Music/Film Project

I’m looking to do something next year that incorporates a lot of my interests. I’ve told a few people about this already, to get some of their thoughts, but I’d like more feedback on the idea. If you read my MSN space at all, you would have read most of this already, buuut… what I’m thinking of doing is making something that is part music album, part film piece. What I want to do is break up, say, an hour’s worth of music that I will have written and performed into segments, and the music is made from cutting the film together, as opposed to writing music and producing videos to go with it.

As for what kind of music this is, it will be me collecting a bunch of metal implements, pipes, wiring, broken computers, other electrical goods, and making the noises by either just constructing makeshift instruments or simply by banging two things together. Most of this can be filmed while still, so for much of the project I wouldn’t need anyone helping me set up cameras and sound, but I would need to practice cutting techniques and sound levels before I set about doing the project.

I want this to be completely unique. I’ve seen music made by cutting video, such as the Coldcut stuff Garrett put up a few months back, I’ve listened to music of which much is made by just banging stuff together, such as Moekestra, but I don’t want it to ape any of these things completely. It’s going to be part experimental video, part performance art, part industrial, but in total I want it to be a whole album’s length of music/film that is cold, stark and repetitive on the themes of industry production and augmentation, current and future societies, and perhaps even outright machine totalitarianism.

That’s subject to change of course, and I’m developing many of the ideas through reading up on the stuff we cover in Alan’s lessons, so the more I get to know about augmentation, technological determinism etc, and the more I cover through doing essays on similar topics, like the one I’m doing at the moment which is covering past predictions on current day technology, current day predictions of future technology, theories on the change in human lifestyles, how it applies to neural Darwinism, how Neural Darwinism fits in with Transhumanist views, opposition and supporters of those ideas, and as much as I can fit in around that.

Okelydokely, so here’s a few things to look at to kind of emphasise what I’m talking about here.

Amateur – Lasse Gjertsen

Hyperactive – Lasse Gjertsen

Lasse Gjertsen has found a huge fanbase in his simple looking videos where the emphasis is hugely on editing. The timing of each edit is perfection, and he cuts the sounds he makes to make the music, right down to the millisecond. It is a great example of not needing to be a talented performer to be a talented musician. If you have a sense for timing, then you can achieve a great deal, with a little bit of imagination. While the style I want to achieve isn’t as corny, my emphasis on using the edit to create the music would be exactly the same. Only my idea isn’t to make the whole film into this style, only partially. I would also probably take the sound out and edit it in a music program to get the ideal sound, and then take the track and cut the video to it afterwards, rather than simply cutting the video and sound together to make the piece.

PIECE NO. 5 EXCERPT – MOE!KESTRA!

Death of a Piano – Moe!kestra!

Moe Staiano is a strange fellow. The mp3 is an example of how I like to think about music. Music is not simply about traditional instruments. An improvised percussion kit made up of a set of pipes is no less an instrument than a glockenspiel. If it makes a sound, it can make music. In the first piece, Excerpt No. 5, he combines an orchestra with his own made-up instruments, a lot of which is banging on drainpipes and similar things. Below that is an edited down 45 minutes piece called “Death of a Piano”, unfortunately not with great sound quality – The last two minutes of this video explain pretty much why it was called that. But towards the end especially, the annihilation of the piano with sledgehammers is as much a part of the music as the rest of the piece, and on top of that, it is just fascinating to watch.

So that’s it, I’m just at the beginning of the planning stage for now. Tell me what I should be looking at, reading, listening to, and I will love you forever.

Or else.