Disquiet – Page 502 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Disquiet Junto Project 0453: Dial Up

The Assignment: Imagine the technologically mediated First Contact through sound.

September 3, 2020September 4, 2020 / 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 Monday, September 7, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 3, 2020.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0453) 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 0453: Dial Up
The Assignment: Imagine the technologically mediated First Contact through sound.

Step 1: The SETI Institute posts an artistic challenge this month. This month’s was issued by the organization’s co-founder, Dr. Jill Tarter. (portrayed as Dr. Ellie Arroway in Contact). Watch the brief video introduction here:

Step 2: In brief, the idea is to consider that First Contact between humans and extraterrestrials will likely be technologically mediated. “We use technology as a proxy for intelligence, and then we go looking with various types of telescopes and detectors to see if we can find evidence that somewhere else someone or something else has used technology to modify their environment in ways that we can sense over vast distances.”

Step 3: Consider what First Contact might be like elsewhere in the universe in light of Dr. Tarter’s challenge.

Step 4: Produce a piece in music/sound that responds to the challenge.

Optional Step: There is a Facebook group for the SETI Art Imaginarium, and you might post your work for this week’s project there:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheArtImaginariumbySETI/

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0453” (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 “disquiet0453” (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-0453-dial-up/

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 Monday, September 7, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 3, 2020.

Length: The length is up to you. Positive introductions tend to be concise.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0453” 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 453rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Dial Up (The Assignment: Imagine the technologically mediated First Contact through sound), at:

https://disquiet.com/0453/

Serrated Simplicity

The VAPE's Quadrophone Gramophone

September 2, 2020September 2, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

This marvelous rusty old object is the most rudimentary — and glorious for it — sort of turntable. It’s like if Louise Bourgeois’ spider sculptures and Pierre Bastien’s sonic constructions had a baby. The gear, all serrated simplicity, goes round and round while the tips of four bent wires make tentative contact. They’re pulled along by the surface tension of the gear, until each gives way with a brittle squeak. The device is called the Quadrophone Gramophone, and it’s from the artist who goes by the VAPE.

Video originally posted at [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwTp7jwPvLg).

Stages of Autechre Expectancy

Due date: October 16, 2020

September 2, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

It was early this morning when I logged onto [Autechre’s website](https://autechre.warp.net/) to pre-order their new album. Where it said “Checkout” it also said “Sign” because *Sign* is the name of the album. I was confused because I thought I needed to sign in, even though I’d already signed in, so I stared at it for a while. Like I said, it was early.

These are the stages of Autechre listening, of being expectant of a forthcoming release:

Stage 1: Huh, it’s been awhile since there was a new album.

Stage 2: I sure hope the next one isn’t another massive multi-hour release.

Stage 3: Oh, it’s here! And it’s just a single CD, barely an hour of music.

Stage 4: Wish it had been another massive multi-hour release.

Speaking of Autechre’s release schedule, it’s a sign for me of how messed-up April 2020 was (as the pandemic kicked into full gear) that I somehow missed (meaning: utterly forgot) until yesterday that there had even been a seven-city live set ([*AE_LIVE 2016/2018*]()) released way back then. What feels like “way back then” but was just a few months back.

And as someone point out online today (forgive me, there was a flurry of Ae activity, of Aetivity, so I’m not sure who), the shape of the image on the cover of *Sign* resembles the shapes from *AE_LIVE 2016/2018*:

All the cover art is by the firm the Designers Republic. *Sign* is due on October 16, 2020.

Remaining Sane on Twitter

Seven tips during turbulent times

September 1, 2020April 10, 2021 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Seven key ways to maintain Twitter sanity:

7: Turn off alerts

6: Stick with reverse-chronological order

5: Don’t use it evenings and weekends

4: Block accounts

3: Mute accounts

2: Mute words

1: Set your Trends location to a place where you don’t know the language

My Trends were [“in” Tijuana, Mexico](https://disquiet.com/2019/04/26/life-on-the-virtual-run/). Then border politics got heavy and my Spanish turned out to be better than I thought it was. So I “moved” to Seoul, Korea. That was awesome: Aside from BTS and some Covid news, I was blissfully ignorant. I just “moved” to Iceland where there seem to be no Trends at all.

Occasional Reminder

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

September 1, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Sorry I haven’t replied to your request for music coverage. It isn’t you. It isn’t me. It’s everyone else. I listen continuously and write about what I’m drawn to write about. I can’t reply to every email. I get hundreds per day. Thanks for understanding. If you want to help ameliorate the situation, which is widespread, only send your PR to individuals you think are actually a likely audience for it, and encourage your musician and music-PR friends to do the same.