FOUND SOUND


Description
Newspaper Article
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FOUND SOUND
1999

 An Interactive Audio Work for the Internet
Originally commissioned by New Television


When the participant opens FOUND SOUND he/she is greeted by a photograph of an ear. Immediately, as the cursor is moved over the invisible, alphabetically gridded surface of the ear, any one of forty two distinct sounds along with its brief "description," is heard and seen simultaneously. By manipulating movements of the cursor -- for instance, up and down, back and forth or even wantonly across the computer screen -- the program will respond instantaneously, creating the potential for all kinds of spontaneous "concrete music" compositions between sounds of widely varying contexts, meanings, rhythms and textures. The interactive participant is free to create and explore a virtual infinity of serendipitous connections and improvisatory dynamics through real time audio collage. The computer screen has become an instrument.

By "clicking" the cursor on any particular sound, a rectangular portion of the ear image is colorized, signaling that that particular sound will continue to play indefinitely. One can then continue to move the cursor fluidly over other parts of the screen and improvise against the "colorized" background sound (or sounds) or continue to "click" on other sounds, to create fixed multi-layered juxtapositions of sounds. Clicking (once again) on a colorized sound turns that part of the ear image to "photographic negative," and stops the sound from playing. The flexible structure of the computer program allows the participant to interactively improvise (with and) against several repeated and recurring sounds at one time -- or continually shift and change both the background and surface sounds at one's whim. If one listens to all 42 sounds, (thereby creating a complete negative image of the ear), one is treated to a brief surprise, just before the piece recycles itself to begin again.