A 4 Part Soundscape Series

Date Completed: May 2019

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Duration: 9 min & 14 sec (total)

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The Outsider - 1 min & 40 sec

Friend or Foe - 1 min & 30 sec

Who's in Control? - 1 min & 40 sec

Codename: The Final Phase - 4 min & 24 sec

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* For the story to make sense, please listen in the above order *

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Background Info:

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~ This project started at as my senior capstone at Ball State University, but in the end it became so much more. My capstone consisted of collaborating with three departments - Dance, Art/Animation, and Astronomy. For each collaboration, I gave the visual artists free reign to share their own interpretations for my composition. The composition is titled - Codename: The Final Phase, and it serves as the revolving similarity between all three works. Giving the artists free reign of their creativity is one of the main points that  I wanted to share with this capstone. The collaboration was done only with the final piece in the 4 part soundscape series - Codename: The Final Phase. Music has the power to evoke emotions and atmospheres, and this Capstone showed how music can effect the creativity of those who hear it.

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MY Inspiration/Interpretation:                       

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The Outsider

~ Overall, I imagine two individuals coming into contact with a being, not from this world, and the interactions between the three of them. With all the distorting figures, one can predict that the encounter isn’t a good one. The distortion is supposed to represent static and a signal breaking up and coming back online when trying to contact outside sources for help. Along with the absynth tracks, I included two Kontakt tracks (tin foil and cymbal scrapes), to add to the soundscape. Towards the end I have the Parameter Enveloping track playing “SOS” in morse code, to represent the two humans trying to contact anyone for assistance. The abrupt attacks of the Waveshaper and AM tracks represent the creature overtaking the individuals.

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Friend or Foe 

~ The piece starts off with a scientist investigating his lab after cameras picked up that something had escaped. This lab is a secret underground base where scientists investigate otherworldly encounters that have been found during space exploration trips. After searching and hearing disturbing noises, he encounters the creature. He tries to be peaceful but these attempts fail. The scientist discovers that the alien is weak to water, as it scurries away from him after water contacts its skin. Before the scientist is about to get the upper hand, he loses his cool when the water disables the alien’s shapeshifting abilities - and it is revealed that the alien took over his friend’s body from the space mission (part 1) months ago. Stunned, the alien kills the scientist while in his friend’s image and pulls the security alarm. The alarm goes off and security arrives, and the alien has now taken the body of the scientist that it had just killed. To be continued….

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Who's in Control? 

~ Leaving off where the last one ended, the alien has taken over a lab assistant and is now headed to the main control room. As the alien roams the halls and corridors, it wipes the minds of personnel attempting to stop it in its tracks. The alarms are blaring and fading away as the alien makes its pursuit. It has reached the main control room. The alien eyes the head scientist/commander in charge of the main control room. Both of them go into a mental battle, with the voices intertwining and mixing, fighting over control of the commander’s body. The alien succeeds and it presses a button that releases all of the other aliens and specimens throughout the complex. All of the aliens meet in the main control room with the alarms blaring; all while looking at a map of the entire world. In the final piece, you will find out how this story ends.

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Codename: The Final Phase 

~ There are alarms blaring in the background as the “alien commander” has released all the other captured aliens in the science facility. They have all gathered in the main control room and are overlooking a map of the entire world. Throughout discussions, they create and initiate the final phase of their plan for taking over the world - mind control via satellite broadcast of frequencies to cover the globe. The piece ends with the aliens saying “it’s impossible, explode explode” - referencing that they succeeded in “blowing the minds” of the humans through the use of their galactic frequencies.

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~

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Collaboration Interpretations:

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Shannon Swift - Dance

~ Shannon was a Senior Dance Major at the time of this collaboration. Funny enough we went to high school together at Fishers and this project was a nice way to catch up. Her interpretative dance was recorded in the racquetball courts with dimmed lighting. The video was filmed with 2 camera perspectives, and Shannon wanted to emphasize jagged and slow movements in her dance. When I asked her what her interpretation was of the music, she answered:

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"like I've been locked in a room with cameras watching my every move, going insane because of the isolation..." - Shannon Swift

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