//After weeks of hard work (Collaboration ain’t easy) this is the agreed mix which I will review in a forthcoming post. Look out for the feedback forms as well. I want to know what you got out of being part of “the ogg” whether you just looked at the posts, listened to the sound or commented to me in the canteen.
You can download the audio through soundcloud or stream. Can I recommend a decent set of speakers, a dark room and a comfy chair.
//Sound.ogg 2015 is a collaborative experimental soundscape reflecting impressions of Lincoln with the theme Open Places, Inside Spaces.
Working on the same day 200 people will be invited to record and then edit short soundscapes of their first impression on visiting the city using mobile phones and open source software. These creations will then be used to inform a larger composition by a sound artist in collaboration with the original producers.
The piece is organic in its nature but may be about 30 minutes long and may be a combination of music and the collected sounds. Over about 12 weeks the artist will develop the work but will use this blog to communicate ideas to the original producers and invite collaboration and comments to shape the piece.
//Only a small part of sound.ogg was at the start of the semester when you collected the audio from Lincoln so i want your reflections on everything which has happened to the project since that time.
I need to reflect on the final production both from an audio and an education point of view. Likewise you could do the same. Listen to the audio and think what does the whole thing mean! Not just the sound but the journey you have taken this semester. Please click on the picture below and fill in the form.
//As the project comes to its practical, if not theoretical, conclusion it’s time to put the final version of the audio into the public arena. I will do that but hold on for a moment. In a future post, perhaps a couple of days, I will also explore if “broadcast” is needed to make a piece actually art but for now I will leave this post as a practical description.
Steve the artist, Dylan (that’s me and I am struggling to give myself a formal title, perhaps facilitator) and one of the initial recorders and collaborators Jake were guests on the Mid Week Drive programme on Siren FM. An arts based discussion programme where we were amongst studio and international phone guests. 
We talked around a number of artistic and political issues as well as reviewing each other’s work to some extent.
It was particularly nice to listen to the work of singer songwriter Kirsty Churchill as well as get the views of actress Annette Andre (Prisoner Cell Block H amongst other credits).
Steve has a long and fruitful conversation with Los Angeles film producer, director and screen writer, blogger, educationist and broadcaster! Phil Leirness. I think as we collected our post show fish and chips Steve was dreaming of stardom!
Jake, who is sometimes called Phil on the broadcast and sometime Zak! spoke about his involvement in Sound.ogg and his aspirations. Chatting with fellow guests Nick who is rock photographer (music not geological) and Cat, a publicist, seemed to give him much confidence that he could hold his own.
In true Hollywood fashion….Thanks to Alex the presenter and producer of Mid Week Drive for inviting us in, thanks to the Swan Pub for providing us with a pint of Guinness and a pint Doombar and thanks to Saxilby Fish and Chips (open daily 11.30 – 2300).
All that remains it to listen to what we said about what on the podcast.
//Visiting the artist this evening proved a surprise, as always. Joss sticks were burning and the customary growing pile of plugin cables and empty cups had been cleared away. Vacuuming had been done and the washing up was neatly stacked on the draining board. “Dylan? Come in” he shouted and I could sense a happy tone. He had prepared “my chair” even removing the cushion before I had chance to throw it on the floor ( I don’t do cushions).
“My chair” is a leather office style chair where I can lean back. It’s positioned in the centre of 2 high quality speakers at just the right height to get the best effect. We chat about the Frequency Festival while I glance at the timeline out of the corner of my eye, which is open on his top of the range Mac. It’s the main reason I am there, but I dont want to appear rude!
After about 10 minutes he thankfully grows bored of this small talk and prepares to play. I settle back in the same fashion as a patient may settle for a session of hypnotherapy. I close my eyes; the lights on the modules are mesmerizing but I want to listen and be drawn into the soundscape. 
“It’s finished” he tells me. I get the impression that my critique of yesterday has prompted a remix. A click of the mouse and we are off.
Normally I would include the audio at this point, but not today. 
We are releasing it after our broadcast on Siren FM on Wednesday evening. I have listened and I think it’s damn good. I know that negates all my problems with value statements in yesterday’s post, and I will offer a more considered critique in a couple of days. However, it has movement and depth; it tells a Lincoln story which is ancient and contemporary. It’s an impression of the present and the future which has industrial strength and multicultural themes for the Lincoln of today.
