Listening (Working Title)

Project Description

I propose the construction and deployment of a non competitive and non linear goal oriented interactive text game. But where most games involve the deployment of a single subject interacting with a written description of a visual space, I intend to concentrate on the description of acoustic phenomena. Descriptions of sounds will be the vehicle that guides the game player through my environment.

The playing subject of the game will be the Listener. The Listener will need to visit and pass through a series of locations and events where sounds are heard and need to be identified or understood in certain ways so that it is possible to decide where to go and what to do next. Some sounds will occur on their own; others will have to be triggered or affected by the listener. The gaming environment will most likely be an ordinary urban space, such as a residential or commercial property, a city block, or a mass transit way station.

The descriptions of sound events might range from the delineation of the source or agent of a sound— “Door Creaks,” for example—to the description of more abstract and subjective psychoacoustic phenomena (e.g. “Standing Waves With Static Peaks and Troughs Envelop You”). My goal is to come as close as possible to producing a kind of acoustic mimesis, where the Listener begins to, as an engaged text parser, assimilate the permutations of the narrative and generate a dynamic, interiorized sound world.

I intend to create the gaming environment using an extant interactive text programming language or authoring system such as Alan, Hugo, Inform, or TADS; ideally, I will be able to select a development system that will allow me to generate a cross platform game that will work not only with Windows and Macintosh OS based computers, but also will be portable to handheld systems such as PDAs. At the very least, I expect to, while making the desktop version of the game, determine the most feasible options for eventually making a PDA version.

I will begin by developing strategies for describing a rich sound world and will use my blog and moblog text projects Effects and Walking in the City as sources for create interesting sound descriptions. I will then map out a template for the game players environment and locate objects and events that will in some way be sound focused. Once the overall scheme has been established on paper, I will then begin to program the game.

The earliest text based computer games were developed on the DEC PDP-10 and were based on simulations of immersive and compressed subterranean environments. Concurrent with this, program developers and composers used the PDP-10 and similar mainframe computers to design and implement algorithmic sound synthesis systems for the creation of variable and interactive sound worlds. It is my desire to examine these two creative platforms (interactive fiction and algorithmic sound synthesis) by inverting the aurally focused form of listening to sound and instead providing a textual field for eyes and minds to reprocess how to feel and experience sound.

Production Timeline and Project Budget

Timeline (4-6 Months Estimated Total Work Time):

Pre Production (2-3 Months)
Development and Review of Acoustic Descriptions
Development of Playing Domain
Mapping of Acoustic Descriptions onto Playing Domain

Production (2-3 Months)
Programming of Game
Beta Testing and Debugging
Presentation of Completed Game

Budget
Artist's Fee 1500.00
Programming Fee 1500.00
Psychoacoustic Dictionaries and Related Texts 300.00
Office Supplies 100.00
Miscellanious Expenses 100.00
Total 3500.00

CV

Kabir Carter
P.O. Box 1939
New York, NY 10013
[email protected]

BIOGRAPHY
Born in Los Angeles, California
Lives and Works in New York City

EDUCATION
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
Have studied Integrated Arts, Electroacoustic Music, and Sound Design with David Behrman, Bob Bielecki, and Richard Teitelbaum

SELECTED COMPOSITIONS, EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES, AND OTHER PROJECTS
COMPOSITIONS
2004 Opening Closed Loops for Two-Way Transceivers, Scanners, and Electronics
2003 Warmed Rates, Shedded Modulations (And Vice Versa) for Photocells, Thermistors, and Electronics
2002 Variable Extension for Spatialized Sound Recording Systems and Electronics
2001 Shared Frequencies for Two-Way Transceivers and Electronics
Improvisation Studies 1-19 for Electronics

SOUND INSTALLATION EXHIBITIONS
2004 Shared Frequencies, INsideOUT, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
2003 Warmed Rates, Shedded Modulations (And Vice Versa), Studio XXX, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
2002 "More Sound Installations," Studio XXX, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
"A Temporary Sound Installation," Studio XXX and The Old Gym, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

ELECTROACOUSTIC PERFORMANCES
2004 Opening Closed Loops, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
2004 Shared Frequencies, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
2003 Shared Frequencies, New York City, New York
2002 Shared Frequencies, New York City, New York
1998 Live Improvised Electronics, Void, New York City, New York

ONLINE PROJECTS
2004 Walking in the City, "Psy.Geo.Conflux", Participant Inc., New York City, New York (upcoming)
Walking in the City, Subtropics Music Festival, Miami, Florida
2002 Effects, http://www.livejournal.com/~effects/, ongoing

PUBLIC ARTS PROJECTS
2002 Artist in Residence/Producer, Shared Frequencies, New York City
Production coordinator for three-month public arts project; responsible for all fundraising, production, and creative goals; conducted workshops with community and arts education group

GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
2004 Associate Artist, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
2001 Independent Radio and Sound Art Fellowship, Media Alliance, New York City
2000 Noh Training Project Scholarship, Toshiba International Foundation, Tokyo
1998 Noh Training Project Scholarship, Toshiba International Foundation, Tokyo
1997 Noh Training Project Scholarship, Japan Foundation, New York City

MUSIC AND THEATER TRAINING
COMPOSITION AND VOICE TRAINING
2003-Present Joan La Barbara, New York City, New York

NOH THEATER TRAINING
1995-2000 Richard Emmert (Kita Ryu Nikyoku), Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

NORTH INDIAN CLASSICAL VOCAL MUSIC TRAINING
1999 Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan (Sahaswan-Rampur Gharana), Bombay, India
1995-1999 Marina Alam (Mewati Jaipur Gharana), Yonkers, New York

Effects

Effects is my first net project. Originally posted as a "stealth" LiveJournal blog, Effects purports to be a diaristic account of my life, but instead only offers dry accounts of sounds that I have heard, or imagine to have heard. While attempting to make LiveJournal friends who can track my accounts, I have periodically contributed to an ever growing catalog of acoustical accounts that never reveal much about me, but hopefully say many things about how I have experienced sound.

http://www.livejournal.com/~effects/

Walking In The City

I am presently realizing Walking in the City, a project commissioned by Subtropics, a Miami based music festival. I moblog (in real time) written descriptions and accounts of acoustic occurences that I audit while walking around New York City. The project was launched during Subtropics' festival opening, where 4 hours of my updates from the city were projected live in an arts and performance space in Miami. Until early April, I will continue to intermittently add to the initial log.

http://effects.blogs.com/subtropics/

http://www.subtropics.org/

Walking In The City Sample #1

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Walking In The City Sample #2

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Walking In The City Sample #3

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Walking In The City Sample #4

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Walking In The City Sample #5

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