Something from Nothing

When I started this project, I had a difficult time thinking of an idea that best fit the project assignment. There weren’t any limitations, just instruction to take images, text, or other sounds we had and apply different effects to make a unique composition. Not having specific directives is hard for me. I like having some form of direction or an idea from which I can expand. Nevertheless, this was an opportunity to go beyond my comfort zone. My original idea was all about travel. Travel is one of my favorite things to do and with all the places I have visited, I thought it would be a good idea to use the images from some of my trips and apply them to my project. To narrow down the idea even more, I selected three pictures from favorite trips (Boston, Philadelphia, and France). I started by importing each image into Audio Paint and then resizing each in Photoshop. I developed three representations from each image ranging from full size to close-up. I then put all of the new images into Audio Paint (which takes the image and translates it into sound). All together, I had 27 sounds to work with. When I started to play with them by adding and subtracting different editing methods, it just wasn’t turning out the way I wanted it to. So, I thought of capturing detailed sounds like a light switch, water dripping from the faucet, and a fork tapping a glass plate. I started to experiment with the new sounds and liked what I was hearing so I decided to change my idea from “travel” to developing “something from nothing.” My goal with this composition is for people to try to figure out the source of the sounds they are hearing, and then when they learn what the original sounds were, to be intrigued with the edited results.

Screen Shot One


Screen Shot Two

List of sounds you will hear

1. Drum stick hitting heat vent

2. The light switch turning on and off

3. Drum stick hitting a bicycle wheel

4. Water dripping from the faucet

5. A fork brushing across a metal plate holder

6. A fork tapping a glass plate

7. Basketball going through the net

8. Basketball hitting the bedroom door

The sounds that I captured where all done in my apartment on the same day at night. Every sound was recorded with the Zoom H2.

To hear the recording go to:

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/xythoswfs/webview/fileManager.action?entryName=/ved/Public/Film%20420%20soundscapes/fourth%20project%20final%20project&stk=F4834C42C7C032C&msgStatus=The%20document%2C%20final%20project%20film%20420.mp3%2C%20was%20successfully%20uploaded%20to%20folder%20fourth%20project%20final%20project.