Forgotten Channels is a generative music and projected video performance piece that aims to discover connections between our visual memory and our response to peculiar soundscapes.
The visuals for the piece are made up of fifteen shots selected from hundreds of mobile phone videos. The videos make up a score that was prepared by playing them on a large LCD display then re-shooting them with another mobile device to frame mysterious elements and expose the imperfections within the digital media.
To perform the piece the visual score is abstracted again by playing it on yet another mobile device positioned below a camera plugged into a computer. Custom software analyses the input to produce a real-time stream of algorithmic music. The musical information is captured and manipulated by the performer in response to the imagery.
I’m currently preparing a performance for my graduate critique seminar on October 4, 2011. As I have been working on the piece, tentatively titled Forgotten Channels, I have been capturing little chunks of interesting sound. Here’s an example of something I decided to preserve from a recent practice session.
You may have noticed a few changes around here. Unfortunately, at the present they are not for the better. The shared hosting service that I use suffered a catastrophic crash that wiped out the servers that hosted AudioCookbook.org and ten other sites that I either produced, maintained, or had a hand in.
This happened sometime during the afternoon on Tuesday, August 30, 2011. Having a busy schedule on that day (and since) I didn’t learn about the crash until midnight. I was up all night for the next three days assessing the situation and attempting recovery procedures. I discovered that the hosting service had no backup available (this is a long story that I won’t get into). So it was up to me to recover whatever possible.
After five years of no trouble from the hosting service I had become somewhat complaisant about daily backups, but I did have some things in order. Current backups of all the databases were available. I also have all of the sounds that I have ever posted here backed up locally. However, it will not be an easy matter to put all the pieces back in place. I have begun the process, but as well as teaching full-time I also just started a graduate program (ironically on the same day of the server crash), so my schedule will only allow me to focus on recovery incrementally.
As a result I have had to temporarily suspend the One Synthesizer Sound Everyday Project. I started posting a hand programmed synthesizer sound on a daily basis on January 5, 2011 and consecutively created two-hundred and thirty-six entries before the crash. I have more than enough material to fill this temporary void, but I am sorry that I won’t be able to get to it immediately. For now have a listen to a live, full-length, Ostracon mix that I finished editing this afternoon.
