Disquiet Junto Project 0378: Blue(tooth) Haze

The Assignment: Experiment with the sonic qualities of a failing signal.

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, April 1, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 28, 2019.

Tracks will be added to the playlist for the duration of the project.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0378: Blue(tooth) Haze
The Assignment: Experiment with the sonic qualities of a failing signal.

Step 1: Find some sort of Bluetooth-enabled audio connection that is available to you. It might be headphones or microphone or other devices. The important thing is that audio can be sent to one device from another device by Bluetooth.

Step 2: Experiment with a sound sent via Bluetooth using the connection decided upon in Step 1. Work to find situations in which Bluetooth begins to fail, where the sonic signature of that signal failure becomes apparent. This will likely be due to distance, but you may find other creative approaches to achieve the distortion.

Step 3: Use the situation(s) located in Step 2 as the basis for an original piece of music, stressing an audio signal and then recording the way that signal distorts due to the failure of Bluetooth.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0378” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0378” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0378-blue-tooth-haze/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, April 1, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 28, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you. Short is good.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0378” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: Consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 378th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Disquiet Junto Project 0378: Blue(tooth) Haze / The Assignment: Experiment with the sonic qualities of a failing signal — at:

https://disquiet.com/0378/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0378-blue-tooth-haze/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project adapted (cropped, colors changed, text added, cut’n’paste) thanks to a Creative Commons license from a photo credited to Russell Davies:

https://flic.kr/p/2aKR98

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

Disquiet Junto Project 0377: Algorithms Assemble

The Assignment: Have fun with rules applied to scales, in coordination with the Algorithmic Art Assembly.

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 25, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, March 21, 2019.

Tracks will be added to the playlist for the duration of the project.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0377: Algorithms Assemble
The Assignment: Have fun with rules applied to scales, in coordination with the Algorithmic Art Assembly.

This week’s project is being done with the Algorithmic Art Assembly, “a brand new two day conference and music festival, showcasing a diverse range of artists who are using algorithmic tools and processes in their works.” It’s being held in San Francisco on March 22 and 23, 2019. More information at aaassembly.org. The project is lightly adapted from one proposed by Junto member Charlie Kramer (aka NorthWoods).

Step 1: Define a scale of 8 notes (or sounds).

Step 2: Create a melody with 4 notes from the scale resulting from Step 1.

Step 3: Replace note 2 in the melodic sequence from Step 2 with an unused note (selected deterministically or randomly). Then do this for note 4, then for note 3, and then for note 1.

Step 4: Reintroduce the first melody as counterpoint to the result of Step 3. This establishes a pair of notes at each point in time.

Step 5: Repeat the algorithm on these pairs. Repeat to create triplets.

Step 6: Sequence variations to create a piece of music.

Extra credit: Do the same with note durations and velocities (e.g., 8 possibilities, 4 choices).

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0377” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0377” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0377-algorithms-assemble/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 25, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, March 21, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0377” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: Consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 377th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Algorithms Assemble / The Assignment: Have fun with rules applied to scales, in coordination with the Algorithmic Art Assembly — at:

https://disquiet.com/0377/

The project is lightly adapted from one proposed by Junto member Charlie Kramer (aka NorthWoods).

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0377-algorithms-assemble/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is from the graphics for the Algorithmic Art Assembly, “a brand new two day conference and music festival, showcasing a diverse range of artists who are using algorithmic tools and processes in their works.” It’s being held in San Francisco on March 22 and 23, 2019. More information at aaassembly.org.

Rhythmic Segmentation

An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt

Unlike at clock shops in movies, in this tiny, one-person clock shop the majority of the clocks that tick are blissfully still. But enough are ticking to provide a nice quiet rhythmic segmentation of each second. I’d love to record this place in the middle of the night.

What Sound Looks Like: An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.

The Room Tone of a Porch

Two tracks from Josh Mason's forthcoming album, Coquina Dose

If glitchy little dust particles sending out Morse code via slight alterations in biometric pressure are your thing — and if not, you’re reading the wrong website at the moment — then Josh Mason’s forthcoming album, Coquina Dose, is your thing, at least judging by the two tracks up for pre-release streaming on the Bandcamp page of the releasing label, Florabelle.

The full album is due out March 22, but for now we’ve got “Crack the Juice Code,” the opening track, and “Key Blight” the album’s third. The first is a beautifully understated conglomeration of soft tones and small noises, of sound as texture and of texture as melody. Throughout there’s a very light patter of white noise. It’s vinyl surface dust experienced as environmental data.

The other track feels like it takes us, quite suddenly, outside. The noise of “Juice Code” is traded for bird chatter, at roughly the same volume: not so much distant as background, the room tone of a porch. Both are marked with backward masking, which lends a retrospective, hindsight-gaze quality to the music — so, too, little wisps of warbling pitch changes. On “Key Blight” these latter shifts suggest time being bent, nudged, and suffering small impacts. The music is composed from — comprised of — nothing but such modest materials.

Album first posted at florabelle.bandcamp.com. More from Mason at joshmason.info. More from Florabelle at florabellerecords.com.

Disquiet Junto Project 0376: Pi Filling

The Assignment: Celebrate Pi Day.

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 18, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted shortly before noon, California time, on Thursday, March 14, 2019.

Tracks will be added to the playlist for the duration of the project.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0376: Pi Filling
The Assignment: Celebrate Pi Day.

Step 1: There is only one step for this project: Make music by applying pi (3.14159…) in celebration of Pi Day, March 14, 2019.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0376” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0376” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0376-pi-filling/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 18, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted shortly before noon, California time, on Thursday, March 14, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0376” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: Consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 376th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Pi Filling / The Assignment: Celebrate Pi Day — at:

https://disquiet.com/0376/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0376-pi-filling/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project adapted (cropped, colors changed, text added, cut’n’paste) thanks to a Creative Commons license from a photo credited to Emily:

https://flic.kr/p/82D1bt

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/