Memory Soundscape Documentation
Project Name: Reach From Below
Project By: Nina Chen
Concept
The memory I had chosen was that of me drowning when I was younger. For the feelings I tried to go for in my memory, I wanted the suspense, realization, and safety, but all of which is done by one person, the one person drowning.
Process
Reason for sound choices:
I would say my soundscape was split up into three sections.
For the first part I chose to make everything muffled to give the sense that we are already underwater. There’s also muffled speaking as I wanted to be clear that there is indeed people around, quite a few actually since it did occur on the beach. However, these people are also muffled since they did not realize that there was a person drowning.
For the second part, there was a scream and then more violent water splashing to present the struggle after realizing that no one is actually there to really help out and it didn’t come to anyone’s recognition that there was something struggling. The high pitched sound and sudden silence is there to reinforce the idea of facing death after coming to realization that there really isn’t anyone but yourself to help you survive.
The last portion is significantly more clear than the first portion of the soundscape as this is where the person drowning gets up and is breathing again. The silence to clarity is to show that this person as came back to their senses and is all well again.
The process for recording sounds:
My process for these sounds were actually very random and spontaneous as I didn’t really know what I should’ve recorded. Thus, I just ended up walking around and randomly recorded sounds that I thought would be nice to use. However, a lot of these sounds actually didn’t make it into the soundscape in the end.
For the water sounds, I just filled the sink with water and splashed it around. My original idea was maybe record it underwater but I didn’t want to damage equipments so I just recorded above and not submerge it in water.
For struggles I was suggested to scream into a pillow and record that. However, I just asked a friend to essentially “suffocate” me and recorded the struggles instead. In hindsight it was a dangerous idea but luckily she didn’t actually put much pressure and we were just playing around. Instead because I was sitting in a chair with wheels, I was being dragged around more.
For the eerie sound in the beginning of the soundscape, it came from the museum we went to and I found it to be a very interesting one so I just recorded that down. The museum was also the same place I got to record the high pitched noise for the ending part of the second portion of the soundscape.
Nonetheless, these sound were not planned out in the start, I just ended up recording whatever peaked my interest and chose from within these sounds to compile my experience in the past.
Conclusion
Overall I think there are definitely points where I could’ve done better.
During the showcase, I got the comment of it being really clear as to what feeling and memory I am conveying which I’m very grateful about. But also I do agree with the point that the water noises just sounds very much like washing your face in the bathroom.
If possible, and with more permission because I really don’t want to break any equipments, I would definitely record an underwater sound. But with more time, I could also just go to a beach for the sounds of waves.
Image of Audition
