SOUND DESIGN
FALL 2020 SOUND DESIGN CLASS
A Barnard College Theatre Class presented by Daniel Baker
In addition to learning the basic principles of sound, recording, and effects in this class, students were asked to complete three aural responses to prompts. Feel free to listen to my aural responses below and/or read their prompts and my approach to creating each response.
THE INVISIBLE GENERATION RESPONSE
To begin this assignment, students took a 15 minute recording of their environment in a chosen location and wrote their observations about it. We then partnered up and recorded our partners reading our observations. We also recorded our partners reading one minute of The Invisible Generation by William S Burroughs. Using all of those sounds, we created responses.
The goal of my response was to display the discomfort I felt throughout much of the assignment. Burroughs' words on loop in my head without making sense, the struggle of trying to focus on any individual sound while the surprisingly loud cars passing by drowned out my thoughts, and my thoughts of what to write when my 15 minutes was up. The rhythmic pattern featured in the track was the sound of a car driving by with a blown tire during my time recording, and the voices are in the track are courtesy of Aviva Kamens.
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
took this photograph. He is also credited with the following quote:
“Photography … unites the obvious and the unconscious at the level of the liminal—the border between what we see and what we suspect.”
The latter two assignments were made in response to this image and quote.
UNITING THE OBVIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
Prompt: Provide 3 aural responses to the image: one obvious, one unconscious and one that unites the two. Your first two responses should be found music or sound and the third response should be a constructed idea using Garage Band and incorporating your obvious and unconscious responses. Let your written response inform the aural one. Think about the DiCorcia quote and use music/sound to unite the obvious and unconscious. These should be 1 minute in length.
Obvious: "Wait For Me" from Hadestown, because the subject of the photo appears to be waiting.
Unconscious: "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" from Ain't Too Proud. Reading about the photographer, I found that Philip-Lorca diCorcia didn't photograph scenes from real life directly. Instead, he created scenes to emulate real life and took photographs of those scenes. The scenes in his photographs started just in his imagination and were staged to give a picture of reality, much like theatre, so I chose a theatrical rendition of "Just My Imagination" to capture the sentiment.
KURTZ FINAL PROJECT
Prompt: Create a 2 minute aural narration in response to this photo using your DAW of choice. Use sound design and music to unfold the story of this picture.
The story: Feel free to give the track a listen and try to follow along before reading the official story! Spoilers ahead.
My final response presents a frame story.
We first hear the story of the creation of the photograph, where Philip-Lorca diCorcia (voiced by me) approaches a woman under an overpass, Belle, (voiced by my class partner Dursitu Duresso) and asks if she'd like to be a part of the story he aims to tell in a picture of his. She asks what it's about and the second story begins. Jay (me again) has received a promotion at work and calls to tell his fiancé (Amy) that he has to move because of it. The company is willing to house both of them if she'd like to go with him, but he flies out that very night. The two stories converge as Belle and Amy make their decisions while Jay and diCorcia consider their next moves. Amy agrees to travel, Belle agrees to be in the photo, and we transfer back into the first story, where the picture that we see in the assignment is brought to life by diCorcia and his team.
CLOUDMELT
Part of the Barnard College Spring 2021 Senior Thesis Festival
Written by Heidi Kraay, and Directed by Miller Liberatore, CloudMelt tells the story of Agnes and Wren. Agnes is a 72 year old mother with dementia who is looking to reunite with her lost love, Charles, by drinking Drano in the cabin where they once honeymooned. Wren is a teen runaway who seeks shelter from a storm in a nearby cabin. Throughout their stormy night together, Agnes is visited by Charles through Wren, as the girl tries to convince her not to end her life.
This staging of CloudMelt (broadcasted digitally due to the Covid-19 pandemic) is shown through the lens of Agnes. The magic of the night is brought about by her mind, the moon shines no differently than on any other night, and she is ultimately saved by the compassion of a teenage stranger.
Additional Credits
Stage Management: Alex Prezeau
Costume Design: Kate Purdum
Lighting Design: Celia Krefter
Set Design: Anna Pettit
Cast
Wren: Daniela Mays-Sanchez
Sheralyn: Caroline Egler
Agnes: Eleanor Babwin
Claire: Evie Barenberg
