I’ve been very busy with my dissertation and lacking any action on my portfolio project. Since doing the first prototype and figuring out what is expected, I’ve created a way of working that gets results.
I’ve been considering my two portfolio projects and how I can get the most out of them, and I’ve considered two elements that I currently love doing. One is field recording, being in nature, and exploring the sonic relationships between environments and the humans/non-humans that inhabit these locations. How can sound be used as a form of awareness and promote conservation?
The other is with sampling, experimental music/sonic composition. What is music? How far can I take these ideas towards a sonic project? Rap and speaking as a form of sampling and field recordings too. I want the first project to create a piece of audio, a few, maybe more, maybe less. I want to explore artists such as Basquiat and old and current rappers and critically analyse sampling and what it means to do that. Then read into experimental music/sounds, commodifying art and recording techniques in an attempt to challenge the norms of this. Once you learn how to do something professionally, you can break the rules. Listen to examples and conduct a piece of work that reflects something.
I’ve bought a book called 33 1/3 Donuts by J Dilla, an essay on this experimental album he created, and I think it will be a heavy look into academic look into this type of composition. I also want to structure or plan as such to potentially show something for the interim show, which is on March 6? or March 10th? The opportunities presented might be something I will never do again, and I ultimately intend to seize them all; I have nothing to lose after all. University and this degree are almost over, I have learnt a lot, and I intend to leave feeling I’ve gotten everything out of it, which I feel I have already, but its the last hurdle now. I want to create something I’ve been putting off for years, and this is a self-produced project with me doing vocals over it. I’m yet to do this, and why not do it now. I have around 5 weeks until the interim show and then leading into project two, which will be about rain forests in England.
I’ve become rather methodical, which helps me actualise my ideas instead of sitting and doing nothing. The following blog post will outline what I believe in this current moment I need to do and a plan to present for the interim show.