Zoe created a remix of the video game Fallout 3, which is about a post-apocalyptic U.S., and put her own soundtrack to it, with songs like "Que Sera Sera."
Evan: It kind of reminded me of that one video game trailer from class, that used Gary Jules' song. You get a different feel with the music that you put in.
Wafa: The music makes you concentrate on what's going on in the video.
Evan: It gave it a certain movement.
Wafa: You feel like your body is moving.
Evan: It went well with the character onscreen.
Jennifer: Is it Digital Worlds?
Gail: Or Electronic Warfare.
Jennifer: But in the future.
Gail: I think it has to do with how video games are often focused on the apocalypse as if it's inevitable. As if electronic warfare will end up in a really bad spot.
Evan: I was thinking maybe Electronic Warfare could destroy us.
Wafa: It has that power.
Jennifer: Maybe you need Electronic Warfare to survive post-apocalypse. Which is why they're using those technologies.
Gail: I thought Que Sera Sera was really creepy. What will be will be. So what will be...is the end of the nation. America in ruins. Is the implication.
Jennifer: They had those pictures of the Lincoln Memorial torn down...
Nagisa made a montage of clips from a Japanese rom-com sci-fi movie that seemed to be about a young woman who somehow meets a cyborg guy who then lives with her. They fall in love, have misadventures, and it ends with him leaving for some reason - giving her a microchip - maybe his own chip? The girl at the end is crying as she closes her hands around the chip. The clips were captioned with quotations about the Uncanny Valley.
Wafa: It's nice b/c it was different than other genres that we've watched - that I watch. It's interesting seeing how she was trying to help the cyborg out to fit into this world and he was kind of an alien person. The scene where he was wearing her clothes was funny. It's about fitting in and how different the worlds are.
Jennifer: What part of the uncanny valley was he really in? Was she repulsed by him at the end, or just sad?
Evan: I wished he used more than one film.
Wafa: I wished he made it more of a remix. Like this might happen, or this might happen.
Gail: I think there's something in the film about - Can robots really live among us? If they lived among us, how different would they be, how much would they stand out? Esp. if they look mostly human.
Evan: What if they move like robots?
Jennifer: They look human in every aspect except...
Gail: I think that's the point of that guy cyborg. He looks cute but clearly was different.
Jennifer: He seemed clueless.
Gail: A lot of cyborgs seem childish.
Jennifer: In the Terminator universe, too.
Gail: What was up with the music? Super cheesy romantic ballad music.
Jennifer: Did he add that? Was it part of the movie?
Evan: It's almost like a trailer.
Jennifer: He made me want to watch it.
Wafa: Hellzya.
Nancy made a sound project called "Sampling the Trapezium." She also wrote a story that accompanies it called "The Amazing Cyber-Baby."
Wafa: It sounded like a lot of guns shooting...
Jennifer: Tapping...
Evan: Lasers...
Jennifer: In the story, someone's presenting a baby that's been cared for by robots. The characters question the professor or doctor, talking about the readings.
Evan: I liked the sound. It was really creative. I think it worked.
Wafa: Really creative. It's not just that you're listening to it, you're thinking - there's so much going on within this simple set of sounds given to us.
Gail: I really futuristic music, so it's hard for me to say whether most people would like it. But I really liked it.
Wafa: I don't listen to that kind of music, and I liked this.
Jennifer: Me too.
Evan: It's epic.
Wafa: It's not the typical type of music that people usually listen to.
Jennifer: It would be cool to choreograph a dance to it.
Evan: It could go with a media theater performance.
Gail: It would be interesting to do a performance based on sound rather than sound based on a performance.
Tyler made a sound piece called "Sounds Like the Future (Through Art)." There was an accompanying write-up that explains what each part is about. He explains that "traditional music still has a place in the future of music." This was an original composition and he performed the piece in the recording.
Evan: It sounds like he's trying to say that even a student can produce music, you don't really need to have a studio, you can create your own music. In the last part, he says that the beats of that part represents the cutting that rap artists do to get a danceable sound. The first part is just a piano, but then when you add a beat to it, it becomes a different kind of music.
Wafa: You can make music anywhere. It doesn't have to be a huge production.
Evan: Be your own music producer.
Evan: I thought the music was catchy. I liked the beginning more.
Gail: I liked that he composed it and played it himself.
Evan: The beginning almost sounds like an Eminem song.
Jennifer: Eminem uses a lot of piano.
Wafa: Especially at the start of his songs.
Gail: I love it that that's what you guys all have in common: Eminem.
Evan: He uses More Brilliant Than the Sun. He says the reading helped him plan the notes in his piece. He doesn't go into what about the reading had to do with it.
Jennifer: He uses the Hybridity essay to. It sounds like both essays were inspiration points.
