9m14s Over Vietnam

9m14s Over Vietnam, Atau Tanaka

A single photograph is the source for all the sound heard in the piece. It is the Pulitzer prize winning photo by Nick Ut of a girl running from a napalm attack in Vietnam, 1972. The image was scanned and treated using two techniques: time domain and frequency domain. The time domain treatment used the image data directly as sound. In the frequency domain treatment, the image was used as a sonogram, harmonic spectrum representation. This produced a series of elements that became the compositional blocks. The compositional manipulations in time and space are a reflection on the power of representation and misrepresentation in mass media.

Listen to 9m14s Over Vietnam hi-fi (8.5 MB) lo-fi (2.1MB)

Look at the score (372KB PDF) of the piece:

This piece has been released on the CD, "End ID" by Digital Narcis, Osaka Japan.
It is discussed on the site by critic Isabelle Dupuy, http://artstalker.free.fr/ in the Memory section.
Created using MetaSynth by Eric Wenger, and SoundHack by Tom Erbe.

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