Concept:
The memory I chose to try and convey through my soundscape is that of my first time experiencing sleep paralysis about 4 years ago. Within this sleep paralysis a variety of things occurred, but the main experience I felt was that similar to what I imagined being suffocated or drowned feels like, I would be “drowned” or “suffocated” for a period of time and then released and then the suffocation would occur again and again like a repeating cycle and although it wasn’t actually happening to me, the emotions and sensations certainly felt real. During that experience I felt emotions of anxiety, fear, helplessness, etc. all of which I tried to convey through the combination of sounds in my project. The way in which I constructed my soundscape was arranging the sounds in the same way I experienced them in my sleep paralysis episode, luckily I made a note the day after it happened to me so I had a pretty detailed recount of the exact order of events to base my soundscape off of.
Process:
- The sounds I used for this project were all recorded inside my house or at my job. The three most unique sounds recording method wise would probably be the sound that goes from people talking in the background to it sounding underwater. In order to record this sound I put my phone in a ziplock bag and dunked it in my sink which I had filled with water while it was recording. The sound of people in the background is a recording I made while at work just to serve as an obvious differentiation between being above and underwater. The other sound which was an interesting process to record was the gasp for breath in the middle of the people talking, in order to make it sound realistic I dunked my face underwater and recorded the sound as I came up for air, trying to make it as dramatic as possible.
- My editing process was not difficult but more so tedious in that it was a lot of trial and error trying to play around with all the various effect combinations and listening to the same clips over and over trying to figure out which effect best conveyed the emotion or experience I wanted to convey. I don’t feel like I had to compromise
any part of my memory in order to fit the parameters of the project. After lots of testing out different things, I figured out that for a lot of my sound clips the reverb with different impulses worked quite well to demonstrate what I was envisioning. I also found out whilst editing that I could make anchors along the volum
e line of clips and adjust the volume levels in that way instead of just through fading in and out, this allowed me to be more precise in specific areas, which added an extra layer of smoothness between sounds. T
he one part I struggled a bit with was the meshing together of two clips in trying to make them sound like one recording although they were two separate clips. I ended up figuring out how to make them sound the most similar by using echo and making the transition between the two much longer than I had previously done for other clips and it ended up sounding quite smooth.
Conclusion:
How would you improve your project if you had more time? If I had more time I think I would probably just play around more with effects and other features we weren’t taught to try and see if there’s anything I could do to make it convey my memory even more accurately. I also probably would make it longer maybe 2-2:30 minutes because I felt like for my memory specifically there was a lot more moments of eerie silence than what one minute allotted.
At presentation day:
The main feedback I received was that the portion of my soundscape during which it seems like I am coming up and gasping for air wasn’t necessary in order to convey the sensation of being drowned, the reason I edited the recording to be that way however was so that it demonstrated exactly how it felt for me in that moment. Momentary relief only to immediately be drowned again in a viciously repeating cycle. I received a lot of positive feedback, mainly that I did a good job of really transporting the listener to my specific memory through my use of various layers and effects making things sound closer, further, closed, and open. After presenting I am pretty happy with the soundscape and other than the things I mentioned above, I don’t think I would change too much else as it seems to be conveying exactly what I hoped it would.