Memory Soundscape

Concept 

The main memory I chose for the assignment was when I was six years old when I was born in Spain. The first thing I was exposed to was Spanish culture. My mother thinks I have to learn Chinese because I’m Chinese. Finally, she decided to send me back to Chinese school. On the day of departure, I thought I would go out and have fun preparing my belongings. A few days later, I woke up to find my mother gone. After that day, I couldn’t sleep at night. All I can think about is my mom reading me a bedtime story. Every day is different, and I need it to help me fall asleep. But I sobbed in the middle of the night so grandma wouldn’t worry about me. I always thought my mom abandoned me, but as time went by, none of that mattered. My main focus is to convey the feeling of memory to my audience because the space I create is peaceful. It gives the audience a lot of imagination to guess what’s going on and discuss my thought process.

Process

My whole process was to create a kind of a quiet day to start with, and then there was a kind of airplane noise in the middle. To cry in silence again, and finally, their memory began to become blurred slowly. I use a lot of water, and I think my tears are the same as the water in the sink or the water down the toilet. It’s hard to take it back after another outbreak. To others, it might just be the routine of a particular day, but to me, every time it sounded like a typewriter, it was a new scene. This sound is like the beginning of my journal notes. In the middle, if you listen carefully, there will be some airplane noise. Then came the sound of me tearing tissues as I sobbed, expressing my silent despair. In the end, the memories faded, and it was the best arrangement for me right now.But I think the biggest challenge for me is that everything I hear is so peaceful, there’s not a strong climax. And I decided to preserve that feeling of needing to dig deeper.

Conclusion

If I had more time to improve my project, I would listen to some of the feedback others gave me on demo day. Professor said that all my audio comes from a very close distance, and It would be better to add more sounds from a long distance. This will make the whole imagination space more three-dimensional and rich.

Image of Audition