User:FLEM/Week 03

an unconventional duet by jian and emm

reflection experiment

identity card

[title]
Act I – Within an entangled state.

[duration]
6:24

[description]
Enter two voices in the middle of a conversation. Their words are floating through 10 contingent streams of thoughts, interweaving, inter-acting, intra-acting, reflecting, distorting, diffracting …

[score]
A conversation via voice messages is used to create an unconventional duet.

[input]
voice messages

[tools]
mobile phone, Telegram, Audacity, Descript

[process log]

1. brainstorm
2. experiment separately with different voices to check effect options on audacity
3. choose a text to work with
4. decide on a methodology = how to read/interprete the text
5. convert audios from ogg to wav
6. audios on audacity --> what effects make sense with the text we've created?
7. working in audacity
8. compose the music (editing audio files with effects and cuttings)
9. add audios to Descript to create transcription of the different streams for the libretto
10. organize transriptions in a text-file and add stage directions
11. finishing touches
12. preparing the files to adapt to the final release: edit>clip bounderies>join + effect>truncate silence
13. upload files
    

[output]
audio file and libretto

[who]
Emm & Jian

WORKFLOW

1. brainstorm 2. experiment separately with different voices to check effect options on audacity 3. choose a text to work with 4. decide on a methodology = how to read/interprete the text 5. convert audios from ogg to wav 6. audios on audacity --> what effects make sense with the text we've created? 7. working in audacity 8. compose the music (editing audio files with effects and cuttings) 9. add audios to Descript to create transcription of the different streams for the libretto 10. organize transriptions in a text-file and add stage directions 11. finishing touches 12. upload files

final listening convert to mp3 upload sound-file to soupboat organize transriptions in a text-file and add stage directions (Act 1 – description of the scene? – enter 01, 02, 03 … 10 all at once)** upload text-file put documentation on the wiki send files / info to Miri and Carmen

• • draft:

Act I Within an entangled state. [Enter two voices in the middle of a conversation: Their words scattered across 10 parallel streams of thoughts, interwoven, interacting, intra-acting, reflecting each other, diffracting, echoing]

1. BRAINSTORM

text = words that have a meaning + a voice, the tone way to pronounce

make words alive through sounds, voice that is contrary to the meaning of the words imaginary language, focus on the voice and not what is said dialogue with real words but edit it to make it abstract

dialogue/duet to be abstract enough to fit the whole to leave room for interpretation not be too descriptive, an abstract duet/dialogue

start with the libretto and then work on the music

play with the lack of understanding while listening to opera's texts and the problems with translations:

   "Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation. In the past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. The effects of leaving lyrics untranslated depend on the piece."

represent emotions in a way that leaves space for interpretation

2. play with EFFECTS

   normalize and noise reduction
   1. reverse
   2. wahwah (ufo effect and underwater)
   3. distortion
   4.  speed
   5. paulstretch
   6. sliding stretch
   7. reverb

SLIDEANDREPEAT

       -sliding stretch
       -repeat
       -reverse
       -reverb

JIAN1

       -paulstretch
       -change speed

JIAN2

       - reverse just one part of the recording

WAHWAHEHEH -distortion -LFO START FASE LOW -wah frequency between 5-15

3. choose a text

something about language voice translation? not related to opera something random we are trying to transform voices in noises so why not this?

option1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Noises https://monoskop.org/images/0/09/Russolo_Luigi_The_Art_of_Noises.pdf

http://mariabuszek.com/mariabuszek/kcai/DadaSurrealism/DadaSurrReadings/RussoloNoises.pdf then create a dialogue to discuss the manifesto

https://www.ubu.com/historical/gb/russolo_noise.pdf

option2. https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mediadesign/Related_Resources

option3. chat conversation read out loud --> no meaning at all bye bye

option4. having a conversation about reflection and diffraction throught audios back and forth ping pong you say i answer and on and on --> has a meaning, we don't know what will come out, it's not too complicated for this projects