Stephanie did a piece on the Uncanny Valley. She wrote lyrics that include, "How do we think about the other?" "Welcome to the Uncanny Valley" "How lifelike can your toys be/before you want to run and scream?/Is there a line drawn in the sand?" "Can a person be an 'almost person'/Can a thing be a more 'human thing'?" Stephanie sings the song over a soundtrack that sounds like the combination of a piano and synthesizer and sound effects. She transformed the pitch of her voice to sound like a robot-man for the refrain ("Welcome to the Uncanny Valley"). She wrote an explanation that describes her thought process as she made the song.
Wafa: This is great. She has a really nice voice. She was very committed to every verse of her song. It's very clear once you hear the song and hear the lyrics. I found it flawless.
Jennifer: It's funny b/c she talks about the things that are "almost human" as if they are citizens. That they're actual people in our society that we think are just disgusting. But it's weird b/c we only see them on movie screens.
Evan: I was thinking the hook lines [the robot man voice] - it sounds robotic to me. When "he" would come in, the music got more intense, more dramatic. It complemented the robotic-ness of that part.
Wafa: It's so GOOD!!!! It's so technologically rich. I'm so proud of her!!
Evan: Very creative.
Gail: I totally love this piece.
Wafa: It's something I would listen to.
Kunze made a mix of samples (which he listed on the inside of the CD cover) and did some spoken-word (with heavy processing of his voice to reverb) over the music mix. It's called "Mr. Electric." His spoken-word consisted of comments/questions/quotations that came from the readings from our "Sounds Like the Future" unit. It sounds very techno, very danceable. Incredibly futuristic.
Evan: I liked it.
Wafa: I really liked it. It wasn't just a remix, it was an extravagant kind of...
Evan: Every melody had its own beat, which was it's own song in itself. It was really cool.
Wafa: It was surprising...you didn't know what to expect.
Jennifer: It felt like it had multiple identities.
Wafa: That's a good way of saying it.
Jennifer: I couldn't even count how many artists there were...
Evan: Dreamlike. I thought it was like flying through clouds.
Jennifer: My dreams are not like that.
Evan: My dreams are intense.
Wafa: I liked it when he asks, "Do you like music?" Like a tease. If you like music, here's another piece of music....
Evan: There was no description that came with it?
Jennifer: It didn't really need a description.
Gail: It sounds awesome. It just sounds a really, really good mix. Technically I think it was very, very well mixed.
Evan: He must have really liked those songs. It would take time to know what really matches.
Jessica made a song called "Who Controls the Future?" It consists of various voice performances by Jessica, consisting of her speaking in an unprocessed voice, her speaking in a heavily processed voice, her singing in Korean, and so on. Some of her vocals are quotations. Many of them sound like machines making sounds, robots or computers talking. A lot of her effects have to do with doubling sounds, creating an echo or reverb effect. There are sounds of her breathing, sounds of music all mixed together.
Jennifer: Where do people get all their skills to do stuff like this?
Wafa: Wow, that's very creative. It feels like she put a lot of time into it. Well done. It is confusing, but...
Jennifer: But you can follow it.
Gail: I think it sounds great. I loved her vocals. I loved all her effects.
Evan: I like that she was able to use American language mixed into the Korean language. And there was a certain continuity.
Gail: I liked all the music parts. The lullaby was awesome. And the technical aspects of the sound mix were amazing.
Evan: She had a producer.
Jennifer: Where do people get these people?
Wafa: It's fabulous, I don't know what else to say.
Caitlin did a video called "Real vs. Digital?" that alternated between images from real life, images from Second Life, and quotations from Poster and Moravec. The images were of everyday activities like dancing and attending a concert and having a work meeting, and making out and giving birth, and settings like city streets and ski chalets. The video compared Second Life's inhabitants and environments to their real-life counterparts. There was also a soundtrack made up of pop music clips.
Evan: I thought it was kind of creepy that you can do what you do in real life in Second Life. I can see how people get so involved in Second Life.
Wafa: The whole pregnancy thing?
Jennifer: The ending was interesting, b/c the Second Life people all look beautiful but creepy at the same time. Then the very end was real-life people, and they were very fat. I wasn't grossed out by them. They looked normal, real. I felt better [looking at them].
Evan: It was like an episode of The Office where someone created a Second Life character but it was exactly who he was in real life. Everybody was asking why he didn't make himself the President, but he made himself Assistant Regional Manager like he was in real life.
Wafa: It was very thoughtful. Very soothing in the beginning and end, but something different in the middle. It blended really well. It drew us in.
Evan: Second Life was closely resembling reality. It was weird.
Jennifer: You can create yourself to look ugly in Second Life but nobody does.
Wafa: Perfection. You always want what you can't have. People are always trying to get something they don't have. Get a kind of bliss from it.
Jennifer: I thought the picture of the fat people at the end...was about how you can't escape your body.
Gail: I just liked this on an aesthetic level - it looked beautiful - I usually get really bored looking at Second Life but I loved looking at the comparison to real-world images.
Evan: She was able to find the pictures that closely matched.
Gail: These were all amazingly creative and wonderful projects, and way more than I could have ever expected. Tremendous efforts all around. I'm so impressed.
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