At the start of any project, I usually start off with making a blog post about idea generation and while I could do that again, I’ve decided against it.
That’s mainly down to how I don’t really have a good idea for this final project (other than the idea I’m pursuing) and knowing the scope of my idea, I really just have to press on, start theory crafting and working through the problems I know I’ll face.
So, what’s my idea for this project? In my notes, it’s an “audio-visual piece using pure-data as the main audio engine and Ableton for its convolution reverb and a few other effects and maybe FL studios.”.
At the start of my supporting text, it’s this
“As the brief was practically about a culmination of all the skills we have accrued over the year, the concept of the piece was a musical version of a stylised youtube vlog which talks about have I’ve learnt and what that’s actually informed about my work during the year and in the future.
The visual aspect of the piece is a video to go with it; however, the video will actually be a spectrogram animation as in the video is played as a spectrogram. on top of this, the video as an audio file is put through the same effects as the audio track as well as superimposed on to the acoustics sounds of the video or the acoustic sounds of instruments in the video.”
In short, an audio-visual piece where the main crux of the idea is predicated on spectrograms and turning images into sound.
While I haven’t fully fleshed out the content of the piece, I do know that I want to touch upon that “YouTuber vlog” feel, the uncanny valley of making a psudo-satire piece on that sub-culture, some sense of musicality and behind that a semi-honest reflection on what the year in sound arts has actually done for me.
Youtube and a lot of stuff in the curated, performed space is a great source of entertainment but has come at the cost of restraining creativity (kind of) and cultivating a generation that has a really strange relationship with what they watch/mental health issues for money.
First, on youtube, there are certain formats and things that work and get the most amount of exposure to grow a channel and thus make more money. One could then argue that this actually restrains creativity because it’s harder to be creative on youtube and stay that way if you aren’t making enough money.
Youtube acts more like a planned/command economy now than it did in its hayday when it was more like a free market. If it is dictated that certain pieces of media are made more valuable than others based on the will of a small body or group that only cares about money and is partisan in its politics, that will is reflective in the art that is produced.
To me, art is many things. A way to make sense of the world, a way to understand and argue with the ideas proposed in the current day, to create stories and marvels that transport people to a different universe and makes them reflect on how they interact with their world. Money is just a means to an end, not the end.
But on youtube, when the popularity of your video is based on an algorithm that only cares about what companies like and not what consumers want, one has to be careful when they become a “YouTuber”. One always has to think, is the money for the art or is the art for the money.
I’m not saying it’s bad to make art that makes money because I would love to live a life just making all the art I want, but I would say someone who lives exclusivity making art for the sake of money isn’t a true artist. To me, it’s about intentions and what one actually wants out of their art that decides what is true art. I say that because movies are amazing, but they also make a lot of money. I would call quite a lot of movies “true art” because even if they make a lot of money, the intent behind it isn’t for the money; however the money is a by-product.
Honestly, it is a cutthroat definition that is quite flawed and not one I would use as a sweeping definition of art; however, I do think that there needs to be a push back of mega-corporation dictating culture and thus dictating art. I believe that’s a big problem that we as artists have to face because in a world where again a lot of cultures are created by companies that want money more than anything else, but also one where it’s so easy to be a “good artist”, make art, and be creative, there is so much art that one has to debate “what is actually art”, and that could be seen as very telling on the state of art contemporaneously.
There’s also that aspect with youtube and parasocial relations/interactions that everyone talks about but also is silent about how that makes money. I would say it’s a bad thing because let’s be honest, it has an adverse effect on people, especially children, and is one of the greatest propaganda tools that the world has ever seen. I also don’t think that that’s a good thing.
All of this is only relevant because youtube is the video platform of the world (other than in Asia I believe) and monopolises culture in that space, and I think it’s very important to talk about, but more importantly, make a joke of. Well, at least a joke of the youtube culture.
How I’m going to that, why anything in this blog is relevant, what the project means to me as well as why I thought about this in the first place are all things I will divulge in my next blog. On top of that, I’ll talk about the main idea behind the style or process of the piece, mentioning more about the video into spectrogram idea.
I thought it would be interesting to articulate my thoughts and tangents in this blog post because for this project I would rather delve deeply into what I’m trying to touch upon with my piece than just use some buzz words to give “meaning” to my art.
One could say that I would rather my art be a “deep sea” than a “lagoon”