Webspinna Artist Statement

For the webspinna I searched for and was drawn to sounds which I found peaceful. I started working on the webspinna assignment during an extremely stressful week and that is why I was drawn to sounds which I find peaceful and calming. I began with sounds of birds chirping etc. These sounds were actually from some web game. I then mixed it sounds of the ocean since this is a universally peaceful sound. I started the previous web game which then played a video of someone walking down a path. I wanted to use the footsteps here since the sound showed action and gave the sounds more life. The other sounds which I mixed into my piece are other sounds which I find peaceful, which included music by the artist Sigur Rós and sounds of a piano. To juxtapose these peaceful sounds in the middle of my piece I played the inter-galatic audio mixer game on sound.net, which creates crashing sounds. I wanted this juxtaposition because the inter-galatic sounds represent unease that can be calmed through peaceful sounds. Not only did I choose my peaceful sounds because they are naturally peaceful but also because they remind me of peaceful memories. Since I had this focus for peaceful sounds and I had memories and specific sounds in mind it made navigating the web at least have some direction. 

I was influenced by outside media through the example which Ben presented in class. I really liked the raindrop sound he had in his piece, which he got on sound.net. This led me to explore sound.net and it is the place where I found the inter-galatic sounds and were I found my concluding sounds of the piano. Also, the reading of DJ Spooky, “Rhythm Science”, I particularly liked the his definition for “flow”. I think flow was very important for this piece and I liked how he described how past experiences help us format flow. This is true in the construction of flow in my piece because the sounds are representative of past memories and experiences woven together. 

I felt that the webspinna was more of an environment created rather than the concert setting I was expecting. I feel like this was due largely to having the food and open conversation during the performances which made the setting casual and not fully focused on listening to all the mixes. When performing, I liked this setting because I felt less pressure. Overall, I enjoyed the webspinna.