doomscrolling

So this is collection 12 of 12 of my yearlong project (well 15 months in total) to explore audio in a design/collage way.

The final theme is taking a nod towards the online impact of media and some of the new slang terminology that has evolved – the title doomscrolling is the obsessive desire to search for more and more about how tragic things are in the world so the pieces have a downbeat feel.

Even though this is an end – i think i’ll keep revisiting sound as a creative direction – hopefully it’s apparent that I’ve learnt something about the process and that any of you who have listened have enjoyed what I’ve tried to say.

Thank You for Eavesdropping

So i’m continuing (when I can) with more audio collage doodles – this time the theme is based on some audio recordings of answer machine messages and odd voicemails that i found on Freesound – courtesy of user ChrisReierson – as usual all stitched together in GarageBand.

https://soundcloud.com/user-564856143/sets/thank-you-for-eavesdropping

the end of rainbows

A little behind on things here so a sudden flurry of posts. The past few months saw me working on the final 3 albums of the year (10 in total – not quite 1 a month). This album was a little disappointing to me – i was summing up the coming out of lockdown and the drain on everyone, reflected by the fading support of the NHS (the lacking of the clapping) and the aged window rainbow images – couldn’t quite get the handle on it the way I wanted.

https://soundcloud.com/user-564856143/sets/the-end-of-rainbows

second spike

This months sample of sound collage revisits the theme that haunts us all – the pandemic. A few months on and the new language keeps developing – these are my audio doodles around such themes as wet markets, air bridges and the new normal.

https://soundcloud.com/user-564856143/sets/second-spike

injuries incompatible with life

At the christmas do last month a colleague was talking about an audio research project he was doing and invited a few of us to contribute some tracks to it. I’m not a musician but he described it as not writing songs, more drawing with audio. Over the past month i’ve been bitten by the bug and have made a mini album of ‘drawings’, ‘doodles’ and ‘sketches’ using GarageBand. Most have been inspired by things the kids have said or have been based around home recordings of them when they were younger. Initially they were silly, cartoony pieces but i got more into creating moods that reflected how I perceive my drawing style to sound. Using some open source footage as samples i’ve made some longer tracks with less personal themes. My musical moniker is ‘Pedestrian’ – Have a listen if you have a spare half hour…

Brown Town

I really need to stop throwing ideas out there and actually finish one of them – since the trip to New York and my re-adoption of sketching I’ve been playing with another idea for a kids story. Whilst getting excited about it I started doodling some inhabitants (149 in 30 minutes whilst waiting for my son to finish his swimming lesson) of a place called ‘Brown Town’ (those that know me would have seen this coming) and it’s surrounding suburbs. It’s been nice being really loose and carefree – maybe that means I’ll get around to it. That’s it I’m going to finish all three this summer! Promise!

Nobody Knows Like An Eskimo’s Nose Knows – Narwhal

As part of the previously posted book idea for Nobody Knows Like An Eskimo’s Nose Knows here’s one of the creatures that the Eskimo girl will encounter – a rather snug Narwhal! I’m trying a combination of Lino and Digital to speed the process and get a more tonal effect.

Symmetrical Stare

I’m in a little bit of a quandary over my illustration work – I’m enjoying doing one-off pieces based on little inspirations (saw one of these monkeys in my youngest’s reading book) – but essentially am I just doing the same picture again and again? They all carry the same symmetrical stare which could be seen as a stylistic trademark (Dan Clowes often uses it) or am I just retreading old ground? Think I might explore this in some research capacity – there’s a link to human attraction through symmetry.

By the way how do these guys ever get dry?

Vampire Vanity

Sometimes a quick sketch just does it and you feel that you’ll lose most of the freshness if you attempt to do anything to it. I love this little doodle bu that’ll teach me to sketch on lined paper though!

More Bats!

In an update to the last post – after some input from my wife about the quantity of sweets the previous design could hold! – here is the revised bat party bag and a pumpkinesque colleage – i’m doubling up the cones to safeguard sweet safety and also it’ll help define the cutout details – a final run of these in bright colours should do the trick! – UPDATE – here’s the invasion!!!!