Disquiet Junto Project 0632: Shear Wind
Dear Members of the Disquiet Junto,
As you should by now know, the email newsletter for Disquiet Junto project announcements has migrated from one service provider to another — from TinyLetter.com, which is closing down on February 29, 2024, to Buttondown, about which you can learn more at buttondown.email.
One nice thing about Buttondown is that I can use my own URL, so the home for the newsletter is now juntoletter.disquiet.com, which means that down the road, should I choose to change service providers again, the newsletter itself can retain its URL.
Another nice thing about Buttondown is that I can schedule posts to send automatically, meaning that much as this week's project popped up at disquiet.com/0632 while I was sleeping, thanks to my blog's powers of automation (it's on WordPress), so too can I set this email to go out while I'm asleep. I sleep fairly soundly, and now I'll sleep even more soundly, knowing that I have one fewer chores come morning. I've set this one to go out at 6:32am Pacific. We'll know tomorrow how that has worked out.
A third nice thing about Buttondown is that I have less of a limit on the number of emails I can send out. So, while I promise not to abuse such newfound freedom, I look forward to occasionally sending notes of encouragement or with additional information off the weekly Thursday cycle. This is great.
Nice things, however, are generally balanced by downsides. Which is to say, Buttondown is not free. It's not terribly expensive, when thought of at an annual rate, but it does cost, and will cost more as the subscriber list continues to grow. I may at some point add a paid option to this list, simply as a way for folks to chip in on the infrastructure costs that support the Junto — and perhaps pay for additional such infrastructure, such as a dedicated web presence, down the road. (In the meanwhile, if supporting the Junto in such a manner appeals to you, you could in the meanwhile subscribe to my This Week in Sound email letter. I'm remembering now that I dislike talking about money, so why don't I stop there?)
And that covers it. I don't think I mentioned that there was an academic article about the Disquiet Junto in the Cambridge University Press journal Organised Sound, and you can read it online. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.
Oh, and we've had a new slew of subscribers, so if you have any questions or thoughts, just shoot me an email.
And that really covers it. I hope this email goes out smoothly, and your year is going smoothly, as well. And thanks, as always, for your generosity with your time, creativity, and curiosity. The project instructions appear below.
Best from a chilly — by local standards — San Francisco,
Marc
marc@disquiet.com
. . .
Disquiet Junto Project 0632: Shear Wind
The Assignment: Make the most of the disturbance within a field recording.
Step 1: Consider how when making a field recording, there can be disturbances in it, such as a passing car or plane, or a noise you didn’t notice until you listened back, or a malfunction in the recording equipment. A common such problem is wind shear.
Step 2: Make a recording that has wind shear in it, perhaps by standing in the wind, or recording from a moving vehicle, or through some other technique. Or locate a pre-existing field recording with wind shear, perhaps on freesound.org.
Step 3: Make a piece of music employing the recording you made in Step 2, and make the wind shear a focus of the piece. That is, pay attention to, rather than avoid, this sound that you would likely in other circumstances identify as a shortcoming.
Seven Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0632” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0632” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your track in the discussion thread at llllllll.co.
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, February 12, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, February 8, 2024.
Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 632nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Shear Wind — The Assignment: Make the most of the disturbance within a field recording — at: https://disquiet.com/0632/
About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0632-shear-wind/