Visions of Sound - Daft Punk

I chose the Visions of Sound brief as it seemed to fit well with my research. Also I like Daft Punk's music, so I chose 'the game has changed' as a track to use. I have never tried using music as a starting point before, and it sounded like an interesting way to produce new work. 

The track was made for the 2010 film Tron Legacy. I saw it at the cinema when it was released and was blown away by the soundtrack. I re-watched the film this week to find the part relating to 'the game has changed' and it accompanies a battle scene in the games stadium. The main hero of the piece has to play a giant game of snake on a futuristic motorbike, to the death in front of a crowd inside the world contained by an arcade game. The music matches the twists and turns of the bike, his running, clashes with his opponents and the moment when he realises he need to work with the rest of his team in order to win. It is really fast-paced, and suitably electronic-sounding with many levels and repetitive rhythms. 

I listened to it quite a few times, analysing the rhythm and pitch and breaking it down into different melodies, while picking up the overall feel of the piece. I used shapes that seemed to represent the sound and traditional musical notation.

 

I then started to use colour, one for each melody, and put a line down on paper each time I heard a note for a section of the music.

 I also explored the perceived texture of the music, contrasting sharp edges with smudged tone.

I then incorporated lace into this, using pastel as ink to print with, to create lace-based smudges that built up into layers.

I then listened to the track half speed and double speed; the feel of the piece did change, and perhaps this could be used to create a series of different works.