I will briefly introduce what I refer to here as sound design and composition. Simply put, sound design for this project involves using various audio elements to help create a cohesive and immersive, albeit idiosyncratic auditory experience for the audience. It means developing a certain audio aesthetic that generates the sonic narrative’s tone and atmosphere. This includes, for example, designing the intro sequence ‘What is this?’ (Audio track 1) and the basic sound signals (Audio track 4 for Cultural Toads; Audio track 5 for Sonic Thinking) that indicate a beginning to a new narrative fragment or segment for a given module, such as Monologue, Dialogue, Citation, etc. Indeed, there is no clear distinction between sound design and composition, as both approaches involve the creation and manipulation of sonic material to enhance the affective and narrative impact of the project; however, they may differ in their focus and purpose.
For instance, Audio track 6 supports the monologue, or rather the audio narration comes into meaning with the sonic ambiance – or music if preferred. The musical elements fill the narrator’s aural environment with a particular sense, subsequently reinforced by the emanating atmosphere, as can be heard in Audio track 11. Arguably, the confluence of spoken text and music envelops the listeners’ attention, enticing their thinking-feeling to produce meaning through the double articulation of imagination and soundspace creation.
‘Soundspace’ is not the same as soundscape, which is used here synonymously with field recording. In this podcast, recordings from various locations are woven into the overall structure. Audio track 7, for example, I recorded during my artist residency in the Catskills. Regardless of any subjective reading, my intention with this recording is to highlight a quality intrinsic to sound that is presubjective, which here conveys the ‘Idea of sound’3 (and the flow of water). The field recordings (along with other modules such as music) serve as conjunction – as relation – the ‘and’ between narrated episodes, contributing to becoming subjectivity in the listening process. Perhaps this and can be seen as a placeholder for the phrase ‘It happens that’ (namely, what it implies in Audio track 8; see also fn.4).
Audio track 8 is designed so that the listener will recognize the spoken words as a quote by adding a so-called telephone effect to the voice. The tinny character of the modulated sound provides a kind of distancing – here, a far-off voice heralding a possible ‘truth.’ This sound effect is not foreign to the acculturated ear, as it is common in radio plays; it is one of many effects that a sound designer might use to create differences in timbre that serve as signposts for changes in content. (I generally advise against the overuse of effects in digital audio production. Reverb, for example, can enhance the experience if used carefully, or ruin it, which is all too often the case.) This effect is specific to the Citation category, while another ‘unusual’ effect has been used exclusively in the Sonic Thinking theme within the Proposition category (Audio track 9). Not only did I apply a special effect to the voice to make it undulate in stereo space and create a slight quaver, but the voice itself was machine-generated. (Contrary to my previous advice, I experimented with effects and used VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugins5 to a greater extent here – though for play and exploration, not just as a means to a quick fix.)
In the case of Audio track 10, which is also part of Sonic Thinking, the treatment of the sonic material is directed by the speaker’s whisper, which is a poetic annotation to a Proposition (among other comments, i.e., lemmas, scholia, etc.). The compositional decision I made was to create an abstract space inhabited by the voice – a muted mantra of yes and no (echoing Beuys’s ‘Yes Yes, Nee Nee Nee’, 1969) seemingly embedded in an environment of some object’s creaks and groans. Here the spoken vocals are not separate from the so-called Foley sound but form a realism of their own; in contrast, the monologues, as explained earlier, will combine with any sonic ambiance through a degree of randomness (cf. Audio tracks 2 and 3)
Overall, crafting auditory experiences through sound design and composition plays a vital role in establishing mood and atmosphere, creating tension and suspense, highlighting important moments, and guiding the audience’s emotional response. In the studio context with students, I occasionally resort to the image of sound sculpting, using VST plugins, as was done here, to bring out the gestalt of the sound object (or event, to be precise) or, at times, to emulate the sound of real-world instruments such as guitars, pianos, or others for further application (Audio track 11). Of import to me is to develop a sensitivity for forging a sonic reality that can range from the concrete to the musical, the poetic, and the synthetic. This can be achieved by close listening on the one hand and using simple tools like EQs (Equalizers), to name one among many, to form the shape or texture of the sounding event to one’s needs and mixing and mastering the final audio mix on the other. Furthermore, the arrangement of sonic materials is a prominent factor in the dramaturgy of a sonic artwork and how successful its outcome might be.
Crucial to the aesthetics of schizopodcast is the modular approach in sonic orchestration. Through repeated audition, the audience will encounter various sonic assemblages that engender affective sonic milieus or worlds that reconfigure the audience’s perception and interpretation of the work in the intimacy of listening.
At this point, it should be noted that the term ‘generative podcasting’ refers to the specific format we have created that affords a dynamic listening experience that is different from conventional scripted podcasts or radio plays. However, this is separate from podcasts that use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to create content such as music, sound effects, and dialogue based on pre-programmed rules or data inputs. Therefore, our approach shows certain limitations compared to AI-generated content, but it still provides the opportunity for a unique listening experience through interactive engagement with the content blocks (see above). Even though this approach cannot generate fully new content, it allows remixing sonic arrangements through replay to open the possibility for novel encounters and insights.