I’m on an initial work-free summer vacation break at the moment, hence my limited activity on social media, and the lack of a This Week in Sound email newsletter issue yesterday and this evening. I’ll be back at it by next week, and I may have a newsletter issue out on Friday. Tomorrow will mark the 598th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project. I have a new record review due out shortly at Pitchfork, and there’s a new book review I’m working on for The Wire, and some essays in progress for some other places — plus longer form writing I’m blocking out time for this summer. (I should probably mention here: If you’re reading this and you edit a publication that might be interested in me writing for it, lemme know.)
In the meanwhile, if you’re on Instagram, I’ve begun a series of 30-second audio-video field recordings. They’re “stories” (not “reels” — a distinction that still somewhat eludes me), and they’re grouped as a “highlight” section that I’ve titled “30s” — and if that’s not enough information, welcome to the modern internet. This is all at instagram.com/dsqt. I’m trying to sort out if there are other/better ways to post such short vertical videos (maybe YouTube, maybe Vimeo?). They’re inspired by the great ongoing occasional slice-of-life recordings that Jorge Colombo, an old friend of mine, has been posting on his account. Jorge is a far better photographer, visual thinker, and observer than I am. His work is quite incredible.
I’m really interested in the combination of audio and visual elements in field recordings, and how mundane moments can, when framed carefully, have a heightened quality. And I’m even more interested in how during the 30 seconds I am recording, I pay incredibly close attention to what I’m hearing (and to a degree what I’m seeing). It’s as if hitting record doesn’t just trigger my phone’s camera; it also engages my attention.
Re: stories vs. reels, stories disappear quite soon after you publish them. I don’t know how soon it happens, but they do disappear. Reels can be longer, seem to get promoted to people who are not following you much more (based on my “engagement”), and are never auto-unpublished.
Re: the psychological effects of recording, a sort of corollary to what you describe is that when I’m recording my attention can focus on the exact sounds I was interested in recording and it’s only when I listen back that I realise the extent to which I’ve captured other sounds in the mostly unbiased medium of a digital recording.
Thanks for that. With my “stories,” I add the ones I like to “highlight” groups, which seem to keep them around. I’ll give “reels” another go. Occasionally I set one by accident, when I’m trying to do a story instead.
And yeah, I know exactly what you mean about the focus versus the wider field.