Icelandic Meow Echolocation

A short video by Laura Alice Watt

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A housemate of mine once came home with a puppy. The little dog was so black that when its eyes were closed, which was much of the time (since it slept so much), it looked more like a silhouette than it did a live animal. However, when it was awake, the puppy was very awake. At some point, early on as a member of our multi-species household, the dog was placed in the backyard and left to explore. How it did so was fascinating to observe. On its first entry into the yard, which was quite large, the small dog started at the fence and ran, full speed, around in a circle. With each circumference, the puppy drew closer and closer in until it finally reached the center of the yard, and when it arrived there it collapsed out of utter exhaustion from the exertion.

In this video, some kittens are seen and, more to the point, heard doing their own version of exploration, in this case of an old interior space. These are the ruins of a former herring factory in Djúpavík, Iceland, perhaps best known as a spot where the band Sigur Rós has performed. Like Sigur Rós, the cats appreciate the rich echoes of the metal container. Their meows linger in the air for lengthy periods of time, measurable in multiple seconds, far longer than they’re no doubt used to. A meow generally has a quizzical quality to it. It sounds inherently interrogative: Where are you? When am I going to be fed? Here it seems to provide an echolocative utility, sounding out the three-dimensional topography of this strange structure. It isn’t only the cats who benefit from the exploration. Their meowing give us humans a sense of the space, as well: its contours, its unique qualities, its sonic potential

The video is by my friend Laura Alice Watt, who posted it at [flickr.com](https://www.flickr.com/photos/lawatt/51166255664/in/dateposted/).

Breakers

A mesostic

/ By Marc Weidenbaum 
          The Bay's at least
 a 15-minute oR so walk
         and yEt  
              A few streets down friends 
              Know on still days and
nights that thEy can catch coming up an
      asphalt Row
      the waveS' roar, clear and fierce

twitter.com/disquiet: A Rage in Open Source Background Sound Lockscreens

From the past week

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

I do this manually each Saturday, collating recent tweets I made at [twitter.com/disquiet](https://twitter.com/disquiet/), my public notebook. Some tweets pop up (in expanded form or otherwise) on Disquiet.com sooner. It’s personally informative to revisit the previous week of thinking out loud.

▰ Now this is news I can use. (via [Bruce Levenstein](https://twitter.com/BruceLevenstein/status/1395090368170012672))

▰ This weekend I watched a video about how AI can make games Grand Theft Auto more photorealistic, and I saw an ad for software that makes footage more artfully pixelated. The valley between them isn’t uncanny. It’s something else. I don’t know what but it’s apparently where I am.

▰ Current status:

▰ Yes, I enjoyed Chester Himes’ *A Rage in Harlem*:

▰ Diggle is coming back to the Arrowverse. Sinéad O’Connor is recording a record with David Holmes. Aside from *Atlanta* announcing the premiere date of a new TV season, my pop culture card feels full. I’ll go back to academia.edu PDFs on experimental recording techniques.

▰ Woke with the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” in my head. This surfacing could hold some deep psychological meaning. More than likely, though, the song was probably just playing at low volume in the background of some TV show I was watching last night.

▰ Ooh, got the Kindle Paperwhite update that shows the cover of your current read when the device is in sleep mode.

▰ There are days when all I need is the instrumental version of “It’s All About the Benjamins.” Today is, apparently, such a day.

Bridge

A mesostic

/ By Marc Weidenbaum 
    Keeping taBs on the wind,
           heaRd as an agent, a potency: 
      metal chImes aloft,
            anD leaves rustle, or
       a low, Glottal hum
from vibrant mEtal far away

Disquiet Junto Project 0490: In Conversation

The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured like dialog.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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 the end of the day Monday, May 24, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 20, 2021.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0490: In Conversation

The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured like dialog.

Step 1: Think of someone to have a conversation with. It could be a friend, or it could be someone who is gone, or it could be someone you actually don’t want to talk to, or it could be someone entirely fictional. It’s up to you. Who do you want to be “in conversation” with?

Step 2: Compose a piece of word-less music that takes the form of a conversation, of a dialog, with the person you identified in Step 1. Your piece of music will move back and forth between the two “speakers,” who also may occasionally interrupt each other, or pause for thought. Those individuals may be represented by individual instruments (I’m a cello, while you’re a Buchla Music Easel), or by some subset combination of sounds.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0490” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0490” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

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

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

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0490-in-conversation/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0490-in-conversation/)

Step 5: Annotate your tracks 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 the end of the day Monday, May 24, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 20, 2021.

Length: The length of your finished track is up to you. Is this a quick chat or a long debate?

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0490” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, 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: It is always best to set 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 490th weekly Disquiet Junto project — In Conversation (The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured like dialog) — at: https://disquiet.com/0490/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0490-in-conversation/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0490-in-conversation/).

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [twitter.com/disquiet](https://twitter.com/disquiet) for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by Suzie Blackman, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

[https://flic.kr/p/7Uv7uq](https://flic.kr/p/7Uv7uq)

[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)