M. Regalado
CS 476A, F19
-- Use the computer as an agent of transformation
This principle resonates with me the most on a multitude of levels: as an active music listener, dabbler in production, and a dj of melted-genres and times of music. As an active listener and dj, I’ve both acquired the taste to digest in 1) breadth: music across genres, sounds, times, and artists and 2) for depth: understanding various layers of instrumentality, intended soundscape from the artist, and vocabulary for inspirational remixed replication.
However, it’s within the bounds of my dabbling into the world of music production where have a laptop, sounds, and the creative will can yield such fascinating projects! And the kind of tools available enables one to shape and rethink the creative process. There are dozens of artist who leverage technology — a savvy computer usually — to create and reframe song creation and performance. A perfect example of novel creation and curation of their song process is Imogen Heap. The brilliant artist has always been ahead of her time within her sound design and even more so now with her pairing of the Mi.Mu gloves. Truly a fascinating reinterpretation of sound design and live performance at her NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (28 June, 2019):
Furthermore, there are a plethora of examples of the music industry of the computer reshaping sound design that once was controversial — for example sampling. Massive kudos to the great J.Dilla for being the father of music sampling right off of vinyls, though one of the first artist to create what are now known as sample packs was no other than Illmind, a producer who is now based out of Los Angeles. It was great to hear the history of how something that seems so critical and simple now democratized sound design for the “bedroom producers”.
Finally, as Ge pointed out in classes the other day, not only has the manipulation of sounds have been heightened, but more so the leverage of time as a reframe-able concept within Chuck. I’m really excited to be learning more!
One of my favorite examples of this principle is the pairing of the Teenage Engineering OP-Z, multimedia synthesizer and sequencer, and iOS. A fabulous example of truly thinking about visuals and sound design is through visual interpretation and manipulation of the sound that’s been designed — taking it a bit further than our initial project, Sound Peeking, over the past couple of weeks.
And quickly, a shout out to Principle 4.8, as it reminds of the opening school play scene at the end of the film of Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), where Miss Baggoli (the high school’s drama teacher) conducts the school orchestra with the students playing on laptops! It was the first exposure I’d had visually to laptop music not sounding “computer-esque” more or less. Instead, as fully fledged instruments in unison. It was a bit too traditional sounding, though helped normalize this future tread to now tech savvy Millennials and Gen Z.
M. ✌🏽