Disquiet – Page 676 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Two Programs in Collaboration

A SuperCollider experiment

April 29, 2017April 30, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Multiple lines thread through this piece, one slow and muffled, like a water-logged bandoneon, the other chipper and vibrant, like a tiny robotic vibraphone with a glitchy chip. What it is is an experiment, apparently, in letting two pieces of software share data with each other in real time. The musician at the helm(s) of these softwares, programmed in SuperCollider, goes by Data Mads, who likens the composition to an experiment in code that is “selfaware.”

Video originally posted at [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZlilXXdmk4). More on the processes at [sccode.org](http://doc.sccode.org/Tutorials/A-Practical-Guide/PG_06g_Data_Sharing.html).

Disquiet Junto Project 0278: MacConnel’s Jingle

Interpret a work of contemporary art as a graphically notated score.

April 27, 2017April 28, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the [Disquiet Junto group](https://disquiet.com/junto/), 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.

Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:

This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, May 1, 2017. This project was posted in the mid-afternoon, California time, on Thursday, April 27, 2017.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0278: MacConnel’s Jingle

The Assignment: Interpret a work of contemporary art as a graphically notated score.

Step 1: The image at the following URL is a photograph of Jingle, a 1980 work by the artist Kim MacConnel (b. 1946). The piece, which is approximately 8 feet wide and is made of acrylic on cotton, hangs at the Parrish Art Museum in the town of Watermill, New York, on the east end of Long Island.

https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/kimmacconneljingle.jpg

Step 2: Compose a short piece of music that interprets MacConnel’s Jingle as a graphically notated score.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0278” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.

Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:

http://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0278-macconnels-jingle/

Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, May 1, 2017. This project was posted in the mid-afternoon, California time, on Thursday, April 27, 2017.

Length: The length is entirely up to the participant.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0278” 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: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 278th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “MacConnel’s Jingle: Interpret a work of contemporary art as a graphically notated score”— at:

https://disquiet.com/0278/

What Sound Looks Like

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

April 23, 2017April 23, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Belated image for Record Store Day. This is a detail of a 1948 photo by Todd Webb (1905-2000) of 6th Avenue in Manhattan. The full image, a semi-panorama of sorts showing the complete block between 43rd and 44th Streets, including a second record store, is on display currently at the Curator Gallery on West 23rd as part of the exhibit Down Any Street: Todd Webb’s Photographs of New York, 1945-1960, curated by Bill Shapiro. Note the window advertisement above for Brown’s Talking Picture Operating School. That sharp line to the right of the store, between it and the bar newly listing “television” among its attractions, is a cut where two images were placed next to each other to allow Webb to achieve the effect of showing the entire stretch of 6th Avenue as if viewed from across the street.

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

What Sound Looks Like

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

April 21, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

People who try to express information on an XY grid eventually learn this lesson, often the hard way: sometimes the only option for accuracy is to access the third dimension. That realization was made, as well, by whoever was tasked at some point in the distant past with adding a fifth button (yes, fifth — note the semi-obscured circle at the bottom) to this already beleaguered assemblage. It’s unclear if this location is home to two or five individual addresses, or somewhere in between. The bottom set, if you perceive them as a set, could be three iterations of fixing a doorbell’s serial failures: first the main, boxy unit; then the second narrow sliver; then the side button. Then again these could be incremental sublets, the most recent an overpriced closet with the benefit of being near a major public transportation hub. The fact that none of the five buttons is labeled lends some mystery. While we may not know what the landlord is up to, clearly the next logical step is to go full tesseract.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0277: Chew Concrète

The Assignment: Make music inspired by C. Reider's Chew Cinders album procedures.

April 20, 2017May 5, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:

This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, April 24, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 20, 2017.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0277: Chew ConcrÃ¨te

The Assignment: Make music inspired by C. Reider’s *Chew Cinders* album procedures.

Step 1: This week’s project is inspired by the manner in which C. Reider recorded his recent album, *Chew Cinders* (Midnight Circles). We aren’t remixing his album. We’re remixing/repurposing his approach to the album. You can check it out here:

https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders

Step 2: This instruction is adapted, with Reider’s input, from the manner in which he recorded the album:

Process a sequence of standalone “chunks” of pre-recorded sound — voice, field recordings, noise — with an emphasis on the manipulation of time and pitch. Speed things up, slow them down, and explore the opportunity to use cutup techniques. Pay particular attention to segues between the chunks.

Step 3: Make a piece of music inspired by the approach delineated in Step 2.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0277” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.

Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:

http://llllllll.co/t/chew-some-concrete-sounds-disquiet-junto-project-0277/

Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, April 24, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 20, 2017.

Length: The length is entirely up to the participant.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0277” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 277th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Chew ConcrÃ¨te: Make music inspired by C. Reider’s *Chew Cinders* album procedures”– at:

https://disquiet.com/0277/