing that retains power and value without actually being worth anything (not to mention the fact that our dollar is becoming less and less valuable). Also, theres a surprise when you click the bills (hint: set it to landscape!).