For me it’s been a intellectual journey of creative discussion, but for Steve the cleaning of his work space is symbolic of finishing hard graft. Mental stress is a tiring thing and he is exhausted. As you progress through your own creative journey you will realise just how much this kind of thing takes out of you.We listen to this work with fresh ears, but Steve has been listening to this almost exclusively for 7 weeks. I will update you soon on the publication of the audio which, as the recorders of the raw material, is as much your work as Steve’s. However, look at this which is a list view of the process he has gone through to get to this point.
Order of Work:
Areas of interest:
General Instrumentation:
Items used in Cubase 8 Pro:
Native Instruments Kontakt (full version) loaded with the following:
Other plug-ins in Cubase:
Various processors by Sternberg and Native instruments for EQ, Distortion, Compression, Echo, Modulation and Reverberation.
//As things do each week, matters have moved on. A pity really Steve is still laid up with a bad leg in his studio because he would have loved to visit the Frequency Festival. I recommend you have a look around and think deeply about the installations. Look for depth in the meaning and as we have discussed, not just the meaning broadcast by the artist, but the way in which you put your own interpretation on a work. What has brought you to that meaning? How would that internal meaning differ if you had been dealt a different hand?
This week Steve has sent me what he says is an almost complete mix. Do you agree?
Is this better than the one he sent last week? Have a listen and either tweet, email or debate internally the attributes of the versions presented. I have reservations which I will be talking over with the artist. Is this final version overworked? It’s a conversation I had with the artist last week when he was discussing some of his thoughts on this final stage. Should the piece have been left with an “honest rough crafted quality” or does this more polished performance give the right feel? Do the additions bury the meaning too deeply and is the artist dictating too far where this piece should go and masking the early sketches and aspirations of the recorders?
Why do I mention this in the blog? Certainly not to question the artist’s considerable skill which is far more advanced than my own. No, honest critique, which is different to criticism, is the thing we need to concentrate on. You will find that as a sound artist, or for that matter any other sort of artist, the issue of “like” and “dislike” may seem simply not good enough.
However sitting in the Frequency Festival listening to a shopper bemoaning the fact that this installation “it’s not real art”
Come to waterside to see this marvellous installation ‘enlightenment’. It’s super cute @frequency_fest #freq15 pic.twitter.com/sZJIOJk9Zk
— Jas Hughes (@JasHughes_) October 25, 2015
I was struck by a thought. The work in question had prompted a reaction. Intellectually deep or not this was a piece which made those people stop and comment and moreover question the meaning of the work and their part in it.
A few years ago, a work which featured a picture of Jimmy Savile and other celebrities was “defaced” The pictures of Savile were removed to “protect children”. I was outraged but the artist was delighted that their work had prompted action and that action they consider was perfectly valid. We could get into all manner of conversations about whether a painting by Adolf Hitler or Rolf Harris is any “better” or “worse” once we know the person’s true self. When I say better or worse I really mean has added meaning. I will leave that for you to debate!
Does an artist court controversy to prompt reaction? Let me ask you would you have read this if I had not being as daring with my post title as I was? Indeed in my text I am provoking reader and artist alike.
Am I then arguing for vandalising art as a valid part of that art’s journey? Think about the issues yourself, it’s a big risk and I am going to tell you not to break the law under any circumstances! However consider this, the “battle between
Turkish and Kurdish nationalists, over a political Banksy in London. The work is a focus for debate, and a debate which would not be in the public arena if it were not for that battle. Look – I am not arguing for me taking the audio and randomly putting lots of noise over it in a fit of madness. What I am saying is that art should prompt a reaction and that reaction can not always be predicted by the artist or for that matter the state. Perhaps without courting comment, a piece has little meaning.
In the end I am saying that Steve as an artist will welcome comment/critique. Having spent time crafting something, a work which prompts no reaction is impotent. My comments are functionary, considering the process within my own composition paradigm and schema. What you need to do is listen to it and comment on its meaning for you as well as the way it puts over that meaning. Right or wrong, up or down, pink or blue, loud or quiet the piece is produced as a journey from the first tentative recordings in Lincoln by a group of nervous students through to Steve’s late night editing sessions. In the coming days it will be presented to you not as a work which is “good or bad” but as a representation of all our creative journeys over the past 7 weeks. What has that collaboration given you? I have no idea but as with all these things it’s not the end of the journey which is the real purpose.