4. method

option1.

pick fragments of the text we've chosen (art of noises) 1 voice that read fragments that are from the point of view of noise 1 voice answers with text we write from the point of view of voice + underneath music

dialogue: noise and voice + music

option4.

record audio messages back and forth, answering to each other get the files ready to play with

6. audios on audacity --> what effects make sense with the text we've created?

reverse echo

reverb wahwah

change pitch

structure of the piece made of TWO PARTS:

1. LIBRETTO: DIALOGUE WITH A LITTLE DISTORTION ON THE VOICES -change pitch: em. percentage change 17000 jian. percentage change -17000 2. MUSIC BACKGROUND MADE BY USING OUR VOICES AS INSTRUMENTS

7. working in audacity

one is editing and organising the voices other trying out the background music mixing

8. music

see number 2 and 6 for effects used

9. the libretto

add audios to Descript to create a transcription of the different streams to create a distorted version of the libretto. Through transcription, we are uploading an audio recording (a reflection?) to be converted to a text file. Throughout the process of transcription, the text becomes a distorted edition of the original script, underlining, additionally, the difficulties in translation and language understanding typical of opera representations.

12. preparing the files to adapt to the final release

the piece will become a composable opera and our piece fits well because we have 10 separate tracks that can be mixed up by moving on the screen, broadcasting the result live edit>clip bounderies>join + effect>truncate silence remember not to completely destroy the structure we imagined for the piece because it's important content-wise.

---

defining

   https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music

Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist[1] and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. A composer is a person who writes music. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libretto A librettist is a person who writes the libretto. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_libretto: An electronic libretto system is used primarily in opera houses and is a device which presents translations of lyrics into an audience's language or transcribes lyrics that may be difficult to understand when sung.

The libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers, such as Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Serov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini and Mascagni wrote passages of music without text and subsequently had the librettist add words to the vocal melody lines.

Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation. In the past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. The effects of leaving lyrics untranslated depend on the piece.

One of the most variable facets of opera during its long history has been the balance struck between music and poetry or text. The collaborators of the first operas (in the early 17th century) believed they were creating a new genre in which music and poetry, in order to serve the drama, were fused into an inseparable whole, a language that was in a class of its own—midway between speaking and singing. In the decades and centuries that followed, the balance between these elements repeatedly shifted to favour the music at the expense of the text and the integrity of the drama, only to be brought back into relative equilibrium by various “reforms.” More than one desirable balance between music, text, and drama is possible, however, and over time the aesthetic ideals of opera and its creators have successfully adapted to the changing tastes and attitudes of patrons and audiences, while also accommodating linguistic diversity and assorted national preferences. As a result, opera has endured in Western culture for more than 400 years.

THE TASK

This week we invite you to make content within a common structure, instead of finding a structure when the contents have already been made! An emergent opera where each property is part of a bigger whole, that comes together in the becoming...

Pick one part of the opera!

Structure: Emergent Opera Pick Your Opera Slot (if you pick Act 1 or Act 2 try to consult each other to balance out the contributions)

Overture: jumbo supi Act 1: Act 2: Curtain Call/Grand Finale/Finale:

Below you can find some vocabulary that is usually related to opera. You can use the definitions or you can freely interpret them in order to build your piece.

Vocabulary/Tools: Interference Blur your contribution across other pieces.

Open Call Your piece asks for external (but what does it mean external at the end?) interventions.

Overture Which refers to an opening or a hole.

Aria A solo piece which focuses on emotion.

Suitcase Aria A signature solo piece (performer's trademark) for a performer that returns often. Repetition, jingle-like piece, motif, virtuoso piece, stunt.

Recitative Secco Minimal instrumentation with a free rhythmic style where the singer/voice can do as pleased.

Recitative Stromento Rhythms are dictated and should be followed.

Recitative Imitates rhyhtms of the spoken word or used in place of spoken words.

Duets Performed by two people or two contributions (botta e risposta/pingpong/back and forth).

