Sound Design

Obnoxious Liberals

Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

We have been introduced to the Audition Adobe Software. I have learnt about sample rates, bit dephts, strech, pitch, timbre and more sounds related basic information. I have practiced creating soundscapes in tutorials and I have a a basic knowledge on the software now. So I started working in our sound project. 

I chose Basquiat's piece, mainly because I love his artwork - it is filled with raw emotion, there is no filter. I guess that in a way I'm jealous that someone got to do what I struggle so much with, expressing what I mean. Many times I feel like I have actually swallowed my tongue, you can probably tell I'm not good with my blog either, I'm not great with words; but he found a way. Basquiat's dichotomies are inspiring, comparing the wealthy and the poor, segregation and inclusion, etc. The colours and the movement in the canvas make me dizzy, the violent strokes almost make me feel drunk.

The story behind this specific art piece refers to the rich vs poor thing, he is just an artist who is being chained by the rich art consumers, putting grotesque monetary values to his art. This feeling is in my opinion well portrayed in this art piece. So the question is, what does this scene sound like? 

I started writing down what came to my mind when I saw it, I thought about Pink Floyd's "money":

So I wrote down in my list

• coins
• metal
• chains
• laughter
• whispers
• drinks
• etc

And the idea came to my head, to drown myself in metals and coins while an audience just laughs and asks me for more. After that I booked the studio and recorded these sounds. I got a couple of friends to help me out to add more variety, and I must say learning to use that studio was scary but fun at the same time.


Here is the evidence of me "working"

TJ

Super concentrated Nina

Yasmin

My next step is to start bringing this sound to life, I will probably ask some help from my tutor. But for now I think I have a very clear idea of what I'm doing.