When conceptualising the overall theme, Richard, Christian and myself chose to draw comparison between Western and Soviet society. We have attempted to make a statement that despite these two strongly opposed ideals, our two societies (communism and capitalism) are not too different from one another. Almost all capitalist countries share communist traits, for example we must be involved in the global market, we both use state/private property although the difference according to Salisbury is that “in “communist” countries, collectivist heroism is engendered through loyalty and service to the party, while in capitalist countries, collectivist heroism is engendered through loyalty and service to the market” (Salisbury, 2015). The final and most important similarity that we conveyed the most in our production was that both societies use incredible amounts of violence to destroy their opposition and enforce their system.

Even with these similarities, the majority of people would think that we as a culture could not be any more different but our collection of audio/visual works aim to achieve this by matching capitalist and communism symbolism alongside one another as well as creating a soundscape that not only compliments the visuals but makes the audience question and contemplate how it affects them. Attali’s reading ‘Noise: The Political Economy of Music’ touches on the importance of sound and how it affect us, and with our audio being the main focus, Attali supports this by stating “by listening to noise, we can better understand where the folly of men and their calculations is leading us, and what hopes it is still possible to have” (Attali, 2012, p29).

For our choices of ‘mood’ or stages within an oppressed society, we have intentionally chosen the playing order to be Discontent, Revolution, Implementation and finally Remix.

Discontent draws on parallels between both societies, we were able to achieve this by juxtaposing Soviet symbolism alongside images of Western ideals such as advertisements and infrastructure. Within our capitalist society, we are told from a young age that if we want anything in life, it is ours if we work hard enough which closely links us with Capitalist societies such as the United States and their “American Dream”. Within this mood, one of the questions we were trying to pose the audience is whether we are actually as  ‘free’ as we think we are compared to our oppressed counter parts. Another question to pose on the audience is whether the usage of advertisements is in fact propaganda itself as it attempts to convince you that need something when you might not at all. In post production, images such as advertisements and pop icons (Marilyn Monroe) were used to show that there is clearly propaganda surrounding us.

The mood Revolution was my primary contribution to the overall project. When conceptualising my soundscape I was aware that the connotations with my mood would be associated with violence and destruction so I attempted to stay true to that element. An influential source was Rodger’s reading ‘Toward a Feminist Historiography of Electronic Music’; it explains that electronic music has always had associations with violence and war that dates back to WW1 and comments that were made stated “electronic music is made of electrons. Electrons split atoms and a split atom is in some way part of the atom bomb, and one doesn’t fool with such things. Above all, it shows complete lack of taste and tact, to want to make music with weapons of death” (Rodgers, 2012, p476). Because of the nature of how our soundscape was developed, I wanted to capture change, destruction of old, chaos, violence, struggle for power. This is to relay change in the form of destruction as it is sometimes necessary for growth. The audio in the opening scene where people are crossing the road matched with the sound of an alarm going off was used to signify that we are controlled by orders, told when to stop and when to go. We are constantly triggered by commands.

Something that was influential in much of my decision making was receiving direct information about Soviet ideals from a reliable source who lived in Russia for a year. He was able to explain to me the similarities and differences between our two societies as well as reciting some prominent Karl Marx quotes referencing capitalism (see blog post 3). Because our project falls under the art house genre and unless the audience reads our statement they may be confused by our intentions, this is why I chose to use samples of my friend speaking Russian to help guide the audience into associating it alongside Communism; the recordings of the dialogue were matched with imagery of the communist hammer and sickle.

I intentionally layered sounds to create a mood of chaos, confusion and unease. I was able to achieve this by using samples sourced from Christian, Richard and myself which came in a wide variety. Some relevant examples include recordings from our class trip to the Grainger museum where I sampled some old ‘electronic’ machines such as a contraption that appeared to be an Oramics machine as well the wailing of a Theremin.

Implementation represents the inauguration of a new regime and shows the cycle of conformity, fear and the rebirth of resistance. Through revolution, things do not necessarily improve but only pass the power into another’s hands which continues the cycle of brutality. This was achieved through implementing effects such as reverse to signify the undoing of progress and that society is regressing back into totalitarian ideals.

The final component of our project is remix which resembles the merging of old and new power and no matter who has the upper hand, there is always a controlled system within society. For our final installation we combined and overlapped 3 three moods Discontent, Revolution and Implementation together to show the the endless cycle of destruction and creation, oppression and liberation. The main purpose of remix is to convey the confusion and chaos of our government structure and how there is no clear black and white for solutions to society’s issues.

Bibliography:

• Ryan Salisbury. 2015. What are the primary similarities and differences between the capitalist system we live in and the system of countries currently labeled as communist?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-primary-similarities-and-differences-between-the-capitalist-system-we-live-in-and-the-system-of-countries-currently-labeled-as-communist. [Accessed 13 September 2018].

• Rodgers, T, 2012. Toward a Feminist Historiography of Electronic Music. The Sound Studies Reader, [Online]. 476. Available at: file:///Users/keads/Downloads/TaraRodgers_Toward%20a%20Feminist%20Historiography%20of%20Electronic%20Music.pdf [Accessed 13 September 2018].
• Attali, J, 2012. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. The Sound Studies Reader, [Online]. 29. Available at: file:///Users/keads/Downloads/Jacques%20Attali_Noise.pdf [Accessed 13 September 2018].

Google Drive Folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MPZfqwMfGPwjlDppear3m0_ubbx9vu1V