https://soundcloud.com/serenaparr/floating-away-iv
I worked with Serena Parr on this sound project. We decided to create the experience of traveling through space, using sounds inspired by the Voyager recordings. The original idea was to recreate the sounds using our own recordings, but we quickly realized that there was no reason not to use the original recordings.
It’s amazing how predictable the park is. Most of the non-permanent things and people guide described where exactly where they should be. Not just ice cream stands and such, but homeless people, an asian couple taking their wedding photos, and a gondolier.
It was disconcerting trying to parse the actual noises of the park from the ones in the soundwalk. I kept feeling like I was about to walk into someone or get hit by a bicycle. This seems like it’s a great way to take people to an ‘alternate’ reality, but that it disconnects them too much if the goal is to get them familiar with their surroundings.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has never really resonated with me, but I think it’s time that I take another look.
These days it seems like it is a given that people can and should consume as much culture as possible, remixing and remaking it as they see fit. In fact, we now argue that this is what thinkers have always done. The only differences are that now not only can we do it better and faster, we can record every combination and recombination. I don’t really have any objection to this. I like the thought that ideas are free and can marry and mesh into glorious new forms. I like doing it myself; it’s a rush.
But it also unnerves me. I think that it is right for there to be some form of copyright on ideas and works of art for the life of the artist. The ideal creator would still be magnanimous with what they have created, but ultimately the control should stay with them while they are alive. This is a pretty middle of the road position, but it feels really radical in today’s world of infinite remixes, mashups, and viral videos.
Ultimately it keeps coming back to one main question:
Isn’t what I make mine?
Yes yes, everything is made of many influences, cherry picked from what came before. Maybe creators don’t even make anything, but are simply at the right crossroads of thought at the right time. It doesn’t matter. What I make is mine. Even if there are many like it, even if all I am doing is putting new words to an old melody. My works will always be tied to my own, singular experience of being alive in the world. That is part of their context and to strip them of that takes away some of their meaning.
Everything is made up of other things, other ideas. But the maker should still get some say in how the work is used, if only for a little while.
Stranger’s Dark Secret
We got this secret from the first person we approached. It was actually very easy to get someone to tell us a secret, maybe because it isn’t very dark or personal. Or maybe Tisch students just like over-sharing.
Dog Barking
There were a whole bunch of dogs in Washington Square park but none were barking. Eventually we went up to a guy with a dog and asked him if he could make his dog bark and he agreed to try.
Machine Sounds
I like these sounds because they are abstract. If I didn’t know what this was already, I don’t know that I could identify it. Can you? Highlight to see the answer: It’s the vent system in the wood shop.