Orchestra Instrumental only.

Lighting Sets the drama atmosphere, enlightens, puts in the shadow, etc... (Can be connected to the listening experience live).

experiments with text

option1.

🌪 Ancient life was all silence. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the machine, Noise was born.

🌪 For many centuries life went by in silence, or at most in muted tones. The strongest noises which interrupted this silence were not intense or prolonged or varied. If we overlook such exceptional movements as earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, avalanches and waterfalls, nature is silent.

👄 *sigh* … the voice is noble. it is intense. the voice has a body.

🌪 And so was born the concept of sound as a thing in itself, distinct and independent of life, and the result was music, a fantastic world superimposed on the real one, an inviolable and sacred world

🌪 In the pounding atmosphere of great cities as well as in the formerly silent countryside, machines create today such a large number of varied noises that pure sound, with its littleness and its monotony, now fails to arouse any emotion.

🌪The most complicated orchestra can be reduced to four or five categories of instruments with different sound tones: rubbed string instruments, pinched string instruments, metallic wind instruments, wooden wind instruments, and percussion instruments.

🌪We must break at all cost from this restrictive circle of pure sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds.

🌪 Is there any, thing more ridiculous in the world than twenty men slaving to increase the plaintive meeowing of violins?

🌪 We will have fun imagining our orchestration of department stores’ sliding doors, the hubbub of the crowds, the different roars of railroad stations, iron foundries, textile mills, printing houses, power plants and subways.

🌪 POUAH! Let’s get out quickly, for I can’t repress much longer the intense desire to create a true musical reality finally by distributing big loud slaps right and left, stepping and push- ing over violins and pianos, bassoons and moaning organs! Let’s go out!

🌪 To convince you of the surprising variety of noises, I will mention thunder, wind, cascades, rivers, streams, leaves, a horse trotting away, the starts and jumps of a carriage on the pavement, the white solemn breathing of a city at night, all the noises made by feline and domestic animals and all those man’s mouth can make without talking or singing.

🌪 BOUM-pam-pam-pam here there there farther all around very high look-out goddamnit on the head chaak marvelous! flames flames flames flames flames flames flames crawl from forts over there Choukri Pacha telephone orders to 27 forts in turkish German hello Ibrahim! Rudolf hello! hello! actors roles blowing-echoes odor-hay-mud-manure I can’t feel my frozen feet stale odor rotting gongs flutes clarinets pipes everywhere up down birds twitter beatitude shade greenness cipcip ip-zzip herds pastures dong-dong-dong-ding-bééé

🌪Noise accompanies every manifestation of our life. Noise is familiar to us. Noise has the power to bring us back to life.

🌪Noise, gushing confusely and irregularly out of life, is never totally revealed to us and it keeps in store innumerable surprises for our benefit.

1 2 roars whistles claps snores noises of falling water snorts driving noises bellows 3 4 whispers shrill sounds mutterings cracks rustlings buzzings grumbles jingles grunts shuffles gurgles 5 6 percussive noises using animal and human voices: metal, wood, skin, shouts, moans, screams, stone, baked earth, etc. laughter, rattlings, sobs

option4.

reflection – diffraction

the libretto

Act I Within an entangled state. [Enter two voices in the middle of a conversation. Their words are floating through 10 contingent streams of thoughts, interweaving, inter-acting, intra-acting, reflecting, distorting, diffracting …]

stream 01 So I think that, um, like was more a distraction. Um, and for example, don't you think that our recording might be a reflection? They always stay. Uh, reflection on the water. It's a diffraction because it's a distortion, as you said of reality. So maybe actually sound is a distraction.

