Development of the Acoustic Experience

Whilst the programming of the main sections was being completed and corrected, my focus was in the realm of the story structure and user navigation. I was thinking of the sound as an incidental aspect of user interactivity, yet towards the end of the projects completion and after the responses and questions that came up during early seminar sessions, I altered my opinion. I knew that the entire work was not going to last if its intention was to fool the audience into thinking that the experience was real and I felt that the focus of the project was leaning towards this idea of mocking the audience. By changing my opinion about what the work was intending and how it should be received I shifted my focus to that of the Opera. As the sound for Memecom was generated by specific events I realised that the music was integral to the drama unfolding for the audience, much like the operatic form. I didn’t want the sound to be seen as incidental, nor did I want the electronic sounds to overpower the acoustic experience. When I had re-envisioned the work as an Opera, I was able to fit together themes and motifs in an attempt to try and blend a use of electronic noises and samples from the fabric of the computer process with natural sounds of orchestration and instrumentation; without diverging from the central use of the randomly generated score, yet maintaining a sense of acoustic structure.

As I tried to construct the fake operating system I also began to experiment with the use of sound in Director. Again, I found that the software governs the means of expression and I discovered a number of things that Director couldn’t do and painstakingly found out exactly what it could do. The main area of my investigations was in the use of the random variable.

The first experiment using this aspect of Director was a pair of programs called Random and Random2. They jump between six sources of samples and play them randomly over eight sound channels, the random variable also governs the pitch shift and volume. This experimentation led me to create a work based on this idea. There is only so far that I wanted to go in the direction of absolute randomness, however, so I tried to find a theme to explore.

Random 13 moves in either direction across thirteen chords. Moving one way will increase the number of drum samples included and the other way increases the number of violin samples. Though the images and samples are randomised, the tempo of the piece is set in order to give it some semblance of structure. With these projects I developed the use of sections of time, within which different clusters of sound could be set in order to alter the overall mood. Within the Memecom Gateway there are a number of variations on this example that use sound differently.

Reboot and OS Setup Screen
Set sound order. A series of samples of a computer booting up to create the illusion of a genuine boot up sequence. The sound of a computer fan idling can be heard throughout the internal setup area for the OS.

Memecom OS Desktop
Initial Start sequence has a set sample, created to match the visual action. Based on pitch shifting and pitch bending a Gyoto Monk vocal chant along with further elements of a traditional Windows default start up sound. The menu system uses a variation on this sound along with a pleasant chime melody to distinguish each section in the menu. Another variation of this sound appears when using the document drop down area.

When the desktop starts, there is a sound generated as the background ambience from a selection of six different choices. Each one is a variation that contains different embellishments over the same basic sound. The main sound is a long electronic drone that loops like a deep held breath. At each loop point the sound switches randomly to one of the variations, this randomisation also occurs whenever an open program is closed.

Image Viewer
Universal Resource Locator
Mail Viewer
File Viewer
Directory Explorer
Meme Code Translator
Randos System
These programs all use a similar variation on the ambient background noise, triggered on start up and allowing a random selection of the original drone to be cued when closed.

Neuromedia Player
The Neuromedia Player returns the ambient sound to a state of silence ready for the various included sound files to be played. The files included represent the best of the musical and melodic experiments with composition that I had created throughout the process of developing the Memecom Gateway.

010-001 Pop-up Screen
010-002 Pop-up Screen
010-003 Pop-up Screen
010-004 Pop-up Screen
The various pop up screens will launch and use their own set sequence of sounds corresponding to their context.

ID:Rapist Hack Screen
This piece presents a duet between the villain and the victim of a remote hack attempt. The event begins with a sample of a modem connection before the main Hack program is loaded, the first sound being a loading sequence similar to that of the main OS start up sound. Then a conversation begins between the Villain and the Victim. The Villain’s text uses a typewriter style of appearance on the screen and with each letter a random noise from a selection of seven different tones is heard. With each reiteration these are altered using a randomised pitch shift and pan effect. The Victim’s text appears as a response using altered samples from modems, printers and film sound effects; such as the computer seen in the opening sequence of Ridley Scott’s “Alien”.

New Memecom OS Desktop
The sound set used for the desktop is altered when the user returns to control after the ID:Rapist Hack Screen. This is to introduce new material and to change the overall ambience of the desktop, helping the user to realise that something is different. Muffled and distorted voices can be heard, randomly surging forward and retreating over one another.

Image Viewer
Universal Resource Locator
Mail Viewer
File Viewer
Directory Explorer
Meme Code Translator
Randos System
The sound set used for these programs is also altered, some of the new altered programs bring repeating computer generated speech as counterpoint to the human voices whispering on the main desktop.

101-001 Connection Terminal
This terminal uses a similar interface to the ID:Rapist Hack Screen and therefore uses the same sample set, this should help connect the two entities in terms of their soundscape. There is a start up sound, followed by a typewriter effect text appearing. With each letter a random noise from a selection of seven different tones is heard. With each reiteration these are altered using a randomised pitch shift and pan effect. When the user types their response and presses the return button a computer sound effect is played. This can all be heard over a familiar background drone.

Ghost Olafsson Interface
The Ghost Olafsson is a set sequence for multiple voices that attempts to mimic the randomisation effects of other screens. A variation of the typewriter effect with different sound samples was recorded and effected before being used as the background drone. Over this the coded text that appears is read aloud by a Text-to-Speech program. As each new section of code appears so does the responding voice, layering up into a confusion of vocal sound.

Memecom Login
This screen uses a similar background drone to the Ghost Olafsson Interface, reminiscent of the typewriter effect used elsewhere. On top of this is a structured series of sound areas that can be heard in response to user interaction depending on the area navigated to. Each section has its own loading sound as well as individual sounds for each Firewall Gateway and Server Connection, with samples drawn from African tribal singing and chants. The overall design of this section is that of a descent down through various levels of information and every main area is characterised by it own individual sound samples that make up the development of the entire musical section. Each section of information is identified by a set of inset code screens, the main part is made up of three to five scrolling lines of text. As the text area fills up and is cleared ready for a new set, a plucked pizzicato is sounded in conjunction with a fragment of voice. This produces a rippling series of tones that together form a different broken chord that descend and contract as the path of the user gets deeper and a deconstructed voice forming a disjointed sentence. Accompanying these tones is a cello note drawn out and descending along with the user.

Memecom Dataset Configuration
The main structure of this piece is divided into six sections, each with their own set of seven samples layered over the first three sound channels, each lasting a different length of time and overlapping. These samples are formed from the merging of acoustic string quartets, the first layer being a chord for each note of the scale with the next two layers being cello or viola samples. As the user progresses the sound moves from slow singular drones, to minor and seventh chords, to major chords and then introducing computer noise elements. Accompanying this is a set of five code channels that sound out deep piano tones upon each refresh of text. Together these form an arching ambience of background sound that progresses with the users involvement and a series of overlaid sounds that form a randomised melodic accompaniment. The user will then encounter a countdown which changes the tension in the overall soundscape and a final section that sounds when the final choices are made.