Webspinna Artist's Statement:
5:19 PM
My webspinna consisted of sounds from a few different
websites. At first, I thought my arrangement might just be a compilation of
whatever I could find. But I ended up finding a lot of different options, and
choosing sounds that fit a sort of mellow, peaceful feel. I found a great
website called “Rainy Mood,” which just plays rain sounds continuously. This is
such a comforting sound to me, and I had it play throughout most of the 3
minutes. Stumbleupon.com helped me find a great website called “Incredibox.”
Not only is the animation on the website really cool, but you can add different
beats, melodies, and effects and play them simultaneously. You can play as many as you want, and they
all sound good together. I chose to use a basic beatbox sound and a whistling
melody. I thought they were simple and peaceful, and kept the mellow mood of
the rain sounds.
I wanted to use some speech soundbites to contrast the more
musical and nature elements. I started with a soundbite from Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows. I am a really big Harry Potter fan, and the soundbite of
Kingsley Shacklebolt saying “The Ministry has fallen” was in that slow mood I
had going. The pacing actually fit with the beat of my Incredibox sounds as
well. I contrasted that soundbite by using a historical soundbite from Franklin
Roosevelt. I used his famous line, “The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself.” I like his speech, and it also worked with the Harry Potter soundbite,
which introduces fear. The Roosevelt bit counters fear. I also used different
sounds from the NASA website throughout the webspinna. The “Earth” sounds added
a “white noise” element that I really like. I ended with the soundbite of “Jupiter.”
I didn’t know Jupiter made sounds, but it sounded more like a radio
transmission of passing Jupiter. I liked ending on that weird, spooky space
note.
I liked that we performed the Webspinna live, rather than
pre-recording it and playing it. Luckily all my links worked and it turned out
the way I planned. The fact that it was a live performance made me a little
nervous. I wouldn’t have been nervous if I had pre-recorded it. I think
performing it live made us all a little more engaged and excited about it. I
also think a lot of us bonded more, because we performed something, which makes
us all a little more vulnerable, we were outside of our normal class time, and
we got to eat a lot of awesome food. I really liked that each webspinna didn’t
necessarily need to have a narrative. I was able to see the awesome taste in
internet sounds that people in the class have, and it made me want to come up
with even more arrangements just for fun. I had never done anything quite like
this, but I really enjoyed it! I am becoming more and more excited about
experimenting with media outside of film. We should have a Webspinna every
week!
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