Soundtracks needed

Help to investigate the link between sound and image by making the soundtrack to a video


What sounds / music do you think you should be hearing while watching this video? It was originally made to represent a certain song, but we're interested to know what you think the video sounds like.

We want people to submit musical interpretations of the video, be they original compositions or existing songs.

Submissions are now closed, you can view the results here.
Submit Soundtrack
More Information
Other Examples
Participants
This experiment has now finished. You can view the results or go to part 2.

More Information

This exercise is part of a larger body of work based on music art direction that I'm undertaking for my final university 3rd year project.

How it works

The video has been edited from some base footage in time with a song. It's been built up in layers, with darker layers representing the rhythm and coloured layers representing melody.

The colours of sounds have been chosen after reading a sufferer of Synaesthesia's interpretation of the colours that they see when they experience melody - and the notes of a scale. This has been done with attention to detail in the aim that someone could decode the video and 'play' the song (if they had a lot of time on their hands). If you're interested you can view the descriptions of colours of notes that I've used here.

Synaesthesia

Is a neurological disorder where people's senses are affected.
"In its simplest form it is best described as a "union of the senses" whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together. Some synaesthetes experience colour when they hear sounds or read words. Others experience tastes, smells, shapes or touches in almost any combination. These sensations are automatic and cannot be turned on or off. Synaesthesia isn't a disease or illness and is not at all harmful. In fact, the vast majority of synaesthetes couldn't imagine life without it. "

Links

UK Synaesthesia Association
University of Sussex Synaesthesia Research

Other Examples

Here are two examples of the same base footage, edited in sync with two different songs.



Participants

Listed here are the people that have submitted sountracks so far and have opted to share their details. None of their soundtrack choices will be revealed until submissions close on / around the 12th of May because we don't want to influence anyone's interpretation of the footage yet.

Original Soundtracks

Kenneth Moore
Nicola Smith
Timothy Cook
Paul Green
John Atkinson
Darius Kedros
Shmoo
Josep Suter
Chris Davis
Göran
Evangelos Kapros
Mark Whiteside
Steven Brown
John Vose

Song Choice

Ray Murphy
Matt Keers
Alyson Exall
John Morris
Sarah Payne
Adam Barker

Thanks so much to everyone here for helping to make the project a success.
@SynaestheticUK on Twitter | Synaesthetic Part 2 | Project / Site Design by Jen Hingley
A selection of submissions were applied to the footage and shown as part of Future Everything's Handmade: Digital | DIY | Craft event. Taking place on the 14th of May at Victoria Baths in Manchester, UK.

Event Info