Everyday environments

Something that has  interested me is how the sounds of everyday actions and routines can very easily be understood by a listener. I recorded a part of my everyday routine such as brushing my teeth and turning on the shower.

I found that I could very easily recognise sounds such as running water and the sound of a toothbrush moving along my teeth. This is how soundscapes work, through human auditory recognition.

https://soundcloud.com/user-35970585/morning-routine-teeth

https://soundcloud.com/user-35970585/shower-turn-on

Video gaming sound

i recorded one of my flatmates playing an aggressive fight scene in a video game 'Grand Theft Auto'. You can hear the characters interacting through the speakers and the fast, hard clicking of the controller buttons which are key note sound, unconsciously the listener already will know that they are hearing someone play a video game. But what I found most interesting in this sound clip was that you can hear him sniffling because he had a cold. This can be heard clearly and I hadn't realised my flatmate even had a cold before listening back to the recording, so the sound of his sniffing acted as a signal of an element of the environment, the gamer himself.

https://soundcloud.com/user-35970585/video-gaming-sound-1

Signal sounds

Whilst sending iMessages on my Macbook, I noticed the sound of my typing told me a lot about my mood. I recorded it and played it back, what I realised was that the pace of my typing reflected in the audio told me reflected a feeling of urgency and frustration. The strokes of my typing sounded hard and fast. This sound clip alone provides information about the environment, it provides a signal letting the listener know that I was using a laptop and typing.

Contrapuntal sound used alongside film

Whilst looking into pre world war one films, i found a youtube clip of the film 'Le Voyage dans la lune' which had a really interesting 21st century soundtrack alongside it which conflicts against the primitive visual created.  I found it very interesting to be watching this very old depiction of what it would be like to visit the moon against a modern day sound with a metallic feel to it, very  reminiscent of a science fiction soundtrack at times. This was completely contrapuntal to what I was seeing which reminded me of the kind of methods seen in some of Tarantino's work where the non-diegetic sound was contrapuntal to the onscreen forcing the audience to consider how they felt and how to react rather than relying on the sound to provide auditory cues for them. This soundtrack is a modified version of Paradise by Air. In the future I would like to look into the use of metallic sound when creating a mood and representing a time period or situational factors through sound. Contrapuntal sound is definitely something I would like to experiment with throughout my work