Codename: The Final Phase
A 4 Part Soundscape Series
Date Completed: May 2019
Duration: 9 min & 14 sec (total)
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
* For the story to make sense, please listen in the above order *
Background Info:
~ 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.
MY Inspiration/Interpretation:
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.
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….
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.
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.
~
Collaboration Interpretations:
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:
"like I've been locked in a room with cameras watching my every move, going insane because of the isolation..." - Shannon Swift
Jalah Bynm - Art/Animation
~ Jalah was an art/animation Major at the time of this collaboration. She described her art style at the time as being sketchy and gritty. The following artworks are representing her interpretations of the character and key story elements from my piece.
When asked about her interpretation of my music, she gave the following response:
"humans try to inhabit and take over an alien planet; aliens fight back with mind control"
- Jalah Bynm
Jalah also created her own story to be read along as the music would play:
" The animatic starts with the main character in a mysterious, dark setting. You see a figure slowly pass by her in the background, then another figure moving in front of her and casting a shadow. She opens her eyes slowly, then in horror, she sees her alien captors standing all around her while she stands in a tank. She screams, and tries to escape. But she can’t break through the glass. As she struggles to break free, the tank she is in fills with liquid. She loses consciousness and floats silently while the aliens quietly look on.
She regains consciousness, but she is not herself. She is under the control of the aliens. As she completes tasks for the aliens when they snap their fingers such as jump, blink, raise her hand, etc, her eyes continually glaze over as they did in the beginning. Eventually, she begins to fight the alien control. Her eyes become clearer and she escapes the watchful eyes of the aliens one night.
She rummages around in the room where she was first held captive in the tank until she finds a locked box full of weapons. They are her weapons. She takes a heavy object and hits the locking mechanism until it breaks, and retrieves her guns and small knives. All the while, she fights to stay in control of her mind.
An alien comes into the room she is in, and immediately she guns it down. She runs out of the room and goes on a rampage, shooting every alien that comes near her. They fall at her feet as she searches frantically for an escape. It also gets easier for her to break free from the mind control as she shoots more and more aliens.
Finally, she comes into a room that has escape pods. But a large alien stands in her way in the doorway. She fearlessly shoots it in the forehead and runs to a pod.
But as soon as she reaches for the entry latch to a pod, she is brought to her knees, clutching her head. The alien she just shot stands up, the hole from the gunshot slowly closing. He walks over to where she is now convulsing on the floor, other aliens with bloody bullet holes entering the room and forming a circle as the scene slowly fades to black."
~
Sarah Vise - Astronomy / Planetarium Showcase
~ Sarah Vise was a Physics and Astronomy at the time of this collaboration. I reached out to her after hearing from my music professor at the time, that Ball State's Planetarium was planning on hosting a space show at the end of the semester collaborating with the Music Department. She was an assistant at the Planetarium, which meant she had access to their department's Space Library; I was especially interested in their catalog of catastrophic events.
I gave her free reign when it came to choosing which phenomenons to use in the show, and she picked the following to showcase - tendrils, black holes, supernovas, and swirling galaxies.
When I asked her what her personal interpretation was, she answered:
" Start calm, then gradually twist into turmoil..."
- Sarah Vise
Because of copyright, I am not able to share the entire performance - but, here is a snippet of the final piece accompanied by Vise's planetarium showcase.
Software/Equipment:
- Logic Pro X
- Sony MDR 7506 Headphones
- Absynth
- Reactor
- Cecilia
- Kontakt