Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.
The assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, November 15, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, November 19, as the deadline. (There are no translations this week.)
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).
Disquiet Junto Project 0046: Silent Ballot
This is a shared-sample project. It focuses on the intimacy of democracy, and in the process it touches on various interrelated contemporary anxieties, including the surveillance state, voter fraud, and digital privacy.
You are being provided an audio recording of someone voting during the recent U.S. presidential election. The MP3 file can be accessed here:
http://goo.gl/uRBv0
You will select a very short segment (between 1 and 5 seconds in length) of this recording and you will then investigate it for what might be called its “sonic fingerprint.”
To accomplish this goal you will stretch, loop, magnify, and otherwise probe the audio to reveal its unique properties.
The evidence of your investigation will take the form of a single track of audio, between 1 and 4 minutes in length. You can add whatever sounds you like in the process of developing your track, but the source audio should be prominent throughout.
Deadline: Monday, November 19, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 1 and 4 minutes in length.
Information: Please, when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0046-silentballot”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
More on this 46th Disquiet Junto project at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0046: Silent BallotMore details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info/
Photo of voting during a blackout by Michael Ross of guitarmoderne.com.