Building a “Robot Friend”

From computers, keyboards, phones, printers, fax machines ...

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

“Robot Friend” opens like an early-Internet take on Pink Floyd’s “Money”: the beat is made of known, non-musical content. In place of the cash register, though, there is, foremost, the halcyon squelch of an ISP/fax handshake. According to the track’s composer/performer, Johnny Ripper, “everything in this song is made from recordings of electronic tools – computers, keyboards, phones, printers, fax machines, televisions, disk drives etc.” The result is a slow yet toe-tapping pleasure, one whose familiar verse/chorus near-monotony gains purpose thanks to its basis in everyday mechanisms.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/johnny_ripper](https://soundcloud.com/johnny_ripper/robot-friend). More from Johnny Ripper, who’s based in Montréal, Canada, at [twitter.com/johnny_ripper](https://twitter.com/johnny_ripper).

Disquiet Junto Project 0138: Video Sonic Void

The Assignment: Compose a 2.5-minute soundtrack to complement a work of silent video art.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Note: This special Disquiet Junto project is the result of an invitation by the San Jose Museum of Art for me to develop a sound installation to be displayed on its second floor from October 2014 through February 2015.

Each Thursday in [the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/) and [at Disquiet.com](https://disquiet.com/tag/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](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto).

Tracks are added to this playlist as they appear in the SoundCloud group:

This assignment was made in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, August 21, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, August 25, 2014, as the deadline.

The instructions are available in English, Danish, French, German, and Japanese — the four translations courtesy of, respectively, Robert Rizzi (soundcloud.com/rizzi), Éric Legendre, Peter Tigges (soundcloud.com/peter-tigges), and Naoyuki Sasanami (soundcloud.com/naotko).

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 0138: Video Sonic Void
The Assignment: Compose a 2.5-minute soundtrack to complement a work of silent video art.

Many thanks to the San Jose Museum of Art for inspiring and encouraging this project.

This week’s project involves writing music to accompany a short video. The video is “Untitled #8, 2004” by the artist Josh Azzarella. His original work is silent, and we’ll be adding music to it that complements the source material. Do note that the video is intended by the artist as a “Never Ending Loop.”

The instructions are straightforward:

Step 1: Watch the following video.

Step 2: Compose and record a piece of audio that matches the video in length.

Step 3: Upload your piece of audio to the Disquiet Junto group’s SoundCloud page, following the instructions below.

Step 4: Listen to and comment on the other tracks posted by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

The “Untitled #8, 2004” video is archived along with other works on the following page at the artist’s website. “Untitled #8, 2004” is the fourth video in from the left. Its length is 2:31 (2 minutes and 31 seconds):

http://www.joshazzarella.com/videoworks200408/

Background Information: The “Untitled #8, 2004” video by Josh Azzarella is part of the permanent collection of the San Jose Museum of Art in San Jose, California. This Disquiet Junto project is the result of an invitation by the Museum for me to develop a sound installation to be displayed on its second floor from October 2014 through February 2015. Tracks submitted to this project will be considered for inclusion in that installation.

Restrictions: Please do not, at the museum’s request, post the video online with your audio.

Deadline: Monday, August 25, 2014, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be 2 minutes and 31 seconds long (2:31).

Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, 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.

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0138-videosonicvoid” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

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, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 138th Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a 2.5-minute soundtrack to complement a work of silent video art” — at:

Disquiet Junto Project 0138: Video Sonic Void

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

https://disquiet.com/forums/

The image associated with this track is a still from the video that inspired it: “Untitled #8, 2004” by Josh Azzarella.
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