Comm 141 Final Project

Logan Matheny

April 30, 2001

My main intention with this audio/visual collage was to present an arrangement of noises with visual images in such a way that it would separate the sounds from the connotations they might induce. The footage I have gathered is entirely random (it is a collection of footage I have shot over the course of this semester). In recording sounds for the collage, I decided to mix sounds of nature such as rain, the human voice, and a cat’s meow with mechanical and electronic noises such as a clock, radio static, patches from samplers, and automobiles.

I stated in my proposal that trying to remove the referential nature of a sound was difficult and presenting contradictory or unrelated images may be helpful. In the final cut of the collage, I used different editing techniques to achieve this goal. A majority of the noises are edited as asynchronous sounds, whose duration outlasts several visual shots. In these instances, I was using short visual cuts in order to avoid any sort of action that might take the viewer’s attention away from what was happening aurally. For the same reason, I repeated certain shots such as the rolling tire and the bowl of stew. I did however synchronize a few sounds with action shots for the effect of a contradictory audio/visual relationship (such as the two clips of a soccer ball being kicked into the goal). These shots were longer so that the audience may fully comprehend and relate to the action taking place, while being forced to recognize the unexpected sounds accompanying it.

In listening to John Cage’s work, I have noticed that his presentations usually involve several layers of audio tracks playing simultaneously that vary in volume and duration. The sounds seem to arrive and dissolve with no consistency or rhythm. I tried to employ this technique in this project (sometimes more successfully than others) by interspersing montages of multi-track sound bites among longer, softer clips of one or two sounds at a time. The tracks in this project are not as complex as those of professional sound art recordings because I find it hard to appreciate individual sounds when they are played with several others simultaneously. In some sections, I repeat only one sound and then separately introduce others so that they are easily distinguishable. I used an AKG 3000 condenser microphone and ran it through an XLR adapter onto digital videocassettes for the live sounds. For clips from samplers, I took the signal from the stereo output and ran it directly into the audio/video input on the Mini DV camera. Although I gathered a broad range of high and low frequency sounds, I still felt as though there could have been more diversity among the tracks. To ease this problem, I put certain clips through filters that were available on Final Cut Pro such as reverb, low and high pass filters, and distortion.

There is a clip of a stop sign in the collage where all of the audio drops out. This was my way of commenting on the unfortunate relationship between visual and aural media. Upon viewing this project in its entirety, one may argue that this excerpt undermines the goal the collage is trying to achieve. But I saw this as an excellent way to remind the viewer that though visual shots are present, the real action lies in the soundtrack and without it the visual aspect is not so interesting.

As a Comm major studying both audio and video production, I found it hard to edit a project with elements of both yet no relationship between the two. Overall, I hope that those who watch and listen to this project have trouble discerning the cause of the sounds they are hearing. And in turn, that they will enjoy the aural events just as they are presented, with no references attached.