LOST

Context:

LOST is a work for electronics and runner - which explores the data sonification of geographical data and physical running data with music and video.

The music is aligned creatively to data that is both fixed (the geographical landscape) and variable (the runner's profile), thus forming a dystopian-like musical landscape that makes the listener feel truly immersed in the POV of the runner.

The score is the most fascinating element - the map has been designed to include finer details that are not usually expected on typical OS maps. These maps are used typically by orienteers to navigate accurately in forests and sometimes urban settings. Some of these details include levels of vegetation, specific contour details and indistinct paths - all of which have contributed towards the musical sonification of this work.

The accompanying video shows the 'runner' and it's main purpose is to provide context to the music for the listener. Being able to see the human landscape further enhances the musical landscape I create within this composition as listener's can make meaningful connections between video and music (and score if they have it).

Inspiration:

There has been instances in very recent contemporary practices that map data has been used to determine musical outcome.

S-Tog by Mark Applebaum, uses geographical data from the Copenhagen subway map to determine the overall structure of a piece whilst offering indeterminacy to the players at 'stops' on the map and the different routes they can take on different lines. This offers a constrained version of indeterminacy where the players can't deviate from the stops on their timetable/part (i.e there are only limited places they can be on the map). However, due to the limited and open nature of the instructions at each stop, it leads to a fascinating 30 minute improvisation. 

A Map of Hagia Sophia by Kit McCarthy, uses the score in a 360 degree visual to show the structure of the mosque and the interweaving drum and spoken word lines. As a score follower, it is clearly accessible and entertaining to follow. The use of spoken word in this work is effective, it doesn't dominate the drum excerpts overall and is a good example of fragmentation. Whether it could be enhanced with erasure, in order to leave individual words, is something that I plan on exploring in my own work.

Finally, The New-York Skyline Melody by Villa-Lobos is a fine example of using lines from geographical data to create music. In this case, he uses the height of the buildings to determine melodic contours and then fills in the harmony. This naturally leads to questions like, what other parameters could be mapped via these naturally occurring lines?

Intervals:

Notation:

Erasure:

Adding to the dystopian soundscape and the natural human feelings of this work, it was natural to base the work off a poem that powerfully describes the feeling of loss (both geographically and mentally). Both McCarthy and Armstrong use spoken word - but they differ with the amount of erasure that has been applied. McCarthy leans towards fragmentation of phrases whilst Armstrong leans towards extreme erasure where only singular words can be heard towards the end. My aim was to strike a balance between the two, such that erasure occurs naturally and differently each time the poem is read out loud but the order of the poem is kept the same to achieve cohesion. The representation on the right shows the natural erasure that occurs the 1st and 2nd time the poem is heard. As a result, this leads to some beautiful, unexpected moments of layering such as 4:15 with 'Bushes beside you' matching up with the video and harmony and 'Come back again' at the very end of the work.

In the process of composing, I had to make a decision in how I would define 'getting lost'. I wanted to map the erasure in such a way that when the runner is 'lost', words from the poem are heard and when the runner is not then it gets erased. Using the distance from the straight line doesn't necessarily mean that the runner is lost (the route in orange is optimal and the quickest but still goes off the line) however leaving the definition of 'lost' to a subjective opinion from the runners perspective doesn't show clarity and consistency. If someone else was to recreate this work or follow the score, having clarity in the instructions of the erasure is vital and it's more likely meaningful connections will be made between the video, score and music.

Reflection:

Another work that blends video-graphics and electronics to form a dystopian landscape is F1, by Alexander Schubert. I would place my work within this genre of multimedia music that blends in data sonifications - where the visuals play a major role in the audiences response to the work. F1 uses spoken word in a way where the words are responsive to the music, similar to word painting. This is a deliberate act from the composer, to fit the music and video-graphics around these words to amplify emotion. However, in LOST, I let natural erasure decide on when elements fit together and this can sometimes lead to lost opportunities in creating deliberate emotion. Therefore, the challenge in the future is to strike a balance in my compositional process between letting data drive natural emotions in the music and making deliberate musical decisions to skew the emotions of the recipient from the original data.

There are also further opportunities to add extra 'liveness' to a performance of LOST, such as using lighting and choreographics. What makes Schubert's work so effective is that he uses such mediums to cross and emphasise multiple levels of diegesis (liminal and external), thus transforming the listeners into his own sound world. Skirting my work within these murky waters of external diegesis would further enhance the dystopian environment I aim to create in LOST.