BICAS Audioscape

This is an audio piece I created both for BICAS to potentially use in some way and to explore the organization, what the offer, and who they serve.

I was interested in this project because I was attracted to the variety of noises that happen in the BICAS workshop -- so much metal, so many interesting people talking about interesting things as they create and repair, and of course the train that runs close by. Part of what I found interesting about this is that bicycles by their nature are really so quiet compared to the rest of the world they occupy. The wheels click, maybe there's a bell, maybe it squeaks. Take them apart, however, and suddenly they're wind chimes, clothing, chihuahuas.

Collecting interviews was easy for the most part. I knew I wanted to create a piece that was informative so it would be useful, but I also wanted it to sound interesting and different. I asked all interviewees the same questions. Of course Casey from BICAS had the most elaborate, informative and correct answers, so hers founded the roots of the work.

Arranging sounds and music was the hard part. I am usually a pretty quick learner, but dealing with computers while trying to learn something new and complicated always presents some problems. I used a program called Nuendo. At first I wasn't hearing the audio files completely -- they would drop off in inconsistent places. It turned out my computer was not hefty enough to run the program. My husband's computer was, however, and Nuendo is a lot easier and less frustrating when it's running properly on a large enough machine. Still, the learning curve was steep, and that was something I should have anticipated before choosing to do something unfamiliar for a project.

I'm glad that I did, however. I am looking forward to practicing more so that I can create more professional-sounding and even-toned works. I still have a lot to learn. This work is half my ideas and half what the computer would allow me to do. It is definitely a crooked doghouse that I made here.

I learned quite a bit from this experience, outside of sound engineering, and I think that some of my impressions come through in this piece.