Solitary Confinement
The goal of my project was to play with the idea of what one's mind can do over an extended period of time when there is only silence and darkness. Some theorists have tried to rationalize why some people hear voices and sounds that don't seem to really be there. Among other explanations for this, some theorists claim that the person is not really insane, but is instead hearing sounds of the past, present, and future. They believe that it just takes certain stimuli to enable these people to intercept these sounds. Therefore, the goal of my project is to make the audience wonder whether the sounds the man are hearing are in fact sounds he is intercepting from the past, present, and future, or if he is in fact going insane due to lack of contact with the outside world. The answer is never determined, but is rather left to be interpreted by the audience.
Creating this project was a very difficult task. Since I don't ever hear sounds that aren't there when I am in a normal state of mind, it was difficult for me to figure out exactly how I should approach it, and what sounds I should use. So I started my piece out with very faint sounds being heard. The sound piece then continues growing more and more intense throughout the four minutes, and eventually reaches a peak. When I finished my first draft of the soundscape, I was pleased with it, but something didn't seem right. Everything was too clear and made too much sense. If someone were going insane or hearing voices, I figured that it most likely would not be clear dialogue. So I messed around for a little while with my piece, and then found an effect that sounded great. I reversed certain parts of my sound file and it made it sound all the more spooky, so I used them in my final product. Among the sounds I used, some of these sounds included heavy breathing, growls, moans, screams, children noises, and different creatures. I think I successfully made it sound as though someone could be going insane. How the audience will interpret it is uncertain to me, since everyone could have a different idea of what insanity sounds like, but I feel that if i were going insane, these are definately some of the noises that would start to get to me.