stream 02 When reflection comes from the optics, what would be a reflection when it comes to sound? Is it an echo or would you say an echo is more of a different. I'm not sure because like a recording, it also sounds different to what you hear in reality. Like, I mean, it depends on the microphone you use and like the quality. The recording of usually for example, you're recording that I just heard was really quite quiet. I don't know if you can make it a bit louder next time, but I guess if I would have sat next to you, it would have sounded different. But then of course, also a reflection in the optics. I mean, we would talk about a mirror. Image. Right. And yeah, also the image in the mirror is not exactly what you have in reality, I guess, but yeah, maybe you're right with the echo. I don't know what is like, how is the echo different to the original sound? I'm not sure. I think that the difference might be that an echo, um, can change and can kind of, it's not fixed. Um, and you don't know where, where it goes and where it come from. And it's like ongoing instead of recording, it starts from a preexisting content and. You can look it from outside with objectivity to recording and give you the promise of giving you, uh, a real kind of co-PI of reality instead of echo, you already, it's not a lie. You don't rely on it too. As part of reality, instead of recording, you would rely on it thinking that is a mirror of. You know, thinking about the echo again, it's moving and yeah, it's really, it's even traveling, I think. And like an echo will be different depending on your surroundings. Right? So it has, um, the relation to everything that surrounds, um, the. And if the surroundings change or if the voice moves somewhere else, um, the echo will change. The echo will change. The echo will change. The echo will change the echo will change. Also because maybe you can rely on microphone that can give you different results depending on the microphone you use. But at the same, it's the same thing with. The reflection, if you use a different mirror that can give you a totally distorted image of you. So maybe it's because you can control the means you're using to produce a reflection or a recording instead of diffraction and echo really. They don't abandon you. They depends on, on the environment and the movement, and they always change and never stop also with a reflection, you could use different mirrors, but I also thought about when you walk past a window and use somehow. I see your reflection, but only from a certain perspective, but then when you walk on, it disappears again or also the reflection you have on the water surface. Of course, that also has kind of a distortion, um, that. Makes it different to the original. And that's also true for the recordings. I think the tricky thing in translating this idea of the fraction and reflection to sound is maybe that yeah, this idea of having preexisting. Because for sound, that's not necessarily true because it only exists in a certain moment in time, but then it disappears. Again, everybody has a voice. It is part of your body. So it is preexistent. So it is always there, but you don't always use it, maybe you, so the voice actually only emerged. When you use it and maybe for example, in a conversation which really needs the interaction or interaction with you, your mind, your soul, your body, but then also with your surroundings, the person you talk to or react to like the one you're having a conversation with It also needs interactions and it always changes and it's unfixed and it's fluid and performative. If it's part of something, it changes continuously when in contact with chatter, you know, the moment when someone is in the pool and part of their upper body is out of the water in the air, but the lower body is on the way. And when you look through the surface and you have this weird diffraction of the upper body being somehow displaced to the lower body, because it has a different optic when you look through the air compared to when you look through water, but when the water is still, and it has a really clear surface, like a flat not moving surface, maybe then that's a reflection. But once it starts moving by the wind or when. Maybe then it's a diffraction diffraction, diffraction, diffraction, deflect, deflect, deflect.

stream 03 It's not a lie. You don't rely on it too. As part of reality, instead of recording, you would rely on it. Uh, thinking that is a mirror of something real the reflect. If you use different mirrors, different mirrors, different mirrors, the reflection, the reflection, reflection, the reflection. The reflection, the reflection came over the distortion. Uh, It. The fraction, diffraction, diffraction, deflect, deflect, and different.

stream 04 Hmm. I'm not sure because like I'm not like because the front mirrors, different mirrors, different. Kind of a distortion.

stream 05 Different mirrors, different mirrors, different mirrors. Um, nervous, nervous. Excellent.

stream 06 Um, nervous, nervous, nervous. Everybody has.

stream 07
uh, uh, uh, You can look it outside with objective. Uh, Uh, Um, Uh, Uh, um, Uh, I'm trying to action. Um, the. So maybe actually sound is a distraction sound. Um, Uh, uh, um,

stream 08 Uh, um, Um, Um, uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, um, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, um, um, um, .

stream 09 um, Um, The .

stream 10 Um, Ah, Uh, .